The Annual Club Contest
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
Lowdown – 18 November 2008
This was a really unique meeting as we had two meeting themes – “A Day in the Life Of” and “Speeches that Changed the World”
Opening Ceremonies
Danie Roux called the meeting to order at 18.20 and handed over to Kirsten Long, standing in for President Andrew Timberlake. Kirsten welcomed everyone after which she handed back to Danie Roux, the Toastmaster for the evening.
Coralie proposed the toast to positive reinforcement.
Danie introduced the Timekeeper, Cheryl Koorn, and the Grammarian Kirsten Long, who gave us Fervour as the word for the evening.
Danie challenged and stimulated us with his selection of speeches that had really changed our world.
Speeches
Clint Jacobs – An introduction to critical thinking
Clint summarised the move from the industrial era to the knowledge economy, with the latter’s need for effective critical thinking. He then presented the three steps to effective critical thinking. The steps are firstly to analyse the situation, secondly to evaluate the argument and finally to make the best decision based on the pros and cons of each option. He closed by saying that he thought critical thinking was as important as reading.
Monica Oosthuizen – The Life of Books
Monica fascinated us with her love of books, highlighting the ability of books to inspire our souls, scare us to death, help us develop the facets of our life e.g. DIY, financial management, leadership skills.
She highlighted the challenge, to motivate our youth to become voracious readers.
Table Topic Session
Tiaan Otto ran a very creative topic session based on the theme “A Day in the Life Of”
Paul Smith spoke on the Day in the Life of a Clown, when he ran out of steam on this topic he skilfully moved the subject to Jacob Zuma.
Kisten highlighted the vast differences between A Day in the Life of a Wise Man on Top of a Mountain and her day. She envied the peace of the wise man’s day compared to the stress and frantic speed of her day.
Danie, in his speech on a Day in the Life of Activist Against the Mistreatment of Small Fluffy Creatures, showed us a new side of Danie his addictive love for anything fluffy, from slippers to fluffy walls!
Sibu when speaking on a day in the life of the ruler of the smallest country in world, which she named Zamunda, showed us that she is an out and out hedonist. As the ruler her biggest challenges would be what shoes and outfits to wear that day and then how she could most enjoy herself, the choice between a flight to a Paris fashion show or which young stud to select once the show was finished!
Guest Liz, met the challenge, and bought us back to earth, when she described The Day in a Life of a Public Hygiene Engineer, all the gory details, from clothes including mask and rubber gloves to the smell and the gung. Your reward a clean environment!
Cheryl Koorn speaking on A day in the life of a Retired Super Hero highlighted her relief at being able at last to do all the normal things we take for granted and especially that she would no longer have to wear underpants!
Evaluations
Paul chaired the session. Zibu evaluated Clint’s speech and Paul Monica’s speech
Cheryl presented the full timekeepers report, Kirsten the Grammarians report and as Hark Master Coralie swelled the club’s coffers.
On a Point
The last meeting for 2008 was a party on 1st December when Kirsten promised something different and encouraged everyone to be there as they would have to wait until Wednesday 21 January for the next meeting, the first in 2009!
Lowdown – 3 November 2008
Mapcon Feedback
Andrews said 4th Dimension felt very proud at Mapcon:
- Marius received the Young Toastmaster of the year award
- The Club is a President’s Distinguished Club (again!)
- It counts 3 Area Governor’s among its membership
He highlighted the quality of the speeches and the challenging business meeting and motivated everyone to attend the next Mapcon in Cape Town. It is planned that Helen Ziller, Richard Branson and Raymond Ackerman would speak.
Toast
Sue Munro proposed a toast to opportunity, saying opportunity doesn’t knock, it lies there and we need to recognize it.
Feedback DCP Programme
Andrew summarized the clubs progress with respect to this programme and that we are on track to again be a President’s Distinguished Club.
Induction of New Members
Danie inducted Clinton and Cheryl. He elicited a promise from them of their commitment and from the club for our support of these new members.
Toastmaster
Matthew Hindley opened this assignment by highlighting that on the road to success achieving our goals is not as important as what we become by achieving them.
He introduced the following who summarized their roles for the evening
Grammarian – Sue-Ann Joe, who challenged us to use the word Euphonious, which meant pleasing or sweet sound.
Time Keeper – Danie Roux, with his novel PC Light system
Evaluation Chair – Dave Hardingham
Hark Master – Danie Roux
The Speakers
Cheryl Koorn CC1 – Reflections on my Journey
Cheryl fascinated us with her life’s journey, its twists and changes, from a school girl with a lisp, to IT, marriage, motherhood and finally running her own company in the natural products market.
She concluded with the fact that she joined Toastmasters to overcome her fear of speaking and to gain new skills.
Andrew Timberlake – How to Become Debt Free Without a Budget
Andrew highlighted how historically he couldn’t manage money until he put into practice the three step approach to a debt free life, namely give away 10%, save 10%, for a rainy day, and plan how you spend the balance of 80%.
Andrew recommended splitting the 80% into 2 portions, one for recurring monthly expenses and the balance for non regular expenses. For the latter he recommended an old trick beloved of our grandparents: Putting the money for each expense into an envelope.
To free yourself from current debt, start to pay off one debt at a time. Starting with the smallest, as each debt is paid transfer the money you would pay on that debt to the next smallest debt until they are all cleared.
Then follow the three simple principles of money management, give away 10%, save 10%, allocate the 80% balance and you too can be debt free without a budget.
Erich Viedge – Little Red Riding Hood
Erich updated this classic tale to the 21st Century and had everyone spellbound listening to the story of today’s teenage, Red, being forced, by her mother, to visit grandmother for lunch. We lived the fear of walking through the wood, the strange smell coming from the large eyed, strange voiced grandmother lying under her duvet. However Red escaped the large teeth following her ear piercing shriek and ability to outrun the wolf and reach to the woodcutter, who chopped up the wolf with an axe, releasing grandmother who then enjoyed an excellent lunch with her granddaughter!
Bev Kluckow – Down at Heel
Bev asked us to imagine she was 30 years older, than she was. She had just stepped off a plane, after a 13 hour flight, when the heel came off her boot and grounded her to the tarmac, blocking the passage of the people who quickly piled up behind her.
All efforts at emergency first aid, e.g. hammering the heel back on, attaching it with sticky plaster, proved fruitless.
She then looked into the face of an outraged passenger. This passenger resembled an angry vicious Saint Bernard after her travel bag landed on his foot! This changed her travel plans for ever. She decided that her traveling days were over, friends and family would have to travel to see her in the future.
Table Topics – run by Mathew Hindley
Dave Black explained how he, as Father Christmas, would motivate his workers to achieve their Christmas goals.
Coralie Rutherford outlined how a lesbian escort agency for executive women would result in a 360 degree turnaround in corporate profits.
Danie Roux as President of Fifa explained that making soccer goal posts wider and reducing their height would significantly increase interest, excitement and enjoyment of the 2010 soccer world cup.
Andrew Timberlake as Pieter de Villiers explained his intensions regarding the future of the Springbok rugby team and that he would clear his name by introducing soccer coaching methods into rugby coaching!
Richard Riche a guru motivational speaker outlined why it was vital to buy his latest book, if only to prevent him bursting into tears.
Evaluation – Smoothly chaired by Dave Hardingham
Danie evaluated Cheryl, Dave Andrew Timberlake, Kirsten Erich Viedge and Richard Bev Kluckow.
The Grammarian Sue Ann, congratulated speakers on using the word Euphonious 5 times and that there had been only 13 “ahs”.
On a Point
Kirsten asked members to think seriously about setting now and / or achieving their Toastmaster goals for this year.
Mathew received his CC pin.
The next meeting, on 1st December, would be a special Christmas meeting and the first meeting in 2009 is scheduled for the 3rd Wednesday i.e. 21 January.
Guest feedback indicated a fun entertaining, but scary meeting, because of the high standard of the speeches
George – a plan was drawn up to rescue George, the traveling gavel, from Vereeniging.