Pakuranga Toastmasters 
Pak in the News May 2009 
by Edwin Zwanenburg

Greetings and Welcome

2009 is well underway and summer seems to really be dragging to an end now.. Brace yourselves for lots of rain... excellent weather to prepare speeches and meeting roles !!!!
The Toastmasters year is nearing its end and we've had many meetings, the contests, social events, trainings & recently a fantastic guest speaker... An excellent year in which we have achieved a lot..
We have had a couple of New members joining us since last newsletter in February and we would like to welcome Sarah Moore, Ramesh Menon, Ram Parameshwar, Anne-Marie Barr and Leanne Banno to the club.

Good luck to you & always remember that good ol' American motto...
"YES, We Can!!!" (now.. was that Obama's or Bob-the-Builder's ??? I just keep mixing up them 2 !!!)
We, the exec-team, hope that you've all done well on achieving your personal goals have become a better speaker & leader this Toastmasters year! The next will be even better!

Enjoy the newsletter!
The Editor.

Let's Talk Business

Club Executive Team-Elections coming up!!!! As every year the "management team" of Pakuranga Toastmasters must change and also this year elections will be held in May. See Jan's e-mail of 23/04/09 for more info!!! The Executive Committee consists of:
  • Club President: Manissha Allabadi and she must be replaced (TM-rules)
  • Vice President Education = Caroline Luey steps down... your turn??
  • Vice President Public Relations: Edwin Zwanenburg is retiring too.. (this is the coolest job!!)
  • Vice President Membership = Jan Blyde, but she only stepped in to help out
    when Kelly left the club and Jan will need to be replaced.
  • Sgt at Arms, now Warren Frazer... role = up for grabs.. Interested???
  • Treasurer David Parker is stepping down as well... any takers???
  • Club Secretary = Simon Morley: he is re-electable in this role.
Handy Links

Pakuranga Toastmasters Website:
www.pakuranga.toastmasters.gen.nz

Strategies to Succeed in Public Speaking:
http://www.school-for-champions.com/speaking.htm#Success

Speech Topic Ideas and Examples:
http://toastmasterssf.googlepages.com/3000speaches

Events, Past & Upcoming

The Pakuranga Club "International Speech" & "Evaluation" Contest was held on the 2nd of March 2009.
With high level contestants the battle was on for first place and at the end of the evening, when the dust settled these contestants came out on top:
Winners of the competition
Prepared Speeches: Patti Leigh
Speech Evaluation Contest: Christine Alcott

They represented our club in the Area Contest that was held on Saturday the 21st of March at Elim College in Botany where they performed excellent but didn't quite make it to the top spots to go further down the track. Maybe next year better.

SOCIAL FUNTION
We're looking into organizing a fun night of 10-pin bowling on the 12th of June 2009.
Bring your partner along and enjoy some drinks & nibbles + some highly competitive (but non-contact) 10-pin bowling!!
Venue: 10-pin Bowling Panmure. More info to follow from Warren F.

PAST EVENTS
We had a fantastic guest speaker on the 15th of April in the person of KEVIN PROHL
who delivered a half-hour entertaining & educational speech on how to succeed as a speaker and how to captivate your audience.
This very motivational and eye-opening speech was well received by a curious & eager-to-learn audience at our club, including no less then 7 guests that evening.
Guess the advertising campaign paid off!!
Our thanks to Kevin for making time for us and to share his experiences with us.

Toastmasters Convention Christchurch 16 & 17 May 2009
The May 2009 convention, is to be held in Christchurch at "Chateau on the Park", 189 Deans Avenue, on the 16th and 17th of May, 2009.   Visit the Chateau on the Park website for venue information.
The theme for the convention: Crusade to Confidence, which follows on nicely from the "Courage to Conquer" theme of our International President for 2008 / 2009, Jana Barnhill DTM. Of added interest and excitement is the news that Jana will be attending this convention - making this the "must attend" event for 2009!
Oh yes, I forgot, (yes you did – alun) Alun Chisholm is going to be elected District Governor, your ONLY chance to see Alun in a suit.

An Exciting New Adventure

As always I've asked one of the club members what his/her motivation was to join Toastmasters, what his/her goals are and what he/she thinks of Toastmasters... here is what I received back from Melanie Cornish....

Hi,
I am 35 years old with 2 terrific sons, Andrew and Jacob. I have never been averse to public speaking but my speeches were always rushed, disorganised and were difficult for me to recall because they were severely blurred by nervousness. In school, I strived to master the challenge of delivering speeches and performing to an audience. As work and motherhood became my highest priority, I focussed less and less on my own aspirations.
Joining Pakuranga Toastmasters and returning to public speaking honours that part of me that lay dormant for many years.
I teach my sons that confidence will get them everywhere in life and I know that as they witness the preparation I put into my speeches, they also learn that effort brings reward.
I wish to fine tune the craft of public speaking so that I am able to enter club and district competitions, travelling and meeting people in the process. Most importantly, it would be wonderful to get to a point where I can give speeches that are appropriately suited to the occasion and knock the socks off my audience.
The journey is an enjoyable one thanks to the knowledge sharing, support and aroha that Pakuranga Toastmasters provides.
Thanks for that Melanie... we are seeing your drive and enthusiasm and it works inspiring for your fellow members so keep up that spirit!!! 


The Manuals

The Competent Leader manual there may be a couple of things not quite clear in the CL-manual:
  • in the book the toastmaster role is actually the chairman's role
  • You don't have to do all the roles listed to complete a project,
refer to the CL-Matrix at the back of the booklet for more info; some roles are compulsory but for some projects you only have to do 2 or 3 roles and not have to tick all 6 or 7 open boxes to fulfil that project's assignment!! The Competent Communicator manual
Check the websites; our Pakuranga one and the international one are worth having a look at to getting useful information on writing speeches etc. the links are mentioned above.
So... get projects signed off for your roles at each meeting!!! 


Recognition Corner

Steven Beech COMPETENT COMMUNICATOR: COMPLETED 10 SPEECHES FROM CC MANUAL!!

Ramesh Menon ICEBREAKER SPEECH

Well Done For Your Efforts & Achievements..... A Step Closer to achieving not only your own goals, but also our Annual Club Goals!!

Speechcraft 2009-a great success!!!

The Speechcraft Course 2009 at Selwyn College was held again this year from mid February to mid April 2009. Every Tuesday for 8 consecutive weeks from 7 to 9pm, members of the public came along and were thought from the TM-manual by Manissha and Caroline and people from Orakei Toastmasters, helped by Patti, Christine and Alun from our club as well as some Orakei club members.

10 Speechcrafters have so far completed their assignments and 'graduated' with a potential further 2 or 3 that may achieve their goals through club meetings. A fantastic outcome!!!

Toastmasters Pakuranga has been running the Speechcraft Course in conjunction with Orakei Toastmasters Club for a couple of years now and it's proving to be a good way of raising funds for both Pakuranga and Orakei Toastmasters Clubs.

At the end of the course we have deducted the expenses and the two Toastmasters Clubs have now shared in the proceeds... We're looking at a couple of hundred dollars extra into the club account!! And these proceeds potentially can go to things like a projector or a camera.. Tools that will help ourselves, club members become better speakers!!...

Speechcraft is a fantastic initiative.. Please help out next year again by volunteering & organizing !!

..Last but not least .........

Don't forget: We still have that little Suggestion Box in the meeting room at every meeting... if you have any bright ideas, suggestions or complaints... please forward them to the Executive Committee Members via this box and we'll give them the proper attention. (can be anonymous too)

So... This was my last Pak-in-the-News as VP Public Relations. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed reading them...
I had a fun time producing & writing the newsletters and communicating with club members about the topics.
It's a fun role to do for the club and I wish the next VP-PR all the best with his/her assignment!!! I'll provide you with all the digital files I've created so you'll be of to a flying start....

Greetings,
Edwin Z.
VP-PR & Editor "Pak in the News"