Tuesday 8 March 2016  

Our first regular meeting after the Contest was a ripper! We were joined by guests Nimrod, Kennedy, Kathy, Kevin, Patrick and Rekha – thank you for visiting us.

Sumari Meintjes, our enthusiastic Toastmaster for the night, guided us through a meeting that was full of interesting, inspiring and educational topics. Robert Tang our Grammarian introduced our word of the day as “Draconian” – a term that proved very fitting, as it was used successfully by most of the speakers. Martin Hill kept us on guard for those ums, ahs and other filler words.

Sebastian Spada gave us a thoughtful analysis of a Nelson Mandela quote as part of his Bard role. He explained to us the meaning and context of the words, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds there are many more hills to climb”.

Michael Blood was our first prepared speaker for the evening, and he was performing his Competent Communicator Project 10 – the final project required to earn the Competent Communicator badge. His focus was to inspire us, and he certainly achieved that goal in what his Evaluator Feng Goldthorpe called “an almost perfect speech”. He shared with us the two mountains he conquered last year – Mt Cedric, and completing the Law Honours programme. Thanks so much for your inspirational words, Michael.

Matt Meintjes our President then gave us a briefing on the Club Committee roles in light of the upcoming Annual General Meeting, where the next Committee will be elected. Each role is a valuable opportunity to learn new skills, and Matt encouraged us to select a role that we didn’t know much about – because that way we’d learn the most! Speak to Matt if you want to know more about the executive roles, or if you’d like to nominate yourself for one. Matt’s evaluator Debbie Burden praised his use of simple powerpoint slides and explanations of each role.

Katy Eichelbaum provided a new twist on Table Topics, with topics that were all tongue twisters! Many thanks to the newer members and guests who tackled their topics with enthusiasm. Table topics evaluators Jono Milne and Andrew McNeill commended and recommended in double-quick time.

Our third speaker was Shishir Kumar who presented us with a fact-finding report about the TPPA from the ‘Speaking to Inform’ manual, which drew great interest and questions from the audience. Francy Parfitt his evaluator gave an excellent analysis of his speech, including a noteworthy and commendable summary! Well done Francy.

Finally, we had a Technical Presentation from Adam Widera entitled “Office in the Cloud”, which gave us a very helpful and grounded look at the realities of cloud computing! He included an overview of both Google and Apple services. Lea Campbell praised his mastery of the advanced technical skills the manual called for.

To close the meeting, we had a very fast yet thorough Geberal Evaluation from our own Sergeant-at-arms, Luke Franklin. We were particularly impressed that he made his way through it in under 5 minutes without skimping on detail – well done.

 

Our Toastmaster for the next meeting is Shishir Kumar – please check the roster and let him know if you can’t make it, or want a role! Also a reminder that the next meeting will be in the back building rather than our usual hall. See you on March 22!

 

 

Tuesday 23 February

2016 Evaluation Contest & International Speech Contest

 

Congratulations to all contestants and winners after a fantastic Contest night! Many thanks to Adam Widera and Debbie Burden for their efforts to provide an excellent Evaluation and Speech contest  (respectively). They each chaired their portions of the evening smoothly and ensured everything ran to plan.

For the Evaluation Contest, the participants listened to a test speech and then one by one were called back into the room to give their evaluations. Credit to Sumari Meintjes for being an excellent test speaker, giving us an insightful look into the abstract concepts of beauty and intelligence, and how we apply these terms in our modern-day lives. Lea Campbell enjoyed Sumari’s witty anecdote opening and the inspirational message, recommending taking a little more time to relax and sink into the topic. Sebastian Spada noted Sumari’s good use of structure, transitions and movement, and recommended taking a bit of extra time to breathe, and a more diverse speaking tone. Andrew McNeil praised Sumari’s well-met objective to persuade and inform, and recommended being cautious of pauses followed by filler words. Congratulations to Sebastian Spada coming second, and Lea Campbell as the winner.

A lively Table Topics session saw members and guests pontificate on subjects from the meaning of love, their musical preference (heavy metal vs classical piano) and their chosen book to take to a deserted island: shipbuilding manual or cookery book.

The International Speech Contest saw tough competition between Naresh Kumar and Katy Eichelbaum. Naresh gave us a thought-provoking diatribe entitled “Break the Chain”, outlining the folly of chain emails. Katy took us on a journey underwater, to explore the coral reefs of Fiji at night and all of their inhabitants (“The Deepest Darkness”). Congratulations to Naresh placing second, with Katy as the winner.

Many thanks to those who supported the contest in other ways, or turned up to watch on the night. Contests are a vaulable Toastmasters resource and offer great learning experiences for all invloved - let's make sure they continue to take place!

We look forward to seeing you all on 8 March as we return to our regular meetings!

 

 

Tuesday 10 November 2015

 

A great meeting tonight, chaired by the ever-popular Brad Nielsen who gave us a great introduction of himself, the Competent Leadership and Communication manuals, and the voting slips for the night’s awards. Alison Cowan our competent Grammarian introduced us to the adjective “Exuberant” as our Word of the Day – which several people managed to include in their presentations.

 

The role of the Bard is something we always look forward to, and Donna Gainsford brought us a characteristically polished and very inspiring explanation of the way the All Blacks act as good ambassadors for New Zealand. She encouraged us to all be inspired by their attitude and encouragement of one another.

 

Our first prepared speech for the evening was an Ice Breaker – the first full speech a member gives to the club by way of introducing themselves. Every club member remembers how nerve-wracking their first speech was, but Brad Smeele showed no nerves – although he described them well! His eloquent description of nervousness turned out not to be about public speaking, but about professional wakeboarding, which we all learned a lot about over the course of his speech. His evaluator, Luke Franklin praised his strength of speaking and compelling storytelling ability.

 

Our President Matt Meintjes gave us the Treasurer’s report as part of a Management Objectives project. The budget for 2015-16 was finalised and formally accepted by the club.

 

Francy Parfitt our Table Topics Master had some good table topics lined up, although somehow they mostly seemed to turn into car-related speeches, interesting…

 

Simon Williams our second evaluator had his work cut out for him with a relatively dry budget meeting to evaluate, but he did so with panache and provided some thoughtful feedback in relation to general speaking skills. Next we were bestowed with a fantastic Technical Presentation entitled “Is Your Money Safe?” by Adam Widera, which explored the history and future of credit card theft and fraud. His evaluator, Sherman Wang highlighted the relevance and engagement of the title, and good use of visual aids (Powerpoint); he gave the recommendation to switch to a blank screen when no visual is required.

 

We always look forward to the Educational Presentation which we have every meeting. They come from the Toastmasters International Successful Club Series, and inform club members about an aspect of public speaking or a specific Toastmasters meeting role. Tonight we heard from Naresh Kumar about The Toastmasters Educational Programme.

 

Lessons Learned:

 

• Competent Communication (CC) pathway gives many benefits. Members should aim to achieve Advanced Communication, which has three categories: Bronze, Silver and Gold (ACB, ACS and ACG).
• ACB requires CC manual completion + 2 Advanced Communication manuals.
• ACS requires ACB + 2 further Advanced Communication manuals + two presentations
• ACG requires ACS + another 2 Advanced Communication manuals + two presentations + coaching a new member through their first three speeches.
• The Competent Leadership (CL) pathway, which encompasses other meeting roles, has 10 projects to complete, Once completed there are two Advanced Leadership stages: Bronze and Silver.
• ALB requires CL, CC + 6 months as an Executive Officer + 2 presentations
• ALS requires ALB + acting as District Officer + High Performance Leadership manual.
• The highest Toastmasters achievement is Distinguished Toast Master (DTM) which is a culmination of ALS + ACG. This is something for us all to aim for!

 

We finished up with Lea Campbell explaining that we had kept to time pretty well, and a very thorough General Evaluation from Robert Tang, who advised us all of the importance of a summary of the key points at the end of an evaluation.

 

Our meeting awards as voted by the audience were as follows:

Best Prepared Speaker: Brad Smeele

Best Evaluator: Dallas Macris

Best Table Topic: Alison Cowan

 

And also thanks to our Area Director Sherman Wang, who presented to the club our Club Leadership Excellence ribbon which Albany Toastmasters was awarded at the annual conference in Blenheim last week. Well done to the club! See you next time for another Educational and some more great speeches.

 

Quarterly Newsletters

• 2014 Quarterly 1

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23rd June 2015

Well done Albany, another great night!

Toastmaster Sumari ran an organized and efficient meeting. Grammarian Mahsa chose ‘Frigid’ as tonight’s word to go with the recent weather and also kept track of the word use. Shishir’s Bard role brought us an interesting story with a clever ending carrying the message to ‘work smarter, not harder’!

Francy delivered the first prepared speech of the evening. Her speech titled ‘The Top Five’ (Phobias)… you guessed it, what we do at Toastmasters is at the top of the list!

John (BJ) gave us a ‘Salute to the club’ as an advanced after dinner speech, wrapping up the recent history of the club and the opportunities provided.

Naresh gave the audience ‘Time’ as the theme for his Table Topics session challenging members and a couple of visitors to have a go at impromptu speaking.

To keep us learning the evaluation team were Debbie (evaluated Francy’s speech) and Alison (evaluated John’s speech). Syd and Reuben evaluated the Table Topics and Dallas was amazed to find herself with plenty of time for the General Evaluation!

During the break members and guests enjoyed a superbly catered supper (thanks Sumari!) and provided a chance to eat, drink and converse.

The awards session was presented by Brad and (Presidents Distinguished) Division Governor Rob followed. The winners:

Table Topics (Competition Winner)	Ross Kennedy
Evaluation (Competition Winner)	Alison Cowan
Humorous Speech (Competition Winner)	Brad Nielsen
Best Prepared Speech (not necessarily a contest winner)	Robert Tang
Most Improved Speaker	Francy Parfitt
Graeme Elliott Award (Exceptional Contribution to Albany Toastmasters 'behind the scenes')	Sumari Meintjes
Toastmaster of the year (Personal Toastmaster Achievement)	Ross Kennedy

Congratulations to all recipients and thanks to members for their input. These awards represent a lot of work especially in such an active club!

See you next meeting!

Brad

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9th June 2015

Albany Toastmasters had yet another great meeting full of energy and humour, well lead by Toastmaster Francy!

We also welcomed new member Shelley, visiting Taupo Toastmasters member Nigel, and Speechcraft conquerors Miao, Lea and Steve! Susanne also joined us marveling at her protégé daughter Katy deliver a fabulous speech.

Bard Alison shared with us a valuable life lesson which she eloquently demonstrated through a balloon and a brick. Table topics Master Adam continued on the ‘throwing things at the audience’ theme and made people catch their Table Topics grenade (metaphor intended) and then speak on the topic hidden inside.

Robert hit us with an impromptu five minute speech to fill a vacancy and managed to squeeze in props, marathons, grandparents, earthquakes and taking clothing off in public. Katy let us in on the secrets to longevity which included eating, red wine, sex, naps and friends. Shishir taught us the difference between money and currency. Naresh relived his job interview at Harvey Norman and educated us on the difference between all those types of televisions. Sumari flaunted her Speechcraft success and drove home that the strength to leadership lies in teams: there is no ‘I’ in leader!

Michael, Rob, Sherman, Brad, Matt delivered evaluations which CRC’d and “RCRC’d” the life out of the speeches! Sumari’s evaluation of Matt’s evaluation of Sumari probably lasted the entire journey home! Debbie delivered a well rounded general evaluation. Sam evaluated our grammar and copious use of the WOTD ‘copious’ while Luke reminded us that filler words are bad, bad, bad!

Timekeeping Westies Mahsa and Reuben clearly were sponsored by the Meremere Dragstrip or any Friday night traffic lights in their part of Auckland. Lights- Action-Red Sticker!

Kind regards,

Brad

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12th May 2015

Yet another fabulous Albany Toastmasters meeting we had last night! We had several visitors experience their first ever Toastmasters meeting, with Toastmaster Robert keeping us on track and facilitating plenty of laughs throughout the evening!

Debbie taught us to face (and dance with) our fears with her third Competent Communicator (CC) speech.

Katy expounded the virtues of our own Blue Entoloma and the educational value of 50 dollar notes for her CC2.

Meanwhile, Ian’s advanced speech took us from a "curveball life threw at him" to his passion for handbiking! See Ian's record-breaking ambition on his Givealittle fundraiser.

Grammarian Naresh and Ah-counter Adam gave praise and recommendations where necessary and Sumari, our bard, passed on inspiring words.

Michael took us on an interesting and unorthodox Table Topics journey. This was well received and he managed to involve visitors as well.

Dallas and Sam managed to keep most of us, and our sessions to time, well done for an Annual General Meeting (AGM) included session. 

Evaluations were sharp thanks to Katy, Sherman, Nick, Brad, Sumari and we had a great General Evaluation from Francy so that we could all learn from our experiences.

Our AGM was brief with Presidents and Treasurers report and elections for next year’s committee.

Kudos and congratulations to the new team below who will begin in July:

President                           Matt Meintjes

VP Education                     Sherman Wang

VP Public Relations           Katy Eichelbaum

VP Membership                 Francy Parfitt

Sargent-at-arms                Luke Franklin

Treasurer                          Shugo Kawamoto

Secretary                           Adam Widera

Thanks to all participants, another top night!

Kind regards,

Brad

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10th February 2015

Another great Albany toastmasters meeting well supported and enjoyed by members and visitors. Almost all members present had a role on the night to challenge themselves.

From our prepared speakers - Debbie smoothly delivered her Icebreaker ‘My life so far’.

Naresh presented an advanced technical speech ‘The Information Highway’ smoothly incorporating a  PowerPoint presentation.

Ross continued the technology theme with his CC7 ‘Unplug your communication’.

Matt's Advanced speech entitled ‘Volunteering’ achieved its aim of Speaking to Inform.

Many of our speakers presented and explained esoteric information which I know as Adam introduced this word as Grammarian and commented on our word usage. Katy boldly and successfully delivered Olde English poetry as our Bard.

I’m sure we also saw the fruitiest Valentine themed Table Topics session ever. This was chaired by Dallas and involving toastmasters giving and receiving valentines gifts.

Thanks also to evaluators and time-keepers for keeping us on track and Advancing our learning.

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25th November 2014

Preliminaries