Area D3 has been busy achieving goals with another speakathon taking place last week. Thanks to our Area Governor for arranging another successful event, to all the participants for making it such an energy-filled evening, and to our international guests from Germany and the US for bringing some new ideas to the clubs.

For a change, Ana and I decided to do a photo review of the evening. Enjoy!

Pre-meeting pow-wow. Mike is scratching his head already!

Sergeant-at-Arms, Kirsten Pearson, makes sure we all know where the bar is at the Tafelberg Tavern.

Toastmaster of the evening, Vanessa Clark, gets to grips with the podium.

Angela Rothbert of Table Bay Toastmasters completes her CC10 - an inspirational message to the residents of Mitchell's Plain. Congratulations!

Peninsula Toastmaster Abdul Kamaldien demonstrates his cold calling skills with guest Helene Booysen for his AC3.

Lindsay Meiheizen, from Pinelands Toastmasters, speaks off the cuff about the Sunshine House for his AC24.

Good Hope Toastmaster, Mike Fawcett had the audience gasping (with laughter and horror) during the next in his series of Upham tales, "Small boys can't fly" for his CC4.

Mavis Fawcett, timekeeper extraordinaire, tests out Peninsula Toastmasters new set of lights.

Peninsula Toastmasters' President and Area Governor, Ana Garcia, evaluates Angela's CC10.

Evadne Kortje, from Peninsula Toastmasters, capably does a double evaluation after Ana Garcia and Richard Perkins's TV interview entitled "Youth leadership in Southern Africa".

Our visitor from Phoenix, Arizona, Elaine confidently steps up to the challenge of a Table Topic slot, and explains just how she ended up waking up on Paarl Rock (in Richard's fictitious scenario.)

Evadne looking quite happy at Richard Perkins, from Grove Toastmasters, choice of Table Topics.

All still paying attention after dinner! Here are Kirsten, Jazzmin (our visitor from Germany), Elaine and Abdul.

Ah - Richard delivering his Ah report.

What a team. From left to right: Richard Perkins, Evadne Kortje, Helene, Lindsay Meiheizen, Mavis Fawcett, Angela Rothbart, Ana Garcia, Jazzmin Hecht, Vanessa Clark, Abdul Kamaldien, Kirsten Pearson, Mike Fawcett, Elaine.

Thanks for making the meeting such a fun and successful one. Between speaking and leadership credits achieved for the various clubs, as well as meeting Toastmasters from other clubs, and countries (!), this event was a huge success.

Meeting review by Ana Garcia and Vanessa Clark.

Have a read of what David Gurteen had to say about his first ever visit to a Toastmaster’s meeting. Naturally it was Peninsula, and naturally it rocked

David’s Knowledge Cafe was a great success and you can read all about it in the meeting review here.

CAPE TOWN, 7 October 2009: Peninsula Toastmasters Club, a Cape Town-based branch of the international speaking and leadership organisation, is pleased to announce it will be hosting a Knowledge Café, in conjunction with David Gurteen, leading knowledge management specialist.

A Knowledge Café is an effective way of opening up conversations and discussions that lead to information sharing.  It can be used within teams or communities to question assumptions, to help facilitate learning from others and gain a deeper collective understanding of a subject – through conversation.

David is the founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community – a global learning network of over 16,000 people in 154 countries. He has over 30 years’ experience working in high technology industries and today, he works as an independent knowledge management consultant, facilitator and speaker, helping people to innovate and to work more effectively together.

The Knowledge Café will be followed by a Toastmaster’s Speakathon. A Speakathon is a special Toastmaster’s meeting that only involves speeches and evaluations. It is a great way to get a taste of the public speaking skills and experience you can gain from Toastmasters, and also to enjoy a series of presentations from speakers ranging from beginner to professional.

Details of the Knowledge Café & Speakathon:

Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2009
Place: Tafelberg Tavern, Roodehek Terrace, Gardens
Time: 6 for 6.30 pm
Cost: R40 (snacks provided, cash bar available)

Tickets are limited. Please contact Ana Garcia, Peninsula Club President to reserve your place: anataggy@yahoo.co.uk or telephone: 076 393 3552.

ABOUT TOASTMASTERS & PENINSULA TOASTMASTERS CLUB

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. The organisation currently has 250,000 members in 12,000 clubs in 106 countries. Since its founding 85 years ago in October 1924, the organisation has helped more than four million men and women give presentations with poise and confidence.

For information about local Toastmasters clubs, please visit www.toastmasters.org.

For more information about Peninsula Toastmasters Club, please visit: www.peninsulatoastmasters.info

ABOUT DAVID GURTEEN

For more information visit: www.gurteen.com

Issued by:         Twokats Communications
On behalf of:   Peninsula Toastmasters Club
Contact:           Vanessa Clark, 082 335 1117

What is a Speakathon? I hear you ask. A Speakathon is a special Toastmaster’s meeting that only involves speeches and evaluations. It’s a great way for Toastmasters to get in additional speaking experience, and also credits towards their various speaking and leadership assignments. It’s also a great chance for members of different clubs in an area to get to know each other and participate in a meeting together.

The next Speakathon in Area D3 (Cape Town city area) is coming up:

Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2009
Place: Tafelberg Tavern (large hall) – you can get directions here
Time: 6 for 6.30 pm
Cost: R40 (snacks provided, cash bar available)

We will be providing the opportunity for 6 – 8 toastmasters and 6 – 8 evaluators to progress with their CC or AC programmes slots will be awarded on a first come, first served basis.

Please RSVP by 25th September to Ana Garcia with your CC or AC number and timing of your speech.

PLUS….

David Gurteen of Gurteen Knowledge will be running a Knowledge Café at the Speakathon.

David has over 30 years’ experience working in high technology industries. Today, he works as an independent knowledge management consultant, facilitator and speaker, helping people to innovate and to work more effectively together.

He is the founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community – a global learning network of over 16,000 people in 154 countries. Community members receive his free monthly Knowledge Letter that is now in its 9th year.

David publishes the Gurteen Knowledge Website – a resource website that contains book reviews, articles, people profiles, event calendars, inspirational quotations, an integral weblog and more on subjects that include knowledge management, learning, creativity and innovation.

He is a frequent speaker and facilitator and presents on various aspects of knowledge management and social learning. He is well known for his Gurteen Knowledge Cafés that he runs regularly in London and in other cities around the world. He also facilitates Knowledge Cafés and workshops for organizations and conference organizers.

David has run run 100s of knowledge cafes over the last few years all over the world and they are really great learning and networking events.

Everyone engages with the theme of the cafe and some tremendous insightful, energetic conversations take place.  Better still the cafe process is one that you can take back with you and use in your own organizations to help create a more open, innovative culture.

Apparently some of the members of Peninsula Toastmasters do. Our next meeting, on Thursday 27 August 2009, at 5.45 pm, will be the annual club-level humour contest.

To get you in the mood: check out Craig Strachan’s award-winning presentation from last year’s humour hopabout here. (This is a slightly different contest, but you get the idea!)

For our speakers, here are some top tips from the master himself.

Our contestants are:

Kirsten Pearson, Gerda van der Merwe, Thomas Bowman, Tim Wagner and Vanessa Clark (gulp! that’s me!). Good luck!

If you would like to join the meeting as a guest, please email pro@peninsulatoastmasters.info.

Thursday, 25 June 2009 saw the Peninsula Club celebrate its 30th birthday with a slightly different agenda for the evening. Instead of the usual post meeting snacks we were treated to a delicious sit down meal and an after dinner guest speaker, at the usual venue of Tafelberg Tavern.

Newer members (myself included) got a taste of some of the formalities such as an Invocation and pre-dinner Toast, that we don’t always experience.

Prepared speeches for the night included:

• Gerda van der Merwe doing her CC3, Get to the point, and evaluated by Jason Sandler (a visitor from Chuckle and Chat in Somerset West).
• Vanessa Clark presented her CC4, How to say it, and was evaluated by Paul Jensen (visiting from Taverners). You can read her speech "We’ve come a long way" here.
• Tim Wagner presented his CC9, Persuade with power, and was evaluated by Lois Strachan. Tim went on to complete his competent communicator the following week at Tableview – CONGRATULATIONS!
• Congratulations also to Nic van Schalkwyk achieved his competent communicator presenting his CC10, Inspire your audience, evaluated by Ana Garcia.

After timekeeper for the evening, Tim Wagner, delivered his report, Deirdre Pluke presented the Invocation on the subject of being grateful. Toastmaster Craig Strachan had warned us that it is customary to hold your applause after the Invocation, in order to contemplate the message delivered. Difficult not to applaud though after Deirdre’s well-delivered, thought-provoking Invocation.

Jason Sandler then entertained us with the story of how Peninsula Club was formed 30 years ago. It was appropriate that he shared this story with us, as his father was instrumental in setting the club up.

The after dinner guest speaker, Graham Williams, is the author of the book The halo and the noose, and shared with us a fascinating presentation on the power of story telling and story listening in business life.

Finally the new club officers were inducted. The Peninsula Club’s committee for 2009 – 2010 is as follows:

President – Ana Garcia
Vice-president Education (VPE) – Gerde van der Merwe
Vice-president Membership (VPM) – Tim Wagner
Vice-president Public relations (VPPR) – Vanessa Clark
Secretary – Lois Stachan
Sergeant-at-arms – Evadne Kortje
Immediate past president (IMM) – Craig Strachan

In closing, here is a link to Ana Garcia’s acceptance speech – have a read to find out what exciting things are upcoming for Peninsula Club.

PS – We wish Craig Strachan, immediate past president of Peninsula Club, all the very best for his tenure as District Governor for Toastmasters district 74 (Southern Africa). Read about what Craig has to say about the honour here. I am sure Lois will have a few tips for you from her experiences as last year’s District Governor.

PPS – A huge thank you to Evadne Kortje (incoming Sergeant-at-arms and outgoing Area Governer) for arranging such a fantastic feast. The chicken pie lived up to all expectations

Thanks to Vanessa Clark for the report on the June 2009 meeting.