TOASTMASTERS helps members improve their public speaking, presentation and leadership skills. TRANSFORMERS CLUB meets the 2nd and 4th Monday's of the month at the Morningside Country Club in Johannesburg, South Africa. Come and visit us to see what TOASTMASTERS is all about!
Theme for 2011/2012: The Club is the newest member

Tuesday, 13^th April saw members of Accenture, Golden Gavel, Hatch, Nedbank and Transformers Toastmasters clubs gather at Accenture to compete, or support the contestants, in the annual International Speech Contest for Area H3. Area H3 Governor, Andrew Timberlake hosted the evening. A number of other Toastmasters had been called upon to officiate at judges, tally counters and timekeepers.

There was quite a buzz in the room as Toastmasters greeted friends or were introduced to new members and caught up on news from other clubs. Snacks and drinks were available before the contest began and started the evening on a very sociable note.

There were four contestants participating in each of the three contests: the International Prepared Speech Contest, the Impromptu Speech Contest and the Evaluation Speech Contest.

After the formalities and the briefing of contestants and officials the first contestant took the floor. The officials and audience were treated to four excellent speeches and I can only imagine the judges had to evaluate the finer points of public speaking to determine a winner. Three of the speeches were in some way autobiographical while the fourth, by Ryan Ebedes, was about creating something of value in life using the life of the sociable weaver bird as a metaphor.

The impromptu speakers were given the word “flair” as the topic of their speeches. The flair with which these four speakers constructed a speech on the fly was astounding. It certainly is worthwhile attending contests to listen and learn from accomplished speakers.

A powerful demo speech for the Evaluation Speech Contest was delivered by Martin Foure about a near disaster that he had experienced on a mine that was brought back into vivid memory by a newspaper report some years later when a cage went crashing 2km down a shaft at gold mine killing almost 150 miners. Although the topic and title – Death Touched My Shoulder – were both morbid, Martin fashioned a spellbinding speech that had everyone on the edge of their chair (and made concentration on timing very difficult). The four evaluators were given ample material for a constructive evaluation.

After the Contest Chair, Richard Riche, had introduced the contestants, allowing the judges time to finalise their adjudications, we were presented the winners of the three contests:

Impromptu Speech Contest:

Second – Mary Byrne from Transformers

First – Erich Viedge from Golden Gavel

Evaluation Speech Contest:

Second – Mary Byrne from Transformers

First – Adele du Rand from Golden Gavel

International Prepared Speech Contest:

Second – Sudhi Thakurdin from Hatch

First – Ryan Ebedes from Transformers

Congratulations to all the winners but especially to Ryan and Mary who represented Transformers so ably.

Ryan will be competing (and Mary if the winner is unable to) at the Division H Contest on 12^th May to be held at Ernst & Young.

Everyone is welcome to come along to Transformers to meet these accomplished speakers in the warm and friendly atmosphere of our club meetings. Next club meeting is on Monday, 26^th April at 18h30 (for 19h00 sharp) at the tennis pavilion of the Morningside Country Club. Give John-Peter a call for more information.