How quickly a fortnight comes around! Yes, it’s toasties time tonight. As normal we will be
commencing at 7:30pm but you are welcome to join us earlier for a bite to eat or a relaxing  glass of vino.

Myths about Toastmasters:
Here are a few myths about Toastmasters taken from the toastmasters website. If you are considering joining…. here is some extra motivation:

What a week for South Coast Speakers Toastmasters. On Tuesday (tonight!) a number of our club members will hit the road to speak, judge and observe at the first speech contest in Mornington. This year our contests are combined with neighbouring clubs, which is a great outcome. The first contest will be International and Table Topics and a number of our club members are participating. Good luck to everyone who is representing South Coast Speakers in this contest round, we know you will do us all proud!

On Wednesday, of course, we have our regular meeting where we will hear updates from the first contest as well as some exciting speeches. Don’t forget it’s also time to pay our fees – we will set up a computer to enable online payments which should make the process easier.

Semi – Annual Conference:

The 2016 D73 Semi-Annual Convention, Be the Change will be held on Saturday 12^th November at the Parkroyal Melbourne Airport from 9am. There are already two external speakers confirmed for the day program, Dr Gary Wohlman who is a presentation skills coach and will be conducting an interactive 2 hour workshop on the importance of refining your message, Niki Casey is an image consultant and will be discussing the importance of what we wear and the impact it has on our audience.

In addition, there will be multiple workshop options presented by Toastmasters members, these have not yet been finalised but will be announced soon. All the latest event news can be found on the event Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/D73BeTheChange2016/

Welcome to our new club President, Miriam, and the rest of the incoming Committee!

Toastmaster of the Year, Miriam Strickland

The new committee met last Monday and are keen for an exciting year of Toastmasters. One of the most exciting things about Toastmasters is seeing how our members grow and develop into confident speakers. Let’s see what the next 12 months have in store for you.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 24 August at 7:30pm (earlier if you would like dinner beforehand). Guests and new members always welcome.

Incoming and past Club Presidents Patricia and Miriam

Toastmaster of the Year
Congratulations to Toastmaster of the year, Miriam! Miriam was presented with the award at our last meeting by David. The award recognises the extraordinary growth of Miriam as a speaker and also the commitment she has shown to the Club through her work on the Committee and via the coordination of our recent Speechcraft workshops. Well done Miriam, a very worthy award recipient.

Thanks to Patricia
Patricia formally handed over Presidential duties to Miriam at our last meeting after a fabulous 12 months at the helm. We were very fortunate to have such a professional and motivated person leading our Club. Thanks Patricia!

Your Ideas:
Do you have any ideas on how our Club can attract new members or increase revenue? If you do, your new Committee would love to hear from you. Miriam will be asking these questions at our next meetings. Have a think and see what ideas you can come up with.

Practical Tips for Online Communication:
An online workshop session is scheduled for club officers on August 25. This is great resource resource for regional areas as it removes onerous travel times.
Register here – https://toastedtraining.clickwebinar.com/regional-cot/register
Convert start time to your timezone: http://www.clickmeeting.com/converter/112383167

Choose which way you want to join the event:
1. Join via Website:
https://toastedtraining.clickwebinar.com/regional-cot on any browser with Flash
2. Join via Mobile Application: Room ID: 112-383-167

The weather is getting cooler but our meeting will be warm and ‘toasty’. Join us this
Wednesday night for some entertaining table topics, speeches, jokes and more. If you’ve
been away for awhile, don’t be scared to pop in for a visit. We are a friendly bunch and
always very welcoming.

Back to Event:
South Coast Speakers Toastmasters has reached an important milestone – we have successfully held 500 meetings! This is a big achievement for South Coast Speakers and has been the culmination of a lot of hard work by many people. To celebrate, the club will be hosting a back-to event in very the near future. If you an assist with lending a hand for the event, please contact Ian.

Speech Craft Workshops:
Patricia and Miriam are coordinating a Speech Craft workshop at PICAL in Cowes. The first workshop went very well with a small but enthusiastic group of participants. Running parallel with this fine achievement is the work that Brigitte and David have been doing to try and start up some corporate Speech Craft workshops. This work is ongoing but the structures (pricing etc) are now in place. Congratulations to both groups for their fine contributions.

Recipe for a successful toastmasters meeting:

• Take one toastmaster,
• Add a lively table topics session,
• And a pinch of ‘joke of the day’ for seasoning,
• Throw in three enthusiastic and talented speakers
• Slowly add evaluations, timing and grammar.
• Don’t forget the fun and frivolity!

Join us tomorrow (24 February) at 7:30pm or earlier for dinner. Guest always welcome.

New Toastmasters App

The first official Toastmasters mobile app is now available on your smartphone or tablet. This user-friendly tool is designed to help you perform your club meeting roles with convenience and ease. Preview and download the app here.

Features include:

• Instant access to your club roster
• Built-in Ah-Counter that counts filler words
• Grammarian function that keeps track of the Word of the Day
• An easy-to-use timer
• A History section to track your progress

South Coast Speakers Toastmasters is back for 2016!
Join us on Wednesday 10 February (tomorrow night) at the San Remo Hotel.  The meeting will start at 7:30pm or you can pop in earlier and join other members for dinner and pre-meeting drinks.

If you’re not sure what it’s all about, here is a quick summary of what Toastmasters is:

Toastmasters International (TI) is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help people learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.

WORKSHOP: Communicating using the Whole Brain Thinking
The way we think, react to others, make decisions, communicate, choose careers, and manage people depends on how we think. Our personal thinking preferences can both help us and inhibit in our day-to-day interactions.

We need to better understand our thinking preferences to communicate skilfully in our personal and work lives. Communicating Using the Whole Brain looks at how to adapt, consider and leverage different thinking styles. It’s not just about what you’re most comfortable with. Perhaps even more importantly, it’s thinking about the thinking styles of others.

In this playful and interactive session, Gayle Smerdon will introduce you to a powerful yet simple thinking preference model. Find out what your preferred thinking styles are, recognize the preferences of others and learn how to meet others where they live.

When: 1:30pm-4:30pm on Saturday February 20th, 2016.
Where: South Melbourne Town Hall Community Hub, 208-220 Bank Street, South Melbourne, Melway ref: 2K C2-C3 or 57G1
How: Please RSVP by c.o.b. Wednesday 17 February to Russell Moore rmoore21@bigpond.com
Cost: Gold Coin Donation to cover the cost of the Convention

You are invited to Christmas dinner with South Coast Speakers Toastmasters. The event will be our last meeting for 2015. We hope you can join us!

When: Wednesday 9 December
Where: San Remo Hotel, Marine Parade, San Remo
Time: 7:00pm (earlier start time due to meal)
Cost: Selection from menu. This is a slight change from last invite – we believe it allows for greater flexibility. Drinks at bar prices.
RSVP: Please RSVP by Monday 12pm to Patricia or Chrissy.

To make the event super special, please bring along a Kris Kringle gift to exchange on the night ($10 limit) and dress in something with a Christmas theme.

We do hope you can make it.
South Coast Speakers Toastmasters will reconvene next year on Wednesday 10 February.

Our next meeting:
Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 11 November at the San Remo Hotel Motel. The meeting starts at 7:30pm but you are very welcome to join us beforehand for dinner and drinks.

Our last meeting:
Our last meeting was an exciting one for South Coast Speakers Toastmasters as we welcomed guests from surrounding clubs to compete in our Area B1 Contest. Our guests enjoyed a lovely meal downstairs before heading upstairs for a Table Topics and International speech contest. David Hughes was the successful winner in both categories. Well done David.

Toastmasters Convention:
This year’s Toastmasters Convention will be held this Saturday 14 November from 9:00am – 11:00pm at the Amora Hotel Riverwalk, Richmond.
Last chance to buy tickets featuring:
* Inspirational Speaker – Mark Dorrity – The “Meltdown Man”
* 5 awesome Workshops to choose from
* Panel session – Mastering Speechcraft
* Masquerade Dinner
* District Meeting

Get your tickets now to an action packed event. http://d73.toastmasters.org.au/2015-semi-annual-toastmaste…/

Area B1 Toastmasters ‘Table Topics & International Speech Contest’

It’s on tonight and it’s local! The contest will feature contestants from across Area B1 including Cranbourne, Mornington and Dandenong Toastmasters and (of course) our own South Coast Speakers. The excitement starts at 7:30pm at the San Remo Hotel Motel.

Table topics contestants are: Norma Cayzer, Bernadette Gow, David Hughes, Joan Kilby, Patricia Hanrahan

International contestants are:
Pascal Hartmann, Eric Chan, David Hughes, Kim Hahn, Christine Legg

October is here – time for Halloween, Oktoberfest and South Coast Speakers Toastmasters. Don’t forget to join us this Wednesday at the San Remo Hotel Motel. Meeting starts at 7:30pm or come earlier for pre-meeting dinner and drinks.

Competition 
At the end of last month we hosted a great competition event with guest judges joining us from Mornington Toastmasters.

Our competition comprised a Table Topics contest and an International contest. Miriam and Chrissy were our successful contest winners on the night, however it was very close with all participants doing a fantastic job!

Semi Annual Convention
The Toastmasters Semi-Annual Convention will be held on Saturday 14 November at the Amora Hotel Riverwalk in Richmond. The convention is titled ‘Unguarded moments – explore the extraordinary’ and will examine the perils and pleasures of the unguarded moment.

For registration and more information, please click here.