Netmasters in the World

By David | July 27, 2012 |

What is an International Meeting!

The meeting on July 26, 2012 was truly an international event.

Present in Perth were 8 of our members – they were onsite. Present online was a member on Whitsunday Island. Present online were two members in Gonubie, South Africa. And present online were two visitors in Winnipeg, Canada.

Present online? What’s that mean?

We use GoToMeeting which is a webinar provider. On my 27 inch iMac computer were five separate screens. One showed our meeting place, which this month was our home. Mostly it showed the Toastmaster or the current speaker or evaluator. Occasionally it switched to the full meeting group. The next showed Bev at her iPad in Winnipeg. Then there was Dorian at her PC in Winnipeg. Next were Michelle and Jackie in Gonubie. And the fifth screen showed Mike at his PC on Whitsunday Island.

We could all see and hear one another

That’s what made it such an exciting meeting. Our Sergeant At Arms Mark (he was the District 17 Governor till June 30) was Toastmaster. Everybody present gave a short welcome, explaining who and where they were. Then Jackie in Gonubie gave her Icebreaker. It was a fascinating speech about her various names. I evaluated it here in Perth.

A Netmaster member in the world speech finals

Peter presented the speech he will giving at Orlando next month in the qualifying contest for the World Championship of Public Speaking. We are very proud and pleased that he first represented Netmasters and went through the early rounds to reach and win the District 17 International Speech Contest. He belongs to two other clubs as well – Victoria Quay and Armadale. They feel identified with him too of course, but he went through from Netmasters. Peter received two evaluations. The first was from Mike on Whitsunday. Mike is the Region 12 International Director for Toastmasters International. The second was from Mark, here on site. Mark will be going to Orlando next month to receive an award as Select Distinguished District Governor. That’s one of 12 top Districts in the world – a great result for our first year as a new District.

Speaking in Praise

Our President, Glenis, gave a speech from the Special Occasions Manual. She spoke in praise of our member Peter dealing with his rapid development in Toastmasters After 3 months membership he took on an Area Governor role. That raised some eyebrows and made some people worried but Peter is an outstanding leader and he was Presidents Distinguished. He was a successful Club Coach for Armadale Toastmasters, and has been a Club VP Education, President and Secretary. Last year he crowned this with his DTM award. As a speaker he is clearly outstanding, having won the inaugural District 17 International Speech Contest. But Glenis concentrated on his leadership style. He seems to make it so easy. He challenges and inspires people to take opportunities to serve in various roles, in a senior position in the Australian Defence force, and in Toastmasters. He doesn’t issue orders or reprimands, but he gets the results through his friendly, helpful and highly skilful leadership. He enjoys life and inspires others to join him in that enjoyment. He is a true leader. At the conclusion of the speech Glenis presented Peter with his club badge and urged him to wear it proudly at Orlando.

Glenis was evaluated by Greg, currently our Area Governor in S32.

The Timing Report was given by Gerry. He was the link through Linkedin which inspired Dorian in Winnipeg to send me an interested email about Netmasters. Dorian is the District 64 LT Governor Marketing. Of course I was happy to give her the opportunity to visit us online. She discussed it with District Governor Bev and so the international contact grew.

Farewell to Canada for a while

Toastmaster Mark invited our District 64 visitors to give their impressions of our meeting. They both spoke very warmly about the experience and the way it opened their eyes to the way technology can be used to communicate with distant members. Their state, Westen Manitoba, has many small outlying towns at quite a distance who could benefit from this style of meeting.

Club Business

President Glenis chaired our Club Success Plan for this Toastmaster year. We were Distinguished last year so we plan to be at least Distinguished this year. We will have plenty of member awards. Our challenge will be to lift our membership up to Distinguished status. VP Membership Greg is already planning a membership campaign, and chairing that will complete his ACG award.

Then Glenis introduced a discussion of decisions made very recently to restructure the club in line with our success going international. David gave a brief background to our progress over 4 years leading up to tonight’s wonderful meeting. He particularly referred to the impact Michelle made when she joined in February this year and alerted us to the potential in GoToMeeting. Alan, our Treasurer and key technical expert, outlined the financial base we have to support the club’s activities.

The close of our 50th Meeting

This was a milestone meeting. It was our first for the 2012/13 Toastmaster year and it was Meeting 50. That is a good start on our way to Meeting 100 or 1,000. Beyond these two important milestones, it was a truly international meeting. Netmasters in Perth is a worldwide club in worldwide Toastmasters