Zahndri (left) comes 1st in the Division H International Speaking Contest and third in the Division H Impromptu Speaking Contest. She faired well at the District 74 International Speaking Contest and we applaud her achievement.Giant Leaps, Giant Flights, and a whole lot of Criticism!
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- Published on Friday, 18 September 2009
- Written by Ryan
Well they're all good things of course - since they happened to you.
Of course you might have to dig deep to find the positive in them, but that's exactly what our intrepid Table-topics speakers did when Area H3 Governor Andrew Timberlake led the session. He asked all participants to explain why each of these particular events in their lives was actually a good thing, resulting in some rather delicious and hilarious results!
Before the table-topics began, 3 prepared speakers took the stage and delivered speeches from the Competent Communicator and Advanced manuals. First up was Keith whose speech, titled "Giant Leaps for Mankind" was well rehearsed and excellently presented, in a way only Keith can. As with all of our speeches it is critical to find the passion within them, and this came through in leaps and bounds in Keith's delivery. Another CC under the belt.
Ryan's many years of study in two very different topics, namely digital security and birds, allowed him to merge the two through the breaking story of Winston the Pigeon and his historic flight to deliver 4 GB of data - faster than a Telkom ADSL line. Ryan went through the 3 most critical security risks Winston will face in his forth-coming journeys, and what will be done to mitigate these risks. Some of these included specialised training in the art of Pigeon flirtation and Social Engineering techniques, as well as hiring decoy pigeons from the JKCPES (Japanese Kamikaze Carrier Pigeon Elite Squad) to counter possible hacking attacks from Peregrine Falcons.
Rod's Advanced speech required him to "Respond non-defensively to verbal criticism", and "Defuse the situation." He staged a role-play with his wife Ruth and did exceptionally well to acknowledge her complaints and to garner a mutual understanding! Some of his 'mistakes' included not picking up the dog-poo on the lawn to not following up on Ruth's squeaky brakes - He did an admirable job of defusing the situation and keeping the peace!
Andrew then took the stage and participants in his table-topics did their best to deliver the good, from what appeared to be the bad and the ugly!
Ryan explained why "Losing a limb" was a good thing, whilst Ruth explained why her crashed car was no problem whatsoever. Keith gave us the plusses of a collapsed economy, whilst Cheryl-Lynn explained to the farmer why his destroyed crop would work out very well indeed. Ele found she had more time at home after losing her job, whilst Rod explained to his company's ex-employees why their lives, and the organisations success, would all be significantly improved!
Join us on the 28th of September for our next meeting.
Guests and visitors welcome!
A contest of wits
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- Published on Monday, 31 August 2009
- Written by Ryan
First up was Ruth with her speech entitled TV or not TV. Her speech was based on the CC4 module, "How to say it", and she cleverly used the analogy of watching TV and the particular characters that we and our kids are exposed to on a daily basis. It was a very well chosen topic, and turned out to be the perfect opener for the contest.
Next up was Mary, with her speech entitled, "What's in a name?" She built her story around her name, where it came from and the misunderstanding it created in various parts of the world. As always she put it beautifully together for all of us to enjoy, turning it into a star performance!
Rod was not to be outdone. His speech, entitled "The best medicine", revolved around the use of Laughter as a form of medicine, and the various types there are. He ran through various examples, and invited the audience to participate. At some points it was not clear whether we were laughing for him, with him, or at him...which is exactly why it worked for a humorous speech!
Glenice astounded her audience, before she even took the stage! Her speech title was a mouthful, and contest chair Robin Prowse wasn't going to repeat it. The title? "The subtle complexities of the birding fraternity, during moments of sheer excitement, whilst all around them lack the immediate desire, for further investigation". And who are we to argue! But then she explained...having a bird-crazy family does have it's up and downs - usually more downs than ups, but as it turns out, she's quite enjoying this new pursuit!
Jerry wove his speech around "Procreation or Survival". It was classic Jerry, all humour, all twists and turns, and all very subtly executed. A great performance from one of Transformers all-time humourists!
All in all it was a great evening, and a big thank you goes to all our volunteers who made the night a success.
And the results?
3rd Place: Jerry Goodman
2nd Place: Glenice Ebedes
1st Place: Mary Byrne
Join us on the 14th for our next meeting.
Guests and visitors welcome!
Women of Worth - WOW
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- Published on Sunday, 16 August 2009
- Written by John-Peter
for best contribution
Our toast for the evening, proposed by one of our newly joined members, Solani Bvuma, toasted women as transformers in society.
Unintentionally the dominance of women prevailed through the official tasks of the evening. Our Wordmaster-Grammarian for the evening selected a word that should have set a record for highest number of uses in an evening – inspire – and then failed to count the uses. Our Listener’s Corners, making its second appearance on the programme, gave second-time guest, Geraldine Buckton, the opportunity to stump those around the table with questions derived from anything said during the evening. Being an auditor she succeeded with a couple of the questions to show that no one had heard particular statements.
Three prepared speeches were presented. 
Ele Mandavha presented a speech fulfilling the requirements of the third Competent Communicator project entitled “My conflict as a modern woman”. She highlighted how closely together traditional culture and modern, western culture reside in Africa and the conflict that this can cause when a woman fulfils her role in a society where both cultures collide. The speech earned her best speaker of the evening.
Glenice Ebedes presented a speech to fulfil the requirements of the first project from the Interpersonal Advanced Manual entitled “Reason, season or lifetime”. Glenice demonstrated that while a competent Toastmaster can deliver an excellent speech it is a different kettle of fish to role play a scenario. A role play requires careful selection of props and the incorporation of props into the role play. A role play should be well rehearsed or it becomes an impromptu dialogue that requires the Toastmaster to be very astute in thinking on his (her) feet.
at a wedding expo
Rod Taylor in his speech in fulfilment of the fourth project of the Persuasive Speaking Advanced Manual spoke of the glass ceiling encountered by women in most fields of endeavour.
Our Toastmaster regaled us with wonderful facts and anecdotes about such great South African women as Helen Joseph – anti-apartheid activist, Dr. Rampela Mampela – director of companies and the World Bank and Zola Budd Pieterse – Olympian.
Table topics provided great amusement. Quotes from well known women were given to each speaker who had to tell the audience who had made the quote and the circumstances that has prompted the quote. Not one of the speakers correctly guessed the owner of the quote and resultant stories that ostensibly gave rise to the quote provided many laughs.
with Zola Budd
Our next meeting on 24th August is our annual Humorous Speech Contest. All are welcome to a fun-filled evening of certain-to-be entertaining speeches.
Reverse Psychology
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- Published on Thursday, 30 July 2009
- Written by John-Peter
The excellent work of the immediate past Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Ryan Ebedes, was in abundant evidence on Monday, 26th July when 7 guests arrived at the first full-programme meeting of the new Toastmasters year. With our own club membership having been confirmed at 20 at the end of the old year and a good compliment of members present, we had a well attended meeting.
The theme for the evening was reverse psychology – getting someone to choose the reverse of the choice advocated. Toastmaster for the evening, Mary Byrne, provided mind-boggling definitions for this intuitive technique that only received a name in psychology circles in the late 1970’s. She then made it very understandable with a variety of humorous examples including Homer Simpson.
The evening proved very educational for the benefit of our guests with the roles of office-bearers and the evenings procedures clearly explained.
The toast of the evening was given by Rod Taylor who challenged everyone to consider what was cramping their growth and to remove these restrictions. Growth was heartily toasted and looking around the table the potential for growth was tangible.
Adopting her own reverse psychology in the face of growth, Ruth Taylor announced that the word for the evening was “defiant”, which was defiantly used only four times in the course of the evening.
Three prepared speeches were delivered. The first, by Jonathan Turpin, a new member, who delivered the first project on the way to becoming a competent communicator and entitled it, “Whose your Goliath?” His speech was deeply thought provoking and provided two profound life lessons: firstly that growth is uncomfortable so become comfortable with discomfort; secondly, using the Biblical story of David and Goliath, that when something is really worth attaining and the stakes are high, do not be surprised if very few line up with you to take on the challenge.
John-Peter Gernaat delivered the fourth project of the Competent Communicator manual and entitled it, “My laughter experience”. He described that from a gurgling baby, laughing child, to a giggling teen he became a non-laughing adult. Having discovered a training to laugh again he experienced how laughter through guided exercises can reawaken the spontaneous, fountain of laughter of the joy of life.
Keith Bowen, in a speech entitled “The green way”, explained that the price of renewable energy purchased by Eskom to feed into National Electricity Grid was up to four times as expensive as its own generated power. However, he presented a compelling argument that this premium was cheep in the face of the certain detrimental effect of climate change if there was no move away from harmful power generating technologies.
of Table-Topics
Keith Bowen confessed that his god-daughter would in fact “do that for you, I’m sure you can’t get those back in the box” for all her siblings.
Rod Taylor was rather brutal in challenging the chicken to “okay go ahead, cross the road by yourself, you’ll just get hit by a car”, because it was chicken.
Ruth challenged her 6 year old son to “okay, don’t take a bath, you’ll just smell and no one will like you” because of his love for dirt and dislike of water, in a bath.
Glenice Ebedes wondered why her childhood dentist did not have a jar of cookies and a jar of sweets on his desk as her doctor had because if you “don’t brush your teeth you’ll just get sick and have to go to the dentist.”
A new item was added to the program: the listener’s corner during which Marlize Pretorius, a guest for the evening but previously of Florida Toastmasters, probed to discover whether contents of speeches had been heard and remembered.
Our guests were asked to give feedback on their experience of the evening and were unanimously enthusiastic and complimentary.
Join us on the 10th August for our next meeting. Guests and visitors are very welcome!