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

Should a Toastmasters meeting be held on a long weekend?

Monday, 26^th April was a normal working day with South Africa celebrating ‘Freedom Day’ on Tuesday. The result: a small number of members, but three most welcome guests, Nontu Made, Lerato Molefe and Angelica Smallwood. It was a busy meeting with a few Toastmasters taking multiple roles, but that makes for a fun meeting.

Toastmaster of the evening, John-Peter Gernaat asked whether suffrage means freedom, since that seems to be implied by South Africa’s ‘Freedom Day’ that commemorates the first election in which everyone with a South African ID document, above the age of 18, could vote. To the backdrop of a number of quotes, famous or less so, depicted against pretty pictures, John-Peter provided background and understanding of the Calibrated Map of Consciousness by Dr. David R. Hawkins that has led Dr. Frans Kromhout to question how much freewill human beings really have.

The Calibrated Map of Consciousness provides a measure of human consciousness on a logarithmic scale. Using the simple technique of muscle testing to obtain yes/no answers it is possible to calibrate any question against this map of consciousness. It is based on the principle of interconnectedness between everything living as well as historical. On this map Truth calibrates at 200 on a scale from 20 to 1000. Anyone or anything that calibrates below 200 is not supportive of life while everything calibrating above 200 supports and benefits life. On this scale the average consciousness of South Africa – all its peoples – currently calibrates at 185. This means that South Africa has not yet earned the right to peace. The world average is 207. All the sciences and medicine calibrates between 400 and 499. Love calibrates at 500 and unconditional love at 540. According to the calibrations to determine freewill it only becomes available to humans above 300. Between 400 and 499 – the sciences – only 3% freewill is available. Above 500 the human exercises 13% freewill which increases to 50% above 540, the level of unconditional love. An avatar with a consciousness calibrating at 1000 has complete freewill. Interesting and controversial, this provides foods for thought and late night discussions.

Ryan Ebedes offered the toast of the evening in honour of his step mother who had completed the London Marathon, her first marathon. His toasted “Freedom – doing the things you want”!

Three prepared speeches were presented: Rod Taylor fulfilling the requirements of the second project for a Competent Communicator, Jim Powell completing his CC3 project and Ruth Taylor demonstrating what is required to complete the final Competent Communicator project, number 10.

Rod’s speech, entitled “Magic” led us through the magic that is the barcode. Barcodes do not only permits stores to price items but it also allows them to understand the buying habits of customers and to adjust prices of popular items until the rate of purchase starts dropping off. Your supermarket really understands you! This speech earned Rod Best Speech of the evening.

Jim repeated the speech of two weeks ago warning us that not all timeshare schemes are equal. Be wary of the calls informing you that you have won a prize in a competition you do not recall entering only to entice you to attend a presentation where you will be manipulated through guilt into buying a holiday for life. Once in the scheme the fees, that are detailed in the standard contract you are not given the time to read, deplete your bank balance while the resorts available for the time period of your choice are seldom in the area you have selected or accommodate all the friends you’ve invited along. Beware! Jim was rewarded for his efforts with the Most Improved Speaker trophy of the evening.

Ruth, in a speech entitled, “Are we there yet?” challenged us to set goals; goals for achievements in life, goals for Toastmasters. Although it is pleasant to float along in a bubble or hang around like the floating mountains of Pandora (seen the movie Avatar?), the ultimate human fulfilment is in achieving. Planning and setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-framed) goals ensures achievement. In Toastmasters there are two parallel developmental paths along which a Toastmaster would wish to achieve: public speaking and leadership. By setting goals for an entire year a Toastmaster can reach the end of a year feeling satisfied in his or her achievements.

Cheryl-Lynn Langley led the Table Topic and in the spirit of the theme of the evening asked everyone to recount the moment in their life when they felt most free. Everyone, including our guests, participated in the Table Topics and very personal tales emerged. On an evening like this one really gets to feel how much of a family Toastmasters is. Cheryl-Lynn and John-Peter shared the trophy of the evening for Best Contribution.

Cheryl-Lynn also walked away with the trophy for best evaluator of the evening for her evaluation of Ruth’s speech and her astute observations on the use of language during the evening in her role as grammarian.

Our next club meeting will be held on Monday, 10^th May. We welcome all guests and assure you of a warm, friendly welcome and a pleasant and entertaining evening that will challenge you to want to achieve in the realm of public speaking.

Ryan Ebedes will be competing in the Division H English Prepared Speech Contest on 12^th May at Ernst & Young, Wanderers. We hope to provide him with a large contingent of supporters.

Lastly, here is a teaser: at our club meeting of Monday, 24^th May we hold “Transformers Debate Special 2010”. Diarise, not to be missed.