The conference is an opportunity to catch up with Toastmasters from Redlands, Capalaba, Logan Morning Stars, Riverside (Bulimba), Waterloo Bay (Wynnum/Manly) and the newly formed advance club, Speak N Jest (Rochedale).

The main agenda items are the speech contests. Representatives from each club will vie for the honour of representing Area 20 at the Eastern Division Conference to be held in February/March of 2011.  The winner of the International Speech Contest at this conference has the potential to travel to the International conference to represent District 69 in the World Championship of Public Speaking. This prestigious annual event was won last year by Mark Hunter, a Toastmaster from District 69.

Bookings are essential, confirm your place with your club or contact the Area 20 Governor, Alana Beale, directly on 0409 150 948.

Now that my next leadership award requires me to complete this program, I decided to find out more about it. The Toastmasters International website doesn’t provide any information, (at least none that I could find) but a Google search on “What is the high performance leadership program in Toastmasters” took me to this helpful explanation on the Toastmasters District 70 website.

L-R: Mary Wilson, Chris Graham, Andrew Hansen, Robyn Hargreaves, Diarmuid Deans, Marie Catlow

We are now in the new Toastmasters year and with the changeover we welcome a new club executive. The President for this year is Andrew Hansen CTM CL. Andrew has been a member of Waterloo Bay Toastmasters since 2001 and brings a wealth of experience to the job.

Assisting Andrew in the role of Vice President Education is Marie Catlow ACB CL. Marie, a retired schoolteacher and now a part time educator for the Australian Heart Foundation, has plenty of new and interesting ideas to keep the club programs interesting while helping members achieve their educational and leadership goals.

Also on the executive this year are:

Robyn Hargreaves CC – Vice President Membership
Diarmuid Deans ACB CL – Vice President Public Relations & Treasurer
Mary Wilson CC – Secretary
Chris Graham – Sergeant at Arms

The latest edition of the magazine features:

• DG‘s Message
• From the Lieutenant Governors
• Convention Report
• Contest Results
• Convenor’s View
• March to May Madness
• Beat the Clock
• Partners under the Southern Cross
• Virtual Brand Portal
• Toastmasters Leadership Institute
• The History Page
• Evaluation – Challenge to change
• What’s been happening in Area 11
• Toastmasters encourage students to read
• Move over John and Yoko
• District Executive Team 2010-2011
• Pictures from Convention

We will be meeting every Tuesday for the next eight weeks at Wynnum Manly Leagues Club, Wynnum.

There will be no meetings of Waterloo Bay Toastmasters at Queensland Philatelic Council House until 20th July 2010.

Improved communication skills can not only help you when speaking to groups, small or large, but will also help in your day to day conversations, with family, friends and colleagues.

The course is held over eight weeks, starting on 25th May and ending on 13th July. The venue is Wynnum Manly Leagues Club, Wondall Road, Wynnum West.

Your investment: $165. This gives you eight weeks of training, participation and fun, all course material, dinner at the final “Graduation” session.

And, if you choose to join Waterloo Bay Toastmasters after you have completed the course we will waive the joining fee of $45.

To find out more about what Speechcraft can do for you, download an information sheet and call Diarmuid Deans on 0410 400 916.

Tonight’s theme was St Patrick’s Day and we were treated to a quiz on “The Luck of the Irish” from Robyn Hargreaves. Pauline’s team were the star performers in the quiz, but failed to collect a prize due to the handicapping system preventing anyone with an Irish team member from winning.

Our President, Robyn Hargreaves, will be in New Zealand for the next 6 – 10 weeks and Immediate Past President Diarmuid Deans will be filling the position in her absence.

At the business session held tonight a motion was put forward to “Collect the meeting attendance fees in advance at the same time as the renewal of the semi annual dues”. There was some debate on the motion with people speaking for and against it. Due to time constraints the motion was not put to the vote and has been set aside. At this time it seems likely an amended motion will be put forward at the next business session. Any comments from members are very welcome and should be emailed to president@waterloobay.org.au or posted in the comments field below.

We were lucky to have two visitors this evening, Tess Rowley of Capalaba Toastmasters and her neighbour Norma. We also welcomed Pauline King to the meeting for the first time in many months. Pauline passed a milestone tonight when she completed her final project to achieve her Competent Leadership award – well done Pauline.

On Friday past a number of Waterloo Bay Toastmasters members went out for dinner together. No Toastmasters agenda, simply chatting and having some social time together. We were joined by Bernie Walsh and Carleen Walsh of Riverside Toastmasters. It was great fun and we will be having another social event soon.

Our next meeting will be held on 30 March 2010 at 7 pm for a 7.30 start.

Mentor Program – the club has a mentor program but in a show of hands last night, only one person claimed to have a mentor. We will be working on improving this as soon as possible.

Forward Planning – our Vice President of Education, Andrew Hansen, has a forward planner but it is not being distributed to the members. From now on, the forward planner for the next three to four meetings will be distributed with the program. This will allow people to plan their communication and leadership projects more effectively.

Socialising – a Toastmasters Club is primarily about communication and leadership but it is also about friendship. We will be holding more social events to promote friendships within the club. How does dinner at the Thai restaurant in Wynnum sound? Friday 12 March at 7.00 pm? BYO wine and beer. Email or Facebook Diarmuid for details.

Last night we also received applications for membership from Bryce Dunbar and Ganesh Raju. Bryce is new to Toastmasters and Ganesh has transferred from Townsville’s Evol club.

Thanks to Lois Beedie and Roy Beedie for the contribution. Roy also provided this commentary on hierarchical structures (I have embellished it a little, but I have a feeling this is what he wanted to say anyway).

Roy described hierarchies as resembling a tree full of monkeys.

Monkeys in the tree look down at the monkeys on the level below and all they see are smiling faces.

But when any monkey looks up the tree, all he sees is a bunch of a****holes.

This session is an opportunity for a Toastmasters club to take stock of how it is performing and how it is perceived by members, visitors and the Toastmasters organisation.

All members are encouraged to attend and visitors are also welcome.

Click here to download a copy of the Waterloo Bay Toastmasters Program, 2 March 2010.