The BTTM Meeting 139 on the 21st of April at the IBM Centre located at St Leonards.
The meeting was chaired by Elke and Vijay took on the timing duties.
Tonight we had 3 visitors; Eric, Vijay’s Friend Badri and Francesca.
Welcomed to Toastmasters as a brand new member is Vijay.

Our visitor Badri presented the word “Organise” as the word of the day; encouraging all speakers to incorporate this word in all their assignments.

Mark courageously took on the table topics assignment at the last minute. He presented each participant with a random colour and asked each speaker what it meant to them. All the participants tackled the assignment in great spirit and adhered to the time rules.

The evaluation was provided by our long time member Jorg and Lincoln. Both provided excellent feedbacks and tips to the speakers.

At the conclusion of the break, Lincoln provided a personal account of what toastmaster meant to him.

While welcoming the evening’s guests, Te also took a few minutes to share his own Toastmasters experience.

The toastmaster for the evening was our newest member Vijan. Vijay introduced Jason to the stage for his 5th assignment titled. “Let your body speak.” Jason’s assignment provided tips on how we should be conscious of our body language at work and at play.

Our second speaker was Geoff. The topic of his assignment was on the 5 largest volcano eruptions of all time. Geoff also provided pictures to suggest past volcanic eruptions have inspired paintings and caused “weird” behaviour in people.

Our third speaker was Lincoln, who delivered his ‘Ice Breaker’ on the topics of metaphysics. Lincoln’s very interesting speech was based on the film ” What the blip do I know.”

Jason’s speech was evaluated by thoroughly evaluated by Elke, while Geoff’s speech was evaluated by Mark. Jason returned to the stage to provide feedback for Lincoln’s first speech from the Competent Communicator manual.

Following the evaluation, Te tested our listening skills with a short serious of questions.

Vijay provided the timers report while our guest Badri finalised the word count for the WORD of the DAY assignment.

Mark returned to the stage to provide a thorough general evaluation.

The meeting concluded at 7:30pm.

__________________________________________________________________________
The next regular meeting for Blue Tongue Toastmasters will be held on Wednesday 5th May:
When: 5.45pm, Wednesday 5th May
Where: Room 13.05 (level 13)
IBM, 601 Pacific Highway,
St Leonards NSW 2065
5.45pm-7:30pm

Meet in the reception area at 5.30pm to go up to level 13.
Please ring me (ph: 0419 767 250) if there are any questions.
I have attached below a draft agenda for the meeting. Please let me know:
a) If you will be attending the meeting or send your apologies
b) If you would like to present any other assignment – I am looking for members to take on the following meeting assignments:
· Chairman
· Success – Toastmasters help me…
- Table Topics Evaluators (2)
- Visitors Welcome
- Speech Evaluators (1)
· General Evaluator

NB – We will be holding Elections for the Club Executive for 2010/2011 at our meeting on 19th May. Attached to this email is a list of the Executive Roles available. All financial members are eligible to stand for any of these roles (training and mentoring will be provided). Please ask any of the current Executive if you have questions (new ideas are needed).

Best regards,

Mark Ransom
VP Education
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
ph: 0419 767 250
mransom@optusnet.com.au

At the BTTM Meeting (number 138) held 7th of April we had a special visitor – Debbie Tibbles (the Hawkesbury Division Governor).
It has been a while since a Division Governor has visited the Blue Tongue club.. Excluding Debbie we had 2.5 visitors to the meeting (Julian (work colleague of Geoff), Vince and Vijay (who joined our club during the meeting)).
We welcome Vijay to our club, and the Toastmasters International Organisation, and will work with him to ensure that he is across all the different areas (skills streams) that Toastmasters offers.
Vijay (as a visitor) presented the “Word of the Day” – Information”. Everybody was encouraged to maximise their use of this word through the meeting. Encouraging all speakers to incorporate this word through their assignments.
Geoff, as the TableTopics master, gave us each an Inspirational Phrase (as used in his book) and asked us to comment on what this phrase meant us.The evaluator for the TT assignment was Mark,, who provided feedback to all participants.
We then broke for a recess break.

After the recess Te proposed a toast that we all joined him with.
Mark welcomed our visitors

We had 2 presentations. Debbie delivered a speech (from the Competent Communication) on her history in Toastmasters; why she joined and what it had given to her personally. It was an inspirational and personal speech that resonated with the room. Debbie was evaluated by Geoff.
Mark delivered a Club Update (educational) to update, those present, how the club was tracking relative to the Distinguished Club Program (DCP). An overview of the DCP was presented and then Mark presented his thoughts on the club’s ability to achieve Distinguished Club Status (for a second year). It appears that Blue Tongue is on track if we continue to encourage members to deliver speeches and look after all visitors so we can properly understand and communicate what TI can offer each of them; that they will want to join our club.
Te took on the Did You Listen Assignment, challenging us all with some great questions.
Vijay presented the ‘Word of the Day’ and Timers report.
Both Vince & Julian offered some insightful comments on the meeting itself.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:18pm.

Elke closed the meeting at 7.40pm.
 
_________________________________________________________________________
the next meeting for Blue Tongue Toastmasters will be held on Wednesday 24th February. This will include our 2010 International Speech Competition:
    
When: 5.45pm, Wednesday 24th February
Where: ## Note Change of Venue this week only##
WB Financial (Boardroom),
Ground Floor 22 Atchison St
St Leonards NSW 2065
5.45pm-7:30pm
Meet at front of building (which is on the other side of Atchison Street, behind the IBM Building) at 5.30pm and Lincoln will let us in.
Please ring either Lincoln (ph:9906 1125) or me (ph: 0419 767 250) if there are any questions.   
This meeting will include The Blue Tongue 2010 International Speech Contest (open to all financial members who have completed 6 Competent Communicator assignments). All assistance will be gratefully accepted and appreciated by the contest Chairperson (Elke).
 
I have attached below a draft agenda for the meeting. Please let me know:
a) If you will be attending the meeting or send your apologies
b) If you would like to present any other assignment – I am looking for members to take on the following meeting assignments: 
·         Speech Contest Evaluators (3) (silent evaluation – you will be briefed and given evaluation guidelines)
·         Speech Contest Counter (you will be briefed and given guidelines)
·         Table Topics Evaluators (2)
·         Word of the Day (inc. Ums and Ahs)
·         Visitors Welcome
·         Did you listen?
 
Best regards,
    
Mark Ransom
VP Education
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
ph: 0419 767 250
mransom@optusnet.com.au

The meeting # 134 was held on Wednesday 27th of January. Truc took on the role of the timer and Mark chaired the meeting.

Our long time member Brendan provided us with the word of the day “Transparent” and Lincoln encouraged all members to use it in through the meeting.

Sirisha hosted a unique and challenging Table Topics session. The session required each speaker to speak on topics randomly selected from two separate cups, one containing general topics while the other contains a topics of a personal nature. It was definitely a challenging assignment as most speaker took at least 10-15 seconds before speaking. The session was expertly evaluated by Jorgen and Elke.

After the break, Tara welcomed our only guest for the evening, Ying. Ying have previously been a member of a toastmaster’s club in the city. She is now on the look out for a new club since she has changed work.

In the spirit of Australian Day, Jason Chan proposed a toast to acknowledge all the new Australian citizens.

Mark took on the role of the Toastmaster and introduced Brendan’s speech assignment, titled “BEACH BOUND”. Brendan’s speech centred on his family’s rediscovered joy for the beach during the Australian Day holidays. The speech was entertaining while encouraged the audience to take the time out and relax on the beach.

The second speech was prepared by Jorgen. The speech titled “Insurance companies have no imagination” was a humorous account of Jorgen’s encounters with Insurance companies. It was an entertaining speech which left our timer Truc spellbound.

Our final speech was by Elke. She spoke about the upcoming competition to help drive the club membership. This new initiative is the brain child of Elke, and it encourages each member to bring along guests for the next 8 meetings. Each member who will earn a point each time they bring along a guest. At the end of the 8 weeks, the member with the most points will be the winner. The prize for the winner will include a trophy and free Toastmasters membership for 12 months.

Te tested our listening skills with a range of questions from the evening’s speeches.

Brendan then presented My Word Report with the help of Jason.

Truc presented the timer’s report to provide feedback on how we tracked against scheduled assignment timing.

Our visitor Ying commented on his impression of the meeting.

Jorgen presented a general evaluation of the evening.
Mark closed the meeting at 7.29pm.

Brendhan took on the Table Topics master’s role and presented the members and guests with a host of current affairs topics. The topics ranged from the financial woes of James Parker to the language skills of Kevin Rudd. This session got everyone warmed up for the evening.

The table topics session concluded after Jason provided the evaluation.

The second half of the evening started with a toast by Jason. The toast was dedicated to the
great American comedian Bill Cosby who 24 hours earlier received the annual Mark Twain humour award for contribution to the American society through humour.
Tara welcomed our visitor Lachlan and encouraged him to tell a little of why he had come to visit our club. Lachlan was there to improve his speaking skills.

Our toastmaster for the evening Brendhan then introduced our two speakers in the prepared speeches part of the evening.

Congratulations to Tara on delivering an excellent maiden ice breaker speech. The audience was taken along with her every step of the way from NZ, US, NZ and then to Australia.

Mark then delivered a speech from the Better Club educational series. It gave the audience an understanding on how to become a Distinguish Toast Master.

Tara’s speech was evaluated by Mark.

Jason then tested each member’s listening skills with a host of questions glean from the speeches from the evening.

Masafumi then provided us with the My Word report.

The evening concluded with Jason providing the timer’s report.

Mark  closed the meeting at 7:08pm.
__________________________________________________________________________
The next meeting for Blue Tongue Toastmasters will be held on Wednesday 11th November:
    
When: 5.45pm, Wednesday 11th November
Where: IBM Building (Room 13.05)
601 Pacific Highway
St Leonards NSW 2065
We will be meeting in the ground floor reception area at 5.30pm before going up to the meeting room.
   
I have attached below a draft agenda for the meeting. Please let me know:
a) If you will be attending the meeting or send your apologies
b) If you would like to present any other assignment – I am looking for members to take on the following meeting assignments: 
Chairman
Table Topics Evaluators (1)
Toastmaster
Speaker Evaluators (3)
Did you listen?
General Evaluator  
   
Best regards,
    
Mark Ransom
VP Education
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
ph: 0419 767 250

Marcus presented his Word of the Day – ‘Technology’  and encouraged us to
use it through the evening. Geoff hosted the Table Topics session with a
varity of topics, ranging from “What are the down side of Technology” to
the colour Turquoise.  Our performances were evaluated both Dev (our
visitor from IBM ) and Mark. A Thank you and congratulations to all the
vistors who took part in the Table Topics session.

The second half of the evening was kick started by Geoff, who was hosting
the prepared speeches part of the evening. Mark’s assignment was a toast to
the RSPCA organisation. Did you know that that the RSPCA shelter in Yagoona
is the biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere ?
Our second speaker for the evening was Jason, and the title of his speech
was “Tips learned from the great presenters”. The speech included
techniques and tips to help with the structure of your presentation.

Mark’s speech was evaluated by Ying ( our time keeper ) while Jason’s
speech was evaluated by Mark.

Marcus presented the word count report and was followed by Ying’s timer
report.

Jason then concluded the final assignment for the evening with the Did you
listen  questions.

Our visitors, Deena, Sue, Jitesh, Sirisha and Dev provided feedback on how
they found their visit to the meeting; We invited all to attend our next
meeting on the 28th of October.

Mark  closed the meeting at 7:10pm.
__________________________________________________________________________
The next meeting for Blue Tongue Toastmasters will be held on Wednesday 28th October: 
  
When: 5.45pm, Wednesday 28th October
Where: IBM Building (Room 13.05)
601 Pacific Highway
St Leonards NSW 2065
We will be meeting in the ground floor reception area at 5.30pm before going up to the meeting room.
  
I have attached below a draft agenda for the meeting. Please let me know:
a) If you will be attending the meeting or send your apologies
b) If you would like to present any other assignment – I am looking for members to take on the following meeting assignments: 
Chairman
Table Topics Evaluators (2)
Toastmaster
Speaker Evaluators (1)
General Evaluator  
  
Best regards,
   
Mark Ransom
VP Education
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
ph: 0419 767 250

Geoff, after our break, delivered a toast to Usain Bolt and his record breaking performances on the athletics field recently.? Jorgen welcomed our 5 guests for the evening, each had an opportunity to advise us why they had come along to out meeting and hoped to get from Toastmasters. Dale took on the road of the Toastmaster and introduced: 1) Elke, who had worked on her competition speech (’broomstick and colander’), since winning the club competition and used this session as a ‘live’ run-through. A really great effort. 2) Mark delivered an advanced speech (from ’speciality speeches’ manual) to present the competition trophies to the worthy winners of the Humorour Speech Comptition (Geoff and Elke).

Elke was well evaluated by Geoff and Mark was reviewed by Jorgen.

Aris, another of our visitors, prepared and delivered the “Did you Listen” assignment. It was obvious that Aris had been listening and an excellent list of questions were delivered. Peter presented to us his Timers Report (so we all had and understanding of how we scored with respect to the timing objectives of the assignments). An impromptu was delivered by Mark, from the Leadership Excellence Series (Giving Effective Feedback).  Although as short notice this was well presented and proved some practice tips on how to manage and provide feedback to direct reports. Excellent.

Our 5 visitors also gave their feedback on the evening’s proceedings. A very positive meeting this evening. The meeting was closed by Dale at 7:20 pm.
__________________________________________________________________________

** Update** The next meeting for Blue Tongue Toastmasters (16th Sept) will coincide with the Area 47 Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest and thus we be attending this to support Geoff and Elke. Our regular meeting venue / format will return on 30th September (agenda to be sent out after Area Contest). When: 7.15pm, Wednesday 16th September (for 7.30pm start) – There are music lessons in the venue up until 7pm. Where: Lane Cove Music & Cultural Association Inc 266 Longueville Road Lane Cove  NSW  2066 How much: $10 for club members (club will subsidise) and $18 for non-members This is at the other end of Longueville Road from the Epping Road side & Lane Cove Shops end. Plenty of parking close by. Jason Chan has offered to collect any members who need a lift from IBM (I assume to leave at 7pm). Please confirm with Jason directly ( jaschan@au1.ibm.com) if you need a lift. Please mail or call me should there be any questiions.

Best regards,
Mark Ransom VP Education Blue Tongue Toastmasters ph: 0419 767 250 mransom@optusnet.com.au

Toastmasters renewal fees are due for payment before end of September (this month).

Based on feedback received (and the extra expenses we are incurring) the club executive have decided to set the fee structure as follows:
6 month fees (1/Oct/09 to 30/Mar/10) – $60
12 month fees (1/Oct/09 to 30/Sept/10) – we will discount the fees to $100.

Please pay these (to the Treasurer) at the club meeting (a receipt can be issued, if required)or via bank transfer (use your name as reference):
Westpac, St Leonards
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
BSB: 032-297
A/C: 16-6242

regards and respond to me if there are any questions

Mark Ransom
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
Treasurer
ph: 0419 767 250

During the first half of our meeting, Geoff presented the Table Topics assignments to the non competitors:  Marcus, Mark, Dinesh and Tara. The table topics session concluded with Elke providing the evaluations.

The second half of the meeting this week was reserved for the humorous competition. The competitors in the humorous competition  were Jason, Geoff and Elke. The crucial time keeping duties went to Marcus.

Jason was the first contestant and delivered a speech titled “Tips for achieving peak performance”. Our 2nd contestant, Geoff, had a speech on his canoeing
adventures across 40 rivers (in 40 days?). The final competitor Elke delivered her speech
about a late night ‘bird’ experience in her first share house experience. The contestants were judged by the Dinesh, Mark and Tara.

The competition  was a closely contested event, with each judge nominating a different winner. And the winner was finally decided by the Tie Break points system.

The winner of the 2009 Blue Tongue Toastmasters Humorous Contest, who will represent our club at the upcoming Area 47 contest, is Elke van Ewyk.

Congratulations also goes to Geoff, who was the runner up for the event.

The evening concluded with Marcus delivering the timer’s report. And Dinesh delivering an evaluation of our club and for the evening.

Once again, thank you to everyone who took part in the humorous event. A special thank you to Elke for organising membership badges and championship trophies.
 
Reminder that Mark has the ‘Entertainment Book’ available for sale ($65) with all profits to help the club purchase equipment such as contest trophies and name badges. Please let Mark has books for review at the club meeting - it offers a large range of discounts (valid until 1st June 2010) to restaurants, clubs, events (eg movie tickets) etc.
__________________________________________________________________________
The next meeting for Blue Tongue Toastmasters will be held on Wednesday 2nd September and will back to our usual meeting format. 
 
When: 5.45pm, Wednesday 2nd September
Where: IBM Building (Room 13.05)
601 Pacific Highway
St Leonards NSW 2065
We will be meeting in the ground floor reception area at 5.30pm before going up to the meeting room.
 
I have attached below a draft agenda for the meeting. Please let me know:
a) If you will be attending the meeting or send your apologies
b) If you would like to present any other assignment – I am looking for members to take on the following meeting assignments:  
My Word
Table Topics Evaluation (1)
Visitors Welcome
Toastmaster
Speaker Evaluators (2)
Did You Listen?
General Evaluator
 
 
Best regards,
 
Mark Ransom
VP Education
Blue Tongue Toastmasters
ph: 0419 767 250