Meeting 850


Hello, Fellow Werribeans,

Last night we held meeting 850; a nice round number product of 31 years when our club has been helping women and men from the southwestern side of town to develop into a better version of themselves.

This meeting was also our second online, adjusting ourselves to these new strange days of COVID-19 and all its consequences. In my opinion, online meetings are not nearly as interesting nor do have the personal impact of in-person meetings. Nevertheless, they are still interesting and have value for those of us participating. They show our collective resilience and our will to remain connected.

The meeting was attended by 13 members, a guest, Val, a friend of Elena M, and a visitor, Greg B, Area Director N31.Meeting Toastmaster was Rajesh M, who with his usual affability guided us through the evening. Kumar B, one of our newest members and recently appointed to the vacant VP Membership seat, conducted the Table Topics. His questions were challenging but fun. By the way, how I wish I had received the first question: What would you do if you were a butterfly!

Area Director Greg B, then ably evaluated the topics. He was encouraging, supporting and offered positive points of improvement. After a short toilet/stretching break, we resumed proceedings with two excellent speeches. Elena M. spoke from and advances manuals of the Legacy program about the challenges and benefits of delegating. Clare M spoke about leadership styles, which ones she preferred, and how important is to respect the other person when you communicate.

The speech evaluators were Cynthia D and Daniel I. Both offered valuable insights, warm support, and suggestions for improvement.

Yaseen M challenged our listening skills with an interesting set of questions. Sahi S reported on our use of those ungrammatical sounds we often utter when we speak. Hamed K, our timekeeper for the day, reported on the time used by our Table Topics, prepared speeches and evaluators.

Finally, Patti K did the General Evaluation giving feedback on general items and then she followed on her role as President to close the meeting.

Meeting awards, as voted by those present, were:
Best Table Topic — Golsa A
Best Evaluator — Greg B

Our next meeting (852) is on the fifth Wednesday of the month. This means that a week later we’ll hold meeting 853. Meeting 853 on 6 May will see our members electing the club executive for 2020–2021. Elections are held in May so the new club officers can be trained in June or early July and be ready to take the reins on 1 July.

All members in good standing can nominate or be nominated for the seven executive positions, in order of seniority: President, VP Education, VP Membership, VP Public Relations, Treasurer, Secretary, Sgt-at-Arms. If you wish to nominate yourself or someone else for any position (including the ones with nominations), please send the nomination to Club Secretary, Clare M.

Regards,
Daniel, VPE

Werribee Toastmaster club is now online


Werribee Toastmaster club continue to meet online until social distancing measures change and allow in-person meetings to recommence. We had an excellent first online meeting.
It was Golsa’s and Hamed’s first speeches and I look forward to handing them their ribbons when we can finally meet in person again. Yaseen won best Table Topic, Sahi best Speaker and Clare best Evaluator. Special mention to Rupa who did an excellent job with her first evaluation.
I would love more members next meeting and some have indicated they may join. Even if you are not listed on the program then we need Table Topic speakers, last minute changes and as General Evaluator/President I will call on any member/guest who has not yet spoken to ensure that we have full participation.
Patti, President




Meetings 848 and 849


Hello Werribeeans,
Coronavirus has changed our lives in ways we never suspected. This was reflected in our meeting last night when only nine members and two guests were present.

We had a long business session with a robust discussion which Paul will report on separately.

Sahi conducted her first session of Table Topics in an efficient, calm manner. Well done Sahi! The topics were ably evaluated by Paul and Nirupama (Rupa).
There were only two speakers. Kumar gave a powerful “icebreaker” speech about the power of self-belief. Rupa gave a speech about Covid-19 with a lot of important, well-researched facts. These speeches were evaluated by Daniel and Peter respectively.
The “watchdog” reports were presented by Sahi (Harkmaster), Daniel (Grammarian and Word of the Day), Paul (Gruntmaster) and Krishna (Timekeeper) while Jacquelene ably conducted the general evaluation.

Best Table Topic Award went to Krishna, Best Evaluator Award was shared by Rupa and Peter.

On this night we also farewelled Krishna and Ramon from the club. Both have informed us that because of a change in personal circumstances they can no longer attend our meetings.
Krishna and Ramon, we wish you all the best in your future endeavours and give you both a big THANK YOU for your tremendous contributions to the club.

Daniel, VPE

Meeting 846


Hello Fellow Werribeeans,
We had another packed and eventful meeting last night.Peter chaired a short but dynamic Business Session and promptly handed over to Krishna as Toastmaster.

This was the first time Krishna fulfilling this role and he did it magnificently. He introduced and explained all segments, had positive and friendly transitions a constant smile on his face.

Ramon conducted the Round Robin around the theme of the meeting —compassion– and many interesting thoughts we heard on this matter.

Awais was the Table Topics Master, doing the role also for the first time. He had four interesting questions that gave ample room to the respondents to present their thoughts. Stephen took the honour of being voted as Best Table Topic Speaker for the night.

Brand new member, Sahi gave her Icebreaker speech titled “Giving up is not an option”. She had us all mesmerised for almost five minutes and by the end of the meeting, she was voted as Best Speaker for the evening. Congratulations Sahi, what a way to start your Toastmasters journey!

Rajesh was the second speaker and he presented us with some interesting and useful facts about the different leadership styles.

Fresh from coming Second at the Northern Division International Speech Contest, Stephen closed the rota of speakers with another fantastic speech where he experimented with vocal variety.

Evaluators were Patti, Daniel, and Ramon. The members and guests voted Ramon as Best Evaluator of the meeting.

We must be doing something right as another three new members were inducted. Welcome to the Werribee Toastmasters Club Golsa, Hamed, and Kumar ! May your membership of our club a great journey of development and contributions. In addition, we had four guests.

Regards,
Daniel VPE

Meeting 845

Fellow Werribeans,

We had another dynamic meeting last night.
As usual, we had a few “first time” at the meeting. It was the first time we approved minutes posted on line, rather than printing them for the meeting. Thanks to our Secretary Clare for this initiative. Members will need to check the accuracy of the minutes on the club Google Drive once Clare sends us a notice.

The Business Session was well handled by club Pres, Patti and we promptly moved to the Educational Session and a second “first time” with our Club Treasurer, Cynthia taking up the role of Meeting Toastmaster.

Congratulations Cynthia on a job well done. Having the Agenda on the whiteboard didn’t help her because she had to keep looking over her shoulder. Yet, she kept cool, calm and collected and connected the segments with a smile on her face, explaining the segments.

Yassen was responsible for not one but two “first times”: First time in charge of the Round Robin and First time as Table Topics Evaluator.

After the break, our newest member (so far), Sahi was not only welcomed to our club, she was also in charge of Ah-counting for the “first time”.

Congratulations to all our “first timers”! Toastmasters is a “learning by doing” program and just like you cannot learn to play the guitar without “playing the guitar” you cannot learn the skills of public speaking and communications without speaking in public and communicating.

We had three marvellous speakers on the night. First off the rank was Patti with her Pathways Icebreaker speech. Although she is an experienced speaker, she was also speaking for the “first time” in her Path. This was an emotional speech where she told as about growing up as an adoptee and finally, only a few short years ago, finding and reconnecting with her birth mother and her blood sister and brother.

Nirupama (Rupa to her friends) spoke about the Fury of Fire, something close to all Australians right now.

Clare closed the roster of speakers with her “first speech” on level 2 of her path. She explained how all leadership styles are needed depending on the time and stage of a project and she gave us the example of the 2021 Census.

We had 8 or 9 guests and at least 3 have expressed their desire to join us within my hearing distance. I can say with confidence that exciting times are ahead for the club.

The voting by members and guests produced these results:

Best Table Topic: Stephen
Best Evaluator: Paul
Best Speaker: Patti

Congratulations to Stephen, Paul, and Patti!

Daniel, VPE

Meeting 844

Fellow Werribeeans,

Last night’s meeting 844 was unusual as we were almost outnumbered. Almost but not quite! Eleven members were present and also 10 guests and a former member visited us. This gave the meeting an unusual flavour.

Nevertheless, we keep going forward.
Last week we farewelled a member who is moving out of the area, Gavin, but today we welcome our newest addition to Werribee Toastmasters gang (I was going to say brotherhood, but why not sisterhood? thus I settled on gang), Sahi.

Sahi will be formally inducted to our club at our next meeting when she will also do the grunt counting. At the break or whenever you can, please say g’day and welcome her to the club.
The award for Best Evaluator went to Patti(again!) and Paul as best Speaker.

Daniel, VPE

Meeting 843

Hello Werribeans,

Meeting 843 last night was the last for 2019 and one of great fun for all. Nine members (just short of a quorum) and five guests attended.

Krishna chaired his first Business Session and he didn’t fell undaunted by the situation. He moved us through the Agenda firmly and promptly and handed over the gavel to our meeting Toastmaster, Patti, ahead of time.
One of our newest members, Nirupama (or Rupa for her friends) presented the table topics for her first time. She had a top notch preparation and the topics were introduced with a big smile on her face and plenty of enthusiasm. Awais, Pete (guest), and Michelle (guest) received the topics and answered with enthusiasm and vigour.

The award for Best Table Topic went to our guest, Pete.

After the tea break, we had two Speakers. Rajesh started proceedings with his first speech of Level 2 in the Dynamic Leadership Path. The aim of this project is Understanding your Leadership Style. Rajesh showed us how well he understands the different types of leadership and how leadership is a process.

The second speaker was Daniel (me, myself, and I) who presented the project Using Descriptive Language, one of several elective projects on Level 3 of Effective Coaching Pathway. The speech had as a title "My Tribulations in Australian English”. With this speech, he completed Level 3 of his Path.

The evaluators were Daniel (Table Topics), Stephen (Rajesh’s speech), and Julie (Daniel’s speech). For the first time in my five years in the club, there was a three-way tie in the voting: all three evaluators received the same amount of votes! Three different evaluation styles all of them equally well received by the audience.

My thanks also go to Yaseen who accepted at the last minute to be acting Sgt at Arms and who carried the task efficiently and without a fuss.

We now have a break over the Festive Season and will reconvene on 29 January. I will send a draft agenda around mid-January.

Wishing you all the best for this Festive Season.

Daniel, VPE