Black Swan December 2014

Black Swan December 2014

The Newsletter of Toastmasters District 17

Editor: Judith Allen

 

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Editorial

Welcome to the New Year, refreshed, with renewed enthusiasm, and ready for a busy and exciting second half of the Toastmaster year.   We have much to look forward to: International Speech and Evaluation Contests from Club to Division level, Toastmasters Leadership Institute and Club Officer Training, workshops, and of course District 17’s Annual Convention in May.

This month’s issue brings news of past and future events, updates of our progress as a District and Happy New Year wishes to you all.

 

Judith B Swan

Judith Allen Black Swan Editor
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District Governor Report

A Pristine Launch

As the festivities of the Christmas/New Year celebrations die down, we now face a new launch of our District with renewed vigour heading into 2015. I hope you all enjoyed the rest and recuperation of the holidays, and the fresh year brings enthusiasm and zeal for your Toastmasters’ journey.

January brings a refreshingly clean slate to your personal goals. Have you taken the time to reassess your personal goals? Remember to set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. If you need some help with these, there’s a chart at the end of this article to help you set them and keep visible so you can attain them. These may not all be Toastmasters oriented however, I certainly encourage you to set your Toastmasters’ goals and regularly review them with your VPE. This way you can work together to achieve them. By each individual achieving their own personal goals, automatically your Club, your Area, your Division and our District achieve without a glitch. I look forward to seeing your name on our list of achievers very soon.

January brings a refreshing opportunity for your club meetings to evolve. Have you seen or heard innovative items or ways other clubs work? Why not use this New Year as a time to try some of these? Perhaps they will be something your members will love or maybe not. It really isn’t important if you keep them or not, but the fact that you tried something new, different or challenging means you added variety to your meeting format and vitality to your members experience. I challenge every club to try something new on your agenda in the first few meetings of 2015. I’ll also be watching for the stories in Black Swan in the next few editions.

January brings a renewed look at our District goals as we head into the second half of the Toastmasters year. You will remember our latest banner with the three critical goals we aim to achieve as a District: Paid Clubs, Membership Payments, and Distinguished Clubs.

It was exciting for me to see membership payments were still being registered almost right up to the Christmas break and that on December 22nd we reached our first milestone of being half way to Distinguished District status with these. Congratulations to every Club Officer who tracked their members, encouraged and invited them to re-join and followed through with making that renewal and payment to Toastmasters International. I know all our Area Governors were right there with you on this job. Without all your efforts we could not have gained this important milestone.

Our Paid Clubs Goal is looking somewhat lacklustre with two clubs still struggling to meet the minimum requirement of eight members. I do know that some plans for rejuvenation of at least one of these clubs is underway and that we may lose the other. It is a sad day when we have to accept the loss of a club, however we can learn from this experience and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes in the future. It is with great happiness that I report that we will be having many Demonstration Meetings during January and February to launch new, stimulating clubs around our District. Taking into account the loss of one club we aspire to have seven new clubs and one rejuvenated club by May. Inspired, enthusiastic and motivated members are planning these clubs. I wish you great success in your aspirations and look forward to presenting many Charter Certificates to your members.

Distinguished or better clubs truly can’t be measured until after the April 1st renewal period, however we can see the clubs who have the goals and membership at this stage to be called “Provisionally Distinguished”. At this stage we have 12 clubs who are in this category. Congratulations to these clubs! We know this means your members’ needs are being met which means personal goals are being achieved. After April 1st we will be in a much better position to calculate this so until then, just look after your members’ needs, lodge awards promptly and accept the recognition richly deserved by your members and your club. There are also many very close with only one goal or a few members required. I feel confident we will meet and surpass our goal of 38 Distinguished or better clubs.

January also heralds the beginning of another cycle of training and club visits by your Area Governors. The District Trio head off in a few days to Dubai for our District Leader Training with Trios from around our Region (Australia and New Zealand) and Region 11 (Europe, UK, Middle East and Africa). This will be a new experience as we traditionally have spent this training with Regions 13 & 14 (Asia). We will miss our friends from Regions 13 and 14, however we are looking forward to learning and sharing best practices with a different group of our Toastmasters family.

Your District Officers, Area Governors, Division Governors and others will attend the second round of training on January 31st where they will share what worked best, how to improve, their success stories and opportunities to learn from. I know they all have your best interest at heart as they spend this day together in order to make your journey the most successful it can be.

Area Governors are preparing to visit your club again to share your success, discuss challenges and implement change if necessary. Please welcome yours into your club with the dignity and respect a District Officer should be shown and together we can meet all obstacles to make your Toastmasters expedition outstanding.

January is a time for wishing a safe, fulfilling and thriving year ahead. I wish this for each member of our District 17 family, your extended family and every current or prospective club. May we all be celebrating together as you launch into and achieve your goals.

As always, if you have a question or need any information, I am only a phone call or email away.    Ph – 0407 851 361 email – robynnmark@hotmail.com

SMART Goals

Robyn_Richards_1406C

Robyn Richards DTM
District 17 Governor 2014-2015

 

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Speeches in the Park

What do you do when the venue you’ve booked has a priority reservation over yours? That’s exactly what happened to our Toastmasters club meeting on Wednesday. The Bletchley Park Primary School staffroom where we normally hold our meetings was used by the school for their Christmas function and we found ourselves temporarily homeless – à la mode de Noel (in the fashion of Christmas) akin to Joseph and Mary who arrived in Bethlehem with no room at the inn.

Sandringham_Parade_Reserve

However, Toastmasters are a creative and resilient lot and we never say die. We looked for the next best alternative and saw our members trooping to a nearby park in Sandringham Promenade Reserve instead. Just take a look at the photograph. Don’t you think this is an inspiring venue for some speech making?

Albeit, we did have some advanced warning and thus time to prepare. Armed with deck chairs, ground sheets, torch lights, mosquito repellent and nibbles, you would think we were out for a twilight picnic instead of a Toastmasters meeting. We were well prepared. A small folding table served as the lectern and timing lights were battery operated with timing cards in hand just in case.

 

As this was our first off-site meeting, there were a few takeaways for future planning:

þ Set up seating with members’ and speakers’ backs to the setting sun. This had prompted the Toastmaster to quip, “There’s a bright light over there. Can someone please switch it off?” amidst a roar of laughter.

þ Bring lots of portable lamps as the external flood lights may not reach within the Rotunda. Members creatively resorted to using flash lights and even the LCD timing lights to illuminate their notes as the sky darkened.

þ Position the timer facing the speakers rather than to catch the flood light. While it “forces” the speakers to make eye contact with the timer, a skewed position could present a challenge to speakers in keeping time.

þ Over-apply mosquito repellent. You don’t want to multi-task in two roles while relieving an itch simultaneously.

þ Have cups readily available and not hidden in the food bag. We don’t wish to deprive our wine connoisseurs of their after speech thirst quencher.

Park

Perhaps it was the lure of the warm summer rays but I reckon this idea of an outdoor meeting may just catch on. As it is, we’re already considering a barbecue-styled meeting next – perhaps to usher in the new term in 2015?

235 no shadow try again

Stephanie Chan
Southern Division Governor (2014/2015)

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Playing the Game Like a Man, and Celebrating Success Like a Woman

Large numbers of women dot the current workplace, but like trees on a mountain you will see fewer and fewer as you climb higher in the executive landscape.
What can – and should women do?
We know that from early childhood boys and girls play differently.
Boys played in teams and played to win. Girls had a best friend, and when they played in a group they wanted everyone to win.

If you are going to join the men in the game of business there are four fundamental ground rules:

  1. Start with understanding your self – self awareness

Your Self is everything you know and think and feel about yourself, it is the centre of your being, your inner world, and it is therefore your picture of yourself, sometimes called your self-concept. Self-knowledge is the root and basis for our maturity, self-esteem and self-reliance, and it is very important for our decision-making and relationships.   Probably the most important function of the self-concept is its support of your confidence.

  1. You have two options – to structure the world around your choices or to let someone else create your world. Develop your script. In a nutshell, it’s a way to communicate who you are and how you want to be seen; in other words, the corporate persona that you create and which you control. Your script is what makes you special and unique.
  1. Acquire communication skills that ensure that for 97% of the time you will have the desired impact, influence, and expected outcomes. Learn the skills of speaking and writing in a clear, concise and purposeful manner. Certainly learn presentation skills, and how to phrase critical questions. Listening to learn and understand is the other side of the communication equation.
  1. Tap into your strengths. In order to bolster your strengths, identify which skills need to grow to a level of competence. Skills are the visible part of our behaviour that is above the surface and are usually situational and specific. Competence means effective behaviour under specific or challenging conditions, to which a degree of risk is attached, and to which adjustment must be made without conscious thought.

Rules for Playing the Game

  1. Getting along with others is the universal key to success. Studies have shown that all highly successful people share the ability to build rapport with others. We communicate to achieve “mutual understanding”, which means taking full responsibility for the effectiveness of the communication. This requires” heightened awareness’ of what people do; to be able to predict what people are likely to do and why, accepting yourself and learning to adapt and to relate to others.   More productive exchanges result in managing inter-personal situations to your ultimate gain and the gain of others.
  1. Choose your behaviour style. When two people communicate, each exchange is a transaction. Many of our problems come from transactions which are unsuccessful. Understanding transactional analysis can help you understand yourself better. The main idea is that our brains have three distinct ego states: the parent, child and adult. In the workplace, you can see examples of transactional analysis at all levels, such as between supervisors and employees, among co-workers and colleagues and between department heads of an organization.
  • Parent ego state – This is a set of feelings, thinking and behaviour that we have copied from our parents and significant others. As we grow up we take in ideas, beliefs, feelings and behaviours from our parents and caretakers. The Parent can be nurturing/caring mode or controlling and critical.
  • Adult ego state – The Adult ego state is about direct responses to the here and now. We deal with things that are going on today in ways that are not unhealthily influenced by our past. The Adult ego state is about being spontaneous and aware with the capacity for intimacy. When in our Adult state we are able to see people as they are, rather than what we project onto them. The adult mode expresses feelings and emotions relevant to the issue or situation.
  • Child ego state – The Child ego state is a set of behaviours, thoughts and feelings which are replayed from our own childhood. This state shows curiosity, intimacy, fun, rebelliousness, confronting responses. In the workplace avoid behaving in this ego state because this type of behavior often leads to the other person becoming emotional and behaving in a similar manner.

The key lesson in understanding transactional analysis is to operate as often as possible in Adult mode, and to remain in that mode.   You then have a good chance of moving the other person from child or parent mode into adult mode.

  1. Combining assertiveness and listening techniques to collaborate and achieve effective communication. Assertiveness is expressing your feelings and emotions about unacceptable behaviour or non- behaviour, describing the impact of this behaviour and the change you desire, while respecting that others have the same rights.

Listening is learning what the person feels and thinks, and then feeding back your interpretation; because your purpose is to achieve mutual understanding. When you reach common understanding you are able to find solutions that satisfy both parties. A combination of assertive and listening skills can result in problem solving, conflict resolution and collaboration.

Final rule
The business game can be brutal. You will be knocked down, will need the strength to get back up, the courage to stand tall; be true to your vision, and communicate in a way that makes things better.
As a woman it’s your time. I am excited for you and for all that’s ahead. It’s a good time: it’s your time.
We are the leaders of tomorrow…. and today. Leadership comes naturally to women. We are flexible, organised, and great at multitasking. We work well with others and know how to manage up and down. Now is the time to turn opportunities into reality, to walk into positions of authority, leadership and power.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Marlene Ward DTM
TLI Training Group Toastmasters Club

 

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Talk Up Toastmasters Title

February 1 to March 31

An exciting opportunity for all club members to get involved and WIN!

Toastmasters love to talk? Take advantage of this opportunity. During the “Talk Up Toastmasters!” membership contest, you can encourage your members to invite guests to a special meeting where regular procedures are augmented by a discussion of Toastmasters’ many benefits.

Add five new, dual or reinstated members to your roster between February 1 and March 31 to receive a special “Talk up Toastmasters!” ribbon to display on your club’s banner.

Membership applications and payment for members who join between February 1 and March 31 must be received at World Headquarters or online no later than March 31. Each member’s join date as listed on the application must be no later than March. Transfer and charter members do not count for credit toward “Talk Up Toastmasters” credit. In addition to the ribbon, qualifying clubs will also earn a special discount code for 10% off their next club order. Discount code expires six months from date of issue and is not valid with any other offer.

For additional details, see http://www.toastmasters.org/membershipcontests

Remember the contest runs from February 1 to March 31. Don’t wait, start planning how your club will add FIVE members and qualify for the Talk Up Toastmasters! Award. Challenge every member to get involved and have fun!

Looking forward with excitement to see your club listed at Toastmasters

Talk Up Toastmasters Award

 

LR

Leonor Ragan, DTM
Lieutenant Governor Marketing 2014-2015

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Hot Aussie Christmas Cheer!

Alex family picIt’s been eight years since my family and I came to Australia for a bit of a sea change. A “bit” might be an understatement considering the amazing changes the family has been through. Although there are lots of special days or events within the calendar year for the family, Christmas day has always been the most magical day. Not only do we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, we also celebrate the birthday of our lovely daughter Amaris.

Our family starts the celebration on Christmas Eve or early morning mass at Church. One of the most anticipated times in the Christian faith, the Church and its people sing lots of praises and glory for the birth of Christ. We have been blessed to have close family and friends celebrating the Christmas mass the past seven years in Perth. Then the next leg of our rejoicing begins with preparations for the birthday celebration of our dear daughter with the family and friends.

In the Philippines, our tradition usually calls for a big suckling or roasted pig to be placed in the middle of the table. Luckily, there are some enterprising business people in Perth who are able to satisfy our traditional yearning. Sharing a special dish with family and friends makes our Christmas here in Perth one of the warmest feelings to have, considering the usual above 40 degrees Celsius of summer weather. Truly a Hot Summer Aussie Christmas Cheer! A big difference from the cold winter Christmas we are all used to in other parts of the world; not that winter brings snow to our tropical country but Christmas day is usually nice and cool there. But who cares about the weather on Christmas day!

This year, our Christmas day will be celebrated in the Philippines. We are all excited to see our other family and friends again at Christmas! As we have started packing our Christmas presents for them, we remember to buy something Australian like our very famous Christian story of the three kings bearing gifts to our Jesus. Giving never fails to bring a sense of peace and happiness to both the giver and the recipient.

People of different faith also celebrate Christmas by having parties and giving presents. Both my wife and I are members of different Toastmasters Clubs. So we have celebrated two different Christmas parties during the last three years. Last weekend it was fun joining the Canning Vale Toastmasters club members. However the next fortnight will be with my Southern River Toastmasters Club. Surely, it will be an event that will be full of fun and laughter. Special food and wine are not the only things we will be sharing but the amazing stories and speeches as well. It is a Double celebration again! Not that I want to challenge other people reading this article, but don’t you think I am the luckiest person on earth on Christmas day? Have a merry Hot Aussie Christmas everyone! Cheers mates!
Alex Go
Southern River Toastmasters Club

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District 17

LGET Black Swan Report December 2014

What a fantastic six months we have had. Club leaders are striving above and beyond to ensure members are obtaining the very best of Toastmasters. This is obvious when you look at the statistics and recognise individual members’ achievements.

No matter what we think, Toastmasters is a member based organisation. If members are achieving their goals, gaining valuable experience and enjoyment, you can be sure your club will be a vibrant and exciting place to spend time.

Keep up the good work.

Thirteen members have achieved their Triple Crown Award already which is excellent. Congratulations. This is the last publication of these names with a new list commencing January. Remember each person who achieves three personal goals in the one year will be awarded the Triple Crown badge: a visual recognition for excellence in what you have achieved among your peers.

Member Count Award
Bielski, Tomasz 3 ALB, ACB, CL
Evans, Lisa 4 ALS, DTM, CC, CL
Grogan, Patrick 3 CC, CC, ACB
Law, Marianne 5 ALB, CC, CL, CL, ACG
Lloyd, Robyn 3 CC, CC, ACB
Macdonald, Graham R. 3 DTM, ACB, ALS
Nicholas, David R. 8 CL, ALB, CC, ACB, ALS, ACS, LDREXC, CC
O’Brien, Catherine 3 ALB, ACS, CC
Palmer, John Alexander 5 CC, CC, CL, ACB, ALB
Pearce, Estelita 3 CL, CC, ACB
Pickens, Ian A. 3 CC, ALS, DTM
Placanica, William 3 CC, ALS, DTM
Wilkinson, Ross Phillip 3 CC, ALB, ALB

Six members have achieved their DTM. You will see Nola Haddrill, our recently appointed District Secretary, the new addition to this long standing list.   Congratulations to all and especially to Nola on both the DTM and her new role.

2932197 N 21 DTM 07/01/2014 Evans, Lisa Northern Gourmet Toastmasters Kingsley
3022546 S 31 DTM 07/21/2014 Placanica, William Willetton Toastmasters Willetton
1332936 N 24 DTM 12/19/2014 Haddrill, Nola Noranda Toastmasters Club Noranda
6438 S 35 DTM 07/03/2014 Macdonald, Graham R. Murdoch Southsiders Toastmasters Club Bull Creek
1311 C 2 DTM 07/01/2014 Amberville-Colby, Pascale C. Perth Justalk Perth
6428 C 3 DTM 09/23/2014 Pickens, Ian A. City of Perth Toastmasters Club Perth CBD

 

Sixty eight members have achieved their Competent Communicator, and 26 members achieved their Competent Leadership Awards. Add in the 28 Advanced Leadership and 29 Advanced Communication Awards already achieved. It is fantastic to sit and watch the number of awards increasing every month.

Congratulations to everyone who has achieved an award this year. Congratulations to the clubs who are ensuring their members obtain maximum benefit from their membership.

Training

Our next TLI and COT sessions are Saturday 7th, Thursday 12th, and Sunday 15th February all held at (Technology Park) 9 De Laeter Place Bentley The building is marked C4. If you can’t make the Perth training, you can join us as we take TLI on the road to Kalgoorlie, Karratha, or down south Tuesday 3rd February.

Our District, TLI Training Group and WA Governors will be presenting wonderful training opportunities during the next six months keep an eye out for workshop notification.

Saturday 7th March will be a new workshop to WA. The “Emerging Leaders” workshop is intended to help you take the next step into District leadership. At this workshop we will provide a valuable insight into what a District leader does and needs to do.   This year we will focus on Area Directors, Division Directors, Public Relations Manager and Club Growth Director.

I very much look forward to the next six months of education and achievements in District 17.

Ian_Pickens_1406

Ian Pickens DTM
District 17 LGET

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Achieving the Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) Award

Paul and Janine

Paul Browning receiving his ALB award

To be eligible for this award, a member must have:

  • Achieved Competent Leader award – this I achieve several years ago; that part was easy!
  • Achieved Competent Communicator award – likewise achieved some years back, so far so good.
  • Served at least six months as a club officer (President, Vice President Education, Vice President Membership, Vice President Public Relations, Secretary, Treasurer or Sergeant At Arms) and participated in the preparation of a Club Success Plan while serving in this office. While a club officer, participated in a district-sponsored club officer training program. Over the years, I’ve been VPE, President (twice), Secretary and now VPM and have never missed Club Officer Training to my knowledge and always participated in the Club Success Plan.
  • Conducted any two programs from The Successful Club Series and/or The Leadership Excellence Series. This really was the essence of what I needed to do to get my ALB, so I gave a presentation on Mentoring to the club and another on Meeting Roles to one of the early meetings of the prospective Golden Gourmet club, both of which were from The Successful Club Series.

And that’s how easy it was folks. Remember Toastmasters doesn’t work if you don’t. To get the most out of Toastmasters you only have to do a few things:

  • Attend as many meetings as possible. This means putting meeting dates into your diary and committing to them by attending. Remember, Toastmasters doesn’t work if you don’t attend!
  • Take on meeting roles. In fact look at the back of your Competent Leadership Manual and see what roles you need to do and then volunteer for them in the meeting forward programs on the club’s website. As you do each role tick it off both in the back of your CL Manual and get someone at the meeting to give you a written evaluation on the relevant page of the manual.
  • Always have a speech prepared. Know what your next two speeches are and be making notes, thinking about them and practising them. It’s amazing how often someone who is rostered on to make a speech doesn’t attend or isn’t ready, so you can just slot in and get an extra speech under your belt. The more speeches you give, the better you get and the more rapid and dramatic your improvement.
  • Volunteer for a club officer role when the AGM comes around or whenever a vacancy arises.

Each level of recognition is just that: RECOGNITION for your efforts. The only person you are competing against is yourself, but guess what? YOU ARE THE BIGGEST WINNER. GO FOR IT!

Paul_Browning_1406

Paul Browning
Touch of Gold Toastmasters
N26 Area Governor

 

 

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Christmas Celebrations at Southern River

What a whopping success of a Christmas party we had the other night at Mike Palmer’s home, with the Christmas Celebrations at Southern River, with the pool, absolutely marvellous weather and great camaraderie.

deen      Doug Brown       Wahid Khan

A toast by Deen Moodley              Doug Brown                  Wahid Khan, Dulani Anuradha and Nuwan Jayasekera

Expanding on the religious significance of the occasion, one of the evening’s highlights was speeches on five religious festivals.

Doug Brown started us of with Christmas. John Palmer, our oldest member followed with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Unbeknownst to him there was a Jewish lady in the audience but all was well with the speech despite John’s lack of Semitism. Wahid Khan from Bangladesh told us about a Muslim festival, Eid al Fitr, the Feast of Breaking the Fast (of Ramadan). Our newest member, Leela G, spoke on Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights and invited us all to her house next year to celebrate this festival. As her house has not yet been built she will probably be safe!  Our final speaker was again a new member from Sri Lanka, Dulani Anuradha, who enlightened us on the Buddhist festival of Vesak. Five speeches, five religions, five festivals. What a great multi-cultural club we have!

Now for the food.

               Mongolian Lamb    fish    curry

John and Brenda (more so Brenda) brought a Mongolian Lamb dish. Wahid fed us fish and we also had some excellent curries, salads & even sausages on the BBQ.

Not forgetting the sweets!!!    cake    brenda     Thanks to Angela, Mike’s mother-in-law, and Brenda, Mike’s mother!

 

JohnPalmer_1213

John Palmer
Southern River Toastmasters Club

 

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Gifts

joy,peace loveAustralian retailers predicted $43b would be spent before Christmas 2014, with the average shopper splurging about $1800.

During the Christmas season shoppers buy presents with total financial abandon. Some purchases are well thought through and useful while others are frivolous, bought for the sake of “giving something”. Yet others simply recycle the flippant presents received the year before.

As we cross into the New Year, we contemplate and search for meaningful ways of giving. Do we give something meaningful and special? Are our presents tangible and showy or are they a simple heartfelt act of loving kindness?

Consider this Christmas story which took place a century ago. Gritz Rice was a lieutenant in a Canadian regiment sent to France during World War I. Rice’s company had taken with them a piano and on Christmas Eve, the piano was brought to the front-line trenches. That night enemy troops were so close that they could be heard talking. Shortly before midnight, Rice began playing Christmas carols in a British trench. “Silent Night” rang out, piercing the cold. The Canadian soldiers joined in the chorus. Suddenly, in the eerie darkness echoed German voices singing “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” (Silent Night in German). Then followed other familiar carols. Rice then played a German aria from Wagner’s Tannhäuser. As he did, a Canadian soldier climbed out of his trench in the open and sang the words. Then one of the German soldiers climbed out of the safety of his trench and lent his voice in unison. At least for one night the message of Christmas broke through to those battle-weary soldiers. They had lain aside their guns and were united in song, to tell the Christmas story about God’s very special Gift to mankind – the baby Jesus, come in love to save and to give us joy and peace.

Yes my friends, our presents need not be material or even costly. The most precious gift we can offer is simple. It comes from the heart in the form of love, friendship, kindness, service and concern in our fellowmen. And not for the day or the season but borne in our hearts 24/7.

The next time you elbow your way through a sale to get presents on the cheap, why not consider handmade gifts with a personal touch. Or maybe even forgo a present and get your family and friends to do the same. Instead, give a helping hand to those in need – and there are so many good causes around. As Toastmasters, how about giving fellow Toastmasters the gift of your time, experience and skills and be a friend to a visitor or a new member; or become a Mentor. And as you look for meaning and purpose outside the familiarity of your circle, look also to renew your relationship with your own family members. Make it a gift of yourself to your loved ones.

New Year’s blessings of joy, peace and love to you and your families!

235 no shadow try again

Stephanie Chan
Southern River Toastmasters Club

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Electric Toasters 2015 Lunchbox Meeting

lunch box

Electric Toasters kick start their 2015 with a Lunchbox Meeting on Thursday 8th January 2015.

Visitors and members from other clubs who are interested and miss this one are welcome to attend the next lunchbox meeting on Thursday 5th February 2015.

Please come 12pm to register for 12:10pm start to 12:50pm. The venue is Western Power (363 Wellington St).

For more information, email electrictoasters@outlook.com.

 

 

Patricia Tan
Electric Toasters Club

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2014/2015 Positive Promotion Premiership Ladder

POSITIVE PROMOTION PREMIERSHIP POINTS as at 31 DECEMBER 2014
CLUBS PROMOTION AWARDED POINTS
Southern River ABx10(9×25,1×75), Hx1, Dx1, Gx19, Cx6, Nx1, Ux3 444
Victoria Park Ux2,Nx6, FEx5, Gx32, Cx15 252
Armadale Ux9, ALx1(75), Sx3, FEx6, ABx1, Nx1 240
Touch of Gold FEx9, Sx1, Ux4, Ox2, Gx7, Nx1 147
Guildford Stars Ux9, FEx5, ABx1 (1×75) 145
Canning Vale Ux6, Nx4, FEx5, Cx4 115
Northern Gourmet ABx3, Ux4, FEx3 110
Noranda Ux2, FEx1, ALx1(75) 90
Mundaring Ux3, FEx1, Gx10, Cx5 80
Electric Toasters ABx2, Fx1, Ox1 75
Swan Ux6, FEx4, Sx1 70
Ellenbrook Ox1, Ux4, FEx1, Mx1 55
WA School of Mines FEx2, Sx1 30
Northern Lights Ux5, FEx1 30
Curtin GSB Sundowner Ux4, 20
Murdoch Southsiders Ux1, FEx1 10
WA Governors Ux2 10
Curtin GSB Ux2 10

 

Happy New Year Everyone

Two new contenders with Southern River and Victoria Park in first and second place respectively.

Well done clubs, with the promotional work you are undertaking; but please don’t keep it to yourself! Don’t forget to get you points in each month.

Fantastic to see four clubs have claimed their triple points challenge! (Given to VPPR’s at COT).

Triple points awarded to Armadale, Southern River, Noranda & Guildford Stars…

I am sure that lots of you are doing wonderful things to promote your clubs and I look forward to more advice (along with the necessary proof) hitting my email in the coming months. My email address is fallon1892@yahoo.com.au

Sue_Fallon_1406

Sue Fallon
District 17 Public Relations Officer

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Armadale Toastmasters’ End the Year with Dinner at Zia’s Ristorante in Kelmscott

The end of the year was fast approaching and it was time for our Christmas Party. Instead of having a Christmas themed meeting, it was decided that we would head to Zia’s Ristorante in Kelmscott for dinner, a few laughs and a couple of surprises. Jeanette Palumbo had the all-important job of organising the night’s events, ensuring that everyone had the opportunity to participate.

meal 1The evening got underway with our Toastmaster of the evening, Catherine O’Brien warmly welcoming us before handing proceedings over to our club president, Dave Crispin, who gave a quick opening address. It was then time for the fun to begin. “True or False” was the name of the game. This was a table topics styled game, which members and guests were selected from random and given a question to answer. It was up to the rest of us to decide whether their response was true or false, with the person who got the most correct guesses winning a mystery prize. A highly entertaining game which could make an interesting table topics session for future meetings.

As the entrées weren’t quite ready yet, we decided to move the Secret Santa table topics session from after the main meal to next up. Most people who attended brought a gift to the value of $10 that was to be given to someone else as a Secret Santa. As the table topics master, Peter Law handed out the gifts we all had to speak for between 1 and 2 minutes about the gift we received. Many of us received chocolate, with some of us lucky ones receiving hand cream, wine, cups or a pirate hat. Some presents were a little more obvious than others. During this time, the entrees had arrived with many of us having garlic bread.

Meal 2After the Secret Santa was over and the entrées were finished, it was time for a Christmas themed speech. ‘A Christmas to Remember’ was its title and it was given by our club president, Dave. We heard about Dave spending Christmas time in England as an apprentice hairdresser many years ago and the events that took place; a highly entertaining speech. After Dave’s speech, it was time for the evaluation. Neville Simmons was given the task of evaluating Dave’s speech. After Neville’s evaluation, the mains were served, with many of us ordering chicken parmigianas, pastas, mussels and seafood. They were delicious.

After the mains, we ordered our desserts then Dave closed the event and presented two members with a lovely bunch of flowers: Jeanette for the time and effort put in to organising the event and Catherine, for the time and effort put in promoting the club.

 

As this was our Christmas Party, it was time for a Christmas carol sing-a-long. Tony, Jeanette’s husband, had brought along a squeeze box for us to sing-a-long too. We warmed up our vocal chords and sang along to Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Waltzing Matilda. During this time, our desserts were served. It was a challenge to eat as well as sing, but some of us took the challenge.meal 3 accordian

After we have finished singing our carols, it was time to pay the bill. As it was getting late, we wished each other a Merry Christmas and began to leave. This was one of the most memorable events that I have been involved with since joining Armadale Toastmasters almost two years ago. I would like to thank Jeanette for organising the event and I am looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store for Armadale Toastmasters.

catherine

Catherine O’Brien.
VPPR- Armadale Toastmasters.

 

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Clubs’ Community Advertising

Many clubs have community advertising (unpaid usually) appearing in local Newspapers and local Business Directories – for example – the Little Aussie Directory.

I feel that it is very easy for the Toastmaster’s contact details not to be amended when a new contact person takes over different roles at our Toastmasters Clubs.

To ensure that these newspaper and service directory entries are kept up to date, may I suggest that a list of relevant entries be maintained by the VPPR:

  • Name of Newspaper and Contact person with contact details
  • Name of directory and Contact person with contact details
  • Club Committee Role and Contact person with contact details

The list should then be given to the incoming VPPR as required, be it when someone leaves or the role is handed over for another year.

Sue_Fallon_1406

Sue Fallon
District 17 Public Relations Officer

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