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Promote your Toastmasters Club and share your success stories.
- Getting your name out there
- Showing what Toastmasters means to you
- Bringing Toastmasters to more New Zealanders
- Showing what's in it for them
Tell Your Story - Spread the Word
- Why is Toastmasters Important to you?
- Most Efficient
- Most Affordable
- Most Fun
- Opens entirely new worlds of possibilities
- You'll become more Persuasive
- More Confident
- More of a Leader
Email Lt Gov Marketing - marketing@toastmasters.org.nz with your story!
Information on public speaking tips flowed at the half hour lunch time public seminar in the Forum on Friday March 10 2007.
Toastmasters Paula Bayley, Sigrun Steinhagen and Rachel Alexander
shared more than their toast-making skills at the Forum
during Toastmasters Week
Held in the open air Forum in the central business district, special guest Mayor Alistair Sowman, and shoppers stopped to listen to emcee Paula Bayley and Toastmasters Annie Gleeson, and Alicja Ginders share their knowledge on making winning presentations to any audience, and on taming the nerves. Finally, Toastmaster Lorraine Brasch poked a bit of fun at office memo writers with an original poem.
This was the first such event held by morning club Wider Horizons, and evening club Sunbelt Speakers, in celebration of Toastmasters Week.
Public speaking is something many of us shy away from, but opportunities are plentiful and it is often a necessary task in business and in social situations. When done badly it can reflect poorly on the entire organisation. When done well a speaker exudes confidence, professionalism, conviction, personality, and knowledge with a purpose to entertain, inform or persuade. It is a rare presenter who does not require practice and polish. Toastmasters International offers a programme to work on various aspects of communication and leadership.
Mayor Alistair Sowman, former Toastmaster and founding member
of the first Blenheim toastmasters club with presenters
(from left to right) Paula Bayley, Annie Gleeson, Lorraine Brasch,
and Alicja Ginders (not pictured)
The two clubs welcome guests and new members. Wider Horizons meets every 1st, 3rd and 5th Wednesday at 9:30-11:30am or email widerhorizons@toastmasters.org.nz
Sunbelt Speakers meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday 7:30 to 9:30pm. For further information contact 0800 People, or email sunbelt@toastmasters.org.nz
In 1978 I was involved in car wreck in Tasmania (Australia) and then again in 1982 (New Zealand) both times booze was involved and both times I was passenger.
To cut a long story short. One day I heard the traffic cops were fighting a losing battle as far as drinking and driving goes so I went to the traffic officers asking if I could be of any help.
I was asked to travel around Waikato talking to school students about the dangers of drinking and driving which I did for two or three years, just around Waikato. Then a police officer rang me and asked me if I would mind having a play written about me, I said yes and I was to be able to go on the road with the show speaking at end of each show to kids, teachers or who ever was watching show as we did a few public shows and in prisons.
So at the time I wasn't able to do public speaking at all or if I tried "sweat" words or abuse would come out of my mouth, plus I couldn't put two words together as I had this thing about everybody judging me on my disabilities.
I'd heard about Toastmasters but being young I was not joining "OLDIES Toastmasters" because that's what I had heard about them - old people who are bored. I can tell you this I think different now. The play was about my life before and after my car wrecks e.g. drinking until I could not stand sometimes, then get in the car and try and drive, about my ex-wife, my son, my dairy farming, my drunken life and on and on the story goes. I think it was about 3 years I toured both islands of New Zealand, doing this before joining Toastmasters, well it just would not have happened. So thank you Toastmasters as you have changed my life. Oh! guess what I'm still a member and I love it.
I owe a lot to Toastmasters and New Zealand would be thanking them also for giving me the confidence to speak out in public for something that New Zealand has a real problem with ... "DRINKING & DRIVING".
Earl Hopkins
(Earl is a member of The Famous First Toastmasters Club)
by David Hatchuel
Arriving in a 'new' country was pretty traumatic. My wife and I knew few people - an elderly cousin who lives here, and of course the good people who put us up for the first ten days. We both eventually found a home, and jobs, and met a couple more people. But we didn't gather a 'social circle' around us to any great extent. To say that we were lonely in each other's company wouldn't be too far from the truth.
Stopped one day at a traffic light, I saw a sign advertising a Toastmasters meeting. I remembered that I had been offered an opportunity to join the organisation many years previously, but declined, as the person making the offer was a not-too-favourite uncle. The phone number was easy enough to remember - 0800 PEOPLE - and I called it later that evening. I got a voice message, and my heart sank; maybe it's not attended and I won't get a response. But to my delight, I received a phone call later that week, and was told about a Club that meets very close to my home. I resolved to go along and find out what it was all about.
That first meeting was so much fun! I was introduced to the club by one of the members, and was invited to participate if I felt like it. It was also OK just to sit and watch. Within a couple of hours I was convinced that this was a group I wanted to be involved with. At the end of the meeting I was asked if I would like to complete an application for membership, and did so with alacrity!
I had little inkling of just how much this organisation would change my life. I thought I would attend a meeting every fortnight, prepare an occasional speech, and meet a few interesting people. I relished the idea of being Grammarian, and wondered how long I would have to be in Toastmasters to be elevated to that lofty position. Table Topics was not much of a worry, as I have always been a bit of a show-off - in true Leo fashion - and have a ready response to most subjects. "This will be a breeze," I thought. Not for long. The breeze soon became a full-blown typhoon, carrying me along on a most exhilarating ride.
The breeze picked up strength within weeks of my induction into the Club, when the member who was producing the Club's newsletter, the "Eden-Epsom Epistle," was transferred to Wellington. A call went out for someone to take over the task. I don't know how it happened, but I found myself saying, with no small measure of alacrity, "I'll do that." And so an Editor was born. My first effort went out in March of that year, and I continued producing the Epistle, later re-named "The Ranter" for several years. While it was a very rewarding task, it also had its frustrations. But that's another story.
A year as Vice-President Public Relations followed, and then, "The Big One" - Club President. What a trip! My slogan for the year was "All succeed when one succeeds," and we ended the Toastmasters year with Select Distinguished in the Distinguished Club Program. I was so proud of what my fellow members had achieved.
The wind was now more than a stiff breeze ...
At the May 2002 Convention in Manukau I attended an educational on the "High Performance Leadership Program." Choose a project, enlist a Guidance Committee, and get on with it. "This is IT!" I thought. And in no time I found myself leading a committee towards the November 2004 Convention.
And still the anemometer gathered momentum.
A few weeks earlier I had been tapped on the shoulder by the incumbent Area Governor. "Do you realise," he asked, "that in order to achieve Advanced Leader, you need to have done a year as a District Officer? How would you like to be the next Area Governor?" I would like to very much, thank you. Trying not to sound too eager, I asked, "What does it entail?" "Piece of cake," he replied. "You could do it with your eyes closed." Not quite, Brent, but thanks for the encouragement. However, with the help of a very supportive wife, a good deal of cajoling, and many sleepless nights, I watched the five Club Presidents take Area A6 to President's Distinguished. The pinnacle of my achievements - or so I thought. The wind was about to pick up even more velocity.
Achieved CTM and Competent leader. Found, and started, a project for High Performance Leadership. What else must I do to achieve Advanced Leader? Sponsor or Mentor a new Club. Hmmm. I think I need some help here. Who better to involve than Kevin Prohl, Toastmaster Extraordinaire? Due in no small part to his untiring efforts Onehunga Toastmasters came into the world on June 4th 2004, after a 16 month gestation. Kevin's tenacity and perseverance are well-known, and he clung doggedly to my dream, quickly making it his own. And he has my sincere gratitude for not allowing me to give up. Because there were times when I would cheerfully have tossed it all to the wind that now blew at almost gale force. But the immortal words of Winston Churchill resounded over the howl of the typhoon: "Never, ever, ever, ever give up."
No amount of book-learning could have given me the wealth of experience I gained while forming Onehunga Toastmasters and in the two-year period as leader of the team that organised the November 2004 District Convention in Auckland. The Convention was a resounding success, and again thanks are due to the incomparable team that made that dream of mine a reality. That we melded together so successfully is witnessed by the fact that all the members of that team, and a couple more, are planning the November 2006 Convention.
I have a fantastic job as a result of knowing at least one Toastmaster. When I was in a really bad situation at work, I called her and we met for lunch. I told her how unhappy I was in my work, and left it at that. Imagine my delight when a few weeks later she called me and asked for a CV! She had been talking to somebody who knew somebody ... The rest, as they say, is history.
Other benefits? Innumerable. Apart from the learning, the friendships gained and the fun I've had, there are things like the networking, and the fascinating speeches I've heard, on topics as diverse as navigating by the stars, how to care for a horse, and life as a Mr Whippy man! I have learned something from almost all the members I have met. Other learning has come in more subtle ways. Preparing speeches has made me conscious of my writing skills - which have improved in many ways. And there was the time in a job interview when I suddenly had a flash of something that I had heard in the Club - and applied it! It worked! The interviewer said that she was impressed, and I was short-listed. Didn't get the job, but the learning was mine to keep.
I'm convinced this is the cheapest education available. All for very little cost.
Am I a better person? Indubitably! (As you can see, my vocabulary has expanded too.) I am more confident, more settled. I'm conscious that my voice has become deeper, too. Not that I've ever been told that I was a squeaker, but I believe that the work I have put in rehearsing my speeches has had that effect. I'm also more sure of myself as a leader, thanks to the Convention experience.
And the future? I'd rather not predict too far. There are more things to learn, to experience, and more fascinating - and not-so-fascinating - people to encounter. But this much is certain: I don't see myself leaving this Organisation soon. I'm having too much fun!
If there's one lesson that comes out of it all, it's this: no matter how hard the wind might blow, it will only uproot the trees that haven't had time to establish a strong root system. In my case, that root system consists of my family, my mentors, and the many Toastmasters I have met over the past few years - so many of whom I'm privileged to call friends. All of them have become part of my new roots in this country.
I suppose that if I were allowed one regret it would be that I didn't take up the offer of membership all those years ago. Think of all the good times I might have missed!
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