Toastmasters Speech #4 - I Wish They'd Taught Us That At School

Speech No. 4 - How To Say It

The objective of speech number 4 from the competent communication manual are to:

• select the right words and sentence structure to communicate your ideas clearly, accurately and vividly
• use rhetorical devices to enhance and emphasize ideas
• eliminate jargon and unnecessary words and use correct grammar

While the focus of this speech should be on word choice, it should also incorporate a strong organizational structure and have both a general and specific purpose as outlined in projects 2 and 3.

Meeting 864 - Holidays

Sometimes, when our group is smaller and there are a lot of programme changes, it turns out to be a dynamic meeting. That's what happened last time. There were numerous impromptu fill- ins and it was wonderful to see our members rise to the occasion.

New Members, Michelle and Inge were inducted into the club by Sharyn.

 The holiday theme was carried through the meeting, beginning with Liz's Round Robin "What is your favorite kind of holiday?"

 Jonathon filled in the Table Topics Master's role & called on Sharyn, Chelsea, Liz and Jennine to speak on Holiday themed topics. June and Harry evaluated the Table Topics - it was the first time as Evaluator for both of them.

 New member Melissa presented her IceBreaker Speech, "What's my Label." She spoke about various labels that could describe her and finished with the conclusion that she was "indefinable."

 Dave gave an Interpretive Reading of the poem "Ullysses."

 Marlene filled in the Speech 3 slot with a creative session, & had people using their vocal variety skills to portray emotions - eg anger, amazement, sadness, joy, & mysteriousness. Sharyn carried this idea further when we still had some time at the end of the meeting and got everyone to try some of the exercises from the "Your Speaking Voice" booklet.

 As another "fill in" Jonathon spoke enthusiastically about his plans to put club videos on YouTube.

 New member Elizabeth bravely took on a role at short notice and told a couple of short anecdotes from her childhood.

 Chelsea introduced us to a new word "Schadenfreude" which means to find amusement in another's misfortunes. Inge, having come from Germany, was able to correct our pronunciation. Four people managed to use the word during the evening.

 Awards for the evening went to John & Jonathon, (tie - Best Contribution) Melissa, (Best Speech and Personal Best) and Chelsea. (Best Table Topic.) Jonathon was also Best Evaluator.

Icebreaker Speech - A Life Built On Craft

A great example of a toastmaster's icebreaker speech. We're looking forward to many more!

Meeting 863 Spring Hats

The theme of the meeting was "Spring Hats" and a few members arrived wearing a decorated hat. (Sorry, I should have taken a photo!) Maybe the rest of the club was confused by the programme, which said "Spring Hates!"

Elizabeth and Melissa were inducted into the club. It was good to see our new members each taking on a Table Topic and handling it very well.

Harry and Chelsea each presented their Ice Breaker speech. In his speech, "Choices" Harry gave a vivid account of a skiing injury that led to him meeting his wife Jennine. Chelsea spoke about the "Super Heroes" in her life.

Liz presented an entertaining speech entitled "The Best Things in Life are Tea" and Nicole's speech, "A Place Like No Other" was about Fraser Island.

The speeches were evaluated by Annette, Sharon, Dave, & Rhys.

One of the Evaluators mentioned something about "making use of floor space." Homer, Robert's guide dog demonstrated how to make the best use of floor space!

The Business Session was chaired very efficiently by Annette, and proved to be a learning experience as a motion was moved and amended.

 A lively listening quiz was conducted by Kerry.

Awards for the evening were presented to Chelsea (Personal Best,) Harry (Best Speech,) Melissa  (Best Table Topic) Annette (Best Evaluation) and Marlene (Best Contribution.)

Article in Bayside Star 7 September

Well done VPPR Annette, another great article published in our local paper.

Evaluation & Humorous Contests

It was a great night, beginning with the induction of new member, Chelsea. Elizabeth and Melissa were also voted in and will be inducted next meeting. This club is really growing!

Rachel performed the role of Toastmaster for the first time and didn't seem at all daunted by the extra visitors and judges.

Tim from Stafford Toastmasters was our guest speaker, and presented a very animated speech with an amusing twist. Contestants Kylie, Annette, Dave and Rhys each gave an evaluation of the speech. The winner of the Evaluation Contest was Annette, with Dave coming second.

Contestants in the Humorous Speech Del, Marlene, Annete and David had everyone laughing. The winner was Marlene, with Annette second.

President Sharyn thanked the visiting judges Deb, Jean, and Teena and guest speaker Tim.

Annette and John were  acknowledged and thanked for their efforts in conducting a Speechcraft Course for students at the Aspley High School. 

Meeting 861 - Theme "Ekka"

It was good to see four visitors at our meeting. Elizabeth, (Glad we didn't scare her off last time) and Inga, Chelsea and Melissa who had met some of our members stall at the Einbunpin Festival. 

 It's Show Week in Brisbane. The Exhibition or "Ekka" began on Thursday, so it was the theme of our last meeting. The theme was used in Liz's Round Robin, Jennine's Table Topics and even the Raffle, which was a sample bag filled with goodies by Trish. 

Kerry took on the role of Toastmaster for the first time and kept the meeting running smoothly.

Another first timer was Nicole, who gave an excellent speech evaluation.

There were three speeches. Kylie's very topical speech "Everyone Counts" was about the census.

 Jonathon's speech "A Webi What?" explained what a Webinar is and convinced us of the benefits.

Lynda's speech was about "Motherhood"

Sharyn presented an Educational on "Giving Effective Feedback."

The Business Session, chaired by Leesa was a lively session with plenty to discuss.

Somehow, we still managed to finish on time and president Sharyn presented the awards for the evening.

Bayside Stars

Woo Hoo. Well Done Annette, published at last and of course it had to be Kylie and moi, the shy demure personalities of the Club...

Please note we were in the Dining and Entertainment section - no idea why ! Annette keep up the great effort, it is amazing how many people have commented on the article, it is great publicity for the Club.

THANK YOU to everyone for the effort undertaken to man the Toastmaster site today at Sandgate for the Einbumpin Festival. Special mention to Rhys for the setting up and packing up and Nicole for supplying the cover, we would have been 'roasted' without it. Thanks again, I was very happy with the number of people that registered their interest. Sharyn

More Einbunpin Photos