by Rob Julian DTM
In the Beginning were the Words
In 1971 I was Teacher in Charge of Chemistry at Feilding Agricultural High School and realised that I had no social connections outside teaching. The staff, Post Primary Teachers’ Association, Science Teachers meetings, Diploma of Education papers at Massey University, and weekend dinners with the staff. I needed to get out and meet ‘ordinary’ people. The husband of one of the staff, Giles Beagleholm, suggested I come along to Palmerston North Toastmasters. I thought at the time that there was not too much point since ‘I was a teacher and knew all about public speaking’. Hah! I was thankful that the club had a huge solid lectern so that on my first Table Topic, no one could see my leg shaking uncontrollably as I spoke.
Meetings would last for 2 ½ hours due to the Master Evaluator re-evaluating everything. A person with what was to us the somewhat strange title of ‘Area Governor’, Peter Cooper, came and told us we needed to sharpen our act. Which we did and on my first role of Master Evaluator, I came up with so many ‘recommendations’, that the club voted me to represent them at the newly minted Evaluation Contest. I actually got to the National Conference (we were not a District) in Auckland. At Palmerston North, the lectern had three little lights on it, Green, Yellow, and Red, and I had always wondered what they were for since timing was done by ringing a bell. ‘Aha’, I thought as I came on to give my evaluation in Auckland, ‘that’s what the lights are for’. But when I looked at the lectern there were no lights. I should have stopped and asked the Chair where the lights were, but thought I could judge the timing by myself. Finally I saw the lights right at the back of the room, and the red light was on. I went over time and, of course, everybody told me I would have won easily if I had not been disqualified. It took me 10 years to finally win the District Evaluation Contest in New Plymouth.
Capital Toastmasters
In 1973 I was promoted to Head of Science at Newlands College in Wellington, and Peter Cooper phoned me to come down to the recently formed Capital Toastmasters club in the CBD where I remained a member until last year. There were giants there. The visitors book includes such names as David Abel, Tom Steiner, Blair Robertson, C. Tyler (President of AA), Joe Yates, John Welsh, and Trevor Gee. There is one entry of 27/8/75 with the name of Pamela Stirling ‘NZ Listener – Spy’. I can’t recall if she ever wrote an article about us.
Speeches were memorable. Trevor once gave a speech when he had been previously imbibing a little more than somewhat and from then on he was mentioned at just about every meeting on the dangers of settling one’s nerves with a good slug of whisky before speaking. I can still remember John Akers giving a speech on how to handle aggressive phone calls (he was CEO of a large organisation). You hang up on them. BUT, the trick was to hang up in the middle of something you were saying, not in the middle of what the complainant is saying. The person on the other end thinks the system is at fault and since the have made their views known, don’t bother to phone back. I found the technique works.
Club Lunches
Members of Capital who worked in the CBD used to meet twice a year for lunch at one or other of the well known watering holes. Then one meeting, accompanied by a bottle of wine, then another, then another, the members all decided that since it was 3.00 and none of them were in any condition to go back to work, they might as well stay and continue drinking. Which they did. Apparently their superiors at work were not too impressed with their actions and this was the last time lunches were held in the CBD.
Those Old Time Manuals
In those days, we had 6 speeches a meeting. But there was no Timekeeper’s Report and no Grammarian. And the Chair of each meeting introduced each speaker. Today most clubs only plan for four speeches so I am not quite sure what progress has been made.
The original CC manual, had 15 speeches and assignments to get through for one’s Competent Communicator award, and the Advance Manual, if memory serves had 12. To get a Distinguished Toastmaster Award one had to work through both manuals, appear on TV or Radio, start a new club, run Speechcraft and Youth Leadership, give outside presentations. and introduce 12 new members.
Women Appear
Up until I think 1975 Toastmasters was ‘for any man over the age of 18’. Toastmasters did sponsor Toastmistress clubs (who referred to themselves as ‘Crummy Bedmates) and the Wellington Toastmasters and Toastmistress clubs combined together for Area Contests. World HQ then said that clubs could chose to alter their Constitutions to ‘any person over the age of 18’.
Then followed three years of lively, passionate, and ardent debating at Capital Toastmasters which got everyone in the club up to speed on ‘Meeting Procedure’. Tom Steiner and I moved the motion ‘That membership of Capital Toastmasters be open to any person over the age of 18’.
The discussions were vehement.
If we allow women in the club we will end up with a whole lot of butch lesbian women telling us what to do.
Why would butch lesbian women want to join an all male club?
We will have to watch our language if women join. And we can’t tell dubious jokes.
But anyone using obscenities or telling dubious jokes gets hammered by the Master Evaluator.
If women join then I am resigning.
Well OK, your choice.
The first year, the motion was soundly defeated. The second year, it was only just defeated. The third year it was passed without much dissent at all and Larraine Talbot was the first woman member of Capital Toastmasters. (We got married some 25 years ago).
This killed Toastmistresses. Women joined the integrated clubs and Toastmistress clubs tried changing their name to Communicators Inc. but even those have disappeared.
The Great Investment Club Disaster
In the heady days of the 80s, at the break, various members, often lead by Joe Yates, talked about the killings they had made on the stock market in the recent two weeks. I was so impressed with the erudite expertise these people had that I suggested that we form a Capital Toastmasters Stock Market group and each advance $50 a month to be invested in stock that we would decide on at our monthly meetings. There were about 20 of us which gave us some $1000 a month to invest. I had a very cunning plan in all this. Since these guys were so expert at investing, I would make my own private investments in the stock they decided on. It was at the first meeting that I had the uneasy feeling that I may have misjudged the amount of expertise. Joe Yates recommended a stock I had never heard of.
What do they do?
What do you mean ‘what do they do’?
Well, do they manufacture things or what?
I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. The point is that their value keeps going up.
Fortunately, we bailed out just before the stock market crash of the 87, but even so, during the Bull Market, we made a slight loss, as did I in my nefarious sub plot.
Getting involved
I had been frequently asked to be Club President and it got embarrassing to keep saying I was too busy teaching and taking University courses that finally I said ,’ no, I haven’t time to be President, but I will be VP Education’.
Hah! It didn’t take me long to discover that it is the VP Education that does the vast majority of work in the club. But I learned two very valuable lessons –
- How to organise my time to maximise results, and
- Never stand for committee membership but always say you will be President – providing you can get an efficient and dedicated secretary.
As a result my teaching career skyrocketed – except it was out of teaching into administration, and I became President of NZ Science Teacher Association, and President of the Wellington Marathon Clinic – not because I was good at running marathons, but because I was good at running meetings. And I went on to take the role of Area Governor, and Divisional Governor twice, as well as receiving a plethora of the District 72 awards. Doris Moore Trophy, Division Governor of the Year, Don Harden Award of Professionalism, leading Capital and Ohariu Club to Jack Duffy Ward, and winning the District International Speech, Evaluation, and Humorous Speech Contest, (but only coming second in the Impromptu Speech Contest – unfinished business). Except, such is the standard in Toastmaster Public Specking, that now I can’t even win a club contest.
Impromptu Speech Contest sneaks in
The Impromptu Speech Contest is interesting. Originally members attending the District Conference were invited to put their names in a hat and six were drawn to take part in a 5/6/7 minute Impromptu Speaking contest. Eventually John Fauvel donated a cup to be awarded. Inevitably a motion was moved at what I recall as an Auckland Conference that the Impromptu Speech be held as a Club, Area, Division and District contest. The District Treasurer was adamant that the District could not afford it but the motion was passed. Each contestant was given an envelope with two topics inside, One a ‘serious’ topic and the other ‘humorous’. Upon reading the topics there was one minute to decide and think about how to start. It sounds tough, but one could sort of work one’s way into the topic. Today, with only 2 1/2 minutes once you start you are committed and cannot change your mind about how to approach the topic. But insofar as the contestant did not have to announce what the topic was, eventually contestants gave a speech they had previously given at the club level. Mind you, the same thing happens now. Eventually TI told us we either had to change to 1/1.5/2 minutes or elect to run the ‘Tall Tales’ contest.
Community Involvement and having fun.
It is odd, but in the days when we had only four clubs in the CBD, we were much more active in the community and frequently called upon to help out in events in Wellington.
We organised a roster of Town Criers in a festival of Wellington where the Council had two handsome Town Crier Coats and hats and various of us spent 30 minutes in Cuba Mall each lunchtime issuing edicts and promoting events. (I found that after 30 minutes shouting Oyez! Oyez! My voice gave out). And I was asked to MC the Saturday events in Civic Square. I recall having to introduce Geoffery Owen the World Champion Shearer. I don’t know what happened to the Town Crier outfits. Presumable buried in some dark and dingy cupboard. In Council storerooms.
We also participated in other speaking events. Capital had a team in the A Grade Wellington Speaking Union Debating Contest. Myself, Larraine, Tom Steiner, and others. We never actually won a debate but we were always told that we ‘were the most promising team in the A Grade contest’.
We were frequently asked to adjudicate or chair Debating Contests of Community Clubs in Wellington. Lions, Rotary, and even High School debates.
We always entered the Wellington Speaking Union Speech Contests and sometimes won. (They had different judging criteria).
I am well aware of the quote by novelist LP Hartely ‘ that the past becomes a distant country, they do things differently there’, but it seems to me we used to have a lot more fun than we do now. I sometimes wonder if we are so pressured into chasing Distinguished Club Management points to the exclusion of all else, that we don’t get time to relax and do anything different.
I have been involved in running some 20 Speechcraft Courses and over 30 Youth Leadership Courses, and Wadestown ran one for the Year 8 Shannon School students this year. But clubs don’t even get DCM points for running Youth Leadership Courses
So how have things changed in Toastmasters in New Zealand.? There is still the same enthusiasm and dedication among members, but growth has been exponential. When I became Area Governor of Area B4 there were only 6 clubs in the Area, Wellington, Capital, Endeavour (since collapsed), Tawa, Porirua, Hutt Valley, and Masterton. Now there are 56 in Hutt Valley and Wellington alone. But there is concern about the number of clubs throughout New Zealand in the now District 112 and 72 that are collapsing. When I was Club Coach Coordinator in 2005/6 there were only 6 clubs in the whole of NZ with membership under 12 that needed a club coach. Now there are dozens.
The once bastions of Toastmaster clubs of Wellington and Capital regularly had between 20 – 26 members at a meeting. Now they are lucky to get to double figures. It is possible that we out-reached ourselves, or more likely in my view that the older members have trouble adjusting to Pathways and prefer the old system of having a manual to follow and don’t renew their membership. If so, then the newer members who only know Pathways will eventually predominate. And, interestingly Ohariu now has a membership of 27 with one or two guests each meeting. And over 60% of new members have English as a second Language. They are probably the way of the future.
We shall see.
Ohariu Toastmasters 