2007 Christmas Debate

2007 Christmas Debate

July 2007 to June 2008 Club Executive

Lets congradulate all of the following members who have been elected to the club executive. These members will be leading you over the next 12 months and making sure your needs are being served as a club member. You are most welcome to contact them if you have any further queries in relation to how you can help them out.

President - Verena
VP-Education - Andrew F
VP-Membership - Ronny
VP-Public Relations - Enri
Secretary - Ankur
Treasurer - Tony
Sgt.at Arms - Gail
Past President - Scott

2007 D73 National Conference

A special mention to our long time club International Speech Champion George O'Keeffe. He again for the 9th time made his way to the District 73 International Competition to come 2nd overall. This is an awesome feat and well done George. What may not be realised is the incredible amount of preparation George has put in over the years for these competitions.

I would also like to mention a special thanks to George in recognition to all of the preparation which goes on behind the scenes. We would love to hear more about this in the future.

You can follow the link below to see more pictures that were taken on the day.

2007 D73 National Conference

Club Meeting #254 - 26th April 2007

With our young talented toastmasters coming up through the ranks, this time we had Jennifer to be the toast mistress of our 254th club meeting. Well done Jennifer, who quickly reorganised the meeting and ensured our first time visitors understood what each of the roles were about.

We had 6 visitors attend our meeting, where both Brendan and Terry took the next step and signed up to become a member. Well done guys and we will be in touch with you shortly to scheduel you into the agenda.

Our Table Topics was run by Michael, who gave us a unique taste of Australian sport, running a theme of sport sledging. Quite a topical and contraversial subject with lots of great responses. Well done Michael for giving us something a little different and challenging us in a new way, which is what its all about.

Manual speechs were given by both Manel and Claudia which were a delight to listen to. Such powerful and well crafted speechs. A special congradulations also goes out to Claudia who at last after a number of years has completed her 10th speech and is now a Competent Communicator.

This is also an extra special meeting where Business Talk Toastmasters has now completed all of the requirements to be recognised as a Select Distinguished Club. This is a significant achievement and is only achieved by a select number of clubs in the Metro Division. Well done business talk toasties for making this possible.

Claudia becomes Competent Communicator

Congradulations and well done Claudia on such a persistant effort. This is what Toastmasters is all about. You have given us some memorable speeches and look forward to you progressing through the advanced manuals.

The speeches Claudia gave to achieve this milestone were.

1. 1995-05-25 - Life Experiences
2. 1996-07-25 - To Be Free
3. 1997-08-28 - Famous, for 15 Minutes
4. 1998-04-23 - I've Now Got the Fever
5. 1998-08-13 - Should Junk/Fast Fodds be Banished from our Lives?
6. 1998-11-12 - Let's Party
7. 2000-03-09 - If I had my Life to Live Over Again
8. 2000-09-28 - Music is Good Medicine
9. 2006-11-09 - The Joys of Commuting
10. 2007-04-26 - Let's Begin to Really Listen

Rosetta becomes Competent Communicator

Congradulations Rosetta on becoming a Competent Communicator and is a wonderful milestone to achieve. Rosetta is now the second club member to have achieved this goal this year and can now move into working on the advanced toastmaster manuals to further develop his speaking skills.

The speeches Rosetta gave to achieve this milestone were.

1. 2004-08-05 - Me
2. 2004-09-30 - Customer Service
3. 2004-10-28 - First Love
4. 2005-02-03 - The Bra - A Woman's Best Friend
5. 2005-04-28 - To be or not to be
6. 2005-09-01 - Half Baked Speech
7. 2006-03-09 - School days - naughty ways
8. 2006-07-13 - When you hurt the one you love
9. 2007-02-08 - wake up
10. 2007-04-12 - Embrace Ebay

Club Meeting #253 - 12th April 2007

Happy 12th birthday Business Talk Toasty club!

This is a great achievement and a credit to the strong leadership within the club. It was a full house again, with 10 visitors and a special appearance from Robin who has been hiding away in the background for a while. Great to have you back!

Like all club celebrations, we did it in style. Our special occassion Toastmaster, Lionel, did the honours and were privelaged to hear Kevin give his Australian Championship humourous speech. Good luck Kevin and you really have a winner there!

And like all brithdays, where would we be without the cake. Thanks Gail for organising this which was absolutely delicious, with not even a crumb being left to give the birds.

Manel was given the responsibility to run the round robin and what a surprise it was, being asked to decribe something special we remember about our own 12th birthday. This was an excellent choice and was well contributed by all our our guests. This is what its all about, giving it a go, and everyone gave such a great answer. Thanks Manel.

Next came the manual speechs from Glenn and Rosetta. Its amazing to see how each of you have progressed in the delivery and development of your speechs which were both very entertaining and captivating. A special congradulations also goes to Rosetta who has now completed her first 10 speechs, now making her now a Competent Communicator. Well done Rosetta and look forward to seeing you progress into the more advanced manuals.

Lastly, thanks again Kevin for being able to provide us with some special entertainment on our 12th birthday. We all loved your speech and wish you the best of success for the Australian Championships.

2nd April 2007 - Metro Division Speech-a-thon

A big thankyou goes out to everyone that came along and participated in the speech-a-thon. It was a really fun time where we all had a go at giving a speach, evaluation and ended off with some impromptu speaking.

Details of the speechs given are:

Lionel - ATM - Story Telling #2 - I am glad I accepted that invitation

Craig Short - ATM - Humorous #2 - Obsessions Music / Volunteering

Max Warlond - ATM - Fact Finding Report #4 - Do we really care?

Julie Jensen - CTM - #5 - Fear to comfort - comfort to fear

Jennifer Haling - CTM - #4 - Land of Saris & Spice

Scott Evans - ATMB - Humorous #1 - Goals - do you believe in them

Another similar event will be held in a few months so let us know now so we can make the necessary arrangement. We will be limiting the numbers to a maximum of 12 speakers.

If we have a lot of interest, we may organise another one to give every one a chance of participating.

Scott becomes Competent Leader

Since becoming a member of the Business Talk Toasty club in 2004, Scott has shown a lot of enthausiasm about Toastmasters and decided early to take up the leadership stream within the Toastmasters recognition system.

Since then, Scott
* has served as Vice President education in 2006
* currently holds the club President role
* completed his first 10 speeches in 2006

and has now given 2 educationals from the Successful Club Series. These were:

1. 2007-03-23 - Evaluate to Motivate
2. 2006-10-12 - Keeping the Commitment

Well done Scott, now making you a Competent Leader and helping the club earn one more point towards the Distunguished Club program.

Club Meeting #252 - 22nd March 2007

Well done Claudia on your successful toastmastering of our 252nd club meeting. Everything flowed smoothly throughout the meeting and was a credit to all of your preparation before hand.

We had 11 visitors for the meeting, with a number of people coming back for a second look. This is great to see and encourage you all to follow the steps of Sam and Ankur who are becoming members of our club.

Verena displayed her passion for Toastmasters giving the Table Topics section where we promote impromptu speaking. Each of the participants performed very well under a little pressure, all of which being visitors on the day. Well done guys for giving it a go!

Ashok and Enri each gave a manual speech, whilst Scott gave an Educational on Evaluations to complete his Competent Leader (CL) program.

In all, a great meeting and a good time was had by all. A special mention also goes out to Wendy who gave the best and most humorous Grunt Masters report we have ever had, thanks again Wendy.

Club Meeting #251 - 8th March 2007

Another block buster meeting following on from our 250th meeting. Everyone arrived early and were able to chit chat with each other before kicking the meeting off.

Rosetta was at the helm, being Madam Toastmaster, who kept the meeting smoothly and on time. Not an easy task with a full agenda. The meeting was enriched by the 8 visitors who joined us. It was a full house!!

Next Andrew Fenlon conducted the Table Topics where we promote impromptu speaking and see how we respond under a little pressure. All of the participants gave a great display of impromptu speaking and was very entertaining.

The manual speeches of 5 -7 minutes each then followed. The speakers were Manel, Enri and Jim delivering their speeches with a passion.

The meeting was lively and everyone had something to take away from what they learnt.

To finish the meeting off, a special announcement was made to award George a donation from the club for the expenses in Fremantle where he competes in the District Championship in May.

Club Meeting #250 - 22nd February 2007

Click the picture to view the online album of the meeting.


Well done Business Talk members, it was a fantastic 250th meeting.

Everyone “turned up and tuned in” and were in the presence of many distinguished guests and toastmasters from across Victoria.

Under the able toastmastery skills of Lionel Nicholas who conducted the meeting, it was one unforgettable day for most!

The audience was warmed up by being entertained with some impromptu speaking. Chaired by John Dalton, members were picked out of the audience to respond to a wide range of topics from UFOs to Education.

We were next treated by an upcoming prominent speaker in our club, Madam Toastmaster Gail Smyth, presenting “around Australia in 80 days”. This captured the hearts of those present and took us on a journey we will have lasting memories of.

Then came George, our most distinguished club toastmaster, who gave the inspirational speech “The biggest mistake of all”. This was a life lesson for the audience and one we can take with us where ever we go.

And at last, the moment we were all waiting for, our Guest Speaker Verity Robins with her speech “Eaten any snow lately?”. Delivered with glamour and poise, we were all encouraged to focus on our achievements and to celebrate our successes, rather than dampen them with our minor mishaps which we all face in life.

And with true Toastmaster style, there can be no Toastmaster without an evaluation which is at the heart of each club. This was given by Andrew Monaghan, the 2005 District Evaluation Champion, who gave an excellent evaluation of Gail telling her how well her speech was, a few points for improvement and finishing with some encouragement for next time.

To give the audience a bigger picture of Toastmasters, District and Area Governor Max Warlond was invited up on stage to give a few words. Max really connected with people and showed the true value of Toastmasters being that it is a continuous learning environment where you can take the chance to try our new skills without the embarrassment that may happen if it was a working environment.

Then finally before the close of the meeting, time was taken to recognise those members who have achieved a significant milestone. Andrew Monaghan (ATMB), Tony Hayward (CC) and Scott Evans (CC).

Again, an impressive meeting and shows just how good Toastmasters is. The room was a buzz with conversation and everybody was left in high spirits.

Thanks to the team efforts of the Club Executive. Especially Vivien Ellard, Gail Smyth and Verena Engbarth who paid attention to all the little details to make sure the meeting ran smoothly and was a successful day. We Business Talkers were one proud bunch of Toasties at the end of this meeting.

Tony becomes Competent Communicator

Congradulations Tony on becoming a Competent Communicator and is a wonderful milestone to achieve. Tony is now the second club member to have achieved this goal this year and can now move into working on the advanced toastmaster manuals to further develop his speaking skills.

The speeches Tony gave to achieve this milestone were.

1. 2005-02-24 - Caravan trip
2. 2005-04-14 - Fair-weather footy fans
3. 2005-05-26 - Exhilaration
4. 2005-08-25 - The Battle of X & Y
5. 2005-09-22 - A summer day
6. 2005-10-27 - Strange Dreams
7. 2006-05-25 - Free Public Transport
8. 2006-09-14 - Parenthood
9. 2006-02-23 - Parent's - can't live with them
10. 2007-02-08 - Dare to live, and feel alive

Club Meeting #249 - 8th February 2007

What a great start for this year! We had our first meeting on 8 February attended by over 25 participants. We were very encouraged by the number of visitors who made their first move that day to get an appreciation of what we do and how we do it in toastmasters. Most of them would have loved it to continue for longer with the inspirational speakers, attention to detail and the decorum we displayed at the meeting. It was a great success.


A special congradulations goes out to Tony Hayward who completed his last speech of the first manual. This is a great achievement and will help our club move one more step closer to achieving a Select Distinguished status for 2006-2007. Tony is one one of our 4 other members who have completed their first manual (George DTM , Andrew ATMB , Lionel ATMB and Scott CC).

We have a few other members that are dangerously close to completing their manual and look to the moment when they also join the group of members that complete their first manual. These are Rosetta (done 9), Andrew (done 7), Manel (done 7) and Glen (done 6). We still have a few meetings to go and will see how many more can complete this by the end of June.

Also, we are only few days away from one of Business Talk Toastmasters club milestone. The 250th meeting on 22 February 2007 at level 29, Nauru House, No 80, Collins Street, Melbourne. Yes, we want to celebrate our success and form an alumni of the club members in the near future. We are growing from strength to strength!! Please join us on 22 February and you will be enlightened with our mission “Better speeches and better speakers!!”.

Welcome back

Hi members and isn't it great to be back from holidays. I am sure we all have many stories to share and adventures to tell.

I look forward to meeting up with you all and seeing your achievement through the manuals.

Scott
President