Spinnaker Toastmasters Club
Spinnaker Toastmasters Club
1 July 2009 marked the beginning of the new Toastmasters year, with Spinnaker's new President, Kath Cherrie taking over the reigns of the club.
Kath's role during the year is to lead and manage the club towards achieving Distinguished Club status. This involves attending club officer training, ensuring all educational achievements are registered with Toastmasters International, organising any special events including club contests, and keeping the club informed of news and items of interest.
Kath has been a Toastmaster for 3 years and has achieved the Advanced Communicator- Bronze and Competent Leader awards.
A surprise visitor to Spinnaker on Tuesday 24 June was John and Iris Ansell, who belonged to the club for several years. John originally joined Spinnaker Toastmasters as a Speechcrafter, and proceeded to forge a successful public speaking career. John delivered a speech to the club about how Toastmasters had helped him get over his nerves, and propel him onto the public speaking circuit. Iris was also a member of Spinnaker and she delivered many entertaining and informative speeches. John and Iris are pictured here with Dale Hartle DTM, Club President.
Spinnaker Speechcrafters, from left: Hilda Broadhurst, Tuong Nguyen, Airin Alamsjah, Richard Bostock (at back), Raychel Comerford, and Dale Hartle DTM, Spinnaker President and Course Coordinator
Five Speechcrafters graduated from Spinnaker Toastmasters Club's Autumn Speechcraft Course on Tuesday 9 June. The course members had each presented up to 6 speeches during the course, participated in table topics, and learnt how to evaluate other speakers. They had listened to educational presentations by Spinnaker Toastmasters on how to introduce a speaker, evaluate another speaker, speak in table topics, and how to prepare their speeches within the allotted time.
Dale says that the Speechcraft participants were a very talented and dedicated group, who gave many interesting speeches about their lives, families, work and travels. All the Speechcrafters had improved their speaking ability during the course, and went from feeling terribly nervous and shaking with fear at the beginning, to being able to deliver a 5 minute speech calmly and comfortably by the end of the course.
On graduation, the Speechcrafters were presented with their new member pack which consists of the Toastmaster Competent Communicator and Competent Leader Manuals, and their Speechcraft participation certificate.
Spinnaker Toastmasters Club elected a new president, Kath Cherrie, at its annual business meeting on 12 May. Kath takes office on 1 July. In her presidential report, current President Dale Hartle outlined the successes of the club during the past year, and that the club should achieve President's Distinguished Club for the 9th year running by getting 9 out of 10 goals on the distinguished club programme. You can download and read the 2009 President's Report.
Spinnaker club member Dale Hartle competed in the International Speech contest on Petone on Saturday 18 April. Dale's speech "New Year's Resolution" was extremely well received by the audience, especially the 3 costume changes in 7 minutes! Apparently Dale received the admiration of all the women over 50 in the audience when she had the courage to stand on the stage in just her swimming togs! Her speech was about her efforts to get fit and lose weight in preparation for her son's wedding. Unfortunately Dale was unplaced in the top three. There were nine contestants.
The Area E5 speech contests were held in Paraparaumu on Saturday 21 April, and Spinnaker had two participants - Dale Hartle, and Velma Knight.
Dale won the International Speech Contest with her speech "New Year's Resolution", the story of how she completed a new year's resolution. Dale will now compete in the Wellington Division E contests on Saturday 18 April.
Velma represented Spinnaker in the Evaluation contest, and had the daunting task of evaluating Denis McCord DTM, Lt Gov Marketing, with his speech "Our Heritage". Unfortunately Velma was unplaced. Neil MacInnes from Waikanae club won the Evaluation contest.
Kath Cherrie and her daughter also attended the contests in support of Dale and Velma, along with David Knight acting as a judge.
Tuesday 24 February was Spinnaker's International and Evaluation Contest night. In attendance was the Area E5 Governor Margaret Hannan.
There were 6 contestants in the International Contest, and seven for the Evaluation contest. This challenged the judges sorting out the winners from a very high standard of speeches and evaluations.
And the winners were:
International
Evaluation
The winners now go on to compete in the Area Speech Contests to be held in Paraparaumu on 21 March.
The Spinnaker Toastmasters Club held its annual prizegiving on Tuesday 9 December. The evening included a guest speaker, Trish Gray DTM, who presented a speech and reading from her recently launched book "Role Reversal". Trish was invited to speak about her travels in Egypt and Morocco, which was the subject of her new book "Role Reversal" which has just been published.
The club awards included trophies and certificates for the winners and placegetters of the club's annual speech contests.
The club's special awards are described below.
George Nicholson Trophy 2008
Usually awarded to a first-time winner of the International Prepared Speech Contest, if there is anyone who is eligible. This year it is Shona Smith, pictured below.
Most Improved Speaker 2008
This is awarded to the person who has made the most improvement in their speaking during the year. These improvements may be noted in the quantity and quality of prepared speeches, receiving meeting awards, the range of topics presented, audience reaction and interaction, completion of Toastmaster Educational Awards, and competing in Area contests.
This year, there is one Toastmaster who has stood out in all of these areas. She has risen to the occasion many times by keeping us entertained, informed, inspired and persuaded. She has put a tremendous amount of work and practice into her speeches, and the results have shown the evidence of her passion and participation. The most memorable speech was her entry in the humorous speech contest which had us all in fits of laughter.
The most improved speaker award for 2008 goes to Shona Smith.
Spinnaker Toastmaster of the Year Award 2008
This award goes to the Toastmaster who has made the most significant contribution to the club during the past 12 months.
The winner has completed her High Performance Leadership Award. She was the Speechcraft Coordinator, held two club officer roles (VP Membership and VP Education), attended the division conference and club officer training, and received numerous meeting awards. She also delivered several fascinating and moving speeches, and achieved her Advanced Communicator Bronze Award.
This year, the Spinnaker Toastmaster of the Year Award goes to Kath Cherrie, pictured below.
Other awards presented were the Club and Area Table Topics trophies to Susan Finlay, pictured above, and the Club Oral Reading Trophy to Velma Knight (pictured below). Velma also received the Advanced Communicator Gold and Competent Communicator Award.
Dale Hartle, in her capacity as a Distinguished Toastmaster and President of Spinnaker Toastmasters Club, performed a community service on Friday 21 November by acting as Chief Judge in the Year 5-6, and 7-8 Parumoana Schools Speech Contest held at Aotea College, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Plimmerton. The speech topics ranged from battery hens to global warming, my dad, escape from Cambodia, the plight of Jews in WWII, anorexia and hayfever. The children are extremely talented and deliver superb 4 minute speeches, most without notes, with great body language and voice modulation. Some of the speeches were very funny, and it was obvious the amount of work put in by the children and their parents preparing for the contests. It was very hard to choose the winners, but personal stories that made you think and enthusiasm were the clinchers. Here's a photo of the winners group together with the MC and Rotary Club President. The two winners holding the trophies were from Plimmerton School. Other judges were Spinnaker Toastmasters Velma Knight and Susan Finlay.
Spinnaker members were very successful in the Area E5 Speech contests held on Saturday 27 September.
In the Humorous Contest, Shona Smith was placed second with her hilarious speech about her teenage years.
In the Table Topics Contest, Susan Finlay was first, speaking to the topic "Shop till you drop". Susan will now compete in the Division Contests on 11 October in Wellington.
Spinnaker members participated in the annual Humorous and Table Topics Contests on Tuesday 9 September.
The topic for the Table Topics Contest was Murder, with each speaker giving their own take on the subject.
Four humorous speakers wove some wonderful stories with a humorous twist, from growing up, going sailing, foot trouble to lifeguard challenges.
The placings for the Table Topics Contest were:
The placings for the Humorous Contest were:
The Spinnaker club hosted three guest speakers at its Tuesday 29 July meeting.
Distinguished Toastmaster Rob Julian (pictured below) presented a shortened version of his popular "Spice up your Speech" presentation which he gave at the District 72 Convention in May. Following the presentation, Rob invited everyone to prepare a 2 minute table topic to the subject: "I knew I was in trouble when ..." The Table Topics Evaluator Malcolm said it was a most enjoyable session and gave everyone the opportunity to put into immediate practice what we had learnt in Rob's session.
Newly appointed Lt Governor Marketing, Distinguished Toastmaster Denis McCord (pictured below) talked about his role and his road to the top as District Governor in 2010.
The highlight of the evening was the District 72 International Speech Champion Sanjiv Jetly (pictured below) from the Business Breakfast club who presented one of his three speeches for the Inter-District Speech Contest to be held in Calgary, Canada in August. The speech was recorded, and the audience offered feedback for Sanjiv.
Over 25 people attended the meeting, including visitors from several clubs around Wellington.
Visit the Toastmasters New Zealand News page for story and photos of the International Convention, and find out how Sanjiv did with his speech.
Spinnaker Toastmasters Club has achieved President's Distinguished Club for the 2007-08 year, for the 6th year in succession, under President Edward Griffith.
The club attained a perfect 10 score in the Distinguished Club Program, achieving all 10 goals.
Fourteen clubs achieved President's Distinguished status in Division E, but only 7 achieved all 10 goals, and Spinnaker was the only club in Area E5 to reach this level, making the club one of the top 7 highest performing clubs in the Wellington area.
To achieve the ten goals, Spinnaker registered four Competent Communicator Awards, 2 Advanced Communicator and 2 Leadership Awards, and signed up 14 new members during the year. The club also had the required number of club officers attend two training sessions, and submitted their club officer lists and dues renewals on time.
The Award recipients were:
The results were announced by Toastmasters International on 19 July.
Congratulations Spinnaker - President's Distinguished Club 2007-08.
Spinnaker's newest member Lesley Wilson (pictured above), who gave her Icebreaker Speech on Tuesday 8 July, won the Speaker of the Night Award. This Award is given to the member who made the best contribution of the meeting. Lesley's topic was "Lessons from my Mum". In her speech, Lesley described her mother and the lessons she had learned from her over the years, and how she has applied those lessons in her own life. General Evaluator David Knight said Lesley's speech was very well constructed, full of humour and interest, and an excellent model for an Icebreaker speech. Lesley was shocked but very excited to win the award.
Distinguished Toastmaster Dale Hartle was elected to the Club Presidency for the second time, beginning her term on 1 July.
During the forthcoming year, Dale hopes the club will achieve President's Distinguished Club for the eighth successive year, the first year when she was the President for the first time.
Dale's team of club officers includes experienced club members Kath Cherrie, Vice President Education, Susan Finlay, Treasurer, Malcolm North, Secretary and Velma Knight, Vice President Public Relations. First time committee members are Bill Moller, Vice President Membership and John Butt, Sergeant at Arms.
All club officers will attend club officer training, held twice a year, in July and February to gain the knowledge and skills they need to perform their roles.
And all club officers will be working towards gaining their Competent Leadership Award during the year. This consists of meeting and club officer activities which demonstrate leadership skills.
The immediate past President Edward Griffiths had done a great job in leading the club to its seventh successive President's Distinguished Club status, having gained 10 out of 10 goals on the Distinguished Club Program, and Spinnaker was the only club in the area to do so.
Spinnaker President Edward Griffiths presented Kath Cherrie with a bunch of flowers in recognition of her efforts in running the recent successful Speechcraft course. Kath commented that the course had been a wonderful experience, and it was great to see three speechcrafters present at the club meeting. Kath earned her High Performance Leadership Award by coordinating the course.
On Tuesday 13 May, 8 Spinnaker Speechcrafters graduated after their 6 week Introduction to Public Speaking. An audience of about 30 people attended, including family and friends of the Speechcrafters.
The Speechcrafters completed the Toastmasters International programme, delivering up to 5 speeches, including an Icebreaker, Speaking in Earnest and Working with Words. Spinnaker Toastmasters supported the programme by delivering educationals on Evaluations, Body Language and Gestures, and using Visual Aids.
Above: 7 of the 8 graduating Speechcrafters
At the graduation, Speechcrafters said they had learnt a lot about body language, including when not to click your pen, how to pause, and how they had loved listening to other people's stories. They said the Toastmasters had been great mentors and it was wonderful to see everyone enjoying themselves while learning.
One Speechcrafter said "I can no longer hide behind myself!" and when he announced one night "I don't want to do this!" his wife said "You have to!" She was there with his two children to witness the grand finale speech.
Course Coordinator Kath Cherrie said that she had thoroughly enjoyed the experience of running a Speechcraft Course, getting to know everyone, their great stories, and the support from the Toastmasters, family and friends. Kath completed her High Performance Leadership Project by running the course, and several Competent Leader projects. Well done Kath!
The images below show the Speechcrafters receiving their Graduation Certificates and New Member Packs (a couple were too quick for the camera!)
Kath Cherrie completed her first Advanced Manual assignment at Spinnaker Toastmasters by demonstrating how to make and serve "Nana's Pastry" - all in the seven minutes allotted to the speech.
Kath showed us how to prepare the ingredients, roll out the pastry, and prepare it for the oven. At the end, Kath surprised us by uncovering a plate of ready to eat pastry bites she had prepared in advance, and invited us to enjoy them for supper!
Everyone loved them, and we took home Kath's recipe to try it out for ourselves.
Here's Kath demonstrating how to make the pastry.
And here is the recipe for you to enjoy:
Ingredients: 1 cup flour, 250 grams butter, 1 teaspoon vinegar, quarter teaspoon salt, milk to mix
Method: Put flower and salt into a bowl or food processor, cut butter into this. Add vinegar and enough milk to bind together. Roll out 3 times and fold into 3 in each direction in between rolling. Bake in hot oven.