Here is a list of some of our members who have chosen to make their profiles public.

Merry Carlton Christmas! Meeting 16 December 2015

A Very Carlton Meeting, Speechathon 2 December 2015 

With Phil on the door, it was an All Member Speechathon at Carlton this week. Paul called us to order in his delightful way.

As there were no guests to welcome, Sarah listed the many achievements of Carlton members over the last few weeks. It started with Cleo and Darrell, who delivered yet another speechcraft course, added to the one Selina co-ordinated for Smashing the Envelope/Mighty Docklands (with assistance from Bibi and Michael). Cleo and Darrell also acted as MCs for two of World Champion Ed Tate's talks.  Then there were two very personal achievements: Christine's recent Grand motherhood and Paul's pending Fatherhood.

Ha was invited to the stage, and Carlton voted in Clay as our newest member. Our Toastmaster for the evening, Cleo, got Carton's own Speechathon underway, with members all relating how their lives have been enhanced by toastmasters.

We were addicted to Jon's CC#3 "Addicted". Jon told us not only the history of the 'wonder' drug and its benefits, but also the solution to its one or two negative aspects.

Christine talked about her son Dean, a passionate Chelsea fan and a true friend to all, in her Special Occasion Speech #1 Mastering the Toast speech "A toast to my Sweets".

Darrell then got the Walking Dead on the "Highway to Hell" as part of his Chinese CC#8. With only his keys as props, Darrell explored the mysteries of the Melbourne road networks and the joys of owning a car, possessed by evil.

With three speeches down, Vivian, Phil and Andrea lived up to the high expectations in their insightful evaluations. Our break came with Dips, Chips, Chocolates and chatter. (And yes, Coffee was consumed at the break)

After the break, Leigh trusted his gut in his CC#10 speech "Trust Your Gut" in which he reflected on the Amazing Ideas that have been silenced. He told us all to not be afraid to make a decision, or to ask the question 'why?', and to silence the doubt. Congratulations Leigh on completing your CC manual!

Then Darrell raised a couple of quick Table topics, the first saw Filipina holidaying in Adelaide and Japan. In the second question, Clay revealed dreams of Chocolates and Xboxes, before deciding to follow Fil on holidays.

Despite the late arrival of Marcus, Ha gave her CC#10 speech on "A Sweet Young Girl".  A funny and heartbreaking story that told us to love all the children in our lives, letting them live the life that they choose, and to encourage us all to care for the people around us.

These speeches were evaluated as the earlier speeches, and to the same high standards by Bibi and Paul. With Clay delivering his first 'Ah' Count and Selina the timers report it was down to Rebecca to give our General evaluation

We might have been a little late but we still had time to present a well-earned Competent Communicator award to Leigh.

I believe I can fly. Carlton Toastmasters Wednesday 18 Nov Meeting.

I believe I can fly. And so we did, at this week’s Carlton Toastmasters.
And Flying below the radar is our Sergeant at Arms, Paul. He was at the club early setting everything up to ensure we took off on time.
And Flying above the clouds was our VPE, Rebecca, as she sought to get our Agenda sorted.
Well done all, for getting all roles filled before the meeting!
Air Force 1 flew in our President Sarah to open the meeting.
Our Biggles of Toastmasters and our flying instructor for the evening was Darrell.
Carley was accelerating as our grammarian and accelerate was our word of the day.

Darrel got us warmed up with some inflight questions, and several people then flew to the moon.
Not to forget those few people who choose instead to travel by fireplace.

Then it was on to the speeches.
Cleo was up first with her 'Fifty Shades of Grey Street'(Humorously Speaking #2, Leave them with a smile).
The characters Cleo introduced, left all smiling.

Michael was up next with 'Noel Pearson's tribute to Gough Whitlam'(Interpretive Reading #5, the Oratorical Speech).
We were left with no doubt what that Roman did for us all, nearly 40 years ago.

Finally we had Selina give us 'A Braces Experience'(The Entertaining Speaker #1, The Entertaining Speech)
Selina's smile will be perfect for her wedding, but the stories she tells about her journey, have all smiling with her!

Three speeches, that flew past so fast that we need to have a break. And with Cleo doubling up as supper master, there were more smiles to be had!

With all the watermelon gone, Paul had no trouble calling us back.
Maddy stood up as first time Table Topic Master, and asked some great questions to his 'victims'.
Bibi told how she is excited by Michael.
Anthony told how he is inspired by Risk
Carly taught us to be Patient especially when shopping.
Anne ensured that all of her actions were not judged.
and finally Michael flew like a brick into the Grand Canyon.

Rosie, Filipina, Anthony and Paul were our astute evaluators for the night.

Carly flew over on our Grammar, Bibi spread her wings over our Ums and Ahs, and Clay rocketed as our first time timer.
Andrea soared high as she gave the General Evaluation.

Finally Sarah ensured our flight came to a soft landing.
Before we disembarked through the exit doors, there were some awards to present.
Bibi, Michael and Cleo received their well-earned CL certificates.

Customs for Carlton Toastmasters is to have fun, in a supportive environment.
See you all on our next adventure!

CarltonToastmasters Cup: Spring Carnival Meeting: Nov 4th 2015

The Melbourne Cup has been and gone, and to follow the first Tuesday in November is the first Wednesday in November and that means another fabulous Spring Carnival meeting at Carlton Toastmasters.
Our door monitor, Bibi welcomed all members and guest as they arrived to the paddock.

Under starter's orders and Sargent at Arms, Paul, the horses were let out of the gates.

First out was the 'Toastmaster' ridden by Michael, then Round Robin as we thought about our horse names and what to do with mid week holidays.
Next was 'An Educational' ridden By Vivian. A great Educational titled 'Evaluation Champions' from the Successful Club Series #3 - Evaluate to motivate. This champion educational presentation by Vivian, showed that we can all improve our evaluations to help make everyone's speeches better.

Next was 'First Speaker' ridden by Phil with his CC#4 - How to Say It on 'Chuckles'. Phil's use of Henry Ford to analyze the habits of his housemate was entertaining and engaging.

He was closely followed by 'Second Speaker' ridden by Maddie. 'Look Up' was Maddie's CC#5 - Your Body Speaks Speech in which his daughters play time was almost a victim of social media inspired neglect.

Carly rode 'Third Speaker' with 'Criminal of the Century' to deliver her Storytelling #5 - Bringing History to Life. With cries of Shock/ Horror and possible links to the Jack the Ripper, Carley delivered a mystery that had us all guessing.

'Forth Speaker' Cleo rounded out the field as she gave us 'Emma Watson - HeForShe' for her Interpretive Reading #5 - The Oratorical Speech. One might think that it was Cleo that attended Hogwarts, learning how channell Emma, in bringing to life a speech about including men into all things feminist.

And so to the break and lots of goodies supplied by Carly.

As they came round the bend, it was Evaluations by Jon, followed by Ha then came Paul with Anthony making a late move.
Into the home stretch, the Ah Count by Cristine, then timers report with Rosie and General Evaluation ridden by Darrell.
And crossing the line the winner was...  the Audience!

Back in the winners circle Darrell and Cleo were thanked for their efforts in the M21 and M22 contests.
And the Carlton Cup having been run and won, Rebecca closed out the meeting.

See you all at the next meeting!

 

2015 Area M22 Contest Results - Saturday Oct 31st

Wow, who turned up the heat at RMIT building 8 today? The competitors were on fire, at four burning hot Area M22 Contests, as the thermometer hit ‘Warning! Warning! Will Robertson!’ level! What a high standard of competition! What a difficult job for the judges! What a hot to trot day!

Congratulations to all our winners and placegetters:
Evaluation:
1st:        Keir Wells (Parkville)
2nd:        Ian Murray (Carlton)
3rd:        Julien Desmers (RMIT)

Humorous:
1st:        Ha Du (Carlton)
2nd:        Gillon Duguid (Parkville)
3rd:        Keir Wells (Parkville)

Table Topics:
1st:        Claire Headland (RMIT)
2nd:        Keir Wells (Parkville)
3rd:        Ian Murray (Carlton)

International:
1st:        Sarah Hanieh (Carlton)
2nd:        Gillon Duguid (Parkville)
3rd:        Vivian Goh (Carlton)

Sarah, Ha and Ian (with Vivian and Ian as backups) will be representing Carlton and Area M22 in the Metro Division Contests.  Well done to all of today’s competitors. Everyone gave of their best to create four truly exciting contests. I know I was holding my breath, as the results were announced.
 
It was fantastic to have such a large and enthusiastic turn out today. Thank you to our Toastmasters community who travelled from near and far to be our judges, counters, timers, ushers, chairs, supper providers and cheer squads.

None of this would be possible without our Area M22 Director, the companionable Mr Darrell Pitt, ably assisted by Area M21 Director, the convivial Ms Cleo Pitt. What a congenial couple!

CarltonToastmasters Epic Adventure Meeting: Oct 21st 2015

What an Adventure we had at Carlton Toastmasters! Despite a slow start, our Sergeant at Arms, Paul, got us settled and ready. President Sarah opened the meeting and welcomed our guests, before our effervescent VPE and Toastmaster, Rebecca, gave a perfectly captivating introduction of the meeting’s Adventure theme. Who else could make sense of linking Hellen Keller with Winnie the Poo? Grammarian, Natalie, just back from another adventure, gave us an Epic Word of the day. And with Epic Adventures in mind we had a round robin that took us on a round-the-world adventure as everyone recounted their own personal adventure experiences. All of them were EPIC!
Then it was down to our prepared speeches. 'Sold!' was Jon's CC#2 Organise Your Speech project. He told us the 5 P's of Marketing: Product, Packaging, Price, Promotion and People. Jon had us Sold!  We all need bigger caves!
Maddie's CC#4 How to Say It speech project was 'Raise your Voice for those that have no voice'. Maddie spoke with great passion and conviction. He encouraged all to see the benefits of vegetarianism with powerful rhetoric and a plethora of compelling arguments. Look out, Carlton, for Maddie’s CC#9 Persuade With Power speech project. We can’t wait! 
Selina, a self-confessed Toastmasters Junkie, told us why 'Toastmasters is the new sexy' as her #1 Entertaining Speech project from The Entertaining Speaker Advanced Manual. We all hope that she drinks more, reads more, writes more and delivers more speeches like this on her journey to her DTM wedding. (Distinguished Toastmaster).
Well out of her comfort zone, of perfection through detailed preparation and rehearsal, stepped Bibi with her #1 The Speech to Inform project from the Speaking To Inform Advanced Manual, titled ‘Overview of the Women in Technology Study Tour'. This whirlwind tour to India, sounded jam-packed, and proved to be anything but a junket!
For Table Topics, Vivian invited Andrea on an Adventure Trip and Paul to an Adventure Island. Andrea, with much warmth and charm, chose to go to Antarctica, while Paul ensured he had games to play on his phone after cooking the fish he had caught on his deserted Island.
The first half of the meeting had been such a wonderful adventure that we needed a break, and a supper supplied by Bibi was ready for all. Fully refreshed, Paul ensured we were seated again for the second half.
Anthony stood up and from the Special Occasion Speeches Advanced Manual delivered his #3 project, The Roast. 'They are the Pitts' gave us three good reasons to expel two Carlton members, citing their Vanity, Childish Behaviour and Public Nudity. It was a close vote but even with Darrell voting in agreement of the proposition, only two votes were in favour. The Pitts are still menbers!
WOW an Epic five fabulous speeches and two terrific Table Topics. Now for the Epic Adventure of the Evaluations. Darrell, Michael, Devika, Cleo, Sarah and Filipina all gave Adventurous praise, and Epic Improvements. Natalie's Grammarian, Phil's first time Ah Count and Rosie's first time Timer reports were rounded out with the General Evaluation from Andrea.
Big thanks to our night’s Epic Toastmaster, Rebecca, who ensured a wonderful adventure was had by all. But before our President, Sarah, closed the meeting there was an award to be had.
Many of us strive to complete our Competent Communicator manual (CC).
Once we do that, we start on two Advanced Manuals to get our Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award. Then we tackle two more Advanced Manuals and two Better Speaker/Successful Club presentations and achieve Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) award. On top of this, do another two Advanced Manuals, another Better Speaker/Successful Club presentations and mentor a speaker on their first three speech projects, and you can achieve Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG) award. Just like Anthony! Congratulations Anthony on your Epic achievements and on completing your Advanced Communicator Gold!

Upcomming Area M22 contest: Good luck to...
      Sarah and Vivian for International 
      Hu and Paul for Humorous 
      Ian, Paul and Andrea for Table Topics
and Leigh and Michael for Evaluation

CarltonToastmasters Park Meeting: Sunday Oct 11th 2015

A Park Meeting

As we settled in on a wonderful sunny day for a weekend park meeting, the bagpipes started playing. What a wonderful way to start a meeting! And so it would have been. Except… then the drumming started and we were drummed out from under our tree. We retreaded across the park to the shade of another gum tree. The drumming now a distant sound and memory, those present witnessed five wonderful speeches and two brilliant table topic responses.

Not only did the audience have the chance to hear some wonderful speeches, the speakers got plenty of practice for the upcoming Area 22 Competition. Everyone from the audience was then invited to submit their verbal feedback on how to make the speeches even better.

We heard two Beautiful International Speeches from Vivian and Sarah, and two funny Humorous Speeches from Ha and Paul.

To top this off, Michael presented his revised speech for his mother’s 80^th birthday, and Ian successfully negotiated his way through two table topics.

The feedback for all the speeches will be taken into account to help Carlton shine in the upcoming contests.

 

Carlton Members needing Mentor or those who wish to Mentor another Member are asked to contact our VP of Membership: Ha.

Those members wishing to get speeches or leadership tasks performed outside the club, recognised in easy-speak, please let our VP Education, Rebecca, know the Titles, Dates and Project that you need signed off.

 

CarltonToastmasters Meeting 76 Report: Wednesday Oct 7th 2015

A smiling face welcomed all to this week's Carlton Meeting. Yes, Rob was on the door! And what an Achievement it was, the meeting, not Rob. 'Achievement' was the theme of the night.

Our stand in and outstanding Sargent at Arms, the effervescent Cleo, banged the gabble to bring us to order. As president, Sarah, welcomed all to the 76th Carlton Toastmasters meeting (Cheers, Clapping etc). Ha was invited down, which could mean only one thing. A new Carlton Member! Welcome Rosie!  Rosie is now the new owner of one of Papa Shing's famous Carlton Toastmasters Scarves. (Thank you Patrick!) Rebecca our wonderful VPE told us all that she had had a big achievement in getting to grips with easy-speak!

Please make sure your Speech and Leadership manuals are up to date so Rebecca can update easy-speak!

And don’t forget - you can sign yourself up for meeting roles through easy-speak!

 

Phil stood up as first time Toastmaster and took to the position like a seasoned professional. Grammarian Christine, an accomplished Grammarian, gave us our word, "accomplished". Our Round Robin Warmup showed that Carlton has a lot of accomplished achievers.

Our first speech for the night was a wonderful CC#1 Icebreaker from Rosie. Not many people have been to North Korea, but the intrepid Rosie is one, and her insight into the people of that country was enlightening. Well done Rosie and we hope to hear more from you in the future as you begin your Toastmasters journey.

Our second speech, an Interpretive reading (#5 the Oratorical Speech) was present by Bibi as she recounted Cate Blanchett's tribute to Gough Whitlam. Bibi delivered a beautiful tribute in a gracious manner.

Our third speech was a heartfelt CC#6 vocal variety speech by Cleo, about her loving flatmates in Sydney. A beautiful story told with compassion, understanding and a touch of humour.

 

Table Topics were a visual affair presented by Ian. Rebecca reminded us all that she is simply a genius and that Stonehenge is a just testament to her brilliance. Darrell explained the importance of the physiology of the tongue and upper lip in sport. Visiting Toastmaster, Travis, told us the secret to his success is not a secret or successful. But it must be for his twin in Paris... Michael told us about his Tsunami swimming and mountain climbing in board shorts.  Rob took us to the final frontier, the bathroom... Finally Sarah told us how to calculate PI to 1000 digits using nothing but chocolate. A great selection and an original way to present those questions, well done Ian. The bar is now higher!

 

It was a great achievement by all our accomplished speakers. But the icing on the cake is the evaluations as this is where we all can learn to improve. Vivian, Andrea, Ha and Carly, gave those present great insights for taking good speeches to the next level. Christine, after remembering her glasses, reported on our wonderful, and other, uses of grammar! Rob reported on our filler words and Filipina our use of time. Michael got everyone saluting as he stood up as the General (evaluator).

Before Sarah closed the meeting for another week, Darrell praised all in Carlton for their many thoughtful and insightful evaluations over the past. Thank you Darrell and well done ALL Carltonians.

 

Upcoming events: If these are not in your diary, add them now. You would hate to miss out!

1: Carlton Park Meeting at Princess Park. 11am, Sunday 11th of October. Meet in the carpark next to the Carlton Football club before finding a nice spot on the grass to set up. BYO Picnic. Family & friends welcome.

2: Negotiation Workshop - South Melbourne Town Hall 1pm-5pm Sunday 25th October. Cost: Gold Coin donation at the door

RSVP: Please contact Beng Tan and Ting Cao (speakandsoar@gmail.com<mailto:speakandsoar@gmail.com>) to register your attendance and/or if you have any questions.

3: Area M22 Toastmasters Contests to be held at RMIT on Saturday the 31st of October from around 10.00am to 4.00pm (time and location to be confirmed)

 

Carlton and Parkville 30th September joint Toastmasters meeting

Love is in the air. Bibi marched us in on time, as our stand in Sergeant at Arms. Sarah and Gillon, respective Presidents of Carlton and Parkville Toastmasters, poetically welcomed us to our 30^th September joint meeting. Imagine Keir saying nice things about Carlton. That is the power of Love.

First our Grammarian Helen, gave us an ubiquitous word as our word of the day, ‘ubiquitous’.

And as Toastmaster, Keir then asked us all to share our ubiquitous Love. And what a loving bunch we are. Except the one person who complained about the ubiquitous love in the third row… Was not me as I sat at the front!

Liam gave us a speech, titled ‘My mate Norm’ (CC# 5: Your body speaks), in which the virtues of mateship showed that you can have a beer with a mate who wants to kill you.

Michael gave a toast with ‘Valerie Evelyn Clancy (ne Hoppner): My Mum’ (Special Occasion Speeches#1: Mastering the Toast) in which he praised his mother on the occasion of her 80^th birthday. Michael thanks all for their feedback.

Then it was off to Yorkshire with Andrea as she recited “Marriot, Madge - and Me!’ (Interpretive Reading #2: Interpretive Poetry). Andrea’s eloquent accent lulling us to the zoo where we all but saw a boy eaten by a lion.

‘Trapped in a monodrama’ was Cleo’s monodrama. (Interpretive Reading #3: The Monodrama). The vivid character Cleo created enabled that character to live on even though the monodrama has ended.

And so we came to the break. Thanks to Vivian and Helen (and anyone else) for providing supper.

After the break Leigh, Anthony, Christine and Vivian provided excellent praise, insightful improvements and some well thought out takeaways in their evaluations.

For table topics it was back in time and ‘Blind Date’, as Selina asked questions prepared by our Dexter stand in, Gillon, to three lucky contestants Maddie, Dan and (Special Guest) Cal. Selina then had to explain to us who she would choose as her date and why.

Phil then gave us another fun evaluation of the four table topics contestants.

It was all on time as Keir introduced us to our counters and timers for the night, our Grammarian Helen was ubiquitous, Filipina counted the Ahs and Bibi was our time lord

Our final evaluation by General Darrell, cleared the stage for our closing by Sarah and Gillon.

The meeting closed, and Keir being good to his word, the Love continued to warm as Carlton and Parkville Toastmasters part ways until the next fun filled joint meeting.

 

CarltonToastmasters Meeting 74: Wednesday Sep 16th

Independence was celebrated at Carlton on Wednesday night. With Christine at the door to welcome our many guests the meeting was started almost on time by our Sargent at Arms Paul.

Jorge was in the toastmaster chair for the first time and introduced us all to the thought of how Mexicans celebrate the first day that they started down the path to independence rather than when it was actually achieved. And the round robin had us all recounting our earliest experiences of independence

In line with the independence theme Jon gave us a non-partisan word of the day.

Two NEW members joined us with both Selina and Filipina being voted in and receiving their Carlton Scarves.

Filipina barely sat down before she was up again, giving a heart-warming CC#1 Icebreaker, ‘Me and my Dad’. She spoke with such eloquence that I’m sure that her father would have been very proud of her. All of Carlton thanks Filipina, for sharing her touching story. Congratulations Filipina.

Then it was Michael C’s turn to deliver a Touching Story from Storytelling#4. ‘Once Upon a Time’, in which Michael fell in Love with Time, Lost Time, then regained Time before losing Time and Love again. But he did end with ‘happily ever after’…

Vivian also delivered a Touching Story from Storytelling#4. ‘The Voice’, in which she listened to that inner Voice that has helped her in deciding her life story so far. Well Done Vivian. We all hope you find that special laundry basket soon!

Natalie then got up to tempt us all with some independent table topics. Parkville’s Devika was first to give us independent thoughts. Next it was our guest Emma who told us about her Independence Day dinner in New York, not with four famous people, but four fabulous friends. This was followed by Maddie who explained what Independence means to him. Then we experienced journeys to the far reaches of the planet with an independent Sarah. Finally we were treated to Ian’s portrayal of an independent woman.

After the break Anthony paid a wonderful tribute to Carlton Founder, Patrick Shing, in his Special Occasion Speeches #2 Speaking in Praise, titled ‘Field of Dreams’. Anthony told us how Patrick has built the club, and we have all come, and we have all grown and are better for it. It was to express our thanks and our hopes for Patrick that we all stood and applauded.

Ha, Christine, Andrea, Bibi and Paul all delivered insightful evaluations, with some still a little teary eyed from the emotion of the night.

Jon gave us a non-partisan grammarian report, Michael a count while he um’ed and ah’ed followed by Selina with a precise timers report. Ian gave full praise to Jorge for his Toastmaster efforts and then gave us all insights on how we can all improve our meetings.

And we have now come to the end of the report for Sarah closed the meeting but not before reminding us all that the Semi Annual D73 Convention is on the 14^th November!

Our thoughts and prayers are with Patrick at this time.

Carlton Members don’t forget your fees are due. Contact Vivian via easy speak if you have questions.

Next meeting is another wonderful joint meeting with the wonderful Parkville toastmasters. See you on the 30^th!

CarltonToastmasters Meeting 73: Wednesday Sep 2nd

It was a cold and wet night as Carltonians huddled in the foyer of Ikon Park prior to the start of the meeting.

Despite this, our Sergeant at Arms, Paul, called to order almost on time, with Rob and Paddington Bear welcoming any late guests.

With our President unable to attend, our versatile VPE Rebecca was in charge of the welcome.

Grammarian, Ian gave us 'Ursine' as Word of the day.

Our Toastmaster of the day Michael C introduced us to two special guests, Mr Ted Little and Mr Pavra Teddy, in celebration of our theme: Teddy Bears

We had a lot of friends from other Toastmasters Clubs and some very welcome guests. With the round robin, all were asked about their teddy bear experiences with some delightful stories forthcoming.

Then it was on to our speeches for the day.

1st Speaker was Phil with a CC#2 speech 'Carlton Gardens' during which Phil had us construct not one, but two, beautiful gardens in the auditorium

With his beautiful imagery we could see and almost smell the roses.

Next up Maddie let a genie out of the bottle with his CC#2 speech 'The Secret' on the laws of attraction.

Anna delivered her "Selfish" speech as part of CC#9. As she recounted her toastmaster journey to date she explained that after 10 years it is her choice to be a little bit selfish, or as she eloquently put it: 'it’s not you, it’s me'. She will be missed, but will always be welcome.

Our last speech was the poem 'Lost' by Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Patterson read by Bibi for her Interpretive Reading #2.Bibi took us on an emotional journey in to the wilds of the Australian bush in search of a lost boy.

After the break Table Topics Master Ha gave teddy bear topics to: Kieran, who warned us about what teddy bears see from the bed; Michael J, who took teddy bears on a picnic and cricket match on the dish; Kate, who warned us of the approaching teddy bear apocalypse and Michael C who defended the three bears in Bears vs Goldilocks.

Thanks to our evaluators Andrea, Leigh, Greg and Rebecca. Each identified things in the speeches that we can use to make our own speeches better.  Then Rob did likewise with the table topics evaluation.

With our Grammarian Ian, called away mid meeting, little ted presented the Grammarian's report, Paul counted the Ah's and Darrell was our Time Lord.

Cleo gave a General Evaluation that left all teddy bears smiling

And finally Rebecca acknowledged the great amount of work that Anna has put into the club, and her outstanding work as a mentor and friend to us all.

The meeting closed on time and everyone went home to their favourite teddy bear.

 

2015 Carlton Toastmasters Contest Results

CarltonToastmasters Meeting 72: Wednesday Aug 19

Carlton International and Table Topics contests

Congratulations to all who took part in the Carlton Table Topics and International speech contests.
The results are:
Table Topics: Question- ‘What would you invent?’
1st Place- Ian Murray
2nd Place- Andrea O’Donoghue
3rd Place- Paul Filippone

International Speach Contest:
1st Place- Sarah Hanieh
2nd Place- Vivian Goh
3rd Place- Ian Murray.

First and second place from each contest will go through to the Area contests to be held in October.

Thank you to our fantastic contest chairs– Evelyn Low for Table Topics and birthday boy(!) Darrell Pitt for International, as well as to all our other helpers on the night including Maddie, Cleo, Nat,  and Anthony for helping the night to run so smoothly.

2015 Carlton Toastmasters Contest Results

CarltonToastmasters Meeting 71: Wednesday Aug 5

Carlton Evaluation and Humorous contests -  

 

Carlton Toastmasters Meeting 70: Wednesday July 29th

And a Merry Christmas to all who attended the Carlton And Parkville Christmas in July Meeting.

With Brenda on the door and Paul, our Sargent At Arms, we were all seated at the toastmaster table for what was to be a feast of fun and informative speeches.

Visitors & Guests abounded like the family and friends that we like to spend our evening with....
Carlton’s President, Sarah got the meeting off to a festive start welcoming the many visiting toastmasters from Melbourne University, Moonee Ponds, Pushing The Envelope, and Happy Hour( and one claiming to come from The North Pole, which hasn’t chartered yet). And our special guests and new friends: Carmen (Sarah's Mum), Frankie, Lucy, Cynthia, Nikhil and Caroline. With so many Guests, I apologize if I have missed you!
While Parkville’s president, Gillon, continues to enjoy his honeymoon.
Andrea, dressed as St Nicholas, was our effervescent toastmaster. We all exchanged gifts, with the round robin topic of “My Gift”. Family and Friends was the most common theme, then pets (dogs and cats) but there was also some serious re-gifting occurring.

Our first speech for the evening was from Jon. His CC#1 Icebreaker fooled many with its title of “My Maiden Voyage on the Aurora Australis”. Jon spoke with confidence about his Life, Career and Toastmaster journey (albeit, 4 meetings!). Congratulations Jon.

Next was Simon with a CC#3 speech titled “Cutting Through the Proof”. With his clear voice Simon got to the point of Climate Change to inspire us all.

The third speech for the night was from Natalie, as she delivered an Entertaining Speech titled “Who Is..”, where Natalie plays in the
sand box looking for Communication, Connection and Chemistry.

Bibi asked some insightful Table Topic questions before the break to enable us to hear that Brenda is indeed Nice, Dan likes to celebrate Christmas with a BBQ prawns, Ian would replace the reindeer with a TARDIS and Cleo is also known as Skinny Minnie Moe. (Apparently Bibi also goes by the name Ginger Fluff Bumble Guff!)

It was time for a break and what is Christmas in July without lots of food? Thank you to all those who contributed to the Christmas Feast!

After the break, Superb Evaluations were delivered by Lee, Michael, Struthi and Kate (Table Topics), although Simon was unsure if he
should be evaluated while sitting in Santa’s Lap.

We then had not one, but two coats of icing on our Christmas cake.
First, after clearing his throat , Ryan delivered a thoughtful and practical Educational on “Vocal Techniques for Beginners”.
Then in preparation before heading off to the USA, Bharat thrilled us all with his speech “Open Up”. Good luck at the 2015 Convention
Bharat!!!

Finally we had Maddie’s “Ah Some and Awesome” Ah Count, Jason’s entertaining “Timelord” timers report and Tai’s insightful General Evaluation.
With Christmas over for another year (or is it six months) Sarah then brought our meeting to a close.

 

Carlton Toastmasters Meeting 69: Wednesday July 15th

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Wednesday's meeting at Carlton renewed itself with all roles filled through regeneration. The theme of "renewal" and the Word of the day "regeneration" were fitting as winter took its toll.

Michael J was on the door welcoming guests as they arrived. And what a lot of wonderful guests we had, not only did we have lots of visiting Toastmasters (Docklands and Melbourne University) but new friends in Tim, Nat and Emma, who joined us for the night. But first we had some housekeeping. Rebecca our new effervescent VPE took on the Acting President role to get things started, changing our agenda to ensure that all other roles were properly filled. Our new VP of Membership, Ha, inducted our second new member this month: Jon was voted in and immediately took on the role of Timer. Welcome Jon!

Then to Bibi, our toastmaster of the evening. Her warmth and smile putting the toast into toastmasters....  Our round robin helped us to consider "renewal" and "regeneration" with ideas coming from the audience on new jobs, waiting for spring, revitalisation, tax returns, new challenges, starting university, fresh starts, health & balance, sustainability, relocation, new semesters, life extension,  fishing, and how change motivates.

First up was Jorge with his CC#9 speech: "Every morning is the same".  Jorge then persuaded us all to consider adopting a pet from the RSPCA. To know that the animal you get, would be de-sexed, micro-chipped and vaccinated, was an added benefit to the Joy, Love and playfulness that a pet would bring. Jorge's warning that cats don't know about weekends did not dissuade us from considering that the "big ball of fur", would be "part of our family".

Next was Vivian with a storytelling moral: "Express Train".  Vivian introduced us to the Black Belted Gorilla, the one we overlook when we are busy getting on with our lives. In this wonderfully crafted speech we learnt that we should "stop the express we are traveling on, rewind, review and look for the gorilla". She reassured us that by doing this, she is now "on the right train to happiness". Well done Vivian.

Our third speech saw Cleo take an old Model T Ford and panel beat it into a Lamborghini with her CC#5 speech: "Step on It" . Cleo gave us her three favourite things in toastmasters: Evaluation (Giving and Receiving Good), Mentoring(listen and learn), and Stage Time (making it count). She then told us how these have changed her from the ordinary to the extraordinary, with her now trying to do the best evaluations, be the best mentor and to enjoy her time on stage.

Stepping in to do table topics on very short notice was Ha. And to answer three thoughtful questions where John (Melbourne Uni), Maddie and Dinithi (Melbourne Uni), well done guys!

John thrilled us with his exploits from his time in a UK debating society, Maddie highlighted that there is no "spring" in his country of birth, and Dinithi warned us that cute puppies may grow up to be large dogs that bite, cute kittens don't. Then also stepping up, on very short notice, was Paul with his insightful and first ever table topic evaluation.

After the Break it was time for three outstanding Evaluations. Michael J led by example with a great evaluation of Jorge's speech. Phil, who in doing his first evaluation, not only gave 2 notes of praise, 2 areas of improvements and one final note of praise for Vivian, he then turned it into a Limerick. WOW! Ian, in evaluating Cleo gave the Virginia Satir quote "Every word, facial expression, gesture, or action on the part of a parent gives the child some message about self-worth. It is sad that so many parents don't realize what messages they are sending."  The implication being... that the gestures we choose are powerful, choose them wisely - for maximum positive effect.

Finally we had our M22 Area Director visiting, some may know him as Darrell. Darrell explained to all what his role is and why he is doing it.

And so to the general evaluations, Michael C gave his grammarian's report, Jon his first time timer's report. Returning to Carlton after time OS, Leigh gave the Um Count. Our General Evaluation was beautifully delivered by Helena (President, Docklands).

Rebecca then donning both Presidential and VPE roles encouraged all to participate in the upcoming competitions.

After three speeches, an impromptu table topics, three wonderful, no, fantastic evaluations and an Area Director’s overview were all delivered on this cold winter’s night, the meeting was drawn to a close.

Special thanks again for their extraordinary efforts in making the meeting so successful to Rebecca, Ha and Helena.

See you all next meeting: July 30th Parkville & Carlton Joint Meeting - Theme: Christmas!
Michael C. 

 

Carlton Toastmasters Meeting 68: Wednesday July 1st

July 1 and it’s a new Toastmaster Year, with a new Carlton Toastmasters Executive Committee.
Your new Executive Committee is
President: Sarah
Vice President Education: Rebecca
Vice President Membership: Ha
Vice President Public Relations: Michael C
Secretary: Bibi
Treasurer: Vivian
Sargent at Arms: Paul
Immediate Past President: Anthony

A big thank-you to our previous Executive Committee for your efforts in guiding our club to the great heights it has reached over the past year.
And so to our first meeting of the Toastmaster Year and with a theme : Mysteries. But it was no Mystery for debutant Sargent at Arms, Paul, who was able to get everyone seated on time. Toastmaster Carly, invited Sarah to the stage for her inaugural presidential address. With grace and charm, Sarah welcomed all to the meeting, including a large contingent of visiting Toastmasters (from Melbourne University and Pushing The Envelope), and other guests. Vesna was presented with the most improved speaker award. And Carlton’s successes for the last year were acknowledged.

Carlton Toastmasters had the pleasure of voting in Madhukar (Maddie) as a new member.

The Enigmatic Andrea provided Enigma as the word of the day. 

Carly invited everyone to share their favourite Mysteries. And almost no mystery was left out, as people raised the moon landing, Mrs Marple, Envelopes with Cash, the Loch Ness monster, the universe, atomic physics, vegemite, puppy phobias, jealousy, the chicken and the egg, MH370, hair elastics and automatic cars as things that all needed explaining.

Maddie  gave his icebreaker, 'Who Am I'. We all understood his need to 'understand myself before I can introduce myself'. We also learnt that he is 'a soul on a journey to repay his karmic debt'. It was a speech that really showed who Maddie is. Well done on an excellent icebreaker, Maddie.

Phil followed next with his icebreaker, 'Top of the tree to the bottom of the ladder'. Here we found that Phil is also a philosopher of the amber fluid, enjoying meeting people at the pub like Ollie and Chook, who then offer him career changing jobs, taking him from advertising to landscaping. Then we heard how his passion bloomed from being a landscape labourer, to a landscape designer and now an landscape architect. Another excellent icebreaker, well done Phil.

For two excellent icebreakers, you need two excellent evaluations, which were given by Rob and Patrick. Both gave well deserved praise with insightful improvements that all could benefit from.

Then came table topics with Michael C asking Cleo about Scooby Doo, and Darrell about the Butler. Both handled the answers brilliantly. However when he failed to entice a third table topic speaker, his plot to answer a table topic himself, came to fruition, and at Ian's suggestion, Michael C successfully debunked the mystery of MH370... possibly. Vesna brilliantly evaluated the three speakers. 

Paul had trouble getting people back after the break due to the great food provided by Rebecca. But he did persist and with full stomachs we returned for the second half.

Our new Divisional Club Growth Director, Christine, then told us about 'Opposites Attract' with her humourous speech about couples who are polar opposite. She reminded us that 'behind every successful woman is a man, who thought she could never do it'. We would just encourage her to remain calm when 'he makes her so frustrated that she could stab him with a fork!'

Finally, and it was well worth the wait, we heard Paul deliver his CC10. With his story of ‘Persistence’, Paul inspired the audience with his words and story of the struggle and determination of Abraham Lincoln. The phrase ‘Failure is not a mistake, the mistake is to give up’ resounded with the audience. Congratulations, Paul.

Our final evaluations, given by Cleo and Evelyn, delivered praise for both, reflecting on the memorable quotes within the speeches. Andrea also reminded us of some of the memorable quotes of the evening as she delivered her eloquent grammarians report. Ian then forgave us our Um’s and Ah’s, reminding us that Zero is not the goal we should be aiming for, but to reduce our 6-7% to as low as 3%.  In delivering the timers report, Ha was on time.  However some of us were a little over. And finally Bibi’s General Evaluation, in which the excellent evaluations were noted.

After Awarding Paul his CC10 Certificate, Sarah called the meeting to a close.
It was a big meeting to start off the new year, 1 new member, 2 Icebreakers and a CC10!  See you all at the next meeting.
Next meeting: July 15th
Michael C. 

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