Vlogging by award-winning Toastmaster Laura Bruce DTM J2 Área Director, Winner of the 2020 District 72 Toastmaster award for best humorous speech – Laura gave a well structured, informative, and inspiring educational on using Facebook live to get your message out. Thank you Laura for beaming in from wellington. Here with Toastmaster Elizabeth de Jongh – evaluating the impromptu speaking session
Maria as Toastmaster , new member Gisele giving her first speech and visitors Samrita, Olivia, Annie , Jasmine and Leila. Also we had three holiday visitors – we loved your input. Hope to see all our guests back next week
Sheila Hailstone delivered an amazing educational on structuring a speech. That is the great thing about CWC you always pick up new learnings.
Another great year for CWC with a new committee. Welcome to new President Erin Carney, Sheila Hailstone, Candy Green, Maureen McNamara, Maria Moses D’Mello, Amber Fisher and Kayla Dudley. Congratulations wahine ma!
We had a wonderful Zoom session learning how to use the principles of improv comedy to help us to be better leaders. Leadership Coach and “Fear-Less Speaker Coach” Chris Neilson led us through his 7-step process and we had a wonderful time.
Chris Neilson
Chris is an American trainer and coach based in the U.S. He’s helped numerous corporations and non-profits including the Alzheimer Association of San Diego to improve how they do things using his techniques.
He certainly invigorated our meeting, and we agreed it was an enjoyable and informative afternoon. We had visitors from around New Zealand including a number from Wellington Toastmaster club Capital Chatterers zoom into our meeting of Christchurch Women’s Toastmasters. Thank you Chris!
We will continue meeting on Zoom as required, but are looking forward to returning to socially-distanced meetings at our regular venue The Village on Frank Street in Papanui on Friday 17 September at 12.30pm. Everyone is welcome.
If you’d like to contact Chris Neilson you can visit his website here.
Christchurch Women’s Toastmasters meetings will be moving to online-only as New Zealand enters lockdown Level 4. The government announced the measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 after a case was detected in Auckland.
Members will be emailed a link to the Zoom meeting. The same link will be used each week, so remember to save it to save time.
Today at Christchurch Women’s Toastmasters’ online meeting, Laura Bruce DTM will present an educational speech to help you win the Humourous Speech Contest. The meeting will be an online meeting, and guests are very welcome.
To help you take notes, Laura has created this worksheet which she suggests you print out ahead of the meeting. Download the worksheet here
Laura is the 2020 District 72 Humourous Speech champion, so she knows a bit about winning the contest. You may be surprised to learn, however, that most of what Laura knows came from many year’s experience losing the contest. Until 2019 when she won the Christchurch Women’s Club Humourous Speech Contest, Laura had never won the speech contest at club level.
Laura credits Toastmasters with giving her both the skills and the confidence to try stand-up comedy. She made her debut in Scotland but really got stuck into comedy once she relocated to New Zealand in 2019. In December 2020, she was voted “South Island Newcomer of the Year” by members of the New Zealand Comedy Guild.
Prepare to be motivated and inspired by her presentation today!
Enjoy!
An invitation to be a guest speaker at another new club can be an exciting, albeit somewhat daunting prospect! Having triumphed at the 2020 District 72 Humourous Speech Contest, I was invited by Boaters Toastmasters in Christchurch, New Zealand to present my tips on humorous speaking and online competing.
Only problem is, they meet at 7am! Yes, Boaters Toastmasters is one of a handful of breakfast clubs in the Garden City.
“Never fear, Laura is here!” I got up early, found the venue in plenty of time, and had a wonderful time, meeting new people and going for coffee with a group from Boaters after the meeting. What fun! It was worth getting up very early after all!
If you’d like to watch the video of my presentation, “Tech and Technique”, here it is, courtesy of Louise Landess at Boaters Toastmasters.
Competing online is part of the brave new Toastmasters world post-March 2020. This presentation was in October, 2020. Toastmasters clubs in New Zealand resumed in-person meetings in July 2020 after we returned to normal life on the islands. Unfortunately, clubs all over the world have had to meet online to cope with various regulations around social distancing.
At the time of writing (July 2021) Toastmasters Clubs in New Zealand continue to meet in-person. At Christchurch Women’s Toastmasters, we relish the opportunity to visit with our friends, go for coffee afterwards, and enjoy all the ancillary benefits of being a Toastmaster — part of a worldwide community of people committed to becoming better speakers and leaders.