Its that time of the year again - 25 October

On Tuesday, 18 of our stalwarts turned out. We had many apologies, especially from our teacher members– I guess it’s that time of year again!
A special welcome to our 2 guests: Irna van Zyl and Deon Basson. Hats off to Erna who went to the ends of the earth to track us down. We hope we made it worth your while.

We were particularly happy to see Michael Warren again. In essence we were guests at his stag party because in 10 days, 20 hours and some minutes Michael Warren becomes a SMUG MARRIED PERSON. We expect lots of fireworks on the 5th November, Michael!

BIRTHDAY WISHES this week go to Toastmasters International, which celebrated its 87th birthday this week. Sharing that milestone was Alison Immelman, who reached her HALF-CENTURY!!!!
Also celebrating in the next fortnight are Barry Serfontein on the 3rd and Denise Pudney on the 7th of November.

Some business mattersQuinton Jacobs is organising the programme at the moment. Please contact him with your speaking needs (His number is 0828194445, or email him on Quinton.Jacobs@weathersa.co.za). Remember our quest for a third year of distinguished club status – and your own personal growth plan.
Don’t forget that everything that you do during the evening, quite apart from your speeches, can be evaluated towards your COMPETENT LEADER standing (for our new members, that’s the other manual you received when you joined Algoa).

Do you want to win aAll you have to do is design a header for the Blog, or suggest a catchy slogan. For the official entry form, mail Alison Immelman on alistaude@yahoo.com, and she will send you one. Send your entries to this address, too, or bring them to the next meeting.
Entries close on 8 November

Who’s up for a challenge? Wethinks that ANDREW THE TRAVELLING GAVEL
has been at Madiba Bay for far too long. All we need to do is to visit their club with five of
our members to claim him for Algoa. Let’s go, guys. Listen out for the looting plans.

Toastmaster for the evening was the ever-cheerful Nicholas Mitchell. We know he is busy with his 4 children and his newish law partnership, but he never turns down a job, lending truth to the suggestion that one needs to ask a busy man if one wants something done. Nicholas has been appointed a club coach for USpeak to help them to get back to charter strength (at least 20 paid up members) meetings are between 8 and 9 on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. Please support them if you are able. Meetings are short and to the point.

Just when Michael Warren was greeted joyously, and felt it was a case of “Honey, I’m home”, he received an impassioned plea: “We need a timekeeper!” He pointed out that this is one of the most important lessons that we learn at Toastmasters. Imagine if everyone spoke for just one extra minute. We would be here for an extra ½ hour. Which is why Michael was so excited to use our new alien invasion, zooty time machine – his very own “concorder” (with apologies to Star Wars and their “tricorder”). He said he would have come back sooner if he’d known he’d have such fun!

Grammarian for the evening was Jessamy Kromhout. As Word of the Day she chose “imbroglio” – Italian in origin – meaning mess, or entanglement. Four members used it in their offerings.
Um and ah counter was Liandra Schoultz. She identified only 6 uses of those pesky verbal crutches – quite an improvement on last week. Perhaps there is hope!

Table Topics master was Tanja Gauss. She elected to keep the planet green by presenting a LUCKY DIP, wrapped in recycled paper. What an original, entertaining set of items – from stripy socks to mini fans, and a personal mini magic carpet to a tasteful, bright orange, plastic jack o’ lantern. Our job was to promote the item in-store. The whole house took part, and did we have fun! Perhaps the best sales pitch came from Nicholas, who suggested that if all else fails, re-gift – to your mother-in-law!!

Prepared Speeches

Barry De Klerk undertook his CC3 (Get to the point – try to avoid using notes) with a speech entitled “Energy Anyone?” He told us about a product initially designed to cure jetlag: Red Bull. The cute cartoon ads emanated from a lack of marketing budget. And they had quite a job to do: imagine trying to sell 100 ml less of a drink for double the price of a normal soft drink – and it tasted vile. In clinical trials it has been established that the only harmful substances are sugar (less than a can of cooldrink) and caffeine (about the same as one cup of coffee).

Belita von Steiger delivered her CC4 (Select the right words to communicate the message effectively; avoid jargon) with a “dream” of a speech about “The World Cup that Wasn’t”. Striking images included the sickening “Body hits body, bone hits bone and cauliflower ears get a little more scrunched”. But, alas, it was only a dream because we didn’t even get to the stadium.

Marianah Lourens is moving on apace with her Advanced Communicator projects. Tonight, she presented her AC4 (use principles of voice and inflection to convey a story) from the reading manual. Marianah delighted us with her animated interpretation of an extract from Risk by Dick Francis.

The Toast of the day was offered by Alison Immelman to “growing old humorously”. She quoted Francis Bacon who put it this way: “I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.” And perhaps that’s the secret: to live, laugh, love, and be happy.

Evaluators for the evening were Mimi Makapula, Denise Pudney and Quinton Jacobs. All gave extremely positive, helpful evaluations, bearing out the truth that we learn by doing, and grow by learning. General evaluator was Antoinette Baatjies who pointed out that we are all at different levels of confidence, which is one of the things that makes us so interesting. She reminded us that Tom Horne was the guest speaker at the Westering Prize-giving, while another Toastmaster spoke at Lawson Brown, the first guest speaker ever to receive a standing ovation (27 yrs after she matriculated from Lawson). Antoinette herself found herself delivering an impromptu devotions session which she had forgotten to prep, which is why she’s proud to be a Toastmaster.

The Best Table Topics was awarded to Chenielle Jefferies Badenhorst with her spray gun which she suggested could be used to control unruly exam candidates!

Top toastie of the evening was awarded to the King of Table Topics, Michael Warren, because he’s only going to be king for the next 10 days, and then Lindi takes over!!

Heat Wave - 11 October 2011

So there we were, on the day after the hottest day in 26 years – PE peaked at 41.2o on Monday! And that’s in a city that hardly ever gets into the 30s!

We were a way smaller group than normal – perhaps the bizarre heat laid our members low? Nevertheless there were 16 members and 2 guests: Sindile and Dxy (a returnee who is also part of the current Speechcraft course). We hope you liked what you saw, and will visit again.

Once again, we were delighted to bestow a 5 speech pin, this time on Leann Roos. Leann did her CC5 on her passion for cricket umpiring...
Leann is another member who is well on her way to her CC10, ensuring another year of distinguished club status for Algoa Toastmasters.
Welcome back Denise Pudney and Reinhardt Botha – we missed you!

On a Business note:
Did you know that we have a library of manuals so that you are able to have a look-see before you order your AC choices? Just speak to Marlene Vosloo.
Act’s Speakathon is on 3 November – let the pres know if you’d still like to enter.

Toastmaster for the evening was Quinton Jacobs – our resident weatherman. And yes, Quinton – we are going to blame you for the heat!!

The Grammarian was Nicholas Mitchell. For the Word of the Day he chose candour/candid, denoting frank or open, or alternatively candid camera (an honest portrait) – from the Latin “candidus” which means white or perhaps unembellished. The word was used by only 3 doughty speakers – and, yes, I’m going to blame the weather!
Um and Ah Counter was Alison Immelman. By her count, only four speakers used no verbal crutches. The rest of us had a doosie of an evening with an average of 2.3 stumbles per person, ranging from the usual ums and ahs, to “like”, “okay”, “you know” and “Yeah?”

Table Topics were introduced by Marianah Lourens, who gave us terms from the theatre. Really – these words do have a meaning – really!
Some of the speakers who contributed were:
Alison Immelman, who regaled us with tales from The Bold and the Beautiful – forget the main plot of making clothes – really the “subplot” is way more important – who’s married to whom who used to be married to the other...
Louise Solomons dealt with gaffer tape (really cloth tape, which doesn’t reflect the light, used to hold down cables) that she suggested should be used on Oubaas from 7de Laan to keep him quiet since he always has a chirp. .
Glenis Whitehead, who spoke about “Gel” – like Clinton who definitely spent more time in front of the mirror today than most of our lady members – to get that carefully constructed bed head.

Tom Horne spoke about “ghost lights”. He told us that this would be the light carried by Uncle Pete who died 33 years ago. Really it’s the light kept burning by the stage door to keep the ghosts happy
Reinhardt Botha spoke about “wings” to fly across the world – and don’t forget buffalo wings or the red bull variety. After all – “All the world’s a stage”!
Well done to our guests who both participated in this part of the programme!

As always, we had a varied speaking programme.

Tanja Gauss kicked off with her CC2 (organise your speech, with a strong opening and closing and appropriate transitions), “For the love of the rowing”. Life would just not be the same without it. Did you know that a boat can go for R160000? Tanja suggested that you should rather drop yourself than the boat!! She told us that rowers do more before 8am than the rest of us do all day. Rowing requires total dedication because your crew is totally dependent on you and the boat would just go skew without you. Rowing personalities include the arrogance of the cox, whininess, the amnesia of number 3, the one who is late for everything except for lunch, the cheerleader, and the bowman who has the most to say because he’d be the first in a collision. Tanja’s closing words? Real athletes row – the rest play games

Antoinette Baatjies is heading strongly for her Advanced Communicator: silver. Her AC14, from the story telling manual, was entitled “Do you look back?” What would you do if you found money? When Antoinette tried to hand it in, she was told that she should invest it in the evening’s entertainment – all in the interests of the SA economy. The next morning she woke up with an orchestra playing in her head. In the next year she was robbed 5 times, once at knifepoint. By the end of 2006, the Cops at Mt Road were like family! She even had to sign affidavits for affidavits!! Maybe there’s something to be said for karma and payback. But, after all, life happens!! Antoinette suggested that we should try to forget the past and not look back. We have two things to say to Antoinette – we’d love to be in your class! And ... tell us a story

Tom Horne chose to practise his key-note address that he was scheduled to present at a school prize-giving. This most unusual practice session proves that Toastmasters can help you do anything!! Tom’s message was that we all have a gift for a lifetime – time – and he shared some most valuable insight into how can we use it to benefit others and ourselves.Although Glenis Whitehead is already a distinguished Toastmaster, she has decided to start at the very beginning and share her expertise with us by starting her Competent Communicator projects all over again. Thank you Glenis!

Apparently one of the ladies up north has been through the CC programme 9 times and has qualified as a distinguished Toastmaster 3 times – talk about living and breathing Toastmasters.
Glenis delivered her CC1 (begin speaking before an audience and develop existing skills). After 4 daughters, Glenis’s parents decided enough was enough already – but then comforted themselves that this sixth baby would surely be a boy and a buddy for only son, Trevor. John, however, turned out to be Glenis!
Glenis showed us to great effect what to do when the technology lets you down. Take a deep breath and on Macduff! She introduced herself to us by sharing touching stories about her family. Wise words in closing: Friends will get us through, though, and life is great.

Reinhardt Botha delivered his AC1, an educational on how to do visual presentations. A rule of thumb is to think about why we do what we do. An aid must be there to support what we say. It’s not the message itself. Nor can it fix a bad presentation. Two important things are content quality and presentation quality.
Perhaps a PowerPoint presentation is not even necessary. You could use props as well, like Jamie Oliver who used a wheel barrowful of sugar to show how much sugar there is in flavoured milk!
Make sure you’re ready long before you have to do your speech.
Minimalism is the key! If you find it interesting, the chances are that the audience will too.
Important Advice
• Avoid bullets
• And Keep
• the audience from
• reading every
• single world that you
• plan on
• saying people cannot
• read and listen
• at the same
• time.
This is called DEATH BY POWERPOINT
For more useful stuff, follow the link to Reinhardt’s blog http://rabotha.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/do-your-slides-help/
The Toast of the day – to medical angels – was proposed by Denise Pudney. Speaking from personal experience, she told us of doctors and nurses who would visit long after 10 at night – as if they don’t have a life of their own. We’re inclined to remember them only when we need them!
Evaluations for the evening were carried out by:
Leann Roos with her maiden evaluation. Well done. A most constructive evaluation.
Denise Pudney, one of our more experienced Toastmasters, offered advice in her usual informative way from which we always learn something.

A note for new and prospective Toastmasters. We clap ourselves stukkend in Toastmasters – in between presentations, and until a speaker reaches the lectern and then returns to her chair. Reinhardt showed us how it’s done by sprinting forward to do the General Evaluation.
He suggested that we have the formula right at Algoa and that we learn by smiling

Best Table Topics of the night was awarded to Reinhardt, while the Top Toastie was presented to Antoinette.

P.S. A serious omission from the last edition was a note about Louise Solomons’ General Evaluation. This was Louise’s maiden GE, and, as with all she is involved in, her comment was gently and constructively encouraging.

And finally, a last word on the weatherman and the heat wave...

Words are all I have........... - 27 September

How wonderful it was to be able once again to greet old and new friends: 21 members, 1 truant, and 2 look-sees. We extend a special welcome to Johannes and William. Hope to see you again soon.
Warm congratulations go to Plaxcedes Ndlovu who has reached the milestone
of 5 speeches. We look forward to hearing number six!!
Toastmaster for the evening was VP Membership, Marianah Lourens.
Here’s a thought: Did you know that every time you carry out a role in Toastmasters,
(as Marianah did last night) you can be evaluated and make progress in your
Competent Leader Manual? These evaluations can also help our club achieve a
“Distinguished Club” status – Don’t forget!!
Marianah chose “Talking” as her theme for the evening – after all, we are Toastmasters!
Marianah also asked the role players what qualifications they have, and how these have
prepared them for tonight’s proceedings.
Marianah’s theme reminded me of my mother, who claimed that women have 3000 words that they need to get off their chests every day. I knew that when she started a phone call with those words, that I should just pull up a chair, pour a glass of red wine, and get ready to say “Yes Dear” every five minutes or so for the next hour and a half!

Barry Serfontein, apart from having qualified with a Marketing degree, worked for Watches of Switzerland for several years. This, we decided, made him more than eligible to be a superlative Timekeeper. Um and Ah counter was one of our newest members, Rosemary Sampson.
Grammarian, Louise Erasmus encouraged us to use the language correctly, beautifully, creatively. She challenged us with the Word of the day, PRESUMPTUOUS (the state of assuming things that perhaps you oughtn’t!) which was used by 5 people.

Belita von Steiger (our Table Topics Master) has a myriad letters after her name, including an MBA, but suggested that her best training has been the 55 years that she’s been on earth!
Her topic for the evening was “learning lessons for life”, OR “How would you talk your way out of ... “
Mimi Makapula did a good take on receiving a disastrous piece of news, via her cell phone;
Guest Johannes convincingly talked his way out of the time he asked a chubby friend when her baby was due;
Plaxcedes didn’t have the money to pay the debt. It was in her wallet, really it was...
Alan Hunter suggested that if you bump into your manager when you’ve taken a day’s sick leave, props are essential – like a Dischem packet. Alternatively, attack is the best form of defence: Shouldn’t you be at the office...?

Annette argued that if her non-baby friend insisted on holding her colicky baby while wearing her power suit, she certainly wouldn’t apologise if the lambkin oopsed all over her. After all, she chose to hold the cherub!
Quinton sent an sms to the wrong person, and suggested that the only thing to do was to pretend like it didn’t happen.


Alison Immelman flicked friends and went to the club when she said she wanted to chill at home. Her way out? Pretend you’re having an out of body experience, and you really don’t know them. (My name’s Alison, and I’m an inveterate liar).

William Tapson fell into the full mailbox trap. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t get the email!

Craig Stephens (welcome back, buddy) didn’t get his Homework signed. It was all his mom’s fault. After she had an unfortunate reaction to the Botox treatment, she couldn’t possibly sign something she couldn’t see. Now there’s an improvement on the “dog ate my homework” line!

Well done, William and Johannes, for taking the plunge!
And, by the way, don’t ever think that Toastmasters doesn’t teach you anything!

What an exciting line up of speakers Tom organised for us, with four of our newer members proving that they were definitely on their way through the CC manual.
Two speakers, Ayanda Ngwabe and Jessamy Kromhout, both broke the ice with their CC1s

Ayanda spoke about his conviction that God is present and alive, and paid tribute to his parents who gave him the gift of a brighter future. If a boy of his background can make it so far, how can there be no God? He used a touching parallel with Martin Luther King’s famous I have a Dream, only Ayanda’s dream is that we can build a beautiful future for all South Africans.

Jessamy coined the word “Mundanity”, but, unusually, allied it with Magic. Her belief? That there really is magic in the most routine of tasks. She told us that she had had some of the best teachers in the world: she was taught to think by her father (the greatest teacher ever in Jessamy’s view), while her mother taught her to love, and led by example.

We were delighted that Deborah Stephenson honoured us with her long-awaited CC2. She used 25 years of fly fishing as a metaphor for life. Lessons she has learnt include patience, gratitude, appreciating beauty in nature and especially how to relate to people – not to mention “Mrs Simpson at the evening rise”.

Liandra Schoultz (also doing her CC2) entertained us with tales of hysterical travels through Brazil. She entitled her speech Garota de Ipenema (or, the girl from Ipenema). Her experiences included dodgy taxi drivers, playing Survivor in the Amazon with piranhas staring at her from her plate, and egg sandwiches for Christmas dinner

Going from the sublime to the truly awe-inspiring, Nicholas Mitchell undertook his AC 26!! This project entailed delivering the key note address to a group of students: Life is like a Box of Chocolates. Because (something all men should know) what interests women? Chocolate!! Nicholas used chocolate to illustrate a series of valuable life lessons, including that life is a gift, that appearances can be deceiving, and that we should do everything in moderation – even if we really want to gobble the box all on our own.
Nicholas rounded off his speech with a nod to John Donne. Don’t be an island, because life is best shared – and proved this by showering the house with the real McCoy.

The Toast of the day was offered by Liandra Schoultz. Furthering her theme of travel she toasted to safe travel – most appropriate when you consider the state of South Africa’s roads

Evaluators for the evening included Mimi Makapula who has a degree in motherhood with 2 teenage distinctions. She says she can’t wait to get her life back!Also up were Colleen Love (a lady who wears many hats), Alison Immelman, whose years of study have qualified her for absolutely nothing (which is why she’s a teacher, because those who can do...), Tom Horne whose forty-one years of Toastmastering (did he start when he was 12?) have made him ready for anything – but especially gentle, positive feedback, and Annette Lovemore, an advanced Toastmaster (Bronze) herself.
The Top Toastie award was made to Ayanda for his exceptional effort with his icebreaker, and sharing with us a message from the heart, proving that dreams really do come true. The best Table Topic was presented by Alan Hunter.

In closing :

Words of Wisdom - 13 September

Once again, we had a resounding turnout: 26 members, 4 guests and two inductions.
We were delighted to welcome Ayanda Ncwabe and Jessamy Kromhoudt to our ranks. May your stay be long, and happy, and fruitful. This takes our membership to 43. We must be doing something right!!


To Colleen Love for the 4th,
Mimi Makupula (5th),
Elaine Stewart Coyne (7th),
... and still to come, Thomas Duthie on 21st



The Toastmaster for the evening was Marlene Vosloo, our very experienced past president and area Governor, as well as being the face of youth leadership in the city. As Elaine Stewart-Coyne said, “She should have been a dancer,” because she’s always on her toes! Hope she knows what Socrates might have meant! Her theme for the evening was “What would you tell
the 21-year-old Marlene?”

Setting the scene, she told us...
The year was 1987, the man of the moment was Patrick Swayze (be still my beating heart), and Marlene was in love! Sad but true, though, not all men can dance like Swayze – and the waves don’t crash and violins don’t carol when you do it!
She told us that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. For Marlene this is Toastmasters – and we’re definitely not average!!
Her words of wisdom to herself?
“Be careful of Patrick S’s charming ways but go with your gut!”
After all, to quote Paulo Coelho:

Further pearls of advice came from timekeeper, Tanja Gauss (Don’t sweat the petty stuff), Um and Ah counter, Cheneille Jeffries Badenhorst (Stop trying to be everyone’s saviour), and Louise Solomons (If a man walks out on you, close the door behind him), our grammarian for the evening. Louise’s word of the day was “WINSOME” – sweet, innocent, charming. This was used impressively by 6 Toastmasters





Table Topics Master, Mark Barry, (Risk a little more. It’ll still be there in the morning) set us the challenging topic of what we would tell our local barman if we were in low spirits after a tough Monday at work. (And how does that make you feel?)Drunken personalities included Antoinette as a cop who doesn’t have to buy a fake moustache because she already has one to suit the job

Alison as the Post office worker, stamping everything – and everyone – in sight;
Glenis – sad, because with everyone in NZ, no-one is visiting Glenis’s hotel;
Jessamy, the sad shrimp, jealous of the barman who spends his day serving all the winsome young girls;
Deborah, who was generally having a blue Monday, but was very grateful that Tuesday always comes;
And Colleen who told us that she can’t complain about work. Friends? Job? She hasn’t got one!!

As always, our programme involved a variety of CC projects.

Rosemary Sampson broke the ice with her CC1, (Begin speaking before an audience, and find and develop skills she already has), a moving tribute to her father, Victor, the Champion.
Her wise words were Wait – wait – wait! Compatibility is essential, while her father’s were Never tolerate the assault by one on another’s dignity – no matter who the person is.

Belita von Steiger – well into her CC schedule – delivered her CC3 (Get to the Point), with the interesting angle: “To the point, but what point?” She drew attention to the fact that although we are a family, we comprise many distinct members. How on earth does one choose a topic for this disparate audience – from gender and rugby to IT or politics!? What a challenge. Her advice to us? Relax, take it easy..

Our third and fourth speakers both tackled their CC4 (encouraging the use of vocal variety). Interestingly these very different speakers gave us an object lesson in personalising the CC series. Peter Peters chose to inform with his speech entitled “The Controversy of Living a Healthy Lifestyle”, while Plaxcedes Ndlovu opted to take us along on a walk through “The Smoke that Thunders”. Her speech brought to mind a (probably apocryphal) story about an old white dude who was sitting on the verandah at the Victoria Falls Hotel (the real Last Outpost) sipping his G & T. He said to the steward: “What do you people call that over there?” (pointing to the Falls). He was trying to elicit the Shona name: Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means “The smoke that thunders”. The reply, with the straightest look possible, was, “We call it The Victoria Falls”!
Peter’s speech, apart from pushing all my guilt buttons, was thought provoking as always.

The Toast of the Day was presented by Liandra Schoultz (Don’t be afraid to ask questions). Her toast was to the hope on everyone’s mind: Spring – to renewal and growth

Evaluators for the evening included Quinton Jacobs (Don’t get that puppy!), Alison Immelman, (Buy property – it lasts longer than fast cars), Rhona Murchie (Get contact lenses) and Marianah Lourens (Carpe diem –how she wishes that she hadn’t let opportunities pass her by). Quinton agreed with the whole property thing, but added that he might give in to the fast bike temptation!

OR MAYBE.................BUT THEN AGAIN..........

It was a bitter-sweet moment when Elaine Stewart-Coyne (Follow your innocent intuition) presented her general evaluation. She has sadly had to resign from Algoa, owing to her commitment to another City club, of which she is the immediate past president. She commented on the friendly atmosphere at Algoa that keeps us coming back. She also noted the welcoming committee that Marianah (VP Membership) has organised. All we know is that Elaine will always be part of our family, and is welcome any time.
Top Toastie of the evening was Rosemary Sampson for bravely wearing her heart on her sleeve, while the best Table Topics speaker was Jessamy Kromhoudt, the “Sad Shrimp” – well done! And on the occasion of your induction, too!