Celebrations at Capital Breakfast club

Christmas is a time for clubs to celebrate - and this Christmas, Capital Breakfast had more to celebrate than most. At the club's final meeting in December, long-time member Nicki Mann received her long service award in recognition of 25 years' continuous membership of Toastmasters in New Zealand.

Nicki first joined Toastmasters in June 1990, making her the 13th-longest serving member of Division E.

Club Growth Director Sarah Bate (left) presenting Nicki Mann with her long service award.

Club members went all-out for their Christmas meeting, dressing up for the occasion and bringing festive nibbles to share. The extended Table Topics session had everyone scratching their heads as the chair produced one image after another of countries' flags for people to identify. Many speakers took a creative approach to their answer, ensuring that nobody left without a good laugh!

Capital Breakfast members dressed up for their Christmas meeting. Nicki Mann, centre front, holds her long service award.

Thanks, Capital Breakfast, for the opportunity to share in your celebration!

Is your club planning a celebration or special event? Email Gael to ask for it to be featured on Eat Your Crusts.

Club officers: time to refresh your knowledge!

Image source

December is a time for celebration. Time to recognise the successes of the old year - and time to prepare for a new one.

In Toastmasters, December is halfway through the year and a great time to take stock. How is your club doing? Are you making progress on your goals? How's your membership level? What new things could you try come January?

For club officers, the December-February period brings an opportunity to refresh your knowledge. When you first took office in July, you attended club leader training and learned about your role, leadership, and the wider world of Toastmasters. Now that you've had some time to apply that knowledge in your clubs, we invite you to come together again and debrief. What's going well? What needs tweaking? What are other clubs doing that you might try?

Attending club leader training this round will complete your club's training requirements for the year. By getting at least four officers trained in July and at least four in December-February, your club receives recognition under the Distinguished Club Program, Toastmasters International's standard for a successful club.

To make it extra easy for your club officers to get trained this round, we're offering two sessions of club leader training before Christmas (more will be offered in the new year). They are:

Thursday December 10, 5.30-9pm

Upper Chamber, Toi Poneke

61 Abel Smith Street
Parking available on Abel Smith Street (metered till 6pm).

Saturday December 12, 9.30-1pm

Wellington Girl's College library
8 Murphy Street
Some parking is available along the driveway off Murphy Street - the library itself is at the end of the driveway.

As well as club officers, please invite anyone who is thinking about becoming a club officer in the future. This session will give them a chance to learn more about the roles and what it means to serve as an officer and help a club achieve success.

See you at a club leader training soon!

All the news from Blenheim

Did you know that holding a pen in your mouth can improve your mood?

That was just one of the tidbits of information that were on offer at District conference in Blenheim. On the first weekend in November, just over 300 Toastmasters from all around the country gathered at Marlborough Convention Centre for a weekend of learning, networking, and fun.

The conference organisers had a fantastic schedule ready for us, with keynotes and educational workshops from all over the spectrum of communication and leadership. In the space of two short days, attendees learned about telling their stories in speeches, improving memory, mastering Table Topics, coming across as a leader, and even how to take control of their lives and be more productive. That tip about the pen? That was thanks to trainer Roydon Gibbs, who shared the insight that forcing your face to make a smiling shape can trick your brain into feeling happier - and a pen in the mouth is one way to do that!

Contests are the centrepiece of a District conference. The Table Topics contest on Saturday, and Humorous contest on Sunday, were both won by speakers from Division C (Otago/Southland). Table Topics champion Christine Livingstone spoke with passion and humour on the benefits of recognising diversity through public holidays. Humorous champion Bruce Caughey had the audience in stitches with his cautionary tale of what happens if you let a your tin of condensed milk boil dry.

Table Topics Winners - 3rd - Peter Scholtens, 1st Christine Livingstone, and 2nd Stephen Budai.
Photo credit: District 72 website

Division E contestants placed in both contests, with Peter Scholtens (Statistically Speaking) placing third in Table Topics, and Ella Kahu (Island Bay) coming third in Humorous. Congratulations, Peter and Ella!

At the business meeting on Saturday afternoon, club representatives had the opportunity to ask questions about the District's budget and financial performance, as well as the work going on to build new clubs and support members in achieving their educational goals. A change to the District Procedures for budgeting got everyone engaged in the debate, and the meeting finished almost exactly on time. (Minutes for the business meeting will be available on the District website in due course.)

The Saturday night dinner was great fun for all, with plenty of dancing and some new friendships being formed. The dinner theme of "Colour your world" gave everyone inspiration for their outfits, with some turning up in brightly coloured wigs or clown costumes, while others stuck with colourful dresses and suits - there were even a few fascinators left over from the Melbourne Cup.

As the conference wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, delegates spilled out of the Convention Centre into a blindingly hot Marlborough day. The Blenheim town square was full of stalls selling ice cream and other treats, and many people stopped off there on their way to the airport - where an impromptu Toastmasters meeting was held in the terminal, complete with a CC 6 speech, evaluation and Table Topics! Toastmasters never pass up a speaking opportunity!

L-R: Simon Lin, Rob Barton-Howes, Gael Price, Mike McKee, Kai Chan - admiring the scenery en route from the airport to the convention. 

Presenting the pick and mix workshop

8 wholesome nutrition rich educationals to grow happy healthy clubs

We all like being part of a vibrant, creative, forward-thinking active club.  It's stimulating for new and more experienced members alike. And the healthier the club is, the more prosperous and happy it is. New members come along. Experienced members enjoy mentoring them while continuing to develop and learn new skills themselves. But how do we get to that nurturing place, or keep it? The answer is simple. Come along to find out!

How to make your club successful - a smorgasbord 

Four experienced Toastmasters; John Lulich, Diane Isherwood, Neville Isherwood, and Amanda Hillock, will give you the opportunity to pick and mix from the following presentations:

1) Finding New Members for your Club
2) Evaluate to motivate
3) Creating Best Club Climate
4) Meeting Roles and Responsibilities
5) Mentoring
6) Keeping the Commitment
7) How to be a Distinguished Club
8)The Toastmasters Educational Program

Each module will run for 15 minutes (12 minutes presentation and 3 minutes Q&A). There will be two rooms, and two presentations running simultaneously. You choose which you want to attend.

The nitty-gritty details to note are:

• Date: 28/11/2015 
• Time: 1:15pm-3:00pm 
• Venue: Anvil House, Level 1,138/140 Wakefield Street, Te Aro, Wellington
• Entry: gold coin koha
   

Who should come along?

Club Committee members and interested club members from Areas E and J. We look forward to see you there. Bring your questions, bring your experience and let's learn together.

Download the flier

Click the link to download the flier to share with your club members: Happy Healthy Clubs

Queries

Please contact the organiser Kai Chan. Email: kaiychan@yahoo.com or Mobile: 02102601763

The art of good evaluation distilled

This post is brought to you per courtesy of Island Bay Toastmasters, and more specifically Gary Basham.

At our last meeting he facilitated a group discussion on evaluations.

The purpose was to establish a set of "must-have" elements that when combined would form a good evaluation.

The reason behind the mini-workshop was to provide people who were inexperienced at receiving and giving evaluations a solid foundation to work with. The core question to be answered was; "What do they need to know?" The goal was to generate a list of take-away points which could then be used as an ongoing reference.

The result was a fascinating, dynamic, and engrossing look at exactly what was important in the art of evaluation worthy of sharing.

The evaluation brainstorm

 I've summarized the main points.

Why evaluate?

Evaluation provides feedback allowing a speaker to hear how his/her delivery was experienced. Without it we work on supposition and assumption. A Toastmaster's evaluation shifts assessment from an internal subjective response to an external, structured and hopefully, reasonably objective one.

A good evaluation reinforces and extends what we are already doing, or learning to do, well  and recommends aspects that could benefit from fine tuning. It is a powerful tool - a vital part of learning to be a better speaker.

What should be in an evaluation?

It should focus on the content of the speech; its structure, delivery and suitability for the audience. It should NOT be a retelling of the speech itself.

It also should be in the 3rd person rather than directly referencing the speaker. This removes the "personal" from the evaluation and additionally opens it to include the whole audience. It gives us all an opportunity to learn.

An evaluation is always of the speech, and never the person.

An acknowledgement that these are the evaluator's opinions. They are not facts. Statements need to be owned. Eg. "I think..." "I feel..."

How should an evaluation be structured?

An easy and good way is to follow the objectives outlined in the manual for the speech delivered. Has the speech met them? Where? How?

The Commend, Recommend, Commend model is proven as efficient and effective. It provides a palatable platform to give (and receive) recommendations without speaker on the receiving end feeling overwhelmed by how much they have to learn.  We feel so much better about ourselves if our strengths are acknowledged, as well as our challenges.

Recommendations should be specific, doable and come with examples that the speaker can use as a starting point to improve. Example: I think xxx would benefit from doing diction exercises. They would help speech clarity. There's a series of tongue twisters here that will provide hours of fun.

Even if the speaker is accomplished the evaluation should include something they can tweak to enhance their presentation - however small it may be. And as noted on the whiteboard "don't sugar coat".

Commendations also need to be anchored in specific detail. Comments like "That was marvelous" may be flattering but they're meaningless unless they're attached to an example. Eg. I particularly liked your use of a rhetorical question as an opening. It hooked the audience in -sat them up and made them listen.

How do people learn to evaluate well?

• Observe and learn from more experienced speakers. Having excellence modeled is very effective.
• Conduct an educational and invite experts to share their wisdom.
• Provide feedback to the evaluators through the General Evaluator role on what was good and what needed fine tuning.  

Where do people find more information on giving evaluations?

Toastmaster's International has articles on them and Googling the phrase 'Toastmasters evaluations' will pull up a wealth of responses. I particularly like this one from Andrew Dlugan: The Art of Delivering Evaluations  which has ongoing links into more useful material.

What are the benefits of giving evaluations?

We are learning important and valuable leadership skills - the ability to express an opinion and back it, while supporting a person (the speaker) respectfully.

In summary

The session was a valuable reminder about one of the core attributes of the Toastmasters' programme - a part that makes it very special. In learning to evaluate well, we also learn to take criticism well, to respond usefully to challenges and to genuinely encourage others to extend themselves.

Thanks Gary!

Table topics - the power of three

Rob Julian

Continuing the words of wisdom on impromptu speaking from our experienced speakers - here's Rob Julian.

Previously we heard from:

• Stuart Marshall
• Gael Price

We hope what they've got to say helps and inspires you!

---

Rob says

Before your turn comes to speak, breathe in and out deeply at least three times. It will help relax you and ensure you have plenty of air in your lungs before you start speaking. You don’t want to start your first statement with a squeaky voice.

1. LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE TOPIC. It will be stated twice. You don’t want to start speaking and then half way through realise you have forgotten what the topic was.
   
   
2. REPEAT THE TOPIC SLOWLY, PORTENTOUSLY, AND MEANINGFULLY, as if it was the most significant and perceptive statement anyone has ever heard. Like:
   
   "ARE – WE- REALLY- RULED –BY – TECHNOLOGY?"
   
   It is surprising how meaningful this sounds and it does give you time to think up your opening statement. Which is
   • Either you agree with it – the safest stance; or
   • It is a load of nonsense – risky but effective if you can pull it off. But then you are not in the contest to come second or third.
      
3. GO FOR ‘THE POWER OF THREE’. As in ‘I will outline three reasons why the statement is true (or a load of garbage)’. Then frantically think of what the three reasons could be. By the time you mention them, the red light will come on and you must IMMEDIATELY summarise.

One further point, if you are going for the PAST-PRESENT - FUTURE technique, make sure you make it clear that this is what you are doing. The judges may not realise it and think you are straying from the topic.

On the joys of judging ...

And speaking of judging, be aware that the Impromptu Contest is somewhat of a lottery, If you don’t win then it is obvious that the judges were a pack of incompetents with an IQ not much larger than their shoe size, and who wouldn’t recognise a good speech if they were hit over the head with one. On the other hand, if you do win, it is surely as a result of superior intelligence, ability, and charisma. Namely, yours.

Go for it.

---

About Rob

Rob Julian DTM. Came runner-up in the District Impromptu Speech Contest at the Silver Jubilee in 1987, the same Convention where he won the District Prepared Speech Contest. In those days the Impromptu Contest was 5/6/7 minutes, which Rob says was actually easier than the present 1/1.5/2 minute limits. There was time to work your way into the topic. He won the Division E Impromptu Contest in 2010 before the split, when there were 11 Areas competing. The Impromptu Trophy is unfinished business since it is the only District Contest he has not won.

Table topics tips - Gael Price

Continuing our trilogy - Impromptu Speaking Help - here's the second installment featuring Gael Price.

Gael is a member of Te Aro Toastmasters and our current Division E Director. She won the Division E Table Topics Contest in 2012.

Gael (R) joins the Night King (L) aka Phil Anderson to MC their work place mid-year ball

Gael's three tips are ...

1.  Reach a conclusion early in your speech.

Once you've settled on your main argument, it's usually easy to keep adding points in support until your time is up. If you dither and weigh up options then you'll likely run out of time to strongly support your preferred option, meaning you may come across as indecisive or unconvincing.

2.  Enjoy the power of pause. 

A big pause makes your audience wonder what could be coming next. Sure, you may be wondering the same thing, but they don't know that - and you're getting all that thinking time for free while they snap to attention and wonder what the pause is about.

3. Relax and let your mind wander. 

Free-associate. Don't worry too much about where you might be going. If the start of a sentence occurs to you, chances are you'll have an ending for it before you're halfway through actually saying it. Remember your mind works way faster than your mouth, so let it!

---

Thanks Gael!

In the final of the series we'll have Rob Julian's tips. Of course if you'd like to add your comments, please do. They're welcome!

Division E Conference - contest results and photos

The Division E Conference, featuring the Humorous and Table Topics Contests, was on Saturday 10th October at St Catherine's College, Kilbirnie.

We heard some fabulous speeches from some equally fabulous people! Thank you everybody; contestants, audience, and all the various officials and helpers who came together to make the event enjoyable, and possible.

MC Owen Winter

The table topics contest

The contestants seen here, holding their participation certificates, preparing to answer interview questions from the Contest Chair.

L-R: Mitchell Bidois, Dionne Needham, Kevin Plant, Rose Austen-Falloon, Peter Scholtens, Aaron Hodder, Kate Roberts, Contest Chair Amanda Hillock

And the winners were ...

L-R: Kevin Plant (3rd), Peter Scholtens (2nd), Rose Austen-Falloon (1st), District Director Carol Mitchell, Contest Chair Amanda Hillock

Rose goes on to Blenheim to join other Division winners in the national Table Topics Contest at the TM Convention 6th-8th November.

Special Awards

There were several special awards given: best club website (won by Cook Strait), two for 25 years membership, plus these pictured below:

EJ Wilmott past Area E7 Director receives the Division Area Director Award for service from past Division Director Ian Lankow

Advanced Wellington win the Colin Perfect Award for the club with the most members at the conference.

Toastmaster of the Year Award

Rachel Barnett

This very special award went to Rachel Barnett (Progressive Toastmasters) for the above and beyond can-do, will-do assistance she gave to Area E3, including taking on Director duties while its then Director Billie Searle was overseas.

*Posted late with apologies for the omission.






Other special events

Judy Love (DTM) gives Division Director Gael Price's opening address because she was on an Outward Bound Leadership Course 

The Humorous Speech Contest

The contestants, holding their participation certificates, being interviewed by the Contest Chair.  

L-R:  E2 Alastair Finlay, E1 Kath Cherrie, E7 Ella Kahu, E3 Billie Searle, E10 Deepshikha Vyas, E6 Marie Wright, Contest Chair Rose Wyse

And the winners were ...

L-R: Alastair Finlay (3rd), Billie Searle (2nd), Ella Kahu  (1st), Carol Mitchell District Director, Rose Wyse Contest Chair

Ella goes on to Blenheim to join other Division winners in the national Humorous Speech Contest at the TM Convention 6th-8th November.

Many thanks to Russell Turney (Island Bay) for the photographs.
* To view ALL the photos Russell took (and there are many of them - too numerous to share here) please click here. This will open a shared google drive page displaying two zipped folders of photos. To open either of the folders click on them. Next click the white download arrow (top centre of your screen). This will download the images to your own computer. Now you can view them, one by one. Happy browsing!

Blenheim awaits!

The Division conference is over and our champions are making their preparations to travel to Blenheim, to compete at the next level. Will you be joining them?

What is District convention?

Convention is when all the Toastmasters from one District come together to learn and celebrate each other's achievements. All of New Zealand is one District - District 72. District 72 holds two conventions each year, one in November and one in May.

This November, convention is in Blenheim; in May we go to Rotorua, and the following November it's Invercargill. Convention is a great excuse to see the country!

What happens at November convention?

Each November we hold our national Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests. The nine Division-level winners in each contest will compete to determine the ultimate District champion.

But that's not all - convention is a full weekend of events, featuring educational workshops, social functions, and the semi-annual business meeting.

Who should attend?

All Toastmasters are welcome at convention! Everyone, from new members to club presidents and beyond, will find plenty to learn and lots of great networking opportunities. A convention as handy as Blenheim is a great opportunity to attend easily - it hasn't been this close to Wellington since 2013.

Check out the convention website for registration information (but book your accommodation first - accommodation in Blenheim is very tight already).

I'm already registered! What do I need to do before I go?

Talk to your club President about your club's votes for the business meeting. Every club has two votes, which can be carried by the President and Vice President Education, or assigned to another club member who is attending the business meeting. If you're the only person attending from your club, it's important that you get those votes assigned to you before you go - if there aren't enough club votes present, the meeting can't go ahead.

You can download voting documents from the meeting website. These need to be signed by your President and VPE and returned by email before 3 November.

If you're attending the business meeting, have a quick look at the meeting documents beforehand. You don't need to print out copies of everything, but try to familiarise yourself with the agenda and papers that will be discussed. There won't be any copies distributed at the meeting.

What should I expect when I get there?

Say hello to everyone you meet, ask them about their home club and how far they've travelled. Everyone is friendly and looking to meet new people. My favourite conversation starter is to ask people what they've learned at convention so far - chances are they've attended a session you missed, and by chatting to them you can learn all about it too.

Remember that convention is very full on! Make sure you have a few snacks in your bag for those long sessions between breakfast and morning tea, and don't expect to be able to escape from the convention centre, even for a short walk - you'll most likely be busy talking to people from start to finish each day.

I can't attend! What do I do?

Keep your eye on Facebook and Eat Your Crusts for updates! If no one is attending from your club, make sure you return a voter registration form with the club's apology before 3 November. Every club is invited to the business meeting, and it's polite to send an apology if your club can't make it.

See you there (whether in real life or here on the blog)!

Impromptu speaking help

Hands up if you recognize any of these -

You stood up to speak and ...

• pulling a few words together became as difficult as herding cats
• your heart rate shot through the roof
• your mind chose that moment to empty itself completely. Totally blank. There was nothing there. Nada. Zip. You experienced an instant case of lights on but no one home.

It's for you we've pulled together the thoughts and suggestions of three very experienced impromptu speakers. These are folk who have survived and gone on to thrive in the fine art of impromptu speaking, winning table topic contests at Area and Division level.

Image credit: Jonny Goldstein Flickr

In the next few posts you'll hear from Dr Stuart Marshall, Head of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University, Gael Price, our current Division E Director and Senior Economic Analyst at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and Rob Julian, DTM.

They were each asked to give their 3 top tips.

Stuart Marshall  says ...

I was associated with Harbourside Toastmasters, but I’m no longer a Toastmaster at the moment due to competing work and community commitments. I’ll be back with the organisation one day!

I won the Division Contest in 2013, and sometime around 2006.  (I've forgotten exactly when, sorry.)

My top 3 table topic tips

If I analyse how I did table topics, it generally involved:

1. Committing to a topic

Sometimes it’s not that people don’t have any ideas on how to respond to a topic, but the problem is that they have too many ideas/options, and become paralyzed. 

My strategy was always to go with the first approach that came to mind, and commit to that approach. 

Quite a few times, I’d realize thirty seconds in that what I was saying was not going to result in some sane and serious conclusion. Rather than back-tracking though, I would just commit to the absurdity, and follow that absurdity to its logical conclusion. Surprisingly, that resulted in some of my most successful speeches.  You can find some strange insights in the absurd. 

Two minutes is such a short time, that you simply can’t afford to pull back or back track.

2. Depth rather than breadth

A two minute table topic can’t be filled with seven different sub-topics and neither can you expect yourself to be able to deftly tie them all together in a way that the audience will understand, at least not often. 

The key is to fill out the two minutes, but do it with adding depth to two key points, rather than trying to rattle off a sequence of bullet-pointed items in the hope that something sticks. That also goes back to the issue of committing to the topic. 

Stay with a sub-topic.  Explore its edges, but don’t dance from one point to the next unless you’re an extremely experienced juggler and think you can weave them all back together in a sparkling conclusion. That final step is usually beyond even the most experienced speakers.

3. Listen, learn and then evaluate

You listen to many more table topics than you deliver, so assessing what you hear is key in learning what does,  and doesn’t work for an audience. 

When I evaluated speakers, I rarely took notes while, (or even directly after), they were speaking. That may sound odd, but a table topic or a seven minute speech is something that should stick with the audience a fair while after the delivery. 

The vast majority of your audience, either in or outside TM, won’t be taking notes which is why as a speaker you need to leave them with something that sticks in their mind, and not on their notepad. As a listener or evaluator if something was particularly memorable about a speech (good or bad) it’ll stand out in your mind after the presentation, if you were actually listening. 

You need to separate out what stays in your mind naturally, and what minor quirks you felt compelled to write down.  If you have to rely on your notes to identify a fault or a good aspect in your evaluation fifteen / twenty minutes later, was it really a major fault/aspect? 

If I did take notes at all during the speech, it was a record of what the speaker was trying to achieve at a specific point in time. From that I could construct a set of speaker intentions that mapped to strategies they were attempting, and my recollections of the success (or failure) of those strategies. 

A record of their intentions was useful, as it helped me identify similar instances in my own speeches. It helped me decide whether the strategy was useful to follow or to avoid. 

Stuart's closing words on the topic
 

Lastly, I had a fairly bad stutter when I was younger, and table topics was an important step towards gaining the confidence to lecture in my life as an academic. It was scary then. It’s scary now, but the scariness is no longer an impediment but a source of energy instead.

It goes without saying that the more you do, the more comfortable you become. The trick is never to want to be too comfortable, but to always be enough, to make it up on stage.

The other key thing with table topics is that it is about trusting yourself to speak. Trusting yourself that if you open your mouth to engage with a topic that you’ve only just been given, (as is often the case in conversations), then words will come out that can be recognized as English sentences, and that they vaguely make sense!

Thank you Stuart!

---

Next up we'll have Gael's tips. Stay tuned, and if you get the urge to share a tip on the topic go right ahead. That's what the comment box is for!

Area contests conclude: E7 and E9

What a time of it! There's been giggles and snorts all over the Wellington region. On Thursday night (24th September) it was E7's turn to add a few more.

Turbine Talkers hosted a combined Table Topics and Humorous Speech event at St Matthews Church. (Thank you! The half-time supper was lovely.)

Russell Turney chaired the Humorous Contest and Rose Wyse the Table Topics.

In the Humorous Contest we were captivated by a broad range topics given more than a slight tweak to reveal their funny sides.

Deborah Lambie reflected on the mixed pleasures of being a morning person working through the night in a hospital delivery suite, Ella Kahu deliberated whether to choose a red car over a toy boy to sidestep her next midlife crisis, Paul Beres begged for empathy and understanding of his All Black addiction disorder during the ongoing World Cup season, Chris Woodhouse bravely bared his soul revealing the limitations of his DIY Man GPS, Miranda Struthers put her 7.3 seconds worth of TV celebrity fame in perspective and Khorshed Irani examined the merits of three items on her bucket list.

E7 Humorous Speech Contest: L-R Ella Kahu, Paul Beres, Deborah Lambie, Khorshed Irani, Miranda Struthers, Chris Woodhouse, Contest Chair Russell Turney.

The contest was won by Ella Kahu (Island Bay). Deborah Lambie was placed second and Chris Woodhouse, third.

E7 Humorous Contest place getters: L-R Area Director Mike Mckee, 2nd place  Deborah Lambie, 1st place Ella Kahu, 3rd place Chris Woodhouse, Contest Chair Russell Turney.

Five table topic contestants gave their considerably varied opinions as to whether "we should return to the old ways of teaching".

We learned from Pamela Snow that we should not: that we should extend and celebrate interactive exploratory teaching. Jill Skinner figured that as she hadn't turned out all that badly, it was a reasonably good idea to retain some of that methodology. John Lowe confessed he had no recall of 8 years worth Latin taught the old way and remembered instead an ogre of a teacher. Patrick O'Rourke demonstrated the benefits of rote learning and Kate Roberts thought bringing back the cane would solve attention difficulties in the class room.

E7 Table Topics Contest: L-R Kate Roberts, Jill Skinner, John Lowe, Pamela Snow, Patrick O'Rourke, Contest Chair Rose Wyse.

The contest place-getters were: 1st Kate Roberts (Island Bay), 2nd John Lowe and 3rd Pamela Snow.

E7 Table Topics Contest Winners: L-R Area Director Mike McKee, John Lowe (2nd place), Kate Roberts (1st place,) Pamela Snow (3rd place), Contest chair Rose Wyse. 

Over in Area E9, the Table Topics contest was hosted by Terrace@12. Contest chair Peter Scholtens challenged contestants with the question "Whose responsibility is it to teach life skills - schools or family?". While some responses emphasised the importance of family, others argued that "it takes a village to raise a child". Contest winner Rose Austen-Falloon (Terrace@12) pointed out that schools are already doing plenty with their standard curriculum, and adding life skills as well would be a burden.

E9 Table Topics placegetters: L-R 2nd place Raymond Kemp, 1st place Rose Austen-Falloon, contest chair Peter Scholtens

In the very last Area contest of the season, the Area E9 Humorous contest was held at Victoria University Toastmasters. The audience was entertained by two contestants, who held our attention with ruminations on hiring and firing, and the strangeness that sometimes creeps into an ordinary day. The contest was won by Raymond Kemp (Five Crowns).

Area E9 Humorous placegetters: L-R 2nd place Zaine Mitchell, 1st place Raymond Kemp, contest chair John Stapleton

That concludes this Area contest season. See you all at the Division conference, where we can watch all our winners compete to find the Wellington champion!

Area contests continue: E2, E3 and E10

The past week has been a very busy time for contests, with areas E2, E3 and E10 each holding a pair of successful contests.

The Area E2 Table Topics contest was hosted by Capital Chatterers and chaired by Matt Easton. Seven contestants responded to the question "What is the most important high school subject?". Some speakers fondly remembered their own high school education, and others shared stories from their children's experience, as they argued for a whole range of different subjects - maths, English, history, even PE. Contest winner Kevin Plant (Capital Breakfast) argued that the most important subject is the one not taught at school - life, and especially how to get along with people in the real world.

E2 Table Topics contest: L-R contest chair Matt Easton, 3rd place Alastair Finlay, 2nd place Sarndra Flay, 1st place Kevin Plant.

Business Breakfast Club hosted the E2 Humorous contest. Five humorous speakers, chaired by Sarndra Flay, entertained the audience with topics ranging from elevator etiquette and journalistic hijinks to personal ads and Shakespeare. The contest was won by Alastair Finlay (Vodafone Capital).

 E2 Humorous contest: L-R Area Director Amanda Hillock, 1st place Alastair Finlay, 2nd place Katie Boyle, 3rd place EJ Willmot, contest chair Sarndra Flay.

The Humorous contest in Area E3 was hosted by Up Top Toastmasters. Contest chair Rachel Pointon ensured the meeting ran smoothly as the audience was entertained by two speeches about the unexpected things in life (what do sloths have to do with language difficulties? I'll leave you to guess). Billie Searle (High Noon Bankers) won first place.

E3 Humorous contest: L-R Area Director Sam Masters, 1st place Billie Searle, 2nd place Alex Carr, contest chair Rachel Pointon.

The Area E3 Table Topics contest was hosted by Taxing Toastmasters. After noting that it was "a battle of IRD vs bankers", contest chair Peter Anderson challenged the four contestants with the question "What are the reasons you choose to live in the Wellington region?". Contestants highlighted their favourite things about Wellington, including the accessible outdoors, the wildlife, and the cafes and theatres. The contest was won by Colleen Daymond-King (BNZ Harbour Quays) with her response about the joy of finding little blue penguins under her house.

E3 Table Topics contest: L-R Greer Mitchell, Federico Iglesias, 2nd place Dionne Needham, 1st place Colleen Daymond-King, contest chair Peter Anderson, Area Director Sam Masters

Advanced Wellington hosted contest night in area E10, with a well-attended meeting at which Denis McCord chaired both contests. Humorous contestants entertained the audience with speeches about the oddities of family life, the flag referendum, goat farming, and even failing eyesight. Deepshikha Vyas (Te Aro) won the Humorous contest.

E10 Humorous contest: L-R 1st place Deepshikha Vyas, 2nd place Lynne Russell, contest chair Denis McCord

After a break for some very good supper, E10 moved into the Table Topics contest. Five contestants were asked the thought-provoking question "Do you agree that the food you eat determines the way you live?". Responses were varied, ranging in emphasis from the pleasurable aspects of eating delicious food, to the importance of good nutrition. Contest winner Mitchell Bidois (Mid City) focused on the ways that well-planned meals can help to save time.

E10 Table Topics contest: L-R 3rd place Clark Ehlers, 2nd place Kerry Hilligan, 1st place Mitchell Bidois, contest chair Denis McCord

To catch up on the other Area contests, see the contest timetable and the Areas E6 and E1 contest writeup. And don't forget to register for the Division conference to see your winners in action!

What really makes a successful club?

What is success? In Toastmasters, success is clearly defined for us: successful clubs are Distinguished in the Distinguished Club Program (DCP). That means they achieve at least five goals (PDF) and also have at least 20 members by the end of the Toastmasters year.

But how do clubs become successful?

In the Toastmasters International Members Group on Facebook (which is an excellent discussion forum that I highly recommend to new and experienced Toastmasters alike), conversation is often focused on how clubs can build membership and achieve goals. Recently the District Statistician from District 57, George Marshall, posted some very interesting figures linking club success to meeting frequency and to meeting duration.

Being an economist, I couldn't resist working with those figures to produce a few simple charts.

Chart showing membership and DCP goals for the 2014-15 Toastmasters year for 15,080 clubs, categorised according to the number of days between their meetings.

Chart showing membership and DCP goals for the 2014-15 Toastmasters year for 3,882 clubs, categorised according to the number of minutes of club meeting time per month.

It looks as if a club that meets more frequently has more members and achieves more goals. Similarly, clubs devoting more time to meetings each month are more successful than clubs with less meeting time. But what does that mean?

A club with more meetings provides more speaking opportunities, meaning it can support more members and achieve more goals. And a club spending more time in meetings can get more speeches in. The argument goes the other way, too: a large club with lots of members needs to meet often and for a reasonable length of time in order to provide all those members with the opportunities they need to meet their goals. Otherwise the members could become disillusioned and leave the club, taking their educational awards with them.

Supporting members and achieving DCP goals takes time. After all, it takes 100 minutes to achieve a Competent Communicator award (7 minutes of speech plus 3 minutes of evaluation, for 10 speeches). That means it takes 400 minutes of meeting time to achieve the first two goals on the distinguished club program. To fit that in, the club has to spend a reasonable amount of time in meetings. For advanced communication awards and leadership awards, the time requirement could be even more!

So is it as simple as increasing your meeting frequency to weekly from fortnightly to get extra goals on the DCP this year? Probably not. If the members of your club are accustomed to achieving at a certain rate - say, one speech every six weeks - they'd probably prefer to continue at that rate even if there are more meetings. But that's only if they are happy with the meeting time as it stands! What if they'd be just as happy meeting more often, or for longer? Why not ask them? There could be untapped potential there for your club, which you could unlock just by having slightly more meeting time each month.

Success in Toastmasters is narrowly defined as achieving DCP goals and membership strength. But where do those things come from? They come from having active, engaged members who are happy achieving their goals. Happy members recruit more members, give speeches, achieve goals, and make your club Distinguished.

There's no magic formula - supporting your members means meeting as often and for as long as works for them. If they're achieving their goals, your club will achieve its goals. Are your members happy with their current rate of achievement? Ask them!

Levitation

Gary found public speaking quite uplifting.

*Thanks to Strictly Speaking for the pic.

Division E Conference

Book your place. Mark your calendars. And spread the news.

It's time to get ready to come together to share the final event in the series that's kept us giggling and talking up a storm through winter.

Who will come out on top in the Humorous Contest?

Who will demonstrate their superior prowess in Table Topics?

Conference planning is well underway.

Download a conference flyer

Click this link to download a conference flyer. 

To Register now

Register now to save. ($12 now. $15 cash on the day.)

Two step Early Bird payment details:

1. Deposit $12 to BNZ 02-0100-0666790-002 using your name and "Div E Conf" as the reference before Friday 2nd October.
2. Email area_e2@toastmasters.org.nz with subject line "October Conference Registration". In the body of your email please include your name, phone number and club(s).

Key conference details

• Date: 10th October, Saturday
• Time: 1pm start - 4.25 wrap up
• Location: Saint Catherine's College, 14 Upper Bourke Street, Kilbirnie, Wellington
• To Register: Please see above.

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Keep up with the play

The battle for a place in either of the Division Contests is far from over.

Check this handy calendar of Area Contest events. As of today there are 8 still to run!

Results so far

E6 and E1 have had their contests. Click to see who you'll be seeing at the Conference.

Taking the plunge: Wellington Risk Toastmasters expand their horizons

Neil Passey knows a good thing when he sees it. After visiting a Toastmasters club just a few times as a guest, the senior manager at ANZ Wellington decided to take the plunge and bring Toastmasters into his workplace.

With the help of experienced Toastmaster Steve Preston, Neil organised a demonstration meeting to show his colleagues what Toastmasters is all about. Interest was strong and the prospective club began meeting regularly in July.

Wellington Risk Toastmasters now has 17 members. "There's a really good dedicated core of people," Neil said. "They're all from the risk department, which is only two floors [of the building]. If we opened it up to the whole office, membership would probably explode!"

Members of club in formation Wellington Risk Toastmasters

At one recent meeting, club members were entertained by an Icebreaker from new member Fiona about her love of travel. She confided that, after working in London for a while, she joined the "FILTH" - "Failed in London, trying Hong Kong".

After Fiona's Icebreaker, members discussed the CC manual and planned how they would work through the various speech projects.

Neil said that, when it comes to understanding the educational program, the guidance of other Toastmasters is invaluable.

"The local community support has been great... everyone wants to help. It's humbling."

As the club gets close to chartering, members are beginning to think about filling committee roles and getting some leadership training. Understanding the world of Toastmasters through educationals will be a priority. In the meantime, the club members are enjoying their regular public speaking practice and having fun getting to know colleagues in a different way through their speeches.

From speaker to trainer

Do you tell, do you show or, do you involve? Which is most effective?

And why should you care at all?

Because the ability to train, and train well, is an extraordinarily useful leadership skill to have.

Training is not the same as speaking.

As a speaker, we are mostly telling. We stand in front of audience and talk. We may share stories to enliven our speech and engage the audience, nevertheless we are still telling.

If we're demonstrating something, we're showing. That activity covers infinite possibilities: how to tie a tie, how to text, how to ... Showing generally implies an audience focused on an "expert", watching them move from one step to another to complete a task or a process. That is not training either.

What is training

Training is a synthesis of speaking, demonstrating and interaction. The trainer involves the audience. They work together, side by side through a carefully crafted series of steps to learn new skills. Good training empowers and builds community.

Learn to train - Go to the Speaker to Trainer Workshop

Give yourself another skill to use in your workplace or your Toastmaster club.

Steve Bullock, DTM, and Past Distinguished District Governor is leading an important workshop to help you improve your club, speaking, and teaching. He is also a past Region Advisor and has helped with training District Leaders around the world.

The details are:

Date: 19th September, Saturday

Cost: Koha at the door, afternoon tea provided.

Time: 1:30pm-4:30pm

Location: Upper Hutt Baptist Church, Cnr Fergusson Drive and Milton Street, Upper Hutt, Wellington

To Register: Please visit Meet-up 

Steve says:

"Many business and other organisations have realised the importance of training. Properly trained people increase productivity and make fewer mistakes. Well-trained people can make the difference between a successful business or organisation, and an unsuccessful one. In Toastmasters, properly trained club and district officers can make the difference between a healthy, exciting growing club and district verses a weak, ineffective club and district. This interactive participative workshop will allow you to discuss and use the five steps involved in preparing and conducting a training program, understand the difference between a platform speaker and a seminar trainer. You can take the transferable skills you will learn into the your toastmasters or your workplace."

Gael Price (our Division Director) says:

"I ran a Speaker to Trainer workshop in June 2014. It was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done at Toastmasters. Acting as a trainer during Club Leadership Training when I was area governor, I managed to move for the first time from worrying about myself and my message to caring more about what the audience was getting out of it. Leading a Speaker to Trainer workshop was a way to share the joy of that experience with other Toastmasters. We designed mini-workshops based around some of the Successful Club Series modules, making use of training techniques and concepts rather than the usual lecture format. It was tremendous fun. For Toastmasters who maybe haven't stepped outside the club much before, attending a workshop like this is a great way to experience a totally different part of the Toastmasters educational program, as well as meeting other members and learning from an experienced Toastmaster."

Speaker to Trainer is part of the Success Communication series.

"Tell me and I'll forget.

Show me and I may not remember.

Involve me and I'll understand."

Area contests kick off: E6 and E1

The Area contest season kicked off in Division E this week with contests in E6 and E1.

The E6 Humorous contest was hosted by Toast Health and chaired by Diane Isherwood. Contestants entertained the audience with stories about their sartorial challenges, gardening woes, conspiracy theories and transport near-disasters. The contest was won by Marie Wright of Toast Health.

E6 Humorous contest: L-R Area Director Owen Winter, 2nd place Kathleen Murphy, 1st place Marie Wright, contest chair Diane Isherwood

The E6 Table Topics trophy went on the line at FearBusters, where contest chair Cathy Myers challenged contestants with the question "If you could go back to when you were 16, what advice would you give yourself?". Responses ranged from tips on career choices to exhortations to relax and worry less. Contest winner Peter Scholtens (Statistically Speaking) advised his younger self to "never go to sleep in a huff".

Area E6 Table Topics contest: L-R contest chair Cathy Myers, 2nd place Franco Pang, 1st place Peter Scholtens, 3rd place Tracy Wilkinson

Contest night in E1 was held at Public Service Toastmasters. The audience was thoroughly entertained by six humorous speeches, many of which made use of everyday life: middle age, marriage, driving, winter weather, and the internet were all subjects of humour for these contestants. The contest was chaired by Mike Lucas, and won by Kath Cherrie of Cupcake Communicators.

Area E1 Humorous contest: L-R 3rd place Nasser Ahmed, 2nd place Rob Julian, 1st place Kath Cherrie, Area Director Simon Lin

After a break for wine and cheese, E1 moved into Table Topics, where contestants answered the question "If you are going overseas for a holiday, where do you want to go?". After six engaging illustrations of wonderful holiday destinations, some audience members were tempted to get distracted planning their next holiday. Announcement of the results by contest chair Kai Chan quickly brought everyone back to the present. Aaron Hodder (Assurity Testmasters) won the contest with his response about visiting "the land of Twin Peaks".

Area E1 Table Topics contest: L-R 3rd place Brian Ventura, 2nd place Kath Cherrie, 1st place Aaron Hodder, Area Director Simon Lin

The next two weeks have contests scheduled in E2, E3, E7 and E10; check the Area contest calendar to see where you can catch your contestants.

Where to find your Area contestants

Club Humorous and Table Topics contests are almost finished, and that means it's time for Area contests! Representatives of all Wellington's clubs will be competing in inter-club contests over the next few weeks, giving their best in the arts of humorous and impromptu speaking.

Image source

Here's where you can go to support your club contestants. (Note: times are approximate. For actual start times, check with your Area Director.)

Area	Contest	Date and time	Hosted by
E1	Both	Tue 8 Sep, 5.30pm	Public Service Toastmasters
E2	Table Topics	Wed 16 Sep, 7am	Capital Chatterers
E2	Humorous	Tue 22 Sep, 7am	Business Breakfast Club
E3	Humorous	Tue 22 Sep, 12 noon	Up Top
E3	Table Topics	Thur 24 Sep, 12.15pm	Taxing Toastmasters
E6	Humorous	Thur 3 Sep, 12 noon	Toast Health
E6	Table Topics	Tue 8 Sep, 12 noon	FearBusters
E7	Both	Thur 24 Sep, 7pm	Turbine Talkers
E9	Table Topics	Wed 23 Sep, 12 noon	Terrace@12
E9	Humorous	Wed 30 Sep, 5.30pm	Victoria University Toastmasters
E10	Both	Thur 24 Sep, 5.45pm	Advanced Wellington

The seven Area winners in each contest will go on to compete in the Division contest on 10 October. See you there!

The pleasures of spontaneity ...

... generally better witnessed rather than directly experienced. (Wisdom straight from the rather large "Things I've learned" file.)

Red pandas say "message is important!"

Hypnotic public speaking

Lunchtime Club Leadership Training

Lunchtime Club Leadership Training was on offer for the first time this year. This initiative was the brainchild of Area E3 Director Sam Masters (High Noon Bankers, Willis Quarter, Taxing Toastmasters, BNZ Harbour Quays and Up Top clubs). Sam explains the thinking behind his push to make it available and shares what happened. 

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Why club committee members need training

The most important part of being on a club committee is being able to serve your club effectively and efficiently. The truth of the matter is we are all volunteers and the result of this is that if we can't be efficient with out time spent on Toastmasters often our clubs will suffer. This is not to say that we as leaders do sub par job, rather that the more efficient we are with our time the more we can do for our clubs. In the past I have heard people say I don't need Club Leadership Training (CLT) because if needed I can always find the right information somewhere. Although true to some extent, there is a major flaw in this logic. What happens when a members question needs to be answered or a club decision needs to be made and we don't have the time to look it up? To me, this is the issue that training helps to solve.

The quest for flexible training to fit member's needs

CLT is run to get committee members trained in how to effectively serve their clubs. When we joined Toastmasters choosing a club was driven by many factors. One factor that everyone of us would have considered would have been 'Does the meeting time suit my schedule?' We asked this question to ensure we could attend meetings and get the most out of toastmasters. At the start of my role as Area Director I realized that if Toastmasters choose their clubs based on times that suit them, surely we should be trying to train them in the same time slot. This idea was met with some serious skepticism as it was not the norm. With some persistence the idea gained momentum and we have successfully run the first ever split session lunchtime CLT with 18 officers trained.

The lunchtime format

To provide the same level of training the lunchtime CLTs were run as three, one hour sessions over consecutive Mondays with attendance required at all three to complete the training. This format allowed for all the same information to be delivered to trainees as in the traditional trainings but in a different time slot. Some Toastmasters are unavailable after work or on weekends due to family, extracurricular activity or geographical restrictions but they have spare time at lunchtime. These people are who this training was targeted at. There is no intention to replace all CLT sessions with lunchtime sessions rather to provide a range of sessions to choose the one which suits best. On the whole, these sessions achieved this purpose.

And the results were ...

I would like to say a big thank you to all those who help run the lunchtime sessions (Rob, Mike, Owen and Tim), to Gael and Larrie for believing this idea could possibly work and most importantly to all those who attended and made it a success. As a result of this successful experiment we will likely run lunchtime sessions again in February for the second round of CLT. I look forward to seeing even more of you there!

Wellington City Council Toastmasters Club - new and ready to welcome more members

Running the city of Wellington is a big job and requires lots of communication between staff working in many different areas. Fortunately, the new Wellington City Council Toastmasters club is here to help!

The Wellington City Council Toastmasters Club Committee

The club in formation has been meeting since April and now has 13 members. Meeting on Wednesday lunchtimes in the newly-refurbished Mezzanine meeting room in Wellington Central Library, the club is enjoying fun, varied meetings every fortnight.

Club President Terri Rosenstock

At a recent meeting, club President Terri Rosenstock won hearts by explaining how to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies - complete with samples for the audience to try! VP Education Chris Ortiz followed up with a hilarious speech about the hidden meaning behind the shape and contents of a traditional pinata, illustrated with photos of a pinata Chris had made herself.

"There's a very enthusiastic group," Terri said, "that's been here since the beginning. They're very committed."

Club sponsor Ian Lankow is very pleased with the new club's progress.

"The club managed [this meeting] all themselves with no help from me. They are a fully fledged club - they just need seven more members!"

Council staff interested in visiting the club can find information on the Council intranet, or by emailing toastmasters.wcc@gmail.com.