4th Dimension Toastmasters

One of the major highlights of the year for 4th Dimension Toastmasters Club: The Speech and Evaluation Contests.

The atmosphere was electric in a room packed with over 30 people, members, contestants, helpers from other clubs and guests.

Call To Order and Welcome

Dave Hardingham called the meeting to order at exactly 18.15. The President Andrew Timberlake welcomed everyone before, after requesting programme alterations from Kirsten Long, handing over to himself as Contest Chairman!

The Toasts

Kirsten Long proposed the Loyal Toast to South Africa. Colin Roberts proposed the Toast for the Evening – To The Stars, basing this on the RAF motto.

The Contests and Briefings

Andrew, as Contest Chairman, gave an overview of the three Contests, The English International Speech Contest, The Impromptu Speech Contest and The Evaluation Contest.

This was followed by a recess during which the contestants and judges were briefed.

The English Prepared Speech Contest

The Four Contestants for the English Prepared Speech Contest were:

• Danie Roux with a Speech entitled  “The Importance of being awkward”, in which he highlighted that we cannot grow unless we try new things and the first time we do something new it will always be awkward.
• Coralie Rutherford with a speech entitled “The Dilemma” in which she posed the question, which takes preference the constitution and laws of a country of the cultures of its people’s?
• Mathew Hindley with his speech entitled  “Let’s Dance” in which he made an animated case for dancing every time we succeed.
• Kirsten Long with a speech entitled “Consciously Creating” in which she explained how you create your reality via your Prover and if you wish to change your reality then it has to be a conscious on going activity.

The Evaluation Contest

Reginald Muzariri gave a powerful entertaining speech with the title “The Power of a Name” which was a challenge to evaluate.

Danie Roux and Zibu Mntambo provided sound positive evaluations, demonstrating, especially to guests, the skills and challenges of evaluation.

Impromptu Speech Contest

The word that was the subject for the Impromptu Contest, was very topically “election”

The contestants Dave Black, Danie Roux and Sue Munro approached it from 3 very different but fascinating directions, showing their ability to think quickly and creatively on their feet!

Meet the Contestants

After Recess the contestants were introduced to the meeting and spoke, off the cuff, on one of their interests or special achievements.

The Results

Richard Riche, the Chief Judge reported that there were no disqualifications and no tiebreaker.

• Impromptu Speech Contest - 2nd place Sue Munro and 1st place Danie Roux
• Evaluation Contest - 2nd place Zibu Mntambo and 1st place Danie Roux
• English Prepared Speech Contest - 3rd place Coralie Rutherford, 2nd place Kirsten Long and 1st place Mathew Hindley

Congratulations to all the contestants, especially the winners, and most especially to Danie for winning 2 of the 3 contests.

Vote of thanks

Kirsten Long graciously thanked everyone who had contributed to the success of the evening, Colin for the Impromptu toast, The Judges, Timekeepers, Tally Counters, Sergeant at Arms and, of course, the Contestants.

Raffle

Dave Hardingham won the raffle, a just reward for all the work he did moving lecterns, bringing in contestants, but the sting in the tail is that he has to bring the prize for the raffle at the next meeting!

The meeting adjourned at 20.30

We hosted a great division contest last night if I do say so myself.

Sue Munro was our contest chairman and made sure we got out early. 30 minutes to be exact! Ruth Goodbrand, our Division H Governor and Chief Judge made sure to crack the whip if needed but thankfully she didn’t need to!

The contestants were of a high calibre and it was great to watch them in action!

The results of the contest were definitely in our favour see below:

International Speaking Contest

1^st Matt Hindley

2^nd Patricia Lawson-Smith

Evaluation Contest

1^st Helen Palmer

2^nd Keith Bowen

Impromptu Contest

1st Coralie Rutherford

2nd Bev Kluckow

A big congrats to all the contestants and in particular to Matt and Coralie! Well done on consistently improving! Unfortunately Coralie cannot make the District 72 Contest this Saturday so Bev from Morningside will be representing Division H. Matt will be there so we wish him and the rest of division H all the best of luck!

Without the contestants we wouldn’t have a contest but the same could be said about the hands on and behind the scenes. In no particular order I would like to thank the following people for assisting with the Division Contest:

Sue, Ruth, Richard, Matt, Erich, David Hardingham, Andrew, Zibu, Danie, Christa, Kirsten, Graham, David Preece, Lorna, Vanessa, Frances, Hazel, Gaye, Rod, Rob, Jenny, Angela, Lee-Ann, Luke, Roy, Terri, Reggie and Trina.

I would like to say a big thank you to Marius for organising most of the helpers for the night. I hope you are recovering well!

I look forward to seeing a few of you for the Maxicon Conference this Friday and Saturday!

Kind regards,

Carla

It’s Contest time again! This was yet another great opportunity for the bravest of the brave to show off their talents. Roy Kfir from Morningside Toastmasters acted as our sergeant and opened the floor. He reminded us that this is in fact a contest and not a competition. Do you think this might be because contestants are “contesting” their inner public speaking fears?!

The theme for the evening was “Green” and this theme pervaded into the evening’s programme on green paper (thanks to Marius Grobbelaar our VPE). Carla Sargo, our president asked what the word “Green” means to us Toastmasters? The ideas that were shared were interesting and diverse and ranged from Irish citizens, ecological and environmental associations, the colour of money, as well as the absence of green traffic lights (or any colour for that matter) on our roads these days!

I happened to be sitting next to Shaun Goodbrand and Viv Roney, two members from the West Rand Toastmasters club who sneakily arrived under the pretence of being judges to steal George, our traveling gavel! Luckily for us the rest of their contingent did not show up!

The programme was handed over to Erich Viedge, our contest chairman, who expressed that taking part in a contest is a real indulgence and although it feels challenging to volunteer oneself, it is a truly enriching experience and everyone who is involved is a winner.

Given that we were holding a contest and St Patricks was on the 17th March we needed a special toast to get us underway. Enter Marius with our toast for the evening… a St Patrick’s Day good luck toast!

This started off with him detailing his visit to Blarney Castle in Ireland and how for 4 Euros one has the opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone to acquire the gift of the gab. The downside of all this is that the Blarney Stone, holding billions of kisses, has never been wiped down! Fortunately for Marius, he didn’t need to kiss the stone to get the gift of the gab… Instead, he in true fashion, managed to convince some Japanese tourists to kiss the wrong stone!

After all the contestants received their good luck toast:

1. The International Speak contest began followed by
2. The Evaluation contest and then finally
3. The Impromptu contest!

1. Kirsten Long, our first speaker for the evening, presented her speech entitled “Queasy Stomachs”. Kirsten gave a very honest and real account of her experiences of how life has let her down. She explains how this can serve as a blessing as “a disappointment a day keeps arrogance at bay”. These life experiences also taught her that each person is responsible to take their own dreams seriously as you cannot rely on others to make your dreams come true.

Matthew Hindley then presented his very entertaining piece called “The Message”. Matthew very cleverly showed us that despite the very appealing lives of the superheroes, with all their supernatural powers, he knows that he too possesses his own special qualities. He concluded with his powerful message to all of us, “You are a superhero too – Be yourself”.

2. Our demo speaker in the Evaluation Division was Maciek Szymanski who told us about his experience of moving from Poland to South Africa at age eleven. This presented challenges to himself and his family, such as how to behave at a braai, completing a math’s Olympiad with a dictionary to eventually crossing the language barrier. His parents made the move in order to secure a better a future for their children in South Africa. Maciek spoke comfortably and confidently and gave us a deeper understanding of what it must be like to move to a new country.

Our two evaluators, Kirsten Long and Andrew Timberlake, gave very thorough and complimentary evaluations of Maciek’s speech.

3. Incredible wit and originality was displayed by our quick thinking Impromptu speakers in the next event for the evening. The word for the speeches was “Bar” and the creativity that emerged from such a small word was truly amazing.

Flicka Steenberg impressed us with her diverse range of ideas about the word “Bar”. Jazz and its irregular perambulation of the notes as they move from bar to bar, pole vaulters who carry bars as well bars to measure achievement.

Coralie Rutherford also had a very original angle on the word. She expressed her amazement at how many things were barred in our lives. She cleverly concluded by saying “Bar Barring, what a lovely life that would be!”

Matthew, our final contestant played the role of a drunkard at a bar and expressed his concern at those that drive home drunk. He concluded that we would be better off if we used a cab service and in this way we can “visit the bar, and not break the law.” Thanks Matthew, yet another important message for the evening and another reason to refrain from heading for that second glass of wine if you are driving!

A brief overview of our contestants was delivered by Erich Viedge. What an interesting bunch they are!

Congratulations to our contestants and to the winners

The results were as follows:

Prepared Speaking:

Second Place: Matthew Hindley

Winner: Kirsten Long

Evaluation:

Second Place: Matthew Hindley

Winner: Kirsten Long

Impromptu:

Second Place: Flicka Steenberg

Winner: Coralie Rutherford

Lastly from our President, Carla, a big “Thank You” to
· The brave contestants mentioned above,
· The club members who helped out: Erich, Richard (Area H1 Governor), Danie, Graham, Sue, Jerome, Karen, Marius and Colleen
· The Area H Governor for being present and helping out, Richard
· Our Stand in Treasurer, Tiaan
· The guests from other clubs: Maciek, Roy, Viv and Shaun
· Our visitor, David Black who took part

You are all stars and helped make our contest a great evening.

Judging by the fun had by all, I hope that members will be foaming at the mouth to be a contestant next time round. We should all be competing to not only force us to practice but to better our personal growth and that will filter through to make our club even better!

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Karen Geyser