ANZ Talk of the Town Toastmasters – Newsletter #3
July was a pivotal month with numerous achievements to mention.
Firstly – we wish to extend congratulations to Jasmine Zhang, who completed her first ten speeches and will now be progressing to the Advanced Communication series. Her 10th speech on achieving her career goal was inspiring and remarkable – more on this later.
Next, we wish to congratulate David Tasker for coming 1st place in the State Championships for Tanguette (a type of a tango). David will be competing again in three weeks time – we wish you all the best David!
Third – we had a record number of guests attending this session. Whilst we have capped our membership until August, we encourage the Guest to continue attending as Guests, while suggesting other clubs they can attend to (that are currently taking members).
Lastly, on a sadder note – we farewell Julius Liunardi, who has returned to Indonesia.
Toastmasters – 5 July 2010
Nikkho Shandittho was the Chairman for the evening. Rachel Seo delivered her Round Robin topic, which was ‘Is marriage necessary in our life today?” Understandably this led to varied audience response, with married men in the audience saying they had thought of this during their Bachelor years, to married/attached women saying it depended on whether you met the right person. Another person in the audience had an entirely different viewpoint where they didn’t believe in the Western notion of ‘love’ and instead favouring arranged marriage.
For the Table Topics questions, Maya Kawashima delivered the following questions and selected the following people to answer:
Hugh – If you have recently been elected as Australia’s Prime Minister, what would be your key policy focus and why?
George (Guest) – If you are a Masterchef contestant and were asked to make your mother’s favourite dish, what would that be and why?
Dave Stewart – If you had the ability to ‘turn back time’, what period of your life would you go back to and why?
Grace (Guest) – What is the best book that you’ve ever read?
Frank – Where is your ideal holiday destination?
Ashish – If you have the option of pursuing a career change, what would that be and why?
Hugh spoke of focusing on health as the Prime Minister, as this is an area that affects all Australians. George reminisced his mother’s meatloaf, and described the delicious sauce that accompanied it. Dave’s ideal ‘turning back time’ was to his university days as a carefree Drama student. Grace’s favourite book was ‘Gone with the Wind.’ Frank’s perfect holiday destination was Europe (and even describing the ‘glow’ of Europe on google map as being one of the key motivation behind his desire to visit there!). Lastly, Ashish’s desired career change path was to open up his own business from his current IT profession.
We wish to mention special commendations to the guests George and Grace, who bravely answered all the questions without hesitation. Also a huge commendation to Ashish who volunteered to answer the Table Topic question and did so with ease and confidence.
The following Prepared Speeches were:
Fan Gunawan “Why is Breakfast so Important?”
Yau Yau (Icebreaker) “Best of Both Worlds”
Jasmine Zhang (10th speech) “Embracing Change”
May Mei (Icebreaker) “My Life”
Fan highlighted the importance of eating breakfast, particularly fibre and protein, and how eating these can increase your concentration levels. Next, Yau Yau spoke of her upbringing in both Hong Kong and Australia, and how she feels privileged to have experienced both cultures. Jasmine spoke of her determination in becoming a Financial Planner and how she overcame obstacles in achieving her goal. Finally, May Mei spoke of studying Acupuncture in China and becoming a Registered Acupunctural Medical Practitioner in Australia, where she enjoys helping people reach optimal health.
The following Evaluators were:
Wilmar Lay – evaluating Fan’s speech
Kevin Mitchell – evaluating Yau’s speech
David Tasker – evaluating Jasmine’s speech
Hugh Kilpatrick – evaluating May’s speech
Wilmar commended Fan’s use of statistics to demonstrate her argument and for her story-telling abilities. Kevin Mitchell congratulated Yau Yau on her ease with the audience and delivering her speech with limited use of notes (for a First Timer!). David complimented Jasmine’s passion and using many personal anecdotes, which strengthened her connection with the audience. Lastly, Hugh praised May Mei for ‘having a go’ second time round with her Ice Breakers Speech and subsequently delivering an outstanding speech.
The winners for the evening were:
Best Table Topic David Stewart
Best Prepared Speech Jasmine Zhang
Best Evaluator David Tasker
Vox Pop with Al Bradtke
1) What made you join Toastmasters?
A crippling fear of public speaking!
I did a short Toastmasters course and, at the end of it, they recommended joining a club so I didn’t stop practicing my public speaking and lose the skills I had learned. Being a slack beast at the best of times I didn’t join a club and sure enough lost all the skills and confidence I had developed. A year later I sucked up my courage and joined ANZ Talk of the Town.
2) What aspect of Toastmasters do you find particularly rewarding?
Kevin’s tin of biscuits. Also performing a speech well.
3) Your most memorable speech – the title, and what was it about? (in 2 sentences!)
Pug Puppies 2009. About how I want a pug because they are so funny looking and how my wife won’t let me get one (because they are so funny looking).
4) What is the greatest fear that you have overcome? (aside public speaking!)
Just public speaking (and that’s still a work in progress)!
5) Who do you most admire and why?
Comedian Tony Martin. One of the funniest people alive, with a disturbing knowledge of obscure films and TV shows.
6) What do you like to do in your spare time?
Rock climbing, reading Proust and taking long walks along the beach. Failing that I like to sit at home and play Xbox.
7) Something about you that no one really knows?
I’m a former cub scout of the year (Deepdene 1989).
Upcoming Toastmasters events (external)
Volunteers needed for various club contests (We help them, they help you).
Put your hand up as a Judge for various contests.
Clubs are requesting for Judges in their Humorous and Evaluation contests. If you haven’t done this before or have not attended the workshop, simply let them know – they’ll be happy for your help.
City Centre TM (same club location as us), require three more Judges / Guest Speaker and a Contest Chair. Monday 26th July, ANZ Building, 4th level 100 Queen Street, Melbourne. Time: 6-8, contact Jess jessica.cerejo@gmail.com or Trudy T.Rundle@mitsui.com
Happy Hour Toastmasters Club – Judges needed for the ‘Evaluation and Humorous speech contest’!!
Wednesday 4th August from 5.10 to 7.15pm at 50 Lonsdale Street in the CBD
David Murphy, the VPE of Happy Hour Toastmasters Club for judges for their Evaluation and Humorous speech contest will be held on Wednesday 4th August from 5.10 to 7.15pm at 50 Lonsdale Street in the CBD. Contact Tania tania.wilson@yahoo.com.au for more details.
Judging and Contest chair workshop:
Saturday July 24th. Starts at 12:30pm and finishes at 4:30pm.
The workshop will be held at the Liardet Community Centre on corner of Lairdet and Nott Streets, Port Melbourne. Melways ref. 2J E4.
We need to know number so we can have the right number of handouts, don’t want you to miss out. There is a cost of $10.00 that covers tea, coffee and biscuits. The $10.00 will be collected at the door on the day. A receipt will be given.
You can contact Adrienne at adrienneb52@gmail.com or the “Corporal of T&E” at terry@barridge.net or phone 0419318981
Next meeting
Monday 19 July