It’s been raining cats and dogs, and at the last meeting it also rained guests. We had 7 guests, and would have had 9 except 2 had just joined up and are now members. So a special welcome to new members Gerry and Joyce.

The warm-up had us up on our feet talking to the theme ” Together we learn, together we grow”. Karen was Toastmaster for the first time, there were 2 main speeches (Barbara and DavidW), and Fran gave the General Evaluation.

At least 3 people reminded us all (again!) that we need to stick to allotted times. Some things take time to sink in, and I speak as a sinner.

There was a quite different item on the agenda thanks to Mark, our tireless VPE. Three pairs of volunteers (including 4 guests: Dean and Nathan; Joyce and Erika; Mark and Melissa) role-played 3 different scenarios, impromptu as with Table Topics.

The scenarios were in brief: “whose fishing gear is better?”; a deaf lady tries to get a burial plot for her deceased dog; and 2 people who had the exact same dream! It proved to be a great way to get people to shout out, think on their feet, lose their nervousness, and get applause at the end!

Mark flagged another new idea for a meeting not too far in the future: a ‘backward meeting’! Hmm! Do we begin with Hats-Off and end with the President’s Welcome? Evaluation before a speech? Whatever it is, it’s going to be fun.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 15 March.

And don’t forget there are 2 Toastmasters clubs in Coffs. Jetty Speakers have breakfast meetings on 2nd and 4th Thursdays.

Cheers, David Whyte.

Meeting – 15 February 2022 – written by Karen

Theme of the evening…. I Love You, I Love You NOT

Glenn, called the meeting to order and enthusiastically set the LOVE scene. Elaine welcomed everyone with the lyrics from a beautiful song encouraging everyone to learn to love themselves as it is “The Greatest Love of All.” Mark called for a volunteer, and Glenn took on his third role for the evening. Thank you, Glenn – you personify team spirit and the ability to multi-task!

David welcomed our brave and wonderful guests for the evening – Joyce, Nathan, Rachel, Gerry, Evans, and Dean. Each guest is interested in developing their speaking skills, with motivations varying from enhancing one-on-one conversations, to giving a speech at a wedding, to addressing a conference audience of 2500 people. We look forward to seeing each guest achieve their goals – in a manner above and beyond anything they can currently imagine!

Karen commenced the warm-up with a call to action – let’s see if we can shower those we love with kindness! Members and guests each described what love means to them, taking us on a magical journey involving parenting, relationships, pets, sounds, places, games, words, and memories. Wordmaster/Grammarian Andrew revealed the word of the night – it was truly sumptuous.  

Mark’s entertaining speech really got us thinking about an individual’s reactions to the Covid19 vaccinations – before, during, and after the needle! Fran took us back to the ’60s describing her ‘Weird Wedding’ when she got married, (but not sure if it was to the minister or to Theo), a marriage which is now in its 61^st year. Funny and entertaining…. from descriptions of the proposal to the planning, invitations (word of mouth), and outfits, she had us rolling in the aisles.

David’s table topics continued the love theme, initiating six open-hearted speeches, each one based on a saying: ‘Opposites attract’ (thanks Gerry); ‘Strangers are just friends waiting to happen’ (thanks Glenn); ‘There is no cure for love, other than marriage’ (thanks Karen); ‘A dog is a mans best friend’ (thanks Nathan); ‘Love makes the world go round’ (thanks Elaine); and ‘Blood is thicker than water’ (thanks Andrew).

A new item was added to the agenda tonight – “Two truths and a lie”. Joyce enthralled us all with her descriptions of three stages of her life: as a champion runner at school, walking El Camino de Santiago, and as a parent. Which two were true, and which one was a lie? Well, she completely bamboozled me, and most of the others. Well done Joyce – such a masterful presentation at only your second meeting – I think that must be a record!

Barbara’s evaluation of the two speeches was thorough, helpful, and encouraging. Glenn’s general evaluation provided his overview of the meeting, a most successful one by all accounts. Nevertheless, he reminded us that timeliness is a focus of Toastmasters, and we must try to stick to the allotted times – this is both a skill and a sign of respect. Elaine was a first-rate Timekeeper and Glenn a top-notch Toastmaster.

Thank you again to our fabulous guests, you really made the night a memorable one. A special mention to Joyce for supplying the delicious sandwiches.

We had our second meeting of the year on Tuesday Feb.1. It was a rip-roarer with numbers swelled by 5 guests.

The theme was Pirates and there were more bandanas and 3 cornered hats than you could shake a cutlass at, and much “Arr”ing and ferocious glaring too. I’m sure we were all at times carried away (in our imaginations) to lives of crime on the high seas, whether in the crows nest, tending the animals below decks, or walking the plank (which as a Table Topic takes exactly 2 minutes). As one of our guests said, it was “lighthearted”. Respect to the people who came up with the idea, organised it, and entered into the spirit.

There were 2 main speakers. Elaine gave a fine speech about leadership, in which she described the leadership skills of 4 of our members. DavidW gave an autobiographical speech which went overtime … again! (Tut tut, David, and you must project your voice more!) – I refer of course to the useful evaluation and feedback which follows every speech.

Our next meeting of Coffs Toastmasters is on Tuesday 15 in Cavanbah Hall. And don’t forget that Jetty Speakers (the other club in Coffs Harbour) meet on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of every month in the morning before work. See our shared website for further details.

Sunday December 5.

Last meeting of the year. We gathered at Boambee Creek Reserve for picnic tucker and talk. It rained on and off but that’s quite nice when you’re under a tin roof. We each brought something spoken to present.

We enjoyed: the story of a memorable family Christmas;  New Year celebrations in Japan; the “Four Agreements” of Don Miguel Ruiz; “Galway Bay” sung by guess who; jokes (including “A snail knocks on the door of a bar at closing time …”); a game; and two poems (including “Smiling is infectious” by Spike Milligan).

Only twice did we fall silent. Once while a cloud-crowd of querulous corellas celebrated an outbreak of watery sunshine, and again while a freight train rumbled across the bridge. A special Hats Off to President Elaine who did so much to make the day a success.

While most of us were at Boambee, a few of our number were helping with contests via Zoom for Area 5 (Taree and Port Mac). Mark, Ernie and Glenn were judges and Hansika gave the target speech for the Evaluation Contest. (All 4 are either in Coffs club or Jetty club or in both clubs).

That’s it folks. Our next meeting will probably be on the 3rd Tuesday of January, but that is still to be confirmed. Happy Christmas all, stay safe, and have a good start to the new year.

Written by David Whyte.

International and Evaluation Contests

by Barbara Stewart

Hello again my friends. What an interesting and thought-provoking evening we had last Tuesday. Everyone has learnt something new – and what is life for, if not to learn, and to keep on learning?

Many congratulations to our winners and participants in our speech competitions and to every organiser. I think all members of our club were involved in one way or another in bringing our evening performances to fruition.

I’m not going to give a repeat of the General Evaluation, that would not be necessary except to say, that it made me think! I can not think help but ponder about the general feeling I have regarding the niggles of disquiet we all have, often unspoken, hidden within us, about the state the country, the world, and our individual reality that “we can’t make any difference”, “there is nothing we can do”? – Ah, but we can. We all know the meaning of “the kindness of strangers”, don’t we?

We might feel we are simply one little drop of water in the mass of the ocean of humanity, and what difference do we really make – can we really make? We can! We do! – if we think positively, if we act with kindness. In the world today, where instant gratification is being spread across our televisions, radios, laptops, and mobiles, it is hard to reject the constant advertising, to not comply with the everlasting advertisements to buy more alcohol, sugar infused drinks and lollies, extra clothes, another car, and yet one more plastic bag etc. But with mates, friends, relatives and ourselves, moan about restrictions, home-schooling, and more, how can we escape the Me, Me, Me attitudes, and demands for instant gratification – it is an incessant pressure upon us all. So, we need to remember the old saying “the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”. So, smile, be kind to one another, maintain a positive attitude and travel a new path. Costs us nothing and won’t hurt anyone. It may cost you the effort of thought.

Enough!

I must record the names of our winners of the two competitions.

International Contest
1. Elaine Ghali
2. Mark West

Evaluation Contest
1. David Whyte
2. Elaine Ghali

Our next meeting is on Zoom, Tuesday 16^th November at 7:00pm, where we will be holding our Humours and Impromptu speaking competitions.
I look forward to our new agenda and to another interesting and exciting evening. See you then!

Jotter 953

Attendance 25-30.  7 guests including 5 from other clubs.

THE CONTEXT

On Tuesday Sep4 we had a training session called ‘Speech Contests: Unpacking the Judging Criteria’, delivered by Alison Cleaver of the Lismore club.

Every year knock out competitions are held in 5 categories of public speaking: International, Humorous, Evaluation, Table Topics and Tall Tales. Winners progress from Club contests, through Area, Division and District contests, to arrive ultimately at the Toastmasters International Conference. There are strict rules, including of course for judging which aims to rank contestants according to set criteria.

On Tuesday we began with a close examination of the judging criteria for International, Table Topics and Evaluation. Then came a mock Evaluation contest with everyone in the audience being a judge.

THE MOCK CONTEST

Ernie as Test Speaker gave a speech which was intended to be full of egregious errors and ‘points for improvement’.

The 4 contestants then gave their evaluations, with 3 failing to meet all the judging criteria, leaving one as the standout winner.

DavidW’s evaluation was a whitewash, glossing over weaknesses.

Pauline’s evaluation was far too severe, not recognising strengths.

Fran’s evaluation was good but lacked a summation.

Barbara was Goldilocks as her evaluation was ‘just right!’, and the clear winner.

Scoring was by show of hands. I believe Fran got the highest score which wasn’t supposed to happen. However if everything had gone absolutely perfectly that might suggest we didn’t need the training at all.

THE BENEFIT

The session was useful for people who will be judges, for those wanting to contest, and for people generally who want to be better at public speaking.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Next meeting Tuesday 18th September…Humorous Club Contest.

Jotter 950. July 17.    23 attended including 4 guests

A COSY EVENING

For starters the line of ‘baffles’ across the room improved acoustics (we suppose), but also contributed a sense of warmth and intimacy. On top of this, Warm Up and Table Topics were both on the subject of true friendship. So a feeling of comfortable conviviality permeated the meeting.

3 SPEECHES, 3 STYLES

In his Icebreaker entitled “Itchy Feet”, Ben described a life of constantly moving on from place to place and job to job, and from one adventure to the next. A life of action rather than words. But the words came and kept coming, quietly, in short sentences, like light pencil strokes, till by the end we had a complete sketch of his life.

Janet’s speech elaborated on the idea of collecting vs hoarding and was quite different in style. From centre stage, with rolling gesture and dancing voice, she conjured visions. The minutiae of life blossomed to become larger than life. We saw, hovering in the air, cabinets crammed with empty envelopes, jars stuffed with string, and a garage become storage while the family cars rust outside in the street.

Paolo gave a thoughtful Member’s Choice from the floor built around the idea that “every passer-by has an equally complex life”. He spoke of his Filipino uni friend living in Coffs, in this foreign culture, without family support or a car, and of how difficult life must be for her.

LOOKING FORWARD                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Contest season is upon us. Between August 7 and October 2 we will have 4 club contests, each one held before supper with more usual items after supper. We kick off at next meeting with a Table Topics contest followed after supper by Lachlan’s Icebreaker.

Jotter 949  July3

18 attending (including 1 guest).

THE YEARS GO BY

It was Damian’s last meeting after 5 years in the club, because he and his family are moving to browner pastures down in Yass. Acting Pres. Deebee spoke of Damian’s ‘warmth and good humour’ and we wish him all the best.  And for our guest Una, it was a return visit to the club after 9 years! Back then she completed 10 speeches which, she says, helped her in her work where she must present to groups.

THE TOAST BY KYLE. 

I don’t hear many actual Toasts, so it was valuable to hear a good model. It was short and smooth, and began with some wry reminiscences of club life before getting to the serious bit at the end. The gist of this was: ‘May you grow in your ability to speak … listen … serve the club … and support each other …’. Perhaps it might have been improved if we had then risen as one to our feet to the thunder of shoes on floor and falling chairs, roared out ’to growth!’, downed our shot of water, and hurled our empty tumblers into a fireplace.

BARBARA THE YARN SPINNER

Barbara confirms the stereotype of the Irish being great storytellers. Her Warm Up contribution was a true story about having an intruder in the house a few days ago! Timer Ernie gave Barbara free rein as this was a story that had to be heard. Barbara’s Real Life topic was ‘Has it been worth taking risks in your life?’, and this brought forth more yarns of dangerous situations she has been in. (A Real Life item is a realistic topic, with only a short time to prepare).

JAMES THE EVALUATOR

Barbara went 4 minutes overtime in her Real Life speech which James addressed. He was polite and gracious but pulled no punches. For “how we can all combat the dreaded going over time”, his practical advice was that we need only one story to make a point, not several. Good advice for all of us.

Next meeting July 17^th.