18th December 2013
Our last meeting of the year saw yet another fun time had by all. This time we celebrated in style with a three-course dinner at the Kent Hotel with many members in attendance. We also had some very welcome guests which we always love!
This meeting was a little less formal than our usual gatherings, but we still had speeches and a receptive audience – which happens to be the Toastmaster’s way. We had the wonderful Jules as our Toastmaster. She set the tone early with a Christmas theme that got everyone involved. As we tucked into a delicious entrée, the fun continued with a rather boisterous game of ‘Celebrity Head’.
We followed up with more speeches. Our next speaker was Vesna, who delivered her second speech from the Competent Communication manual. She kept everyone spellbound with a speech about her family’s unique Christmas experiences – and we thought Kinder Surprises were mainly for Easter!
During our main meal, our Table Topics Master, Andrea, wowed the meeting with an amazing set of impromptu questions. Respondents had to talk to a mystery object drawn from Santa’s sack! What a great idea!
As we tucked into dessert, Patrick closed out the evening with a reflection on the emergence of our club and some of its amazing achievements this year, with special tribute paid to club sponsor Anna as well as to our two club mentors Anthony and Rob.
A big thanks again to Jules and Andrea for putting so much work into organising yet another great night out for Carlton Toastmasters. We are already looking forward to our first meeting for the new year on 15 January 2014.
If you haven’t been to a Toastmasters meeting before, come along and see what it’s all about!
4th December 2013
This was a speechathon meeting and we ended up with many great speeches and evaluations. There were seven speeches in total. We started with two icebreakers - two members who were giving their first speeches at Toastmasters. Nick and Carly both gave great presentations and, as per our long-standing tradition, received a standing ovation. This was followed by Elaine, who gave a wonderful presentation about how to make the perfect tart crust (yum, yum). The evaluators for this section were Cleo, Darrell and Sarah.
The next speakers were Suyi, Anthony, Rob and Cleo. Suyi spoke about the hazards surrounding Christmas shopping. Then Anthony gave us some great advice about changing your perspective to change your body's reaction to public speaking. Next up was Rob who gave us a interesting presentation in the form of a radio interview. He spoke about travel sickness (is there a parent who is not familiar with this?). Our last speaker was Cleo who engaged the audience with a presentation about an initiative she and Darrell were involved in - the Great Illawarra Walk.
Evaluators for the second part of the meeting were Ryan, Cynthia, Ann and Steph. All of them did a great job.
In fact, a number of members commented on the strength of the evaluations within the club. This is an important part of Toastmasters, and something in which Carlton Toastmasters is excelling.
Ann was our timer - well done Ann! We had some general evaluations done by Patrick and Nat. In the words of the old song, 'Oh what a night!'
Our next meeting will be on the 18th of December. Don't forget - this is our Christmas Dinner and so we'll have a change of venue. It is at the Kent Hotel in Rathdowne Street, Carlton, beginning at 7.00pm.
We'll see you then!
20th November 2013
We had a theme of 'The Outback' for our last meeting and Cleo, as Toastmaster, got into the swing of things by starting off with a round robin of 'What do you love about Australia?'
There were some great speeches to continue the evening. Ann gave her icebreaker and spoke about moving from Ireland to Australia. Evelyn spoke about 'The Elephant and I', a great little speech based around the idea that self-limiting beliefs can hold people back their entire lives.
Anna (in full outback gear) evaluated Ann's speech with Julia evaluating Evelyn.
Darrell was Table Topics master and continued the theme of the outback. Suyi did a great job of evaluating everyone's answers.
Nick, a brand new member, was our timer and did really well considering it was his first time. Well done, Nick!
Jackson was our next speaker and spoke about the property bubble. He had us bursting with excitement! Andrea followed up with a fun presentation about punctuation. Everyone was in stitches over her charts explaining the correct use of English.
Natalie and Vesna were their evaluators.
Anna was our grammarian for the evening. It was great to see an emphasis on 'fun phrases' that were used by members. Ryan carried out the role of 'Ah counter'.
Christine was back after her trip to Everest. Now, that's a whole new kind of outback! She was the General Evaluator and it’s fair to say that she ‘scaled new heights’ in the role. Welcome back, Christine!
Our next meeting will be on the 4th of December. We'll see you then!
Oh - and don't forget to log onto EasySpeak to indicate if you're turning up to the meeting or not. It's enormously helpful if we know.
6th November 2013
Welcome to the latest edition of the Carlton Toastmasters Newsletter!
The theme for our last meeting was - surprise, surprise - Melbourne Cup! The fillies and stallions all came out for the event and once the meeting got underway, we were off and racing!
Many members dressed up for the occasion. The girls looked great in their fascinators and hats and the men looked quite dashing! Our Sergeant-at-arms gave us a great story about her betting experience where she almost won a quadrella. Unfortunately, almost, as punters have long known, is not close enough.
There was a fun round robin where members were asked for names they would christen horses for the Melbourne Cup. One of the most interesting was 'First, Second and Third Place', a name guaranteed to cause confusion!
Elaine gave us an amazing ice breaker with her speech 'Two Birds with One Stone'. Julia followed up with her speech, 'The Housing Issue'. The speeches were ably evaluated by Cleo and Jackson.
Our Table Topics master for the evening was Anna and her questions were all crazy, made-up scenarios surrounding horses and gambling. Patrick did a great job evaluating the 'lineup for the race'.
After the break, Leigh gave a very humorous speech entitled 'Do Not Knock'. It was about his experiences involving energy plans and door to door sales. Cynthia practiced her 'Shopping' speech in preparation for the humorous speech competition. Rebecca and Andrea were their evaluators and delivered 'winning' evaluations.
All our other roles were very ably carried out by the respective fillies and stallions. Ryan did a great job as timer, Anthony was grammarian, Chris was the ah counter and Nat was general evaluator.
Patrick closed the meeting. We had to vote on accepting Ann as a new member. It was close, but she made it over the finish line by a nose!
We have a couple of exciting events coming up soon. The area International Speech and Table Topics competition is on this Tuesday night on the 12th of November at the DHS building in 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Darrell is representing the club in both competition and would love to see everyone there!
Please turn up no later than 5.45pm because the competition begins at 6pm sharp. It's being held in Meeting room 1.10. There is a staircase leading up to the meeting room from Ground level and there is also a lift.
The other upcoming event is the Laugh and Learn workshop. Here's the details and it's guaranteed to be both fun and informative!
Other than all that exciting news, we have our next meeting on the 20th of November and we'd love to see you there. We're sure you'd have a great time. You might even say, it's a safe bet!
Don't forget to log on to EasySpeak to indicate your attendance!
16th October 2013
The theme for this meeting was 'Once Upon a Time' and what a great theme it was. Ryan, one of our newest members, stepped up to the plate as Grammarian and made our word of the day, 'protagonist'. It was an excellent selection and people did their best to mention it when the occasion warranted it (and sometimes even when it didn't!)
We had several great speakers for this meeting. Rebecca delivered her ice breaker speech. It's hard to believe it was her first presentation! Suyi spoke about her road trip to Mt Dandenong and the joys of sitting in traffic for hours. Then Sarah gave us a really entertaining speech about the power of perception and what one person sees may be quite different to someone else.
Some excellent evaluations were delivered.
After the break, we had a fun and lively Table Topics session. The speakers were ably evaluated by Darrell.
This was followed by Anna, who gave a presentation about evaluations. What a timely talk it was! She spoke about the importance of the PIP system - Praise, give some points of Improvement and finish by Praising the speaker again. Great work, Anna!
Ryan gave his Grammarian's report, Jackson delivered his Ah Counter's report and Will, one of our newest recruits, gave us the Timer's report. It was great to see so many new members taking roles.
This meeting also saw Natalie take over the role as Sergeant-At-Arms. One or two cheeky members insisted on saluting her, a true test of her patience. She responded by waving the gavel at them and barking humorous retorts.
But for now, members, at ease! Our next meeting is on the 30th of October and it will be a speechathon! We look forward to seeing you all there - on the double!
Don't forget to register on Easy-Speak to indicate if you're attending or not.
2nd October 2013
Our last meeting saw Chris taking on the role of Toastmaster for the first time - and what a great job he did. Although he was a novice to the role, he performed it like a master.
We had two prepared speakers. Stephanie spoke about being a rookie to Melbourne and to many other new things in her life. It was a great presentation - especially considering that it was her Icebreaker speech. Well done!
Nat gave us all tips about how single girls handle online dating. We noticed that members were taking notes while she spoke - expect a marriage boom in the months to come!
Anna and Andrea did wonderful speech evaluations. This was followed by Darrell who spoke about goal setting in a speech entitled, 'To the Moon and Back'. After battling with Powerpoint technology, with Anthony's able assistance, he gave an entertaining and informative speech.
Table topics were great fun as per usual. These were followed by a very exciting formality! This meeting saw the presentation of the official Carlton Banner. This only ever happens once in the life of a Toastmasters Club!
The banner presentation was done by District Governor David Murphy. We also had our area governor Yoke-Ching Tan in attendance.
An enormous thanks to both of these wonderful people who turned up to help us celebrate this occasion.
Incidentally, the Word of the Day was 'Stormy', but the meeting was anything but!
Our next meeting is on the 16th of October. Don't forget to sign up on Easy-Speak to assign yourself a meeting role.
Come along and join in the fun!
18th September 2013
We had quite a few speaks and evaluations at this meeting - which is great because that is what Toastmasters is all about!
Our Toastmaster for the evening was Cynthia. This was her first time in this role and she did a great job. Three of our speakers were delivering their icebreakers. They were Sidney, Herman and Ella. They all excelled in their roles with Anthony and Anna, more experienced toastmasters, finishing off the quintet of speakers.
All the speakers were very ably evaluated. Once again, we had several visitors. (Looks like the website is working!) Shan carried out the role of timer for the evening.
We also had some other official duties to carry out. First Timer awards were handed out to our new speakers. We also carried out an official vote and Ryan was voted in as a new member.
What a great evening it was! Certainly, fun and learning go hand in hand. If you haven't been to a Toastmasters meeting before, come along and try it out. You've got nothing to lose! Our next meeting is the 2nd of October.
See you there!
4th September 2013
This meeting was another successful night.
With Patrick away, Andrea and Anthony did an excellent job of running the meeting (although Anthony did suggest a coup, but he was voted down!). We had a fun political theme with the election looming. Natalie very wisely chose the word ‘underdog’ as our Word of the Day. Members mentioned it whenever they could during the evening.
We had two entertaining speakers. The first was Jackson who delivered his Icebreaker speech entitled, ‘From Lazy to London’. This was followed by experienced Toastmaster Keir who gave a highly informative educational about evaluations. He certainly showed us the importance of giving positive and construction evaluations to speakers.
Our table topics for the evening were delivered by Evelyn – and it was probably one of the most fun table topics sessions the club has heard. She gave topics to the audience along the lines of, ‘You have been voted Prime Minister – tell us why you deserve this honour’ and ‘You are the world’s best air guitarist – tell us all about it’.
We had some gladness and sadness at the meeting. Michael is moving to Sydney as he has accepted a wonderful new job. Ben is stepping down from our Sergeant-at-arms role as he is continuing his studies. Both these members credit Toastmasters with assisting them with moving ahead in their careers.
We wish them both all the best in their endeavours!
On a brighter note, we voted in two new members and the club continues to grow. Our next meeting is the 18th of September. If you haven’t been to our club, come along and join in.
It’s a lot of fun!
21st August 2013
This has been a big year for Carlton Toastmasters. Not only has the club recently chartered, but we have been finding our way through the maze of competitions as well.
At this meeting, we held our first ever Humorous Speech and Evaluation competition. Despite being a new club, it was great seeing how many people participated in the events. The Humorous Speech competition had four contestants – Cynthia, Anthony, Suyi and Andrea. Everyone found the speeches to be great fun. Sometimes the simplest things in life provide the most humour.
The secret test speaker for the evaluation competition was Rajindra who was treated to evaluations from three contestants. They were Evelyn, Andrea and Patrick. The competition was friendly – though fiercely contested.
The winners were...drum roll, please...Anthony in first place with his speech, ‘We Are The Toasties’ in the Humorous Speech section with Andrea taking out a win in the Evaluation competition.
A fantastic night was had by all. We look forward to seeing Darrell, Anthony and Andrea representing Carlton at the Area contests in November. The next meeting will see us return to our normal format on the 4th of September.
Don't forget to log in via Easy Speak to apply for a role. It's quick and easy once you're familiar with the process. All the best!
7th August 2013
We returned to our regular Toastmasters meeting format this week. The theme of 'Fear' was created by our toastmaster for the evening, Sarah, and she did great in the role. After a quick roundrobin, we moved onto the prepared speeches.
Suyi gave a very entertaining speech entitled 'Boxing Meercats'. It was about a visit to the zoo with her children. Ben gave a great presentation about 'How to Get Things Done'. He made really good use of a Powerpoint presentation and the technology we have available at Carlton Toastmasters. Evelyn spoke about 'Living in the Moment' which is a timely piece of advice for all of us in this modern age.
Chris, Andrea and Patrick gave some great evaluations, keeping with the PIP method of evaluation ie. Praise the speaker, give some tips for Improvement and finish by Praising them again for their presentation.
After the break, Patrick gave a detailed explanation of the Toastmasters Educational Program. It was especially helpful for people who have just joined Toastmasters.
Table Topics were next and Darrell queried members and guests with a range of 'Fear' related topics. No one, however, was afraid to get up and speak, so possibly he was not scary enough!
The meeting finished on time with everyone having had a fun - and educational - meeting.
Our next meeting is on the 21st of August at our usual Visy Park venue. See you there!
31st of July
We held our very first International Speech and Table Topics competitions at our meeting last week. The standard was very high indeed.
Anthony, Sarah, Andrea, Darrell and Ben all competed in the Table Topics competition. The topic for the night was, 'What have you always wanted to do, but never done it - and why?'
Everyone gave really interesting responses and spoke to time - a feat in itself when confronted with such a question.
The second competition for the evening was the International Speech Competition. Once again, the standard of speaking was very high. Anthony spoke about Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury, Christine spoke about the importance of mothers and relationships, Darrell spoke about the road to success, Michael gave a presentation about the world of real estate and Patrick spoke about his love of the law and jurisprudence.
Darrell ended up edging out the other speakers by a whisker and took out first place in both competitions. As Patrick said, 'He's running off with all the silverware!'
A big thanks to our judges who turned up on the night. Toastmasters can't operate without the assistance of its members and those who go the extra mile. The number of visitors is also quite impressive.We love seeing new people turning up to see what Toastmasters is all about.
Make certain you bring a friend along to a meeting and keep spreading the word about Carlton Toastmasters. We have a 'long-standing tradition' of having fun and learning at the same time.
Our next meeting is on this Wednesday, the 7th of August at our usual Visy Park venue. See you there!
17th July 2013
Welcome to the Carlton Toastmasters Email Newsletter!
We had another fun meeting on the 17th of July with several guests in attendance at our last meeting.
Patrick began the night by speaking to the club about the Charter dinner and how far the club has come in a short time.
This meeting was a little different as we held a speechathon to help members get through their communications manual. As a result, there were a number of excellent speakers. Chris spoke about the traditional Sunday Roast and entertained us with details of his cooking excellence. Sarah spoke about the conspiracy theory regarding the moon landings in a speech entitled, 'The Great Lunar Lie'. Anna then got up and gave a presentation about using Easy Speak, the club software that members can use to book speeches for themselves and RSVP their attendance.
Anthony gave a highly entertaining speech about being mistaken for famous people, Andrea gave a wonderful speech entitled 'Peter and Andrea and Bill and Lois'. Cleo finished off the evening telling the club about how she and Darrell organised a Guinness Book of Records event for the Largest Number of People Dancing the Time Warp.
She even gave a small demonstration which (almost) had the whole club up on their feet!
Overall, it was another fun night.
The next meeting is a competition meeting for the International Speech competition and the Table Topics competition. It should be a great event! Make certain you RSVP on Easy Speak. With Toastmasters, as with so many things in live, the more you put out there, the more you get back.
Our next meeting is our International Speech & Table Topics competition meeting on the 31st of July at our usual Visy Park venue. See you there!
3rd July 2013
Dear Fellow Toastmaster,
Welcome to the first email newsletter for Carlton Toastmasters Club. I'll be sending one of these out after each meeting to keep everyone updated on proceedings.
Our last meeting was a very special event. We celebrated the chartering of Carlton Toastmaster’s Club at a fun charter dinner held at the Kent Hotel in Carlton. Many members and their guests were in attendance. Ben very ably opened the meeting as Sergeant-At-Arms and passed the proceedings over to Darrell who performed as Toastmaster for the event.
We had a number of special guests in attendance – Yoke-Ching Tan, our area governor and David Murphy, our District 73 Governor. Yoke-Ching gave a speech about her experiences in Toastmasters while David spoke about the avenues that the organisation opens up for its members.
After an excellent meal, Anthony gave a Table Topics session and Patrick handed out awards to the members in attendance. The meeting was more like a family dinner than a Toastmasters meeting – but no-one was complaining!
Our next meeting is on the 17th of July at our usual Visy Park venue.
VERY IMPORTANT: Don’t forget we are now using the Easy-Speak website to assign speeches to members. Andrea will speak to members more about this in the future, but you have to log in (http://easy-speak.org), select Meetings from the top menu bar, Select Meeting on 17th July and then on the left hand side menu, Select Request a Speech. You can then choose your manual and the speech you will be delivering.
We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!
