Armadale Toastmasters Club. October Edition 2014. Volume 1, Issue 1

Welcome to Armadale Toastmasters and

Congratulations to all our new members on taking there first step in their

Toastmasters journey.

Every member is willing to help you at any time and we will all support you

with your progress towards your goals.

YOU’RE ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS.

Page 2 Armadale Toastmasters Club.

Recently I had the honour of representing District 17 (WA)

in the semi-finals of the Toastmasters World Championship of

Public Speaking in Kuala Lumpur in August 2014. This contest is

not just a step up from the contests we run here in our district in

WA, it is more like a leap.

After winning the District 17 International Contest in May I

knew I had to step up my game. Olivia Schofield, International

Speaking Coach and Keynote Speaker at the District 17 convention

passed on invaluable tips and recommendations that I was able to

use and incorporate into my speeches and hopefully step it up a level

or two.

Prior to going to KL I attended many local clubs practicing and refining my speech based on many of the

recommendations received. My main mentor, Marianne (my wife), must have heard my speech 20 - 30 times solo, also

providing me invaluable feedback right up to an hour or two before the contest in KL.

I practiced my speech in the hotel room in front of Marianne about 10 -12 times on the day of the contest.

Even on the day I made two changes which enhanced the speech. It wasn't all about content either, it was about

delivery, body movement, gestures, facial expressions, pauses, stage craft and more.

There were nine semi-finals on the day with 91 speakers competing for one of nine places in the World Championship

the next day. Of course I was in the one with 11 people, the rest all had 10 contestants. No matter it is all about your

speech, not the others.

I drew contestant number 10 out of 11, good position. My contest had six Americans, two Australians, one

from Canada, one from Mexico and one from the Bahamas. A good mix. It was an hour wait for my turn. I was calm

and not as nervous as I am when I compete in Division or District

Contests. Just prior to going on I practiced my power poses and

breathing exercises which helped quite dramatically (I recommend

it).

When it was my turn to speak I stepped up and delivered

awesomely supported by many of the Australians who were in the

crowd including the NSW group. I made no mistakes and felt it was

one of my best renditions of "The World Needs More Bricklayers"

speech. I had done what I came to do and the decision was in the

hands of the judges (tough at that level). When the winners were

announced I had secured third place behind the other Australian

contestant,

David Griffiths, from Sydney and the Winner Kelly Sargeant from

Houston who went on to come third in the World Championship.

This was definitely a journey of experience for me on what

it takes to be competitive at the next level. Although I do

Toastmasters for fun I want to be the best I can at Public Speaking

and contests certainly provide that environment. I encourage

anybody in Toastmasters who wants to lift their skills to enter into

contests and challenge themselves to take it to the next level. I will

continue competing for a while as I have unfinished business and I

want to challenge myself to be better. Hope to see you at the

contests.

By Peter Law.

Page 3 Armadale Toastmasters Club.

On the 23 September 2014, our humourous and table topics contests were held. This was a fun-filled evening

which saw 4 contestants in the table topics and 3 contestants in the humourous compete for the title of club champion.

Before the contests got underway, Peter, as Chief Judge, gave us a judging workshop for us to better understand

this important role as some members were judging for the first time. After the workshop, it was time for the contests to

get underway.

The table topics contest was up first. As contest chair, Neville, explained the rules of the contest. The contest-

ants spoke in the following order: 1 Helen, 2 Dave, 3 Patrick and 4 Catherine. After the rules were explained, it was time

for all the contestants except Helen to leave the room. The topic that was given by Neville was ‘If google invented a driv-

erless car, what would be the advantages or disadvantages of this’. Each speaker was required to give their opinion on

this issue. After the last speaker, Catherine, it was time for the judges to tally up their scores and the winners to be deter-

mined. However, we had to wait until the end to find out the winners.

After enjoying a light supper, it was time to start the humourous contest. Colin, as contest chair, explained the

rules and announced the speaker order, which was: 1 Lindsay, 2 Yun and 3 Catherine. Each speaker was required to give

a 5 to 7 minute humourous speech on any topic. Each speaker gave us a humourous speech relating to a personal experi-

ence. After the last speaker, Catherine, it was time to announce the winners. For the table topics contest, Patrick was

named as the winner and Dave came in second place. For the humourous, Yun was named as the winner. Congratula-

tions to our winners and to all those who took part. Both Patrick and Yun will compete at the S31 Area Final on the 14th

October at the Canning Vale Toastmasters.

I would like to thank Pippa for the taking on the Sergeant at Arms and Toastmaster role, Marianne for timing

the contests, Neville and Colin for their role as contest chairs, Jeanette and Kaye for taking on the tally counting role,

Peter for acting as the Chief Judge and the judging workshop and last, but not least, all the members who helped judged.

Without their help, this event would not have being a success.

Page 4 Volume 1, Issue 1

On Tuesday 14 October, 2014, the area S31 finals were held for the Table Topics and Humourous contests at

Canning Vale Toastmasters. Both Dave and Yun were ready to fly the flag for Armadale. They competed against

contestants from Canning Vale, Gosnells Foothills, Southern River and Willetton. The standard of speeches and

table topics answers was quite high. At the end of the evening, we found out the Dave had placed third in the table

topics contest. A fantastic effort. Yun gave a great rendition of her speech, but unfortunately didn’t place in the

humourous contest. Both Dave and Yun did our club proud and gave 110%. Everyone who attended the contest

had a great time and it was a great opportunity to see some of the best speakers in our area.

On Saturday 6th September, Lindsay, Peter, Dave, Yun and Catherine headed down to Armadale City

Shopping centre to help build our membership. The weather wasn’t the best, but we were determined to meet the

locals and try to get them to visit our meeting on the 9th September. The morning was fairly busy, with a few people

stopping by and saying hello. However, with the Dockers game being played in the afternoon, the crowds slowly

dropped off. There didn’t stop us from getting the word out about out awesome club. People still stopped and

chatted to us, taking flyers for later reference. This was a first of a number of shopping centre stalls, with a second

stall planned for November in Kelmscott. Before June next year, we aim to have done at least 6 shopping centre

stalls or stalls at community events to help boost our membership and promote our club to the general public.

Page 5 Volume 1, Issue 1

In honour of Toastmasters International’s 90th Anniversary, our meeting on the 21st October was a roaring 20’s themed meeting. Members came dressed accordingly, with feathers, boas, beads and tuxedos wore by members. Our toastmaster for the evening, Suzanne, warmly welcomed to the meeting and got us into the spirit of the 1920’s. As table topics master, Lindsay, or should I say Big Al Capone, gave us questions relating to ‘business’. Naturally, we all said that everything was going well as we didn’t want to find out what the consequences were if they weren’t. Dave was asked whether the

speakeasies was making any money. During Prohibition, speakeasies were illegal bars. Dave was happy to say that the speakeasies were making Big Al plenty of cash. In order to operate, a speakeasy needs to be supplied with liquor. Catherine was asked how the supply of bootleg liquor was as well as the supply of the liquor. Catherine was happy to report that the supply of bathtub gin was plentiful in her home distillery as well as smaller distilleries placed in secret locations around Chicago. Big Al then wanted to know about some of the other businesses. Pippa was asked about the insurance business. She was happy to report that business was booming, having gone from 4 salesmen to now having 30 and

covering all of Chicago. What an inspired idea. Helen was asked about Al’s employed entertaining girls. She reported that both the girls of the night and the show girls was putting money into Big Al’s bank account, legally. Big Al asked Jeanette how he could reduce his taxes as he didn’t want to pay the government too much money. Jeanette replied by saying the cash from the speakeasies, insurance business and girls should be hidden in mattresses in a secret location. Big Al was happy to hear that business was going well and that he could reduce his taxes. A good outcome for all concerned. Each of our speakers were asked to give a speech either relating to Toastmasters or the 1920’s. As our first speaker, Catherine spoke about the history of a great Aussie icon,

Vegemite. She opened with the catchy jingle titled ‘Happy Little Vegemites’, to which some of the members joined in. This also happened to be the title of the speech. We then heard about when Vegemite first went on sale in 1923 and struggling to survive to becoming Australia’s favourite spread. As the next speaker, Pippa gave us a speech entitled ‘When Life Hands You Lemons’. This was a speech that Pippa was working on to give at a workshop over the weekend, which could possible give her the opportunity to speak on a national stage. As this meeting was celebrating Toastmasters International’s 90th Anniversary, we heard about the history of Toastmasters as well as the background of its

founder, Ralph Smedley from Peter. We heard about Toastmasters humble beginnings at the YMCA centre in Santa Ana, California, USA to now helping more than 313,000 people in 126 countries to become better speakers and leaders. As the final speaker of the

evening, we heard about the ‘Spirit of St Louis’ from Dave. This was the story of Charles Lindbergh, who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic to Paris. Limburg was a thrill seeker and enjoying flying, working as a pilot for the US postal service. This meeting was a thoroughly enjoyable one, with members in attendance getting into the spirit of the 1920’s by either dressing up or given a speech or table topics based on this theme. This meeting was a roaring success.

https://www.facebook.com/ArmadaleToastmasters Please Like Website: http://armadale.toastmasterswa.net/

Our meetings are held at Armadale Primary School on Carradine Street, Armadale (in the Staff Room).

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