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Meet Some of Our MembersHere is a list of some of our members who have chosen to make their profiles public. 2014 MeetingsCarlton Toastmasters Meeting 49: Sunday November 27th One week ago, on a lovely, sunny morning, Sunday 23rd November 2014, Sarah H arrived early at the Royal Botanic Gardens, to claim an ideal, sheltered spot on the Lawn, with plenty of sunshine and shade, for the first ever, Carlton Toastmasters' Meeting in the Park. At 11am, we gathered at Gate D: I arrived moments before Cleo and Darrell carrying a basket full of Cleo's exquisite mini frittatas, water, various Toastmasters' accoutrements, timing devices and hidden speech props. Who knew one wicker basket could hide so much? Rebecca struggled in next, under the weight of a large white platter stacked with tasty sandwiches, followed by Michael J. and his lovely lady friend Kate; Anthony with his wife Sarah and children Mia and Hugo; Natalie H; Vesna; Vivian; and Anna with her dashing dachshund Zali. Sarah H guided the company of Carltonians to our semi hidden oasis in the park. After making ourselves comfortable on chairs and picnic blankets, we were welcomed by Anthony and our winsome Madame Toastmaster, Rebecca, got Speech-a-thon proceedings underway. Our well prepared timers were Cleo and Darrell. All in attendance were tasked with verbal and written evaluations. Vivian delighted us with her social research project into boyfriend Francesco's 'Italiano' culture: a visual feast of expressive hand, body and facial gestures, suave clothing and organised chaos; a stark contrast to the archetypical, poker-faced, Asian father of her own upbringing. 'And they're racing...' was a speech timed perfectly to close the Spring Racing season. Michael shared the story of his first race horse, owned as part of a syndicate, its training and race prospects and his joy when it won its first race. This happened in Wellington, just over 100km cooee of nearby Parkes, NSW. What do you know? Well, it transpired some Carlton Toasties still don't know the location of Parkes, or the cultural significance of The Dish. Fair Dinkum! Natalie gave the first of three final practice speeches from Carlton members competing in Area Speech competitions. Having enjoyed an early morning run around The Tan, Natalie added a surprising new element to her compelling ‘Believe’ speech, delivering her opening words 'I am sexy!', in her jogging gear! Soon to graduate with a BA in Textile Design, Cleo's speech 'Weaving - A Story' described the weeks of painstaking work that resulted in her final, hand-crafted, graduating piece: a beautiful red, grey and black, textured woven stole, in a honeycomb pattern. Cleo displayed many sample pieces to illustrate the warp, weft, and weave methods she used for this project. We tucked into a veritable Sunday banquet, during the break: alongside the mountains of sandwiches and frittatas, were pide, foccacias, olives, cheese, corn chips and many other delicious treats. Miraculously, a choiring angel in the form of Andrea appeared. After the break, Vesna counselled us to 'Give TV the boot'. Perhaps her curiosity for neuroplasticity causes her concern that we'll slip into a brain numbing stupor in front of the telly. However, I'm sure not even hundreds of Foxtel hours could blunt Vesna's intellectual acuity. Sarah's final practice of her poignant speech 'Can you Forgive?' had two attention grabbing ripped shirts, which for me echo the Liberian lives torn asunder during bloody civil wars. Sarah told of a child soldier asking forgiveness for his war actions. How little she asked of us, in comparison. How easy it should be, to forgive the relatively petty imperfections in our own lives. Anthony dramatised 'The Test' of parenthood and childbirth with a wicked prop to demonstrate the moment of delivery. The bottle of sparkling also came in handy to toast Mum Sarah's health and baby's safe arrival, all over again. I especially enjoyed Anthony and Mia's affectionate bedtime ritual of 20 kisses on alternate cheeks, counted in French. It was a fun, final practice, for all. Lastly, in my much rewritten, revamped, and retitled speech 'A Melbourne Football Renegade' , I told how, after a number of failed attempts to encourage me to follow Aerial Ping Pong, I decided the best Aussie Rules football team for this Melburnian is my niece's soccer team: 'Carn the Clifton Hill Girls!' I declare the Inaugural Carlton Toastmasters' Park Meeting an Inspired Innovation. Congratulations and thanks to our organisers, Sarah and Rebecca. Carlton Toastmasters Meeting 48: Wednesday November 19th Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, our last meeting of Carlton Toastmasters was able to exceed all expectations. The meeting began with the voting in of two new members – Vivien and Matt. Welcome to Carlton Toastmasters! May your stay be long and enjoyable! Darrell was then awarded a perpetual trophy for his win in the Area 22 Evaluation competition. It was the first time the trophy had been presented. Patrick also very kindly made a gift to members of the club—scarves with the name ‘Carlton Toastmasters’ and the year the club was started—2013. Without doubt, these will be treasured mementos for many years to come. We then moved on to our Word of the Day, ‘Vanquish’, which was delivered to us both verbally and in Powerpoint format by Christophe G. It was one of the best presentations of Word of the Day we’ve ever seen, and tied in perfectly with the theme of the evening, ‘Finishing Strongly.’ What followed then were some outstanding speeches. Carly gave a very funny speech about handling money and how easily it slips through our fingers. Her task was to use vocal variety and she did so with gusto. It’s great to see how much she has improved since joining Toastmasters. She’s a real Carlton star! What followed were three speeches from members competing in area competitions. Anthony spoke about the joys of childbirth (from the father’s perspective), Natalie gave us a rendition of her ‘Believe’ speech and Sarah delivered her speech, ‘Can you Forgive?’. The standard of the speeches was so high that it was truly mind-blowing. The evaluators had a hard job finding points of improvement, but they came through in the end. Our Table Topics session was quite unique as well. Evelyn had the wonderful idea of using a ‘spitfire’ technique where people would start talking about a topic and then get given random words to work into their table topic. It was a fun and different session. Great to mix things up! Andrea did our Table Topics evaluation, and did a wonderful job considering there weren’t any formal Table Topics to evaluate! Christophe was our Grammarian, Rebecca the Ah counter and Anna finished off the meeting with an excellent General Evaluation. Last Wednesday the Carlton Toasties celebrated the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival in the typical style we’re getting known for. Bibi was our delightful ‘first-time’ Toastmaster and proved to be more than a ‘jockey in training’. She proudly introduced the theme by citing many interesting bits of trivia and delightfully welcomed, commented-on and thanked every speaker. The warm-up gave us lots of good reasons to declare a public holiday and had us thinking about how great it would be to not work on birthdays, every Monday or even the entire working week! What a deliciously dangerous thought! Well done, Bibi! We had four diverse and special speeches that evening. Our first speaker was Jacqueline, who spoke eloquently about how she found beauty and genius in Mark Rothko’s work, all of which has influenced her greatly. Then Anna enticed us to consider the elasticity of time and urged us to enjoy doing ‘nothing’ which as it turns out, is always ‘something’ anyway. Our third speaker was Christoph (H) who delivered such a lovely, warm and thought-provoking speech about his admiration of health care workers in Western Africa. Then finally, we had Patrick, who gave us an absolutely phenomenal and brilliant speech that actually left us breathless :0) We wish Patrick lots of good luck for his contest and we thank all our speakers who had us feeling reflective and inspired, well done! Congratulations to our first time Evaluators, Louise, and Natalie (G), who both spoke with perfect sincerity to offer thoughtful and insightful feedback to our speakers. Thanks also to Vensa who is becoming quite accomplished at PIPS; and thanks to Ian, where we all learned from his particularly skilled evaluation. After the break, Derek continued the theme of races and games in his first time as Table Topics Master. Congratulations to all our speakers; Andrea, Davy, Michael (C), Sarah, Christoph (G) and Darrell; you all did very well to have us all either thinking or laughing! Special thanks to Derek; you did a wonderful job! Thanks to our Timer, Andrea, our Ahh Counter, Sarah and Cleo our ‘bookie’ Sergeant at Arms. Thanks also to our Grammarian, Davy, who chose the word ‘segue’, which proved quite popular by its frequent use throughout the evening. Special thanks to our General Evaluator, Anthony, who also followed the meeting’s theme of horse races to deliver a very impressive, sharp and comprehensive ‘racing’ commentary of the evening. Indeed, President Anthony, that was amazing!
Last Wednesday’s Carlton-Parkville TM meeting delivered a theme of ‘spookfuntacular’ and it was not for the faint-hearted. Ghosts and witches, vampires and devils gathered from all around to feast on such ghoulish delicacies as eyeballs and severed limbs, a host of random organs and various and equally appetising bodily fluids. Our Toastmaster for the evening was Gillon from Parkville TM Club and he was nothing short of amazing in blending terror with humour to set an air of ease and comfort in an otherwise horrifying environment. Sarah was our enchanting Grammarian who gave us the forbidden word, ‘Halloween’; and considering the evening’s theme, it was surprising that it was only used once during the entire night and only by our Toastmaster, who was punished by having to dance to the Addams Family theme song. During the Presidents' Opening, Anthony and Kier together recited a beautiful and inspiring poem they had written especially for the occasion; and all the Carltonians beamed with pride to see Anthony celebrate his self-confessed pumpkin-head-sized-ego. Then during the Warm Up, all the beasts and monsters got to know each other a little better through a spooky game of bingo. A little later during Table Topics, Ian lead a fun game of ‘boo-aahhh’, which not only had us frightening each other again, but superbly improving our vocal variety and story telling abilities! Fangtastic! All the speeches that evening were either spine chilling or mind-thrilling. From Parkville we had Jessica and Jo who shared their passion for Harry Potter; and Keir who told a haunting, though romantic tale. From Carlton we were treated to Derek’s complex conspiracy theories of the Bermuda Triangle mystery; and Gregory who delivered the ‘funniest speech ever’, well, it was blood curdling at least. Congratulations to everybody, we were left spellbound! With representatives present that evening from Carlton and Parkville, Lilydale and Ivanhoe TM Clubs, it was especially fitting that our Past President, Patrick, would take the time to acknowledge his mentor, Trish, for her contributions to Toastmasters. Unbeknown to many of us, Trish has played an integral part in fate and history to bring us all together and it was lovely to meet and thank her. It was such a deliciously fun evening!! Lastly and importantly, we echo our Presidents’ sentiments; special, special, extra-special thanks to our outstanding VPEs, Evelyn and Jo, for such an incredibly magical and unforgettable meeting. Last Wednesday, Carlton Toastmasters Club considered the concept of achieving a work-life balance; and as it happens, it seemed as if our speech-a-thon that evening somehow also related to this theme. We were treated to good travel advice, tips on surviving the morning commute and we even learned how to write a book! Our esteemed (and now very famous) President, Anthony, gave us an informative Educational Session on how to attain ‘distinguished club’ status. Pleasingly, it appears that Carlton TM is again well on the way to achieving this goal (although we all couldn’t help but laugh a little nervously when Anthony commented that his ‘work-life balance’ was getting in the way of his endevours in Toastmasters). We all managed to balance things quite nicely in the break though when we celebrated Toastmasters’ 90th birthday by singing along and eating cake - here’s to at least another ninety more years! Congratulations to Natalie (G) who delivered her outstanding icebreaker speech on understanding her heritage. She spoke eloquently of winding roads and hilly scenery; and reflected affectionately on little pieces of conversation and witty observation she encountered along her journey. Well done, Natalie, we look forward to your next speech! It was good to see both Louise and Darrell up on the stage again. Louise spoke of the magic in fairytales and reminded us that if you “don’t believe, you don’t receive”. Darrell left us with the idea that we all have a book to write and maybe we could do it and still ‘have a life’ if we wrote a thousand words a day just like Stephen King. Congratulations to Michael who has very quickly completed CC5; he fondly told of catching a tour-bus that resembled something in the movie ‘Speed’ and how he overcame some various snorkeling adversities. Vesna then gave us all some sound travel advice; of particular note, she warned us all against the perils of bedbugs and how they too also pack their suitcases to come home with you! Bibi brought in her bike and her riding equipment to celebrate ‘ride to work day’, and urged us all to avoid ‘chipmunks playing death metal’ and to instead take in the freedom and fresh air of the morning. Thanks again to all our speakers, you have inspired to make the most out of days - and to get around to planning that holiday! Thank you to all our lovely Evaluators; Sarah, Derek, Ian, Greg, Matt and Christoph (G) and special thanks to our General Evaluator, Andrea. You all gracefully balanced thoughtful praise with considered points for improvement in such a gentle and professional manner. Congratulations to Natalie (H) in her role as Toastmaster, we concur with Andrea that she was perfectly charming and set an especially warm and inspiring tone for the evening. Thanks again to Cleo, our lovely Sergeant at Arms, who, notably, was quite proficient in escorting or newest member, Ian, in and out of the room while we all took time for formalities. Welcome, Ian! Thanks and hugs to everyone for such a happy, inspiring evening. This meeting had a theme of ‘life changing experiences' and our President, Anthony, suggested that we might all be in for one of those if we attend the Reach for Your Star, Semi-Annual Convention, on November 8th in Brighton. Following on from his success as Contest Chair, Paul again did a great job as our Toastmaster!! Paddy picked two tricky words for us to use in his Grammarian role, one being 'catalyst' and the other being a long word that starts with the letter 'd' ; and everybody seemed to have fun trying to use them in the warm-up. We were soon treated to a thought provoking icebreaker speech by Christophe (G) about the 'ying-yang emotive'. He spoke with sincerity and conviction; and he effectively used visuals and voice-overs in quite a unique way to introduce himself. Congratulations, Christophe, welcome to the world of Toastmasters!!! Congratulations also to Michael and Davy, who both completed speech 2 from the CC manual. Michael delivered an interesting message about how 'change is constant' and Davy advised us how less is sometimes more. Both speeches were delivered confidently and both speakers were very endearing to the audience. Well done!!! Thank you to our lovely evaluators; Evelyn, Darrell, Carly and Patrick: all gave such lovely, thoughtful and encouraging feedback. After the break, Leigh's table topic questions followed the theme of the evening. Well done to our participants; Christophe (G) Christophe, Derek, Natalie (H) and special guest, Ian, who all answered their questions with such ease and brilliance. Of special note, Cleo is particularly commended on her eloquent reminisce of her life changing experience :0). Thanks to Vesna for evaluating all the responses in such detail, nice work everybody!!
To quote Evelyn, our bubbly, organised and astute VPE, "Carlton TM Club has done it again". Our speakers were of such an outstanding calibre, that our club-level contest could have easily been mistaken for a division contest; indeed it was commented as such by an Area Governor. Firstly, thanks to Evelyn, Anna, Natalie (G), Bibi and Cleo, for coordinating such a professional and happy evening. Congratulations to Paul, for his warm professionalism in his inaugural role as a Contest Chair. Thanks also to our Timers; Vesna, Michael and Paddy. Special thanks also to all our Judges and our Chief Judges, Keir and Christine; we could not have run the contests without you. We hope you had a lovely evening and will come back to visit us all soon. Congratulations to all our Table Topics Contestants; Andrea, Devika, Darrell, Leigh, Michael, Patrick and Sarah. In this competition we learned the importance of some simple facts of life; be nice to each other, be positive in your psychology; have some common sense; and pursue happiness over pursuing a linear life in something otherwise. We were also reminded to save water and look after our health; and then we learned how fun it is to go to Parkes!! Thank you to all who participated, it was such good fun to watch!! Lastly, congratulations to our very special International Speech Contestants; Andrea, Anthony, Darrell, Evelyn, Leigh, Natalie, Patrick, Rob and Sarah. All of who spoke with such generous affection and authenticity to tell stories which reminded us of our value and affect in the world, beyond a moment. Their words gently enticed us to grow through challenging elements of vulnerability in ourselves in order to embrace and love the uncertainty of life's path. Their words hinted at some masterful journey that transcends time and whispered promises of happiness; and we were so proud to see them all shine. Carlton TM Club Table Topics and International Speech Contest Winners:
What an amazing evening of ice-breakers and evaluations!! Aptly, Anthony marveled how when he tipped ice all over his head at the Humorous Speech Contest last May, he had begun a phenomenon that has now taken over the world under the guise of the ‘Facebook Ice Challenge'. Indeed, this is a true testament to the power of a good speech and to our President's integrity; words affect action and ultimately shape the world. Carly set the theme of 'opposites' and she did such fantastic job of being the Toastmaster, that it was difficult to believe that this was her first time of being so!! (NB: I'm not speaking in opposites here). During the Warm-Up, we all took the time to consider where we would teleport to; some would go to the exotic and romantic places in the world, others to anywhere really and some weary Toasties wanted to simply beat the daily traffic to work - it was all very easy to relate to!!! Then we were treated to not one, not two, not three, but four amazing ice-breaker speeches!!! Every ice-breaker speech, without exception, was absolutely brilliant and wonderfully inspiring. Jacqueline spoke eloquently about her move across the world; Bibi spoke masterfully about the origins of her beautiful name; Christoph delivered a generous and interesting story symbolised by flags; and Derek, with much affection, reflected humorously on his learnings of childhood. Wow!!!! Just wow!!! Congratulations to all and welcome to the journey of Toastmasters!!! After the super delicious supper, Patrick then delivered a perfect interactive educational session about how to evaluate speeches using PIP and... S for 'summary' - a very good point!! We got chocolates - which is always good!! So we had 'Mars Enterprises', specializing in comfortable outer-space travel; and 'Frightening Freakouts' with the slogan 'your ghost is our problem'. All responses were just too funny and overflowing with creative genius!! True to Toastmasters style, the TTs were followed by eight terrific PIPS evaluations from our fantastically quick and sharp new Toasties!! Thanks to Patrick and Evelyn for organising this; yes everyone learned something and everyone had fun! :0) Natalie's General evaluation also followed PIPS and was delivered in her typical confident, generous, gentle and humorous style. Cleo was our lovely Sergeant at Arms who also gave a proficient speech evaluation; she's such a natural and warm Toastmaster. Indeed thanks to all our ice-breaker Evaluators, Greg, Rob and Rebecca; and our conscientious Timer, Anna, who had us finishing well!! Special thanks also to Devika for a wonderful supper!!! Anthony's right, a speech can change the world, at least could change the world for someone. Greetings All! T W T W T W! * 20 August 2014 Carlton TM Meeting Speech-a-thon. Theme: Spring Vesna was our charmingly funny Toastmaster of the Evening. Michael was voted in as a new member and almost immediately presented his icebreaker speech Parkes. Paddy preceded him with his icebreaker Where are you from? Congrats First timers Paddy and Michael. You were articulate, smooth and relaxed. Congrats to our two Midway Milestone Achievers – Jackson, with his ironic A good result for Australia, and Carly, I look into the vase to look behind me. Intriguing title! Paul demystified Real Estate Auctions. Andrea told a story, This shouldn’t happen to me. Anthony, Evelyn, Leigh and Jo gave speakers commendation and valuable tips. We all multi-tasked because of members absent through illness or gallivanting in KL! I won’t mention any names! You know who you are! Cleo, our Sergeant at Arms, soldiered on. Natalie had fun with the stop watch and Timing lights. General Evaluator Darrell evaluated all who had not already been evaluated – and some who already had! Happy Birthday Darrell! We loved your sumptuous cake! 23 August 2014 World Championship of Public Speaking KL: Beaming Almost 50 Toastmasters gathered at Victoria University Melbourne City Campus to experience this major event beamed Live from 2014 Toastmasters International Convention in KL. Thank you Anna Fundraiser Event Planner without Equal, Anthony Techno Wiz, Darrell Snack Master Supremo! Leigh set the scene with his speech Contests – Why bother? We were happily occupied and revved up – viewing, judging, de-briefing, raffling, snacking! Eat your hearts out, KL delegates! Melbourne’s where the action is! NIDA Corporate Breakfast Taster 26 August: Toasties had fun with the general public in a Workshop Breakfast at the Malthouse Theatre. More than Hands-on – Whole Body involvement in communication activities. Thank you Rebecca, for giving us the opportunity to participate. Welcome home to all our KL pilgrims. Oh what a night! Our Wednesday meeting at Carlton Toastmasters was truly a night to remember. The evening started off with a rousing welcome from our wonderful Sergeant at Arms –Cleo, who prepped us with the safety procedures for the night ahead, and infused the room with her radiance and warmth. We salute you Sergeant Cleo. Next up our esteemed president Anthony gave us an overview on key events that had happened in the past fortnight of Carlton Toastmasters. This included 100% attendance at club officer training by our Carlton exec officers, and receipt of a Smedley award for adding five new members to the club during August and September last year-our very first ribbon of the year! An inspiring tone for the evening had been set, and the night had only just begun… Our Toastmaster for the evening was Greg, in his inaugural role as Toastmaster. What a wonderful job he did, keeping the meeting running smoothly, and peppering the evening with fascinating anecdotes about the theme of the night- ‘sports’! Congratulations Greg on a star performance! Our first speaker of the evening was Devika, delivering her ice-breaker speech. Wow what a fantastic speech! It is hard to believe that this was an ice-breaker speech as Devika led us on her journey over the last twenty years to becoming a Toastmaster today, astounding us with her confidence, poise and humour. Well done Devika! Next up was Christine who moved us with her story of going from being a shy girl to becoming our prized area governor. Thank you Christine for your inspiring and encouraging story, you have motivated many of us to say goodbye to the ‘shy girl within’. Our third speaker was Stephanie who educated us on the incredible Eames -brothers who had a huge influence in the design world with their innovative chair designs. Stephanie delivered the speech with such passion and flair that she had many of us lining up to place orders afterwards. Our final speaker was Anthony. Anthony delivered a beautiful and touching speech on the power of four simple words ‘How can I help?’ A truly moving speech that has inspired us all to think more about the strength of connection with others. Thank you Anthony. All four speeches were expertly evaluated by Darrell, Evelyn, Leigh and Cleo. Thank you for your insightful comments and valued advice. Vesna was the Table Topics Master for the night, and she kept us entertained with her hilarious sports themed table topics questions. Congratulations to all the new members who participated for the very first time in table topics-an inspiring effort! Thanks also to Patrick for his skilled evaluation of the table topics responses- a true master in action. Finally thank you to Anna for her expert general evaluation of the meeting- we never fail to learn from you. For our friends who couldn’t make it to the meeting- we missed you. The room was a little less bright without you there. But we hope you will soon find your way back to Visy Park, where your Carlton Toastmaster family will always be waiting to welcome you.
Cheerfully, Carlton TM all came together, whether in a speaking role or organisational role, to deliver an outstanding club Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contest last Wednesday. Our speakers were of the highest calibre and our presenters set a happy and professional tone for the evening. Congratulations to all our contestants, Patrick, Darrell, Carly, Leigh, Andrea and Anthony. We are still smiling at your comic genius to either make the somewhat mundane a little more interesting or the trickier situations of life seem a little less so. Special thanks to Kim for being such a delightful Test Speaker, we all learned something from you! Thanks to our VPE, Evelyn and our Secretary, Steph for coordinating such a professional and happy evening. Congratulations also to Cleo and Natalie for their smiling presentations in their roles as Contest Chairs. Thanks also to Kylie, Jackson and Paddy for timing. Thank you to all our judges, Yoke-Ching and Kier; Ann, Steve, Steve, Julie, Isabella, Rachael and Ross. We hope you had a lovely evening and hope you come back to visit soon. Well done to everybody, we're all looking forward to our next contests in September.
The theme for the evening was Winter, it was cold and dark outside. Nevertheless, our Carlton Toastmasters Club gathered to greet our many guests with warmth and a table of vanilla cupcakes. Wrapped in a scarf and beanie, Natalie was our cheerful and seasoned Toastmaster for the meeting. To help us warm up, she asked each of us in turn for advice on her upcoming snow expedition; do we recommend to ski, snowboard or toboggan? Irrespective of the outcome, we wish her and others well in their snowy endeavours this year. Vesna was our grammarian who chose the word 'resilient’ which suited the evening's theme of weathering wintry conditions. Natalie, our upcoming snow-bunny used this word the most. We were all treated to a lovely icebreaker speech from Louise who reminisced about her country life and the adventures of the Bert the Bull. She had us all laughing and we are very much looking forward to hearing more of her speeches in meetings to come. Congratulations, Louise. Then Kylie gave us all a history lesson in the wonders of LEGO and her affection for Emmet. We all learned how this little man's world of bricks still seamlessly fit together since the advent of creation in 1958. Indeed, everything is awesome for Emmet and his empire of 602 billion pieces. Well done, Kylie. Just before the supper break, Stephanie, our astute Table Topics Master, asked perfectly themed questions about wintry food, drinks and music. After thinking about all the things that can warm the heart, we all hurried to huddle around the snowy vanilla cupcakes. After a bit of happy chatter, Cleo, our Sergeant at Arms, delivered a toast to our Founding President, Patrick. With a delicious mix of humorous anecdotes and serious tones, she teased and honoured her friend in a way that only friends can. This speech was so well delivered that not many of us realised it was an Advanced Communicator task, until in true Toastmasters fashion, it was later evaluated. Regardless, we wholeheartedly all raised our plastic cups of tea and fizzy drink. Cheers to Patrick! After the break Carly and Jackson both gave us important advice regarding consumer affairs. Carly spoke about the dark side of op shopping and how she nearly became a true fashion victim. With a touch of pantomime she proudly wore a beautiful green jumper and vividly described the smells of mothballs, woody tones and fruity notes from which her happy purchase came. Jackson then commanded the stage to warn us all about first world scams and pretty packaging. We learned that with $7 we can buy effective $2 toothpaste and a $5 working Rolex watch! Both speeches were exceptionally crafted, witty and funny. Congratulations to both of you. Our Evaluators for the evening were Andrea, Darrell, Anna, Patrick, Paul and Evelyn. All of who delivered their praise and improvements with encouragement and care. Thank you. Thanks also to Christine and Gregg who diligently fulfilled their important respective roles of Timer and Ah Counter. However you choose to weather the cold, we hope you are all enjoying writing and practicing those speeches. It has been a little icy outside of late, but at Carlton Toastmasters Club it will always be warm, even in midwinter. Carlton Toastmasters Meeting 37: Wednesday July 2nd On a warm winter's evening, Carlton Toastmaster's Club welcomed many guests under a theme of 'New Beginnings'. Our first executive decision was where to put the supper table; which after much hurried thought and debate, we decided to put back outside the formal speaking area - but this time we strategically placed in on quite a clever angle. This small though important change would later foster cheerful chatter about the exciting hommus competition - and other such important matters. In our new President's absence, our new VPE, Evelyn, aptly took quite some time to announce the many awards our club had won last year. Indeed all awards are special, but one of exceptional merit was our achievement in attaining Outstanding Club of the Year. Congratulations and thank you to all, especially to our Past President, Patrick, who led us to this in just 375 days after charter. With a new year, comes a new executive team and a new Sergeant at Arms. Cleo is 'IT' and rightfully so; she was bubbly, welcoming, informative and funny and we think she might quite enjoy keeping us all in line throughout the meetings ahead. Our Toastmaster for the evening was Rebecca and the Warm Up session proved both telling and inspiring when each were asked 'what new beginning are you most happy you've started'? Darrell gave us our Word of the Day, it was ‘Carlton’ - he is very patriotic; and of course, Patrick, our Past President, used it the most. Our evaluators of the evening were Rob, Anna, Christine and a special guest, President of Parkville Toastmasters Club, Keir. Without exception, all evaluations hinted at an intangible, seasoned professionalism. Thank you. Kylie was our Table Topics Master for the evening and courteously commanded the stage to ask us all questions around the evening's theme. Patrick was the Table Topics Evaluator, who had listened astutely to give our participants encouraging points for improvements and sincere praise for their strengths. Sarah stood with grace and perfect humility to present her speech, 'Embracing Imperfection'. *In truth, it’s beyond this writer's capability to describe this speech. I was stuck senseless last night, as I am now. I only hope to hear it again one day and at the very least see it published. Our last speaker of the evening was Natalie, who gave all of who could not attend last week, an encore presentation of her journey to finishing her CC10. Natalie is a gifted and inspirational speaker who is destined to travel far; we salute you, Sergeant Heart - explore, discover, dream, believe. Our timer for the evening was Nick, who is now leaving us to go to Perth. Nick was also awarded a certificate for completing five speeches from the CC Manual - congratulations Nick. We all wish him well in his endeavours and hope to hear from him when he has climbed the mountain of CC10 one day very soon. Paul gave the Ah Counter’s report and he carefully listened to us 'ummm....' away - pleasingly, we are all getting a little better!! Andrea, our self-confessed mother-hen, then gave the General Evaluation for the evening. She echoed the sentiments of a wonderful evening where we all celebrated the new beginnings of July. I look forward to our next meeting and wish you all the best, PPS. Remember to log on to Easy-Speak to register your attendance at our next meeting. Meeting snapshot: 18th June - Meeting 36 Meeting snapshot: 4th June - Meeting 35 Meeting snapshot: 21st May - Meeting 34
Our last meeting of Carlton Toastmasters was a momentous one indeed. We had elections for our executive for the next year and the winners were— The first was Cynthia with her ‘Shop Till You Drop’ speech. We can see why this speech has taken her to the District Final. Then Patrick followed up with his ‘Your Time’ speech. This is such a great speech it may very well take Patrick all the way to the International Speech Contest. Our third speaker was Sarah with her speech, ‘Letter to You’. Wow! What an amazing speech! This was Sarah’s tenth speech, meaning she has now attained her Competent Communicator award. It’s great to see someone improve so such in such a short period of time. Our speakers were ably evaluated by Kim (from Lilydale Club – thanks for being part of such a great night!), Rebecca and Kylie. We have formed such a good association with Lilydale Club that Kylie has now also joined Carlton. After the break, Darrell took over as Table Topics master and had some challenging questions in relation to the night’s theme. Kim did a wonderful evaluation. Carly did the Grammarian’s report, Louise was in charge of the Ah Counting and Cleo did a General Evaluation of the meeting. Oh, and now for the new Club Executive. You would have seen them listed in Patrick’s email, we here they are again in case you missed it: I’m sure we wish them all the best for the year ahead. And here’s a link to the next meeting. Don’t forget to log on to indicate your attendance. It makes scheduling so much easier for our Vice President in Charge of Education.
Meeting snapshot: 16th April - Meeting 31 Our Easter meeting was another great get together made more interesting by having Nola, Andrew and Kylie visit us from Lilydale Toastmasters Club. It’s always great to have feedback from other toastmasters, and to show off our ‘Carltonian’ way of doing things. We also had four visitors—Greg, Jon, Bec and Sally—to liven up proceedings. Nat was our Sergeant-at-arms and gave us all a warm welcome. Patrick followed up with a round robin based on the theme of Easter. Cleo then gave us a very Easter related word of the day – chocolate! Anthony delivered the first speech for the night – Toastmasterman. It was great fun and brought lots of laughs from the audience. Kerrie followed up with a speech about her travelling adventures while Sarah delivered a very timely presentation about, well, time. This was followed by some great evaluations by Evelyn, Chris and Nat who all gave some good points of improvement. A big thanks to Nola! The Table Topics session was led by Andrea and ably evaluated by Christine. Cleo did the Grammarian’s report, Vesna the Ah Counter’s report while Darrell filled the role of Timer. At the conclusion of the meeting, Jackson delivered his presentation as General Evaluator. It was the first time he’s had this role, and he did a sterling job. Good one, Jackson! Our next meeting will be a very special one. It will be on the 30th of April and will herald the very first combined Carlton-Parkville meeting. Come along and join in the fun. It will be a great opportunity to be part of a larger meeting.
The theme for this meeting was Books, which was appropriate as this was International Children’s Book Day. Rob was our toastmaster for the evening and did his usual excellent job. Anthony was responsible for our word of the day—bazookas! It has a number of definitions, but it is most recently associated with excitement. So, “Bazookas! We’re at Carlton Toastmasters!” They were both ably evaluated by Darrell and Christine. The table topics for the evening also kept with the theme of books. Jackson did a great job. Not only did he have great questions, but he also made a point of picking people who did not already have roles, an important part of being Table Topics Master. After the plethora of food, we had two more speakers—Anna and Evelyn. Anna gave a really amusing speech entitled Doggy-Doo-Doo. In Practise makes Perfect Evelyn gave valuable tips for effective practise. Their speeches were ably evaluated by Anthony and Andrea. Anthony delivered his grammarian’s report, Carly was our timer (keeping everyone in check) and our special guest for the evening—Yoke-Ching Tan—was General Evaluator. We are fortunate to have had such a wonderful area governor this year. Enormous thanks to her for her support and attendance at our Carlton meetings! Overall, it was another fun and entertaining meeting. Our next meeting is on the 16th of April, 2014. Please indicate your attendance via Easyspeak, as it makes planning so much easier. Thanks and we’ll see you there!
This meeting had a theme of ‘animals’ and we all ‘herded’ together to make it a success. Our Toastmaster for the evening was Rebecca, resplendent in black and red, with beautiful red shoes. She did an excellent job. It was her first time in this role and she carried it off like a professional. Staying with the theme of animals, Darrell picked the word of the day. He made it ‘zoophobia’, meaning a fear of animals. It was appropriate that our round robin was based around what animal makes you afraid. Cleo was table topics master for the evening. Her questions were all based on animals, but possibly the most interesting one was this: what would you do if Patrick were picked up and stolen away by a Tyrannosaurus Rex? Brenda gave an inspiring reply that made us all think that the club may survive if fate deals Patrick such a terrible blow. Good answer Brenda! Nick did the table topics evaluation. Julia was in charge of the supper break (yum, yum!) After supper, Darrell spoke about a memorable trip from Rome to Florence. Anna’s speech was based around the idea of her being the Mayor of Melbourne and introducing new draconian bike laws. Both presentations were really amusing and ably evaluated by Patrick and Anthony. Andrea did the general evaluation before allocating roles for our next meeting. That’s happening on the 2nd of April, 2014. Hope to see you there – but watch out for T-Rex’s. Just in case!
Yes, it’s hard to believe, but Carlton Toastmasters is celebrating its first birthday! We’d love to see as many members as possible at this upcoming event and I’ve attached an invitation below as a reminder! There will be lots of celebrations and fun at this meeting. And chocolates! Chocolates are always good. And balloons! And a clown, well, maybe not a clown, but we'll have heaps of fun! In the meantime, here’s the meeting report from our last meeting: Our last meeting was another great evening. Darrell was the Toastmaster for the evening. The theme for the meeting was ‘competition’ which was quite appropriate considering how many Carlton members are competing in division competitions at the moment. Our first two speakers were Elaine and Suyi. Elaine spoke about how to make the perfect macaron. She had us all licking our lips by the end of her presentation. Suyi gave us a talk about the recent heat wave and the effect it had on her and her family. It was something we could all relate to! Anthony and Rebecca both did excellent evaluations. We had a table topics session, ably led by Christine, on the theme of ‘competition’. It’s fair to say we were all winners! After the break, we had another two really interesting speeches. The first was Sarah’s presentation. She spoke about trying new things to help the brain. Cynthia gave us another presentation of her ‘Shop Till I Drop’ speech. It’s a fun speech and brought another round of laughs to the meeting. Cleo did the general evaluation for the meeting. She was very positive, making certain that the meeting finished on a high. Don’t forget – we’re celebrating our first birthday at our next meeting. That will be on the 5th of March, 2014.
Meeting snapshot: 29th January - Meeting 25 This meeting was a speechathon and we had a high standard of both speeches and evaluations. The first speaker for the night was Ann who spoke about the difficulties of keeping a secret. The second speaker was Darrell who discussed the art of storytelling and the third speaker was Cleo who gave us a folk tale, focusing on the legend of Cliff Young. They were all fun speeches, very ably evaluated by Anthony, Jackson and Chris. The general evaluator for the first half was Rob. It was great to see him back! The second half of our meeting began with Rebecca, who gave us a speech about the dominance of Coles and Woolies in the Australian marketplace. Andrea spoke about travelling (and cats), and Patrick gave us a truly unforgettable speech about being an iron man. Made us want to take up training. Steph was the general evaluator for the second half of the meeting. It was her first time in the role and she did really well. Overall, it was a really fun night, and a good example of the range of speeches and topics you can encounter in a typical meeting. Our next meeting is the 5th of February, 2014. We look forward to seeing you there! Meeting snapshot: 15th January - Meeting 24 Carlton Toastmasters Club had its first meeting for the year – and what a great meeting it was! We had a discussion about the new Parkville Toastmasters Club. It looks like the area will have more public speakers than question time in Parliament! We had four speakers at our first meeting for the year, as well as a lively Table Topics session. The theme for the evening was ‘The Bucket List’. As it turned out, the only thing missing from proceedings was a bucket, but we somehow made do. Darrell was Toastmaster for the evening and started with a round robin relating to people’s bucket lists. We then had two great speeches – Carly spoke about growing plants while Christine spoke about her growing addiction to Toastmasters conventions. We then moved on to Table Topics. Patrick was our Table Topics Master and continued with the theme of bucket lists. He certainly produced the most fun response when Vesna asked, “Do I still have (theoretically) seven years to live?” This brought a lot of laughs from the audience. After the break, we moved onto two other great speakers. Cleo spoke about the Black Friday bushfires in 1939. Evelyn then talked about making the most of life – taste the honey while it’s available! The speech evaluations were also very well done. Andrea was our Grammarian, Vesna (relieved that she had more than 7 years to live) was our Ah counter. Chris was Timer and Leigh filled the role of General Evaluator for the very first time. Great job, Leigh! Downloads
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