Spinnaker Toastmasters Club
Spinnaker Toastmasters Club
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!)
Jennifer Mofflin received her Advanced Communicator - Bronze award on Tuesday 13 May 2008 from President Edward Griffiths. Jennifer has completed the award in double quick time, and delivered some very interesting and unusual speeches, which she said were challenging at times. One memorable speech was her interpretation of David Lange's speech arguing the proposition that "Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible" in the 1985 Oxford Union debate. Congratulations Jennifer.
Spinnaker Toastmasters Shona Smith and Malcolm North competed in the Area E5 speech contests on Monday 31 March. Shona competed in the International Speech Contest (pictured left), while Malcolm entered and was placed third in the Evaluation Contest. Well done to both of you.
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.