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

Together Again

 

This was another joint meeting of Parkville and Carlton Toastmasters, and as usual, a wonderful time was had by all. The theme for this meeting was ‘dressed for winter’ and everyone in attendance took it to heart. This year, we’ve had an early, cold winter, and the last day of autumn bore little difference to what lay ahead.

The toastmaster for this meeting was Rhys from Parkville, and he did an excellent job. The round robin question was posed around the question of, ‘favourite winter memory’, and everyone was able to come up with something. (Even those who don’t like winter!)

 

We had a selection of speeches from both clubs. Sam from Carlton spoke about staying safe on the internet. Camila, also from Carlton, spoke about her battles with the English language. Steph from Parkville spoke about the not-so-gentle art of clapping. Finally, Andrea, a member of both clubs, gave a moving presentation about the lives and loves of two friends—Graeme and Beverley.

 

Yang was our table topics master and chose some great questions from the movie Frozen. It was an appropriate movie from which to choose!

 

After the break, Jez brought us back again to hear a host of excellent evaluations. These were delivered by Jo, Darrell, Julie and Kern. Finally, Michael evaluated the table topics speakers.

 

Charlotte was our ah counter with newcomer Jo as our timer. John rounded off the meeting with an excellent general evaluation. He included a very ‘timely’ reminder about the importance of keeping to time.

Winter is coming...

On a cold winter night what better way than to share the warmth of friends. That is why we all have those wonderfully warm scarves.

With Michael on the door (albeit a little late), Jez called us to order.  Rebecca had no changes to the agenda, so it on to President Phil to open the meeting.

John was our toastmaster for the evening and invited Kerry, as first time grammarian, to come forward. Kerry gave us “ineffable” as the word of the day.

But using the word of the day proved to be difficult in the round robin as John asked us to use the last word spoken by the previous speaker as out topic!

With champion, proposer, Natalie, time, well, top, remember, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, life, mangos, sorry, forgotten, wrong, got, frustrating, thankyou, missed, it, fair all getting a run! (I might have missed one or two)

Thoroughly warmed up, we then had our first three speeches.

In his ICEBREAKER, ‘New Visions, New Lessons’, Andy told of us of the love that he has seen through since he was seven. His glasses. A beautifully crafted speech that told us the perils of a budding footballer with less than perfect eyesight.  We done Andy.

In her ICEBREAKER, ’Pick a Box’,  Penny gave us six boxes to choose from. We found that (2) had a rope with a knot that told us of Penny’s love of sailing, (1) had a toy that told us of Penny’s love of cats, and (4) that had a rock from Penny’s garden signifying how she and her partner are renovating their house. The other boxes will remain unopened, as all women like to keep some mystery about themselves. Well done Penny.

Charlotte then took us on a journey through the ‘Sea of Words’. Forsaking the Jet Ski of Experince, Charlotte, to us scuba diving deep into the sea of words where we saw Plato and Socrates fight till the invention of the printing press and then computers. Beautiful pictures were painted in her speech.

Table topics presented by Julie where each of the respondents was placed in a scenario in which they had to talk themselves out. Well done to all.

Evaluations by Andrea, Jez, Michael, and Phil took us to the break.

After the break we heard two competition speeches from Sarah and Anthony. Good luck to both this weekend at the Find Your Inner Hero District 73 Convention. (one last plug!)

Kern and Paul evaluated the speeches to try to find that little improvement that may mean the difference between August in Vancouver or Melbourne!

Kerry reported on our grammar, Samuel had counted the ‘Ahs’, Rebecca timed us before the freshly engaged Natalie (big congratulations) gave us her general evaluation.

Election Time

This was a special meeting for Carlton Toastmasters in more ways than one. Not only did we have some very special speeches, but we also had our club elections.

More on that later!

Phil was our Toastmaster. He got the meeting up and running in a positive and fun manner. Our grammarian was Andrea who was able to come up with an impromptu word of the night—suffrage! It was the sort of word that doesn’t get used too often, and it didn’t get used much tonight either!

Next up were our elections. There was much discussion during this process about people only serving six months. John put his hand up so many times to serve six month periods that he’ll probably serve four years over the coming six months!

The results were as follows:

President  – Cleo

VPE – Charlotte

VPM – Sam

VPPR – John

Treasurer – Kerry

Secretary – Paul

SAA – Andy

It’s a pleasure to see a mixture of new and older members on the executive. A number of members may swap over at the half way point, but this means that even more people will get experience in the roles. Hooray!

We then launched into our speeches—and what an amazing cross section they were. First up we had Kerry who delivered an icebreaker about her love of animals and how this love has transformed her view of the world. Next was Kern who was giving speech number ten. This was about the difficulties of being in business and how attitude goes a long way.

Next was Andrea who gave a stirring rendition of a speech by Frederick Douglass.  Sadly, this speech is as relevant today as it was two hundred years ago.

Table topics followed and these were delivered by Paul who did a wonderful job of delivering topics that were both accessible and challenging.

The break followed and – surprise, surprise – we went overtime! Too much fun and good food during the break!

After the break, Anthony delivered the humorous speech that he’s using for the humorous speech contest. We then had our evaluations which were excellent as usual.

Reports followed, the final one being the General Evaluation which was delivered by Jez. He gave a truly amazing general evaluation, showing how far he has come as a speaker and a leader.

What a great night it was!

Being Carlton Toastmasters club, there’ll be many more to follow!

Flying, not Waving!

The theme of this meeting was The Art of Flying. It was a beautiful theme conceived by our Toastmaster, Michael. Keeping in with this theme was Ha who gave us the word of the day, ‘indomitable’. Very fitting.

Michael got the meeting off to a good start. We had several visitors to this meeting, and it was a pleasure to see many of them getting involved.

We heard from a number of newcomers to the club. Sam and Charlotte both gave icebreaker speeches where they related incidents from their lives, and how they had come to Carlton. John, although being an experienced Toastmaster, is new to our club and told us about his life, and how a desire for public speaking let to politics! Finally, Camila gave us a beautiful presentation about how memory and time get merged in our memories. It was a thought-provoking and engaging speech.

The evaluations were their usual high standard. Darrell, Cleo, Jez and Federico all gave wonderful evaluations with a focus on praise, improvement, praise.

What followed was our break which was more like a full-scale party than a ten minute break. Everyone was having so much fun it was hard to get them back into the room.

Marcus was our table topics master and kept us entertained with impromptu questions. Anthony handled these table topics evaluations in a highly capable manner. Ha gave the grammarian’s report, Andy the ah counter’s report and Penny was the timer.

Nice work everyone!

Finally, Kern was the general evaluator, and did an exceptional job of pointing out how we can improve for next time.

Our next meeting is our election meeting. We’re looking forward to getting a brand-new executive voted in for the year ahead. Don’t forget to put your hand up for a role. You don’t improve if you don’t put yourself out there!

See you next time!

Executive Roles

The theme of this meeting was executive roles. This was particularly relevant because our club officer elections are coming up soon.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Christine, and she did a magnificent job. She has put a lot of work into her speaking and it shows.

We had a lot of speakers at this meeting, and the show got underway with two newcomers: Julie and Hazel. Julie spoke about defining what makes something an ability or a disability, while Hazel talked about the art of being inauthentic.

They were both thought-provoking presentations, and were ably evaluated by Anthony and another newcomer, John. Great work, guys!

More speeches followed, and this time the club got to hear from its executive—Jez, Phil, Kern, Rebecca, Paul and Darrell. (Katrina was away, but we would have loved to hear from her too.)

The executive gave speeches about their roles, and each presentation was as varied as the executive members themselves. Each of the speeches were a credit to the presenters. Not only were they information filled, but were highly entertaining as well.

Our Table Topics master for the night was Ha Du. Her wonderful questions were evaluated by another newbie, Camila. Our timer for the evening was Cleo. She did a wonderful job of keeping us to time.

Finally, our general evaluation was done by Michael.

Come Together

The theme of this meeting was ‘Come Together’, and this was particularly relevant because it was a joint meeting of Carlton and Parkville Toastmasters clubs. Members of both clubs helped to make this meeting both fun and enjoyable.

Our toastmaster for the evening was Cleo, and she was fun and professional as always, making the environment positive and keeping the meeting running to time.

There were speakers from both clubs, giving us a variety of engaging topics. The first was Yang with her speech, ‘The Legend of Three Kingdoms’. It was about a game that mimics real life in teaching people about leadership and cooperation. The second speaker was Kathy who spoke about the dangers facing our urban rivers. Next up was Katrina who told us about the amazing Leonard Cohen. It was a heartfelt presentation about the great performer. Certainly more than one person in the audience would have been inspired to look him up. Finally, Jez gave us a highly expressive speech about saying what you mean, and meaning what you say. So often it’s hard to tell the difference between the two.

The break that followed was a nice mingling of the clubs. Old friends reunited as others formed new relationships.

The evaluations were the usual high standard. Rebecca, Michael, Jo and Alexis all gave strong evaluations that would have helped the speakers to take their skills to the next level.

The table topics master was Kern, and he kept us entertained with questions that were right on topic. These were evaluated by Rhys.

Great job, guys!

Christine and Sarah were the ah-counter and timer, respectively, and kept us on our timing and ah-counting toes! Ray, as our grammarian, kept us entertained with his report about interesting phrases used during the night.

Finally, Darrell as the Parkville President also represented Phil (who was absent) in closing the meeting. He was able to award Rachel her CL award, but this success was bitter sweet as we’re losing her from Parkville. Likewise, we’re losing Carly from Carlton. Both ladies are heading off to do new things.

Good luck to you both!

Carlton is meeting again next week on the 5th of April. Make certain you indicate your attendance on Easyspeak.

See you next time when we all—come together.

It's Time to Party!

It’s not every day you celebrate a birthday, and this was a special one for Carlton. This evening had everything—new members, DTM completion, and great speeches. But most important of all, it had cake!!!

Phil did a great welcome to everyone and was able to announce something really special. Our dear friend Patrick, who passed away over a year ago now, had left $1000 in his will to Carlton toastmasters. The club executive decided to spend that money on a new batch of scarves. These had just arrived, and we now have 50 new scarves to hand out to members for the next few years.

Thank you, once again, Patrick.

The scarves were timely, because we inducted five new members. They are Amber, San, Hazel, Penny and Julie.

Welcome aboard, newbies!

Sarah was our Toastmaster and did a wonderful job. She gave us the round robin question of, ‘What’s your favourite Carlton memory?’ and got some great responses. We then moved onto our speeches.

Rebecca gave a HPL presentation where she spoke about organising the DTM breakfast. Kern spoke about travelling to India, and how his experience led him to think about three steps to global transformation.

Finally, Christine gave a powerful speech about her adventures in China—and the most expensive cup of tea she’s ever drunk!

Some awards were then handed out to celebrate the successes and dedication of a few of our members.

The break that followed was loud and full of party atmosphere. In fact, it took some time to get us back from the break because we were having so much fun!

Camila, Cleo and Anthony all gave evaluations that were full of praise and improvement.

The table topics master was Nat. She had some great questions based around winning and birthdays. The recipients were then very capably evaluated by Michael.

Our grammarian was Jez, Federico was ah counter and we had visitor John as our timer. Well done to all on fulfilling your roles!

Finally, our new member Julie was our general evaluator. She gave us a thorough general evaluation with particular focus on where we could improve. Thanks Julie!

We closed the meeting a little late, but everyone was satiated both in terms of food and good company.

That’s four years done, Carlton.

Onwards to another year!

Old and New!

 

This meeting saw a lot of guests turning up to the meeting, along with many of our more established members. It was appropriate considering the theme was ‘associate’.

 

After Phil gave his customary welcome, we were introduced to first time Toastmaster, Cristiano. Despite being new to the job, it carried it out with plenty of flair. Our speakers were also a mixture of new and ‘old’. Federico spoke about the hero’s journey, Camila about her journey through life, and Selina about her journeys as a new driver.

Darrell was table topics master, and came up with a range of questions that associated one thing with another.

We then had our break which was filled with lots of fun and laughter.

After the break, Anthony delivered his speech, ‘You Bet’ which is his entry into the division humorous speech contest.

Next up were our evaluators, and they all showed why Carlton excels in this area. Jez, Nat, Carly, Ha and Paul (as table topics evaluator) all did a magnificent job of delivering both praise and improvement.

We had a couple of visitors who took on roles. One of these was Julie from Sunbury, and she did a great job, as did Fiona from Ivanhoe. It was a pleasure to see them at Carlton.

Finally, Phil gave his general evaluation, and was completely spot on with his summation of how we can all improve ourselves for next time.

Great job, Phil!

A reminder to everyone—our Metro Division contest is this Sunday the 5th of March at South Melbourne Town Hall. The start time is 10.00am, but it’s best to turn up a little earlier. We have a number of members who are representing our club—Arash, Darrell and Anthony.

Our next Carlton meeting is on the 15th of March, 2017. Make certain you log onto Easyspeak to indicate your attendance.

See you then!

Newbies Galore!

This was a meeting with a difference!

We usually have a standard meeting with a few speeches, table topics and evaluations, but this one was designed especially for newbies. Nat was our toastmaster for the evening, and was vivacious as usual. Her bubbly attitude kept the meeting rolling along, and kept the audience suitably entertained.

The first person to present was Phil. He was talking about the education and distinguished club program, and did a wonderful job of making this an interactive exercise. Instead of just talking at people, he got everyone involved by getting them out the front and getting them to stand in front of cards signalling their educational journey.

An impressive take on an old topic! Great work, Phil!

The next speaker was Darrell. His topic was one of his favourites—evaluations. It’s just a fundamental part of Toastmasters, and he is very passionate about it. Not only did he discuss the PIP method in detail, but he also focused on encouraging people to explain the benefit in carrying out a particular action.

To illustrate this point, Andrea delivered a wonderful speech about visiting the cinema with her nephew, and how children keep you young, no matter what are we may be. It was a great speech, and a pleasure to listen to.

Well done, Andrea!

Each of our new members then delivered an evaluation, followed by Darrell. Everyone was able to put their newly acquired skills to work.

Last, but not least, we had Nat talk about meeting roles. This is a subject we don’t hear a lot about, but Nat did an excellent job in succinctly summarising each of the roles. In addition, he handed out a lengthy booklet explaining the roles.

Everyone who attended—even the experienced Toastmasters—learnt something from the evening. The evening could only have been improved if we’d had fifty new Toastmasters in the room. Maybe we can do that next time!

At the end of the evening, Michael was our general evaluator, and did his usual sterling job of finding praise and improvements for us all.

Our next meeting is on the 1st of March, 2017.

See you then!

Quiet - Not!

This was a night of newbies taking on new roles and learning the ropes. The theme for the meeting was, ‘my favourite kind of quiet’, and this was set by Katrina, our Toastmaster for the evening. Camila was also new to her role. She was our grammarian, and kept us on our toes with the word, ‘Phlegmatic’. It was a challenging word to use.

We had three impressive speeches tonight. Christine related the story of her and her husband going to Cape Canaveral to visit NASA, and how such a place can take men back to their childhoods. Our second speaker was Michael who was doing one of the special occasion speeches. This one was to accept an award. He made a great job of it, although we never did quite find out what he had won!

Our third speaker was Anthony with his thought provoking speech, ‘The Question’. In this, he asked the very powerful question, ‘how do you want to be remembered?’ Well done, Anthony!

Darrell delivered the table topics section, keeping in theme with the topic ‘quiet’. Rebecca did our table topics evaluation, and had praise and improvement for all.

The break that followed was full of fun and laughter. It was a pleasure to see so many people having such a sociable time.

After the break we had evaluations, and these were competently carried out by Cristiano, Phil and Arash. Finally, Camila delivered her grammarian’s report, Jez was Ah counter and Nat timer.

Sarah finished the meeting off by giving an excellent general evaluation of the whole meeting. This showed us ways to improve for next time.

Our next meeting is on the 15th of February. We’ll be focusing on helping people new to Toastmasters—so all you newbies, turn up!

A New Year...and New Beginnings!

We had a smaller crowd to start of the year, but it was as enthusiastic as ever.

We had an impromptu meeting which meant that we got to pick roles at random. Nat was our Toastmaster for the night, and was a professional as always.

There were also three wonderful speeches. Phil told us of his lifelong love affair with his bike that he affectionately christened Mr Nakajima. He loved his bike so much that it even had a song for it. The second speaker was Cleo who covered a topic close to our hearts – the dynamics of structuring speeches. Our third speaker was Darrell who did a presentation from the Interpretive Reading manual. He chose a monologue from the movie, Judgement at Nuremberg. It was a sobering and thoughtful presentation.

As always, the evaluations were of a wonderful standard. Andrea, Cristiano and Michael were all very enthusiastic.

Our Table Topics master was Ha, who kept us on theme with her questions about New Beginnings.

Les from Parkville Toastmasters was a visitor for the evening and gave us a grammarian’s report. Rebecca was ah counter and Katrina was our timer. All well done!

Finally, Kern delivered his general evaluation with real professionalism considering he’s still a newcomer to the club.

Our next meeting is on the 1st of February, 2017!

See you there!

The Christmas Party

It’s been said that the times you spend outside the club with your Toastmasters friends are possibly more important than that spent in meetings. This is probably certainly true, but our annual Carlton Christmas party was able to achieve both. Not only was it run as a regular meeting, but there was also plenty of fun and good cheer to go around.

We partied again at the Kent Hotel in Carlton, and once again the venue lived up to its previous reputation of fine food and good service. The evening was made more jolly by the attendance of a few visitors—Anna who is one of our charter members, Andrea’s partner Peter and Christine’s husband Paul. What a pleasure it was to have them in attendance.

Natalie was the Toastmaster for the evening, and began with a moving tribute to our charter President, Patrick Shing. It was a heartfelt reminder that Patrick’s desire to start a club brought together people who were once strangers, but are now friends.

The round robin was based around Christmas, and there were a few bah-humbugs in the audience, but they managed to have a good time anyway.

The word of the night was sagacious, which was well used—possibly too well used—throughout the evening.

Cleo was the first speaker with her speech entitled, ‘The Man’, a story about her experiences in Japan. Darrell then delivered a presentation from the Interpretive reading manual. He read a story entitled, ‘The Christmas Present’. It certainly got everyone laughing.

The evaluators were Andrea and Filipina who both did a great job of praising and making suggestions for next time.

Next up we had Rebecca as Table Topics Master. She challenged us with a combination of questions stemming from the Christmas bonbons, and several other topics that she seemed to create on the spot. Nice work, Rebecca!

Our Table Topics evaluator was Camila, who did a grand job considering it was her first time in the role. Then Katrina delivered her Grammarian’s report. Certainly, the word ‘sagacious’ was probably one of the most successful WOTD’s that we’ve seen in recent times.

Next up, Christine delivered her Ah counter’s report before Arash gave us his Timer’s report. Being Christmas, it seems that we were all on our best behaviour, and kept our ums and ahs to a minimum while also keeping to time.

Michael delivered his General Evaluation of the meeting with his usual aplomb. This was followed by our President, Phil, who rounded the night off quite nicely. He is a very positive President, and we’re fortunate to have someone who has the wellbeing of the club at heart.

Although this is our second-last meeting of the year, the future looks bright for the club and its members!

A Joint Meeting!

What a night!

We’ve had many joint meetings between the two clubs, but certainly this meeting was one of the best. It was a deft merging of the two clubs that led to a night filled with emotion, laughter and singing.

The meeting was opened by Craig as our SAA, and it wasn’t long before he gave us the word of the night—cunning. The Toastmaster for the evening was Kathy, a newcomer to Toastmasters, and yet she did a magnificent job.

The theme of the meeting was verse. On the surface, it sounds like a difficult theme, but people were able to tackle it from some amazing angles. The round robin question required people to recite a piece of verse or song that rhymed, and everyone got in the groove.

Cristiano was our first speaker with his speech, ‘Let’s Cuddle’. He received more than one hug after his presentation. Next was Steph who delivered a moving speech about mental illness.

Then Rachel delivered a very different Table Topics session. This involved getting most of the audience involved in creating our very own orchestra. It was wonderful to see both clubs working together in harmony. We then had some fantastic evaluations from Anthony and Michael who had some excellent points of praise and improvement for our speakers. Rebecca then evaluated the table topics, and did a grand job considering how different the session.

The supper break that followed was full of fun and laughter. Members from both clubs who had never met before got to know each other. It’s always good to see members of our extended Toastmasters family talking and laughing together!

After the break we had some more speeches, this time from Rhys and Darrell. Rhys gave a very amusing speech about becoming lost in the snow, while Darrell gave a rhyming speech about the theory of evolution. They were evaluated by Kern and Jo.

Craig was our grammarian and picked out some choice phrases for the night. Cleo delivered her ah counters report. Clare had an entire minute to give her timer’s report (she’s a fast talker, fortunately).

Finally, Selina was back after a long break, and was our general evaluator for the night. She was back in fine form and gave us some very positive praise for the evening.

Overall, it was a wonderful night. Carlton is holding their Christmas party next week, while Parkville’s next meeting is on the second Wednesday of next month.

See you next time!

Staying in Character!

The theme for this meeting was 'character', with the word of the day being 'integrity'. When setting the meeting theme, our Toastmaster Ha, was possibly thinking of character as 'a person in a novel, play, or film', whereas Cleo, our Grammarian, seemed to think of character as 'the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual'.

In the role of Toastmaster, Ha portrayed the character of Sid the Seagull, and even gave us a rendition of the Slip Slop Slap advertisement. Ha stayed in character for 99.9% of the meeting, and was very entertaining in her role.

The speeches were awesome. They began with Minoo's icebreaker speech, entitled, 'Who is Minoo?'. She told us about her journey from Iran to Singapore and then to Melbourne. Welcome, Minoo, we are very pleased to have you at our wonderful Carlton club. Jez then gave us a powerful speech about how he won a trip to Czechoslovakia when he was a lad. After arriving home in England he was to find that he had narrowly missed the Russian invasion of Prague, by a whisker.

As with everything at Toastmasters, our speakers were evaluated, and given some helpful and positive feedback from Darrell and Arash.

Natalie presented the table topics session, based around the theme of 'character'. The questions focused on 'personal' character attributes. This was thought provoking, and produced interesting responses.

Arash was our supper master for the evening. It was also his birthday, and he had supplied his own birthday cake. We sang Happy Birthday and gobbled up the cake. Great break.

After the cake and goodies, we heard a moving story from Paul, entitled 'Dancing in the rain'. He spoke about invisible illnesses and chronic disease, and his own personal struggles. Next speaker was Phil with his speech entitled 'Not in my backyard'. Phil told us about a work project that he had been working on for months, at Paragon Estate in Point Cook that was nearing completion. He also completed his Competent Communicator manual. Congratulations Phil, great job.

More evaluations followed with Andrea handling table topics, and Sarah and Filipina doing a wonderful job of evaluating the final speeches.

All of this was followed by the grammarian's report from Cleo, and the Ah counter's report from Marcus. The timer for the evening, in her favourite role, was Christine. Last, but not least, was Michael as our general evaluator.

In her role as VPE, Rebecca told us that she will be handing the role to Selena shortly. Rebecca has done an outstanding job as VPE, and she deserves a huge thank you, from all of us. Good work, Rebecca.

Phil made some presidential remarks at the end and the meeting closed.  

The next meeting is a joint meeting with Parkville on the 30th of November. We'll see you there!

Slip, Slop, Slap!

The theme for the meeting this 'character', with the word of the day being 'integrity'. When setting the meeting theme, our Toastmaster Ha, was possibly thinking of character as 'a person in a novel, play, or film', whereas Cleo, our Grammarian, seemed to think of character as 'the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual'.

In the role of Toastmaster, Ha portrayed the character of Sid the Seagull, and even gave us a rendition of the Slip Slop Slap advertisement. Ha stayed in character for 99.9% of the meeting, and was very entertaining in her role.

The speeches were awesome. They began with Minoo's icebreaker speech, entitled, 'Who is Minoo?'. She told us about her journey from Iran to Singapore and then to Melbourne. Welcome, Minoo, we are very pleased to have you at our wonderful Carlton club. Jez then gave us a powerful speech about how he won a trip to Czechoslovakia when he was a lad. After arriving home in England he was to find that he had narrowly missed the Russian invasion of Prague, by a whisker.

As with everything at Toastmasters, our speakers were evaluated, and given some helpful and positive feedback from Darrell and Arash.

Natalie presented the table topics session, based around the theme of 'character'. The questions focused on 'personal' character attributes. This was thought provoking, and produced interesting responses.

Arash was our supper master for the evening. It was also his birthday, and he had supplied his own birthday cake. We sang Happy Birthday and gobbled up the cake. Great break.

After the cake and goodies, we heard a moving story from Paul, entitled 'Dancing in the rain'. He spoke about invisible illnesses and chronic disease, and his own personal struggles. Next speaker was Phil with his speech entitled 'Not in my backyard'. Phil told us about a work project that he had been working on for months, at Paragon Estate in Point Cook that was nearing completion. He also completed his Competent Communicator manual. Congratulations Phil, great job.

More evaluations followed with Andrea handling table topics, and Sarah and Filipina doing a wonderful job of evaluating the final speeches.

All of this was followed by the grammarian's report from Cleo, and the Ah counter's report from Marcus. The timer for the evening, in her favourite role, was Christine. Last, but not least, was Michael as our general evaluator.

In her role as VPE, Rebecca told us that she will be handing the role to Selena shortly. Rebecca has done an outstanding job as VPE, and she deserves a huge thank you, from all of us. Good work, Rebecca.

Phil made some presidential remarks at the end and the meeting closed.  

The next meeting is a joint meeting with Parkville. We'll see you there!

Logophobia!

The word of the night for this meeting was ‘logophobia’, which was fairly apt because it means a fear of words—and our whole organisation is based around enunciating that kind of fear!

Phil was our Toastmaster and did a highly professional job of running the meeting. We can see why he was made president!

There were some real milestones at this meeting. The first of these was the Camila delivered her icebreaker speech. Entitled, ‘A New Chapter’, she told us about her journey from Columbia to Melbourne, and how she had built a new life here. Katrina then gave us a highly entertaining speech about road trips, and possibly the most famous of them all—Route 66.

To keep us on our toes, we then had evaluations of these speeches. Darrell and Vivian’s evaluations were both very positive.

Michael delivered a table topics session, based around the topic of ‘the cup’ which as we found out could mean anything from the Melbourne Cup to a mug!

After a brief break, we had Anthony with his speech about the Black Saturday Bushfires. It was a striking and thought-provoking presentation. Next, another milestone was achieved, as Christine delivered a very funny speech about timing. This will get her across the line for her Advanced Communicator Silver award.

Well done, Christine!

More evaluations followed with Cristiano handling table topics, with Kern and Jez doing a wonderful job of evaluating the final speeches.

Of course, a Toastmasters meeting wouldn’t be complete without the ‘minor roles’. Ha gave us her grammarian’s report, Paul told us about our ums and ahs, Marcus spoke about timing, and Cleo gave a highly effective general evaluator’s report.

Rebecca reminded us about the importance of signing up for roles before Phil sent us on our way with a cheery farewell.

We’ll see you at the next meeting!

Icebreakers Galore!

This evening was an impromptu speechathon, which meant we didn’t have table topics, but we did have some wonderful speeches. Arash was the Toastmaster, and did a fantastic job at keeping the meeting moving at a good pace. Filipina jumped up at the last moment and filled in as grammarian. Her word ‘convivial’ helped to make it a convivial evening!

Federico, a new member, gave his icebreaker about the long journey he’s taken to become an architect and build a life in Australia. Jez then delivered a speech entitled, ‘Age is Just a Number’ which many of us—especially the older members—completely agreed with!

Kern challenged us with a presentation about free will, and decision making. Are we really making our own decisions? Or is our environment really calling the shots? Thought provoking!

Rebecca then spoke about using the CL manual to achieve the Competent Leader award, and then touched briefly on the DCP program. It was a timely and important presentation.

Sarah’s speech was entitled No Strangers, and has been long in the making. It was the speech she intended to use as her final speech at the World Championships. It’s a beautiful speech and wonderfully delivered.

Finally, we were privileged to hear a second icebreaker. This time it was Marcus who gave us an insight into his life. The title of his speech, Gods, Demons and the Garden of Eden, had us all wondering.

Of course, the most amazing strength of Carlton Toastmasters remains the evaluations. This is the component that makes a good club great.

Michael was our Ah counter, and delivered his presentation with aplomb. Cristiano was a first timer, er, as timer, and helped to keep the meeting from finishing after midnight.

Finally, Darrell delivered his general evaluation where he suggested the club ‘regroup the troops’ and aim to set a higher standard in the months ahead. The club has now been running for over three years, and like a car that has been around the track a few times, he felt the club needs a tuning up to keep it running at full efficiency.

It was an amazing meeting with lots of fun and professionalism.

Don’t miss the next one!

Entrepreneurship In All its Many Guises!

This meeting had it all! Underwear! Spock! Pigs! And horse racing!

Why would anyone miss it?

Our Toastmaster for this meeting was first-timer, Kern, and he did a wonderful job. We also had a first-time Grammarian, and that was Arash. Great work, Arash!

The theme was entrepreneurship, and Arash’s word of ‘success’ tied in nicely with the theme of business, and achieving our goals.

The meeting started on time, and we had four speakers who wowed and amazed us. The first was Christine with her incredibly funny speech about underwear. It made us all think twice about our unmentionables. The second speaker was Michael who gave us an amazing story about farmyard animals. Watch our Dr Seuss!

Then we had Anthony with his humorous speech about the dangers of gambling! We’re betting he’s on a winner!

Finally Darrell presented his Star Trek speech again. We can only hope that he really does go where he has not gone before – to the District finals!

To help our members get ready for the area contest, Rebecca as our Table Topics Master selected particular people to answer the topics. So Andrea, Arash and Darrell got picked to answer some questions. In addition, Michael also availed himself of the opportunity.

Our evaluators for the night also flew high. Sarah, Ha, Darrell and Jez all completed evaluations, with Vivian handling Table Topics evaluation.

Marcus also did his first ever role at our club. He was the Um-ah counter, and completed it without demonstrating any ums and ahs! Great work!

Andrea stepped in as our last-minute General Evaluator. Is that the sign of a professional Toastmaster or what?

Carlton is being well represented in the area contest on the 15th of October at RMIT. We’d love to see you there!

Carlton International and Table Topics Contest - Better than the Emmys and Logies combined!

Club contests don't come along that often, and this meeting was our annual International and Table Topics contests. As per usual, it was a fun and surprising event with something for everyone.

We had six contestants in our International contests, a wonderful achievement in itself as there are many clubs that don’t have enough entries to warrant holding a contest. Sarah, recently returned from competing in the world championships in the United States, was our contest chair, and did a magnificent job.

The speakers and speeches were:

Anthony : Give Your Love

Bibi : The Mystery of the Missing Second Saint

Darrell : Find Your Tribe

Ha : A Sweet Young Girl

Michael : VERTs

Vivian : Fear No More

Each of the speeches were both challenging and thought-provoking, although, in the end, there could be only one winner—and that was Darrell.

Our break between the contests was filled with fun, laughter and food, something for which our club is famous.

What followed then was our Table Topics contest. Traditionally, people see table topics as being the most difficult part of being in Toastmasters, but this didn’t scare off our Carlton members. We had nine—yes, you read that right—nine contestants.

Rob was the Contest Chair for this contest, and what a pleasure it was to have such an experienced and professional person in the job. The contestants were: Anthony, Darrell, Michael, Andrea, Bibi, Kern, Arash, Jon and Vivian.

Rob’s question was excellent in that it was open-ended, and allowed for all different kinds of answers. The question was, ‘What was the best year of your life?’

The responses were many and varied, but it in the end it was Darrell’s presentation about finding out about his daughter-to-be that won the night. It seems we all have a soft spot both for babies and love!

Who knew?!?

There were many visitors on the night, and it’s highly likely that we will be swelling our numbers again soon. What a great problem to have!

Darrell will be competing in three contests at area level on the 15th of October, along with Anthony who successfully won the Carlton Humorous contest earlier in the year.

Please come along and support them as they aim for glory.

And in the meantime—happy Toastmastering!

A Centenarian, but not Past our Prime! Celebrating our Hundredth meeting 7th September, 2016

It’s not every day that you turn one hundred, but this very special meeting of Carlton Toastmasters was one of those days.

Of course, it’s not one hundred years, but one hundred meetings. This meeting had it all: fun, laughter, tears, lots of woohoos, and at the same time, professionalism.

Jez as our SAA got the meeting up and running on time. He then passed control over to Anthony. As one of our charter members, it was appropriate that Anthony be the Toastmaster—and what a great job he did!

Andrea, as our Grammarian, came up with a highly appropriate word of the day—centenarian.

Following up was our first speaker, Natalie, who spoke about love in all its many forms—including that of canines.

Woof! Woof!

The next speaker was Cleo with her speech entitled The Grinch. She spoke about the benefits of celebrating milestones, and how she has now reformed her grinch-like ways.

Rob then followed with a wonderful speech about Footprints. Relating it to genealogy, he told us about how looking into family history has shown him that many people are reduced simply to a date of birth, a marriage, and a date of death. His presentation really made us think about how important it is to accomplish things in our lives, and leave our mark.

The break that followed included plenty of cake, sandwiches and champagne! We could have stayed celebrating all night, but the football club may not have approved!

After the break, we had evaluations, which has consistently been one of the club’s strong points. Katrina then ran a table topics session which had plenty of laughs involved. Table topics evaluation was completed by Arash, who did a great job of pointing out some points of improvement for our presenters.

Cristiano was our Uh-Ah counter. Great job! We didn’t have many ums and ahs (which was surprising after the champagne!), but he was able to mention a few people who had tripped over those filler words.

Christine then gave us her timer’s report, which was appropriate because she was the timer at the very first demonstration Carlton meeting. As timer’s reports go, she didn’t have a lot of detail (actually, there was none). Instead, she spoke about how she ended up becoming a member of the club, and how it’s changed her life for the better.

Before the general evaluator spoke, we had a late speech to finally set the scene. Darrell talked about the gains you get from belonging to something bigger than yourself. The benefits you receive are not necessary measured in awards or achievements, but instead by love and support.

He then handed out pins to each of the members for their scarves. These pins are to celebrate the 100th meeting, and bear a Toastmasters logo, the letter ‘C’ and ‘100’.

Finally, our general evaluator was Rebecca. What can we say about her? She’s the backbone of the club, and was professional as always, pointing out our strengths, and suggesting some improvements.

If you think we’ve had some good meetings so far, just wait for the next hundred meetings!

As the old saying goes—you ain’t seen nothing yet!

A Night at the Movies 31st of August 2016

This was a different style of meeting for Carlton Toastmasters. Instead of our usual range of speeches, we enjoyed a night at the movies!

Being the fifth Wednesday of the month, it was a joint meeting with our sister club, Parkville. It’s always a pleasure to see their smiling faces. With the combined clubs, plus a few visitors, we ended up having almost forty people in the room. A nice crowd!

We were scheduled to watch, ‘Speak – the Movie’, a film about a group of contestants as they work their way through the various levels until one finally becomes the Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking. The film was both uplifting and heartbreaking, as we got to see the very human side of what it takes for someone to become world champion.

Of course, before this got underway, we had a slight technical hitch (technology’s always a challenge – isn’t it?), and Phil had to race home to pick up his lap top. It’s a credit to him as the President that he went out of his way to make sure the meeting worked.

Great work, Phil!

With the agenda being moved around, Jo quizzed a number of members with table topics. With the contests coming up, it was an opportune time to test everyone, and all the participants did a grand job.

Then we got down to watching the movie, and we all owe a vote of thanks to Ron from Nillumbik Toastmasters, who made the effort to visit us and show the film. A big thanks to Ron!

We had an administrative task to complete too, as we had a vote to increase our fees, a necessity as Toastmasters International have recently increased the fees worldwide. Never fear, it’s still a bargain to belong. 

And finally, we hailed our returning overseas champion, Sarah, who came second in her semi-final round of the World Championships. She did a wonderful job, and everyone was delighted to see her back. Well done to Sarah – you did us all proud!

See you all at the next meeting!

Moments of Truth 17th of August 2016

It was a big night at Carlton Toastmasters tonight with a number of members away at the International Convention. Fortunately, we still had a mix of new and old (er, that is, experienced) members who held the torch high!

We had three new members voted in tonight—Alan, Cristiano and Federico. Welcome to the club!

Our Toastmaster tonight was Jez and he threw himself into the role on a night when the theme was ‘Random Acts of Kindness’. Not surprisingly, Natalie, as Grammarian, had chosen ‘selfless’ as the word of the night.

There were three speakers—Cristiano with his Icebreaker speech, Carly with a speech from the storytelling manual, and Vivian who also delivered a speech from the storytelling manual.

Cristiano spoke about how our environment shapes us. Carly delivered a story about two Shellys, and their relationship over the years, while Vivian taught us the finer points of the Chinese zodiac. There was much hilarity during her presentation.

There was a lot to fit in this evening, so our table topics session was a little shorter, but Cleo had two really good questions in relation to kindness. Rebecca then evaluated them before we went to a break.

Jez brought us back after the intermission when we heard the evaluations for the speeches. Darrell, Rob and Kern all delivered highly competent evaluations with some suggestions for the speaker’s next presentations.

Katrina was our timer—another first-timer in a role. Arash did the Ah counters report, and then we heard from our President. Phil ran a Moments of Truth session where we divided up into three groups to discuss how to improve what we do at our club. It was a valuable session, as constant evaluation is what makes us better.

Rebecca then got up and did her general evaluation, noting that it was a night of newbies taking flight for the first time.

Overall, everyone had a lot of fun, and we’re looking forward to seeing how our friend Sarah fares in the International contest in a few day’s time.

See you at the next meeting!

Carlton Toastmasters Humorous & Evaluation contests 2017

This meeting was one of those evenings when things went pear-shaped even before we got started, but we all still managed to have a wonderful time. There was already a meeting taking place in our venue, and so we were forced to start late. This was unfortunate because it was one of the biggest nights of our Carlton Toastmasters year—our annual Humorous and Evaluation contests.

There were no problems finding people to compete. There were three speakers in the Humorous contest, and a whopping seven in Evaluation.

Beginning with the Evaluation contest, we had Jen—a speaker from a club on the south side of the river—who spoke about women and computing. It was a challenging speech for the evaluators, as she used a Powerpoint presentation which is something we don’t see every day.

Still, the feeling at Carlton is that we only learn when we’re challenged, so our evaluators headed off to our preparation area to make their notes. After the five minutes had elapsed, they all returned, one at a time, to give their presentations.

After that, while the chief judge and counters headed off to make their deliberations, the contestants did some charades, prompted by the very capable Ha, who was contest chair. Upon the chief judge’s return, the winner was found to be, in first place, Darrell, followed by Phil and then Anthony. Congrats to all involved.

After a short break, and now running very late, we held our Humorous Speech contest. This time it was a mix of older and newer Toastmasters with Kern, Anthony and Michael C in the running. Kern spoke about dealing with cultural norms, Anthony spoke about the ‘joys’ of gambling, while Michael entertained us with his story of Bill versus Murphy.

The competition was tight on the night, but Anthony ended up edging out the other two contestants with his story about gambling. (What were the odds of him winning? Would it have been worthwhile placing a bet???)

As we all headed out to leave, Rebecca suddenly realised she had misplaced her car key. On a night such as this, it was not surprising, as it fitted in with the pear-shaped nature of events.

Finally—and what really counts—is that Carlton Toastmasters dealt with the ups and the downs as we always do—with good humour and professionalism. Rebecca found her key, and we all headed out into the night, laughing and planning for the future.

Congratulations to our winners—Darrell and Anthony. The area M22 contest awaits us!

A Misunderstood Meeting 20th July 2016!

This meeting was a truly incredible get together for members of Carlton Toastmasters Club. It went from high to high, and finished with a beautiful surprise.

First of all, there were around fifty people in the room. Darrell had let people know via the District 73 Facebook page that he was going to be delivering a personally difficult, and challenging speech. As a result, people from as far away as Sunbury to see him speak.

Rob was our Toastmaster for the night, and he was the perfect man for the job. He was encouraging, supportive and professional at all times. We’re fortunate to have someone of his experience and demeanour in our club. The round robin took around 17 minutes to complete with so many people in the room. Still, everyone participated—which is what it’s all about!

The theme tonight was ‘misunderstood’, and we all know it’s easy for that to happen. Human communication is difficult, and it’s easy for people to say and do things that they later regret. Time puts things into perspective.  

One person who wasn’t misunderstood was Dinithi, our new Area M22 Director, who introduced herself, and gave a wonderful and fun speech about her journey in Toastmasters.

Next was Filipina, who gave a fantastic speech about her first experience at the Melbourne Cup. Who knew it could be so much fun? Even when you lose money, it’s still fun! The odds may have been against her, but she still came out a winner.

Then Kern got up and spoke about changing the habits of a lifetime. Truly, is there anyone who doesn’t want to make a few long term changes? We start with good intentions, but big goals are hard to achieve, and Kern gave us some tips about how to go the extra distance.

Then Darrell’s turn came. He delivered a speech entitled ‘Guardian Angel’, and it was obviously a challenging presentation for him. He spoke about the ongoing mental health issues of his parents before opening up about his own lifelong struggle with depression. At the end, he received a standing ovation, which was as much a tribute to the audience as it was to him.

Sarah was our Table Topics master and continued the theme with more questions about misunderstanding. All the responses were great, but Ha’s talk about ‘a stick’ certainly took the prize.

The evaluations that followed showed why it is that Carlton is such a great club. Natalie, Cleo and Charles all delivered evaluations that spoke right to the heart of the speeches.

Anthony was our General Evaluator for the evening, and gave a really spot-on evaluation for the night. He had both praise and suggestions for many.

Finally—and this was truly an incredible highlight—a letter was presented by Anthony that he received recently. Our club has been left $1000 by the founder of Carlton Toastmasters, Patrick Shing. Even though we lost Patrick late last year, he is still watching over us, with his strength, courage and dedication living on through the actions of our members.

Clearly, Patrick was a believer in the Toastmasters mission which is:

‘The mission of a Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every individual member has the opportunity to develop oral communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.’

This meeting of Carlton Toastmasters was one of the most amazing we’ve ever experienced. Thank you to everyone involved, and it’s onward and upwards towards infinity!

Happy Toastmastering!

The Changeover Meeting 6th July 2016

This meeting was a special meeting in more ways than one. Not only was it a meeting to celebrate the changeover of our executive team, but it also had an amazing word of the day—bumfuzzle!

Not too sure how often we’ll be using that one in everyday life, but you never know!

The meeting began with Phil, our new President, welcoming us. He then passed over to Rebecca, who explained the road to becoming a DTM, and congratulated three of our members who had achieved this award. Anthony, Cleo and Darrell are now DTMs—and we hope it’s not an acronym for Don’t Time Me!

She also mentioned the number of awards the club had received—and there were many.

Sarah then acknowledged the past executive, and the great job they’ve done over the past year.

Phil followed up with a rousing speech about how Carlton had been liberated from the dictatorship imposed by Sarah. There was much cheering and good spirit as we looked forward to the year ahead, free of oppression.

The speeches that followed were all of an amazing standard. Michael spoke about the problems in communication that led to the plane disaster in the Canary Islands in 1977. Celeste followed up by speaking about how you can ‘Toastmaster’ your marriage. The married people in the room pricked up their ears at this! Then Arash spoke about true love, and that it isn’t shown, but experienced.

Finally Anthony practiced a speech that he’ll be delivering at the Hampton Rovers Football Club. He’s being recognised as a member for twenty years of service, and it’s certainly well deserved.

Of course, it’s evaluations that make all the difference, and the standard was very high. Andrea, Carly, Maddie and Cleo all gave us something to think about. At the end of the meeting, Vivian gave her general evaluation, and it was magnificent.

If this is any sign of the Toastmasters year ahead, it’ll be a good year.

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