May 12, 2008

That’s the charter date, but there has been so much activity at World Headquarters with chartering clubs that it was only posted by Toastmasters International on May 22.

Congratulations to Ross Wilkinson in particular

Ross Wilkinson

Ross has been working tirelessly on this project since March 2007. The concept is an Advanced Club which meets monthly at a restaurant for good food and great meetings.

There have been problems

Chefs have left restaurants which had to close down. (It wasn’t because of Fremantle Gourmet - well, we hope so, anyway!)

Numbers weren’t big enough for other venues.

Double bookings!!

But Ross and crew kept going and now the club is fully established. Their story can be a model for other members considering setting up similar Gourmet club in the city and to the north and east. Read the full story below.

Congratulations to the official founding group

In the meantime

Congratulations, Fremantle Gourmet

It’s Been A Long Journey

Back in early 2007, Fremantle Gateway Toastmasters had 32 enthusiastic members all chaffing at the bit to present speeches and this presented a “problem”. Even with the club’s three to four speeches per week, each member would only have the opportunity to present a speech, on average, once every two months. That meant it would take almost two years to complete a Competent Communicator Manual or two Advanced Manuals.

Several Gateway members wanted more speaking opportunities, so Gateway’s VPE Jeanette Farrar, planned an additional Speech-A-Thon meeting. As President, Ross Wilkinson suggested that we use a restaurant as the venue for this meeting and the Villa Roma Restaurant in Fremantle was the venue for that first meeting on 29 March 2007. The night was a huge success with six speeches being given. A great night was had by all.

On the way home, Ross made an off-the-cuff comment to Steve Barry, that if we held other dinner meetings with the same level of enthusiasm, we could easily form a new advanced club. Steve’s response was “Why not”?

Why not>

And the words ‘Why not?’ started the journey of forming the Fremantle Gourmet Club. Fremantle Gateway Toastmaster Club sponsored the development of the Fremantle Gourmet Club.

Since then we have held meetings at a wide variety of culinary locations, which include the Irish Pub, Vietnamese, African, Italian, Thai, Fremantle Workers Club, Picnics in the Park and home cooked BBQ’s.

Besides the quality of speeches, the superb meal and the great social aspect of the Fremantle Gourmet Toastmasters Club, members also benefit from the intense group evaluations.

Using the highly successful Western Founders Toastmaster Club method of group evaluation, speakers receive very productive and beneficial recommendations – Mind you, it’s not for the faint hearted, but ‘WOW’ do we learn how to improve.

The Fremantle Gourmet Toastmasters Club finally had sufficient members to charter the club at our 8 May meeting – 14 months after the original meeting.

It’s been a great journey forming this new Advanced Club.

The Club Charter Committee is:

President - Steve Barry – W21 Area Governor
VPE - Ross Wilkinson – W28 Area Governor
VPM - Mark Richards – Western Division Governor
VPPR - Jackie Perriman – Fremantle Gateway VPPR
Treasurer - Jeanette Farrar – District 73 Secretary
Secretary - Raye McNally – Fremantle Gateway President
Sergeant At Arms - Kyle Blight – Fremantle Gateway Member

Lynda t’Hart

Ross Wilkinson

The Fremantle Gourmet Club sponsors are Ross Wilkinson and Lynda t’Hart with the club mentors being Vicki Post and Jackie Perriman.

If you wish to attend one of the Fremantle Gourmet Toastmasters Meetings, these meetings are held at 6:15pm for a 6:30pm start on the second Thursday of each month, please email Ross Wilkinson at ross@wilcomonline.com.au or contact him on 0412 383 386.

Yes, it’s been a long journey to charter Fremantle Gourmet but it’s been an exciting and worthwhile journey.

District elections will be held this Saturday

A golden year for WA Toastmasters is moving to its close. Elections for 2008/09 District Officers will be held in Melbourne this Saturday, May 17, 2008.

The current top Officers include these from WA
District Governor Mike Helm DTM
District Secretary Jeanette Farrar ACS
District Treasurer Alan Smith DTM
District Public Relations Officer Leonor Ragan ACS

There are two other top Officers
District Lt Governor Education & Training Bernard Marmion DTM from Victoria
District Lt Governor Marketing Damian Chong from Tasmania

The District Nominating Committee has recommended these candidates to the Elections
District Governor Bernard Marmion DTM from Victoria
District Lt Governor Education & Training Damian Chong DTM from Tasmania
or Jacqui Gullick DTM from Victoria
District Lt Governor Marketing Carole Jones from Victoria
District Public Relations Officer - no nomination but my information is that a Victorian will be put forward

The incoming District Governor appoints the Secretary and Treasurer so we can reasonably expect them to be Victorians.

So the District Management Committee will have no-one from WA or South Australia.

Will that be a problem for us in WA next year?

Not at all. We are used to that. We are heavily engaged in building up the numbers of new clubs in our state, and assisting weaker clubs to recover. We will get on with this, with the medium term target of becoming a District in our own right.

What’s a Changeover Dinner?

We haven’t had one in WA before.

We are going to do several things on Friday night, June 27, 2008

We will celebrate our successes for the past year

We will announce plans for an even better year next year (if that is possible)

We will honour our workers with awards

Outgoing leaders in WA will hand over to incoming leaders for 2008/09

WACO Booking Form

Only 50 lucky people will be there

We have booked the Pagoda in Como. There are 50 seats only. So book early to avoid disappointment.

Download the booking form - Right Click on the graphic

You can view - The Flyer

The countdown to June 30

Toastmasters International encourages clubs to achieve their best through the Distinguished Club Program - usually abbreviated to the DCP.

There are 10 Goals to be aimed at.

You can view the 10 DCP Goals here.

Clubs are not classified as Distinguished in any way until the March Renewals have been entered. That has now occurred.

Where can you find information about your club’s progress?

World Headquarters publishes club results at the end of each week. Although they are dated to the Friday, they are really correct up to the close of business Thursday.

You can find the results for WA Clubs on this website. These are kept up to date day by day. Additional member awards are added to this display during the week. Go to DCP 07/08.

You may be interested to check another page which shows a list of all the Distinguished Clubs in District 73. Of course it is headed by WA Clubs. Go to DCP District 73 Leading Clubs.

Success for Western Division Governor Mark Richards

Mark Richards

With the help of Robyn Richards as co-founder and a team of supporters Mark has steered Canning Vale to charter.

The background

Mark and Robyn live in Canning Vale. Robyn has a business there. Mark is a postman at the Canning Vale Centre. They had a general intention to start a club close to home. Then Mark joined the New Clubs Planning Committee organised by WA New Clubs Coordinator David Nicholas and became a founding member of WA Governors. From his experience with Governors and detailed discussions with David Nicholas he realised that money is a key issue with starting community clubs. They have to be advertised - which costs. A venue has to be booked - which costs. Who would help?

The business plan

Mark is a postman. What if he was to get printed a set of flyers and in his own time letterbox them in Canning Vale? A great idea. The cost of the flyers - a bit less than $400. Enter District 73 - there is money available in the Marketing budget for publicity. So Robyn booked a great venue - the Canning Vale College. Who would help with the cost? WA Governors contributed $250 and Mark’s home club, Victoria Quay, $300. That covered the expenses of the venue, supper and some printing.

Mark got on his bike and the flyers lodged in the letterboxes.

The Demonstration Meeting

What a success! March 11, 6.30 pm at the Canning Vale College in Dumbarton St. 62 people, including 11 Toastmasters. Have a look at the Agenda, if you want to see how it was done.

The meeting was vibrant and successful. The Question and Answer session at the end had Mark and David busy answering queries from people who obviously intended to join. Robyn was ready with Charter Member Application Forms (they are different from the standard 404 New Member Applications). Alan Smith, Treasurer for both Victoria Quay and WA Governors, was there with a receipt book and took joining fees from several people who paid on the spot.

The Charter Meeting

Of course Canning Vale meets weekly - the top 4 Clubs in District 73 at this point all meet weekly. So next week on March 18th, with application forms and fees pouring in before and after the meeting, Canning Vale held its formal business meeting, adopting the name, the Constitution and the Bylaws and elected the Officers. Here they are. (Click on any one to see a slideshow of all.)

The Club Executive

Robyn Richards President	Mark Richards Vice President Education	Phyll Lightbody VP Education Apprentice	Billie Griffiths Vice President Membership
Diana Veitch Vice President Public Relations	Jenny Ramshaw Secretary	Mick Turner Treasurer	Michael Geisler Sergeant at Arms

Send the documents and payment to World Headquarters

A club isn’t chartered until not only the documents have been sent, but the payment had been made to World Headquarters. Mark didn’t muck around. Off it went and the Charter was registered on March 19 - Club 1133609, Canning Vale Toastmasters.

Congratulations to Mark and Robyn, the Founders.

Congratulations to Steve Barry and Ross Wilkinson, both from Gateway, who are Club Mentors for the first 6 months. Congratulations to all the Toastmasters who helped with the brilliant Demonstration Meeting. Amazed admiration to District 73, to WA Governors and Victoria Quay who came up with money. And our best wishes to all the Founding Members and those who have joined since. You have a vibrant, energetic club with committed officers. And you meet weekly. Next year I’m sure you will be up there with the top clubs in the District.

Canning Vale on April 8th, 2008

At the meeting on Tuesday evening, April 8, 2008

This is a confusing issue for many new clubs.

Canning Vale was chartered in March, and therefore the 6 months membership fees took them up to the end of August. But Renewals were due by the end of March. Mark was equal to the occasion. He sent off the US$4.50 per member for the extra month. Canning Vale has renewed. (That’s an example for our other new clubs, chartered since October, 2007.)

David Nicholas DTM
WA New Club Coordinator

District 73’s first Indigenous club

Ngarlundhu Wangka - the club’s name takes a word each from an Indigenous language in the north and south of Western Australia, combined to mean “my words”. Membership is open to members of the Indigenous community.

The idea of a club for members of the Indigenous community came from Maurice Agale, a policy officer in the Perth office of the National Native Title Tribunal, in an email to our community contact, Eric Davies, in the middle of last year. District Governor Mike Helm followed up in a number of meetings with Maurice. Maurice loved the Toastmasters concept, started putting the word around and secured sponsorship from the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Mike was strongly assisted by WA New Clubs Coordinator David Nicholas, and was fortunate to recruit as club mentor Rising Stars member Durga Bhamidipaty who has a strong empathy for people and commitment to their development.

A freak storm didn’t help to attract people our demonstration meeting in December and we had a small turnout. About 17 people attended our second meeting in February. The next two meetings involved a small group of the commiteds plus a few who came along to check us out. Our meeting on 19th March was a breakthrough with an impressive group of guests who agreed to sign up, taking the club to charter strength.

Already, we can see the improvement in members’ presentation skills, and some new members have reported that Toastmasters has given them new confidence, improvement in family communication and has even helped with a successful job application.

At a national Indigenous conference in Perth later this year, the new club is planning a debate against Australia’s only other Indigenous club from Redfern, New South Wales.

The Club Executive

Maurice Agale President	Mike Helm Vice President Education	Laurel Sellers Vice President Membership
Stephen Grech Vice President Public Relations	Carly Lane Secretary	Sarah Stokoe Treasurer

The Club’s Founders are Mike Helm and David Nicholas, while the Mentors guiding the Club for its first 6 months are Sarah Stokoe and Durga Bhamidipaty.

When we look at their achievements so far and the great potential for the club and its members, what else can you say but Ngarlundhu Wangka – MY WORD!

Thanks to District 73 Governor, Mike Helm for the bulk of this story

David Nicholas DTM
WA New Clubs Coordinator

Why is Toastmasters International wrong about this one?

This is an advertisement in the Toastmasters 2008 Catalog, p.23

Tally Counter
Use this counter to count ah’s in meetings. It features four digits, giant finger ring and easy turn knob. Toastmasters International is imprinted in black on left side.

Four digits!!! - you can count thousands of umms and errs at the one time. Really!! Do you need that many? Wow! you have a real problem. And so does Toastmasters International, because it recommends to Clubs that the standard Agenda should include an Umm and Err Counter.

Does your Toastmasters Agenda have a role for an Umm and Err Counter?

If it does, then I think your club is making a big mistake. Not only is the time wasted which could be better used. It has a significant negative effect.

Focussing on negatives reinforces them

Many decades of research by clinical psychologists have established this. When you focus on a negative, and say, don’t do that! you increase the power of the behaviour in the person. It’s a way of advertising it - repeated statements build up the exposure and make it more likely to be adopted - just as advertisers repeat their slogans many times to enhance brand exposure. Telling children what not to do is a losing parental and teaching method. The best method is to tell them what to do and reward them for doing it.

Our experience at Victoria Quay

When we started the club we were persuaded by one of our founding members, a Clinical and Educational Psychologist, to drop the Umm and Err Counter from our Agendas. After over 13 years of practical experience, we know we did the right thing. Of course some of our members start off with a problem with verbal fillers - not just Umm, Err and Ahh. When that happens, their evaluator tells them of the problem and recommends a better way - use a pause instead of the filler - the magic of silence.

Deal with the problem when it arises

That’s how we deal with the problem. It’s not a big deal. We don’t advertise it, reinforce it, give it the power of repeated exposure. Instead we recommend a successful way of overcoming the problem.

What’s the result with our speakers?

Last Saturday one of our members won the Western Division International final. When the Perpetual Trophy was displayed at the Club on Wednesday night, there were the results from the last 7 years. In 5 of those years one of our members won the Trophy. Excluding the Umm and Err Counter doesn’t seem to have had such a bad effect on our members’ speaking skills.

We use the time better

Instead of 2-3 minutes on this negative role, we have a Highlights role in which a member recapitulates the best things from the meeting - positive things to build up enhanced behaviour.

What about your standard agenda?

Do you waste 2-3 minutes on negative reinforcement each meeting? Or do you deal with the “filler” problem in a positive way when it comes up with a member? How could you use the time better?

What do you think on this matter. Post your comment.

David Nicholas DTM

The Contests were held at Durack House on Wednesday evening, April 2, 2008

Thanks to Bill Hewitt for this story and the picture of Tri

Tri Suseno

Tri Suseno from Young Guns scooped the pool. He represented P30 in both the International and the Evaluation Contests.

He will represent Perth Division at the District Convention in Lilydale in May.

The International

His speech was titled “How to fail in Life”. It was a message for all of us - don’t do the stuff that will make you fail!!!!! The speech was entertaining, informative and delivered with Tri’s flair. If you didn’t hear it you missed out!!! The runner up was Al Tassone from Curtin and he excelled himself. The title of his speech “Just Smile” is a reflection on a period of Al’s life while he was an apprentice chef and is one of his most cherished lessons.

Gawain Simpson (“Step up”) set the standard as the first speaker delivering a very thought provoking personal story with his call to action for us to “step up” when times are tough. The final contestant was Jeremy Mowe (“The Power of Forgiveness”) who shared some historical moments to show that the power to forgive is important for all of us. Both should be proud of their achievements.

Well done to all contestants and congratulations to Tri and Al on your great efforts!!!

The Evaluation Contest

Glaucia Hyland from Curtin was the Test Speaker. Her speech title was “What’s in a Flag” (It was her Project 8 Speech). The material was well researched and then presented in Glaucia’s clear, confident, organised style. Glaucia, as always, like Al, smiled and engaged the audience throughout the presentation. Well done and a big thanks to Glaucia for standing up and helping out with the contest and allowing the Evaluating Contestants compete!!

Tri gave a very well delivered thoughtful, analytical and motivational evaluation to win this contest. I thought it was fantastic, as did the Judges and Glaucia. The Judges and Glaucia couldn’t be wrong!!!

The runner up was Pascale Amberville-Colby who delivered his evaluation in his unforgettable style and was rewarded with second place. Pascale also coordinated and pulled the contest together and had one of the largest contingents of TM Volunteers seen at a contest.

David Barton and Jeremy Mowe should both be proud of their achievements.
Well done to all contestants and congratulations to Tri and Pascale on your success.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to Western Division Governor Mark Richards as the Chief Judge and all the volunteers, Ann, Charles, Christine, Johannes, Judith, Kevin, Leith, Leonor, Liz, Lynne, Lynette, Maree, Martin, Mauve, Nola and Taia.

Durack Toastmasters were the host club and provided the venue and a sumptuous supper enjoyed by all. A very big thank you to Durack.
The trophies were presented by District 73 Governor Mike Helm and Division Governor Gil Alexander.

Pascale thanked all his volunteers, the contestants, test speaker and the audience (including members from our newly formed Ngarlundhu Wangka club) for their contribution to very entertaining, inspiring and educational evening.

The Perth Division Contest was thoroughly enjoyed by all and many of us look forward to witnessing the District Contests at Lilydale in May 2008.

Anon

Anon
Young Guns Secretary

 

Your new club is not renewed until fees are paid up to Sep 30

This is how it works.

When a club is chartered, membership fees are paid for 6 months. That will cover the Renewal period during the 6 months, but not the Renewal period in the next 6 months. Individual membership is covered for the balance of 6 months after charter, but the club will not be counted as paid up until the balance of the Renewals is paid for at least 6 members.

The table below shows the Charter date for each of our 7 new clubs this year, and the current paid up status for members and the clubs. WA Governors is up to date because 5 months extra payments were made before March 31.

So, what should you do?

Best is immediately, or before April 10, to pay online the extra dues for your club members up to Sep 30. For 20 members that will be US$90 per month, or A$100 approximately.

Next best is immediately, or before April 10, to pay online the extra dues for 6 members up to Sep 30. That will cost US$27 per month, or A$30 approximately.

A must is to pay online the extra dues for your club members up to Sep 30 before June 30, 2008. Otherwise the Club will not count in the District list of Clubs.

How do you pay online with your very new club when you don’t have the password?

Go to the Club login

https://ecommerce.toastmasters.org/ecommerce/timssnet_new/timssnet/login/tnt_login.cfm

Go to the “If you have forgotten your Password” and select “click here”. Now fill in the form. Besides your name, club position, email, club number etc you will need your personal Member number. It is on the wrapper of the monthly copies of The Toastmaster. It is a good idea to keep a copy of that number available for various purposes. In my experience you will get the Password emailed to you within 24 hours.

Club Name	Club #	Charter Date	Members paid to	Shortfall per member to Sep 30
WA Governors	1077268	Nov 24 2007	Sep 30 2008	0
Electric Toasters	1136995	Feb 6 2008	Jul 31 2008	US$9.00
Maunsell	1139179	Feb 12 2008	Jul 31 2008	US$9.00
Touch of Gold	1110743	Mar 1 2008	Aug 31 2008	US$4.50
Cannington Communicators	1150233	Mar 19 2008	Aug 31 2008	US$4.50
Canning Vale	1133609	Mar 19 2008	Aug 31 2008	US$4.50
Ngarlundhu Wangka	1074622	Mar 20 2008	Aug 31 2008	US$4.50

 

David Nicholas DTM

If you want any further information or advice on this matter, email me,
or ring on 9457 6468

David Nicholas DTM
WA New Clubs Coordinator

Contest Results from March 29, 2008

You can view a slideshow of all the pictures in this post by clicking on any one of them. Try it.

Claire Lacey

Claire Lacey from Victoria Quay is the Western Division representative for the District 73 final in Melbourne in May this year.

Claire spoke on “Never let your brain retire”. She opened dramatically with “Beep beep beep beep…..” and then told of the death of Lucy at 67, who had given up on life, and whose brain had shrunk. Use it or lose it, she told us dramatically. She followed this with stories of her grandfather who had sunk into depression and was ready to die, but recovered and lived for another happy 10 years. And then there was Doris, at 70 enrolling for another degree at University, energetic and vibrant. It was an excellent International quality speech because Claire applied the lessons of these three people to everybody in the audience - use it or lose it. Never let our brains retire. Live Life!

Claire told Chief Judge Mike Helm that she had been a member of Toastmasters for just 12 months. She was very grateful for the opportunities she had received at Victoria Quay, and particularly for the intense coaching for this speech she had received from Glenis and David Nicholas.

 

Judith Allan

Mark Richards

Two Contests were held - the International and the Evaluation. The Contests were hosted by Swan and Morning Star and held in the Midland Community Centre. The whole afternoon was brilliantly organised by W16 Area Governor Judith Allen on behalf of Western Division Governor Mark Richards.

Introducing the Contests Mark told us of the great success Western Division is enjoying this year. We have 4 new Clubs so far - WA Governors, Touch of Gold in Kalgoorlie, Cannington Communicators and Canning Vale. As well two Western Division Clubs are among the top 3 in the Distinguished Club Program in District 73 - Victoria Quay and Gateway. He urged us to keep up the good work and to enjoy the contests.

The Evaluation Results

Tania Park Evaluation 1st

Charles Fisher Evaluation 2nd

First was the Evaluation Contest with test speaker Wayne Brown. It was won by Tania Park from Jetty and second was Charles Fisher from Western Founders.

 

The International Results

Claire Lacey International 1st

After the break for afternoon tea we enjoyed the International. First of course was Claire Lacey from Victoria Quay and second James Park from Jetty.

James Park International 2nd