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Friday, June 10, 2011

Seminyak Meeting - June 10th

Meeting Notes - June 10th 2011

Well Toasties and friends, our second official meeting was a rousing success. Last night was a perfect example of thinking on our feet!

Being the first meeting as VPE, I failed in my duties and forgot to create a meeting program. Well, failure would imply prior knowledge ... this job is harder than I thought. However, Stefani Kang our TOM for the evening, pulled it together with flying colors. Thank you Stefani.

Unfortunately, Miranda Suryadjaja was ill, which left some big shoes to fill. We wish her a speedy recovery. Most of us are aware of Miranda's contribution, and I would like to offer her acknowledgement for everything she has done and continues to bring to all the Toastmaster clubs in Bali.

Because of her absence and my lack of completion in my duties, I had the privilege to act as president (and I assure you that it was just an act), general evaluator, and evaluator for two speeches. The best way to learn to swim turns out to be apnée.

Strong led a fantastic table topics, playing his role well and adapting his presentation during Martha's speech to remind us that table topics is about spontaneity, and one can just as easily transition off topic if they have nothing to say about the question. The purpose of Table Topics is to learn to think on our feet; truly the sign of an accomplished speaker.

All speakers showed quick thought, and a clean presentation. Rozi recounted his trials with commercial flight, Igor tempted us with his cuisine de Florence, Alan intoxicated us with his sejourns d’alcohol, and Martha took the prize by jumping into the fire with her joys of sports, and lack thereof.

All the prepared speeches showed a lot of time invested. Angie gave her icebreaker, recounting her childhood in East Germany, and her lessons that Everyone Deserves Respect. Rozi gave his second speech about How To Make A Healthy Home. This was full of good advice about living in this part of the world and how to reduce and eliminate environmental problems in the home due to high humidity. Sri gave her ninth speech, and taught us about neuro linguistic programming, and how we can lead happier lives by taking control of our perceptions and attitudes. And Alan finished off the evening with an advanced speech about an exciting project he is developing to encourage entrepreneurial activity through greatly needed solution oriented business. He will be organizing an event soon, so look forward to an invitation in your email.

The evaluations were thoughtful and encouraging. One of the bests part of our club is how obvious it is that we all want each to grow and develop as communicators.

The meeting ended with what I am sure was a delightful tango lesson. I was unable to stay because of prior engagements.

NOTE : There will be a new club starting in Ubud, and the first meeting is the 19th. Please contact Budi for more information.

Finally, an insightful article worth sharinghttp://sixminutes.dlugan.com/25-skills-every-public-speaker-should-have/

Friday, May 27, 2011

Meeting Notes - Seminyak Toastmasters, a New Beginning

First I’d like to introduce myself as the new VPE. I will be replacing Theodoreo Niekras who will be returning to the states (temporarily) for professional reasons. Theo has added great value to the club with his presence and enthusiasm, and will be missed. I know I speak for everyone when I wish Theo a bon voyage (traveling via a transpacific sailing adventure from Japan to Dutch Harbor, Alaska) and that he return to us quickly here in Bali.

For a recap of last night’s meeting, the event was fun as always and brought a lot of laughs. We had three and a half guests, one of which being Angie who has decided to join the club (yeah!) Welcome Angie. The finale of tango lessons was not the least bit unappreciated. I only wish I could have stayed around till the end.

Our TOM for the evening was Sri, who ran a warm gathering with a lot of energy. She is improving consistently and will certainly become a very proficient speaker as she continues down the TM path.

Theo presented a thought provoking table topics, asking profound questions about happiness. What is happiness? Can happiness be measured? And when was the happiest moment of our lives? Doris, one of our guests, braved a go at a question. This is always inspiring, as the point of table topics is to be able to learn to think on our feet and handle situations which are unrehearsed … an important skill for any speaker. We hope you are soon a member Doris.

The three speeches of the evening were given by Budi, Theo and Richard (speaking for myself in third person, lol). Budi delivered speech number three, Get To The Point, recounting an embarrassing gastro-intestinal moment that happened to a ‘friend’. Theo dazzled us with his theatrical skills and pyromaniac past with speech number four. Finally Richard introduced himself in his ice breaker while taking a subtle, yet ever deserving jab at ex American president George W. Bush.

The evaluations were handled with class and encouragement. As always, the meal was excellent and the meeting finished on time.

A couple of points discussed were the option to serve the meal after the meeting. Eating first tends to rush the affair lessening the pleasure of the feast. Point taken. However waiting till the end posses a problem for our members living in Ubud and Sanur who still have the long road in front of them. Discussion to be continued.

A small clicker device was suggested to call attention to the speaker when Ahs, Ums and filler words are used. The advantage being that we are reminded in the moment when it is most relevant, not at the end of all the speeches when we our out of context and changing the habit is less effective than when it is happening. Also the role of the ah counter will be easier.

Finally, the suggestion of turning the red light off at the end of the final allotted time will provide an additional signal. This will tell the speaker if they have in fact gone over time, or are still within the allowed limit.

As this is a new club, and membership is of utmost importance. I would like to encourage everyone to invite at least one friend to each meeting. Toastmasters is a marvelous tool, and all of us know colleagues, friends or family members who could benefit. If everyone invites someone, the meeting instantly doubles in size.

Lastly, because we don’t ask additional financial contributions like the other clubs, beyond the normal membership fees, we need to think of ways to raise a small treasury. The club has expenses, such as marketing and promotional, training and tools, and sending members to competitions and other regional events as some examples. A standing account will help things run more smoothly. We should think of ways to raise money for the club. I suggest a raffle. We can sell tickets to win prizes. It is fun and easy, and a great way to promote the club. Please give it some thought, and we can discuss it as a group in the next meeting on June 10th.

Ok, I’ll wrap this up with a link for a nice synopsis from Toastmasters.org, 10 Tips For Public Speaking http://www.toastmasters.org/tips.asp

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Thursday, 12th May.

Returning to our accustomed venue, after last week’s cosy foray to the foyer, Bali Toast Masters held their “Super Humorous” themed meeting and embarked upon a slightly new but very enjoyable approach during the Table Topics round:

Impromptu speeches based on a randomly chosen object or prop. The suggestion of Vaughn, this concept was based on the famous comedy show “Whose line is it, anyway?” and it proved to be challenging, amusing and very entertaining for both speakers and audience as you shall discover.

Once underway, the meeting quickly moved on to the Table Topics stage and even more quickly moved into the surreal with Vaughn leading the Table Topics while sporting a pith helmet and a slightly comical yet predominately disturbing mask.

Whether or not it was actually an improvement was insinuated but not decided.

Amongst the highlights were: Tjie Strong, who seamlessly linked his object, a squeaky, orange, plastic hedgehog, to the irony of death. Olga’s object, a monkey statue, produced an anecdote of the time her father mistook her for a chimpanzee.

Firman had a rather erotic stylized sculpture and, slightly at a loss, engaged the audience for physical participation. Our guest, David, nearly removed his clothes… but ironically failed to place his underpants on the outside of his trousers when he came to speak with a Superman toy as his object for discussion.

Novi took us all on an intergalactic imaginary journey with only a wooden hula hoop as her prop. All in all, a very imaginative, entertaining and comical Table Top session.
Vo-ghan won the craziest (or funniest) person award - the one-of-a-kind T-shirt.

Deborah delivered her 2nd speech from the basic manual yet clearly has skills and abilities expected at the advanced levels.

The jokes did not stop, however, with the topic looking at he history of humour, Deborah informed and charmed us all with the origins of jokes; ancient Sumerian records of farting wife

jokes and citing relics of gags and witticisms from the annals of history that we all still find familiarly amusing to this day.

Her visual depiction of Cro-Magnon man’s fart jokes around the campfire was hilarious. A really excellent speech. Well done, Deborah!

Stepping in at the last minute, Michelle gave a very engaging portrait of her entanglements with religious taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur. From the spiritually free to the dogmatic and opinionated drivers,

Michelle took us with her on her precarious balancing act; falling foul of foot-in-mouth disease and having to extricate herself from the judgment of others. Evidently a strong Toast Master, Michelle’s speech was delivered masterfully, despite having such a short time to prepare.

A last but not least mention: Happy 21st birthday to Ibu Cok. What a delicious choclate and cream cake -- most definitely enjoyed by all.

A thoroughly enjoyable Toast Masters and, of course, more to come later this month and every month!

By: Johnathan Wilkinson

A Panorama Of Variety...

Saturday, 7 May 2011:

As happens twice a year in the countries which move the time forward in the summer to save energy, someone inevitably forgets and arrives EARLY or LATE for some appointment, church or meeting.

(That's why it's always Midnight of Saturday night/Sunday morning when the change goes into effect.)

And, as we too changed our starting time on Saturday from 2pm to 3pm, Yep, you guessed it. Two members showed up early. One was an hour and a half early!

But as the meeting got under way, there was a lively buzz as last minute roles were confirmed and Chisato was suddenly asked to be Table Topic Master.

Appropriate, if you really think about it. After all, isn't Table Topics about thinking on our feet?

And that's exactly what Chisato did as she rose to the challenge, beautifully giving us four thought-provoking questions that led to a very lively session.

It literally had everybody answering the question in their head as they listened.

First up was Anita, a guest and Toastmaster to be, speaking about how living and working Ubud makes her happy.

Next was Erika. Her excitement and enthusiasm were contagious. Infectious even, as she told of being selected the number one Beatles fan in the world.

Ndari revealed her love for books and her twin brothers, when asked about what would make her happy.

But the one that really caught us all --- and eventually landed her the top honors as Best Table Topic Speaker--- was Siska as she talked about her values as to what she considers as the most important element of happiness.

Without missing a beat, we moved on to the Prepared Speeches session. TOM Miranda introduced each one in turn, helping us better appreciate the project each was attempting.

Tim persuaded us eloquently on the importance of copy writing, inviting us to have a look at his blog for tips on how to create copy that 'sells'. Appearing, natural and relaxed, Tim sprinkled his speech with personal anecdotes and frustration that the audience could easily relate to.

Then Ms Luh came on, and with quiet, organised passion stole the show (and later took top honors in this category) as she talked of the alarming increase in HIV infection in Bali. She speaks about serious issues, but with such passion and sincerity -- we cannot help but hang on her every word.

Some even commented that it seemed much more like a later project - the speech to inspire.

Next was Lina giving her Ice Breaker speech with an amusing tale on her experience having and taking care of a dog for the first time. Lina spoke fluently without using her note, and did not show any nervousness. The audience gave Lina a standing ovation for having broken the ice.

And last, Sri got up to introduce us to a place that we must see, feel, taste and experience in all its richness, variety and wonder. She ended by challenging us ---brilliantly--- that until we know UBUD, we don't really know Bali.

The meeting ended with evaluations and people volunteering for various roles at the next meeting.

See you there!"

Tim Arwine

Monday, May 2, 2011

Wondrous Laughters - BTC Meeting April 28, 2011

Dear Fellow Toastmasters,

The 'official' last meeting precis...

A charming misunderstanding quickly morphed into a wondrous night at BTM last night. Being locked out of our normal room only led us to be more resourceful, holding the event in the more intimate surroundings of the foyer, sitting on comfy couches and surrounding by pot plants of all descriptions, featuring Verga’s punker wheatgrass display.

The great thing was that with the smaller space, and the subsequent enthusiastic applauses, 11 actually made a wonderful crowd (the enthusiastic clapping, conducted by Miranda, adding to the fanfare and human spirit).

An agenda packed with speakers of a variety of levels meant that we made the rare exception of not having table topics. Being a fan of this session, I was pleasantly surprised that the night flew by without me noticing it. This was simply because the variety and content of the speeches were right on the button.

I commend the brave and admirable Icebreakers (look mom, no notes!) from Jonathan and Firman – you’d think they’ve been doing this for years: keep coming back for more guys!

Adi, as usual, probed us with philosophical quandaries that even Jenny couldn’t answer, all backed up with beautiful blue brain diagrams.

You couldn’t deny that Verga’s wondrous wheatgrass was not only well-researched and applicable to anyone who cares a toot about their health: instant weight-loss and a kilo of veges in a glass of healthy juice – I think you can understand why his flyers were ripped out of his hand at the end of his speech.

Strong then embarked on his speech marathon of 20 minutes, accepting the challenge of the full time allowance that was offered to him, to discuss new strategies for attracting potential Toastmasters members. It was role playing time and this was where the real fun started…
There were interrupters, chatterers, talkers, arguers and those with internal personality conflicts. Everyone rose to the role, keeping Strong on his feet at every moment possible. He handled the situation calmly and efficiently, often with a wry smile, especially when the class clown, Vaug-han, brought up the suggestion of ordering pie susu for snacks at break time! I think that we even came up with some serious suggestions in the end - let's look forward to welcoming more members...:)

Evaluations, on the whole, were apt, encouraging, constructive and within the time limit, except for Vaug-han who by this stage was finding it hard to shake off the ‘talker’ role from Strong’s speech…

Best Speaker went to the ever-modest Jonathan and Best Evaluator was Adi.

Next meeting promises to be even funnier, and I suggest checking out ‘Whose line is it anyway?’ on YouTube for a bit of inspiration:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFQyJySGJ4

Wondrous moments at a wondrous meeting – toast!
Vaughan 'Kiwi' Hatch


Friday, March 25, 2011

A Surprise! Meeting


Meeting Commentary

Surprise!

How do you add spice and zest to your club meetings?

One way to do it is to turn the meeting upside down. Toastmasters meetings are usually known for their structure and preparedness, and… usually fun included as well.

This time Bali Toastmasters Club decided to have a Surprise! meeting.

Members were left in the dark as to what their role was going to be.

Shortly before the meeting started each member was asked to draw a lottery, a rolled piece of paper with a leadership role written in it. Then together members opened their piece of paper and discovered what their role for the evening was.

Imagine when members read their roles; Surprise! Pandemonium broke, “Oh no… I can’t do this, can someone change role with me?”... “I’ve never done this role before”…

President Amran reminded us of one of the pillars of Toastmasters was: “Toastmasters is the safest place to make mistakes” and gently prod the members to try anyway. In all fairness, being equally unprepared put everyone more or less in the same boat. Everyone is bound to make some mistakes.

From the draw the roles were as follow:

Toastmaster: Ellen (most senior member, but always requested for easy role)

General Evaluator: Debra (very new member, never did evaluator role before)

Table Topic Master: Amran (got the easiest role)

Grammarian: Miranda (normally wouldn’t choose to do the role if she could help it)

Ah Counter: Tim (visiting Toastmaster)

Timer: Firman (guest)

Ballot Counter: Anas (guest)

Evaluators: Jenny and Izul (both never had been evaluators before)

Miranda gave a short educational talk on ‘How to Evaluate’ to help the debuting evaluators get their feet wet.

Table Topic Session

President Amran as the Table Topic Master led this opening session.

The table topic speakers were determined by another draw. The lucky ones were Jenny (new member), Anas and Firman (both guests) and Tim visiting Toastmaster). All took to the questions with laudable calm and confidence. Jenny spoke the virtue of jogging. Anas could barely contained his enthusiasm airing his views on meditation and jogging that he exceeded the time allotment. Firman spoke about being a teacher. Time was asked to share why he loves Toastmasters.

Tim was voted Best Table Topic Speaker.

Prepared Speech and Evaluation Sessions

The prepared speakers were the only ones who prepared their speeches… well, at least they had advance notice that they would be giving a speech. As to whether it was a prepared speech or not, that would be best left to one’s perception sometimes.

Izul opened the session with his speech from Basic Manual project 4 – whose objectives are to focus on what to say to make a speech more vivid and descriptive. The title of his speech was “Children and Television”, which spoke about the danger of watching too much television, yet despite scientific study that confirmed the debilitating effects of prolonged exposure to television, general population seems unable and unwilling to rid themselves of this insidious addiction.

Izul was evaluated by Jenny

Miranda delivered a speech project from the Interpersonal Communication Advanced Manual: project 1: Conversing with Ease. Partnering up with Tim in a roleplay, she demonstrated the utilization of four levels of communication in striking up a conversation with a stranger. She used the open question techniques to quickly build rapport and generate a meaningful conversation.

Miranda was evaluated by Izul.

Miranda was voted Best Speaker. Izul and Jenny tied as Best Evaluators.

Debra did an amazing job giving a general evaluation of the meeting. She was direct and spontaneous in giving a fairly thorough evaluation of the meeting. She felt that the lack of preparation lent to the lack of focus of the meeting, although it was amply compensated with fun and high spirit. She suggested that members refrain from crossing the room or speaking while there’s a person speaking on stage.

The laughter and the fun seemed to come to an end too soon. A lot of mistakes were made. Miranda completely forgot that she was grammarian and only managed to evaluate one speaker.

All the new guests commented that they’ve enjoyed the meeting immensely and felt that the club was exactly what they’d been looking for. Anas, Firman and Putu decided to join the club.

Coming up Next:

BTC Club Speech Contest – March 31, 6.30-9 p.m. Jl. Batur Sari 22B, Sanur

For more information contact: Amran 081 2376 2000

Come check it out!

See you at the club soon,

Toast!

Miranda Suryadjaja ACS ALB

Friday, July 9, 2010

From Ordinary to Extraordinary

Ever had a bad day at work where by the end of the day you just felt so tired, moody and listless?

On such days, go to a Toastmasters meeting, guaranteed, you’ll soon feel uplifted, zestful and energized. You’d come home wondering, what happened, what changed from bad to great? What’s extraordinary about these meetings?

Toastmasters meetings, due to its collective positivism, heaps of appreciations, and 2-3 hours of focused mutual empowerment, will have everyone focused on seeing and uncovering the greatness instead of what’s unsavory in their fellow humans, and having it returned likewise many folds over. Like ripples in still water; the positivism rises and multiplies creating a vortex of energy enveloping and affecting everyone within its sphere of influence.

Well, truth be told, this may not be a norm in ALL Toastmasters clubs, since there are over 12,000 Toastmasters clubs on this planet, but ever since I first stepped inside the club in 2008 it never failed to produce this kind of result.

Our last meeting was no exception.

Choosing District 87’s theme for the year: Dare to Shine, we chose the word of the day ‘Extraordinary’ with the intent of installing the new Executive Committee members into office. As the day of the meeting drew closer, for some mysterious reasons 5 of the 7 EXCOM members were called away out of town, out of the country, to a wedding preparation. Furthermore, the other members were occupied with the delightful consequence of living in a beautiful holiday destination like Bali during peak season: having to entertain out-of-town vacationing friends and relatives.

Albeit the low attendance, Toastmasters and delightful guests and pressed on.

The executive officer installation was canceled, but the theme was kept.

The meeting was opened by the new club president: Amran Hidayat, who’s trying the size of his new shoes. It didn’t take him long to demonstrate his charisma and powerful presence; that’s why he’s the president.

Toastmaster of the Meeting Miranda explained the theme briefly, saying that if we, ordinary people, put a little extra care, effort and attention to anything we do, the result would be extraordinary. When that’s done on a regular basis, then shining would not be a required effort, it wouldn’t be a matter of daring to shine, rather, simply a consequence of putting in the extras. With that she asked the audience to commit to doing things with extra care, extra attention and extra effort so that all would enjoy an extraordinary meeting.

Novi began the meeting in earnest by leading the Table Topic Session. Stefani, the first Table Topic Speaker spoke about what she would do if she woke up alone in the dessert during a beautiful time of the day. Stefani struggled slightly with the answer but finished it gracefully as her Toastmaster experience got her thinking on her feet.

Faisal, our long lost member spoke about the present reality of the dreams he had as a child. He spoke eloquently about how his dreams had shifted and grown over the years. Then with great passion he shared the wonderful things he’s now experiencing in life as the result of having dared to dream.

To the question ‘what is your opinion about white lies’ Amran the president said: “Sometimes we need to a be a white-lier if we don’t want to hurt someone we love or care about”. He made us reflect on the merits of such deeds.

Izul, our delightful english teacher guest, was asked if he were a superhero what superpower would he like to have. His “To be a superhero I must eat a lot of Supermie" (a brand of instant noodles) drew instant laughter. He went on to say: “As a superhero, my power would be the ability to make people always says ‘yes’”. He demonstrated this power by rapidly firing a series of questions to Amran which Amran could only say ‘yes’ to.

The prepared speech session was initiated by Michele, who did her 5th project Your Body Speaks. An eloquent native speaker Michele has a well modulated voice that is easy on the ears. She spoke on her discovery of a modality using chakra healing which in her opinion can help people heal their emotional scars instantly. Michele was evaluated by Ina who commended her on her good gestures and interesting topic.Ina suggested that Michele looked at the audience more peripherally instead of focusing on one side of the room and to take into consideration the wooden parquet floor which make loud clacking noise from the wooden heels she had on.

Novie followed with her 6th project Vocal Variety speaking on how motorbike accidents were not only what she often witnessed, but had had personally experienced. It only cost her Rp. 30,000 to repair the bike but a whopping Rp.15,000,000 to have her shoulder operation as a result from the motorbike accident. “Unlike cancers and heart attacks which can come out of the blue, motorbike accident is something that you can prevent by wearing helmets, riding carefully and simply complying with the traffic regulations”. Novi was impressive on her use of poignant pauses which really drove the message home, as well as on her utilization of effective contrasts in volume, cadence, pace and pitch. A beautiful and rich speech, indeed. Amran evaluated Novi, and suggested that to accentuate some points, she could use more gestures and body movements, - which, in her focus on vocal variety seemed to have gone missing.

Miranda did Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ monodrama for her Interpretive Reading project. This project requires that she analyzes, interprets, plans and reads the literary work using mostly vocal variety to convey the actor/writer’s intention and emotions behind the writing. She was evaluated by Olga who said while it was hard to evaluate such unfamiliar form of communication that involved totally new skills, she enjoyed the reading and considered Miranda’s use of pauses really effective. She suggested that Miranda allowed the evaluator to read the work in advance to better evaluate the delivery.

Our last speaker was a late addition to the roster of speakers. Yudha is a member of the newly chartered Magical-Bali TMC. Not one to shy away from challenge, Yudha agreed to do give his Ice Breaker Speech on the day of the meeting, at the wee hours, in the aftermath of the Germany-Spain World Cup semi-final. But what a speech it was! Titled ‘Dancing with the Orang Utan’ Yudha was so nimble on his feet throughout the whole speech (a fact, he later admitted, resulting from his nervousness) he appeared dancing. He spoke of his experiences and fond memories working as a vet to rehabilitate the Orang Utans in the forests of Borneo. He opened his speech with “Do you know that animals can talk to you?” and ended the speech with a blow kiss when he had to say goodbye to the Orang Utans. The audience was thoroughly entertained and touched by the speech. Yudha was evaluated by Michele. Duly impressed by Yudha’s natural delivery skills, she considered them far beyond what’s required for an ice breaker speaker.

Yudha was Best Speaker, Amran Best Evaluator, and Izul the first time guest, was Best Table Topic Speaker. The President awarded them with tokens of appreciation from the Club.

With only 7 members and 6 guests present, President Amran in his closing remark felt that everyone had put that extra effort, care and attention resulting in an extraordinary meeting. Indeed, once again, it was another uplifting Toastmasters meeting filled with warmth, laughter, appreciation, encouragement and the exhilarating joy of being with likeminded people who share the passion to learn.

Do you want to have a taste of the fun we’re having? Or simply curious about what’s going on in our Toastmasters’ meeting?

Wait no more, come and join us at our upcoming meetings:

Magical-Bali Toastmasters Club: Saturday, July 17th (1st & 3rd Saturdays). 2-5 p.m. at Jl. Hang Tuah 43, Sanur. Contact: Miranda Suryadjaja 081 2367 45423

Bali Toastmasters Club: Thursday July 22nd (2nd & 4th Thursdays) 6.30 – 9 p.m. at Jl. Batur Sari 22B , Sanur. Contact: Amran Hidayat 081 2376 2000

NOTE:
Bali TMC and Magical-Bali TMC are sisters club, or rather, Bali TMC sponsored Magical-Bali TMC. Therefore, although the clubs have different organization and officers, the meetings are interchangeable and similar in culture and feelings. Members from both clubs attend and support either club meetings.

For more information about our clubs visit the facebook groups under Bali Toastmasters Club and Magical-Bali Toastmasters Club. To read previous meeting commentaries, go to Discussions. To learn more about Toastmasters go to www.toastmasters.org

Toast!

Miranda Suryadjaja ACB, ALB

President - Magical-Bali Toastmasters Club