In 1981, there were only 6 Toastmaster club in in Wellington, Hutt Valley, and the Kapiti Coast. The District Governor, Terry Bellamy asked at all Area Governors of District 27 go and start a new club. Rob Julian, from Capital was the Area Governor and agonised over this and eventually phone Neil McInnes, also of the Capital Club, who also lived in Johnsonville, and suggested they try starting a new Johnsonville Club. And, together with Larraine Berridge (now Talbot) they did. Rob’s sister, Joan Cush had just gone through a divorce and told him she had to get out and meet people. So she became the first President of Johnsonville Toastmasters. It thrived so much that in 1989 it sponsored the Ohariu Toastmasters Club.
Rob was District Club Coach Coordinator in 2004, responsible for ensure that any club with 12 or less members can have a club coach appointed. Both Johnsonville and Ohariu were in trouble.
He heard on the grapevine that, Ohariu, despite having 13 members was planning to disband and join Johnsonville. He phoned Colin Perfect who was District Governor and asked him if he knew anything about it. And he didn’t. So both of them asked if they could come along to the final meeting. Unfortunately their impassioned exhortations had no effect and the motion ‘That the Ohariu Club Disband’ was passed. Rob and Colin said that all the members could resign if they wished, but Ohariu would carry on.
Fortunately there was lots of money in the bank, so even after the resigning members they treated themselves to a dinner at the Bucket tree, there was still some $500- $700 to work with.
There was a meeting in February at incoming District Governor Steve Bullock’s house in Newlands with Andrew Smith who took over the website, Arthur Norgove, Rob, and Colin Perfect. They all became members and committee members although it was mainly Arthur and Rob who had the time to devote to getting the club up and running.
Since the reason for both Ohariu and Johnsonville being in difficulty was that they were both evening meetings at the Union Church in Dr Taylor Tce, and drawing on the same membership base, it was thought that they could try for a Saturday morning club. And advertised in the Independent Herald that they were going to run an introductory meeting and a one hour Educational on Meeting Procedure and Running Efficient meetings. The thought was that representatives of all the Community Groups would want to attend and find out how to run their AGMs.
They got three members from the Wellington Marathon Clinic where Rob was President at the time
OK Back to the drawing board. There was an article in the paper that J’ville was the biggest commercial and business area outside of the CDB. So why not aim for an early evening club for the business people of J’ville? Say from 5.30 – 7.30 every 2nd Tuesday? So Arthur and Rob put out a promotional flyer and visited every business in J’ville to speak to someone in responsibility. And got no one.
The following year they found out that the Post Office in Petone had a scheme where you could drop off promotional material and they would put it in envelopes and send it to the all the PO Boxes in J’ville, for a fee. Again, no one was interested.
They set up a table outside Countdown by The Warehouse and sat there the whole day. And got no one. And it was cold.
A table was set up in the Mall with a similar result.
Display tables were set up in the Library.
A stall was set up in the Rotary Fair with a’ Guess the Coffee Beans in the Jar for a free subscription to Ohariu’. The big problem with this was that no one could never agree to how many there were when they were counted . Each time they would have a larger number than the previous count. It was finally realised that what was happening that that the coffee beans kept breaking in two each time the bottle was tipped out. So they switched jelly beans. They don’t break in two.
Rob brought a packet of pavement chalk and wrote Ohariu Toastmasters, tomorrow evening J’ville community centre, all welcome. All over J’ville. When he got home there was a testy voice message from the Mall offices saying that some one had been writing messages all over their parking area and it was illegal. He waited until after 6.00 when he was sure everyone had left the office and phoned and left a voice message saying that writing graffiti was completely unacceptable and he would find out who was doing it and deal with him or her most severely.
Fortunately they got a message from the head of HR of the Medicals Assurance in the building complex by the library that they wanted to run a Speechcraft Course. So the club did this and had some 12 Speechcrafters – and actually ran another three after that. They got 3 of them coming across to join with their fees paid by the money got from running the course. So this built the number into double figures – just. But one had had to pull out due to having a baby, another due to his wife having one, and the third because it clashed with her netball practice. Back to square one.
Rob’s son Nick was promoted to Assistant Principal of Wadestown School and asked the club to run a Speechcraft Course for the 18 Year 8 students. In following years the numbers rose to over 40. The students say it is the most worthwhile course of the year. Ohariu provides judges for their annual speech competitions
The Colin Perfect Cup for Prepared Speech Contest and
The Arthur Norgrove Cup for Impromptu Speaking
The Ohariu membership stuttered, rose, fell, and rarely got above double figures.
Finally, Arthur and Rob concluded that Ohariu have given it their best shot for some four years and perhaps it was time to call it a day. and to put it to the membership at the next meeting. And just before the final meeting started, who should walk in the door but Douglas Parker and partner Catherine, and Spencer Johnathon, all of whom joined. From then on membership grew and we no longer thought of closing.
The club has had our ups and downs. One year the Area Governor asked other clubs in our area to come and support us at meetings and help out with speeches and evaluations. A previous Area Governor emailed and said, ‘their membership might be down, but don’t imagine their Toastmasters skills are. The club is as sharp as tacks’.
2017 was almost a disastrous year. Rob was Sgt@Arms and one of the responsibilities is to book the room at the Community Centre for the year. He did this in December. Ohariu Toastmasters 6.00 – 8.00 every second Tuesday night. Unfortunately he did not notice the confirming details that showed they worked on a 24 hour clock. The new person at the Community Centre had booked the club to meet at 6.00 in the morning.
Ohariu has had members win through to District (New Zealand) finals of Speech Contests. It has had Glen getting the District Award for the Most Valuable Contribution to Toastmasters in NZ, and he is now the District Growth Officer. We have received the most prestigious Toastmaster International Award of President’s Distinguished Club and we have received the Jack Duffy Rosebowl for the greatest Community involvement of all Toastmaster Clubs in NZ. We have four Distinguished Toastmasters, Rob, Roger, Glen, and Merlyn, which must be a record of any club in the world. And we have two published authors of adventure novels, Douglas Parker and Andy Southall.
At present, a strange thing is happening. Toastmaster Clubs throughout NZ are collapsing and there a more clubs in Wellington and suburbs who are well below a membership of 12. But Ohariu is booming. Yet each meeting of Ohariu we invariably get guests, who when the see the vital, enthusiastic, and friendly club meetings, with laughter flashing around like summer lightning, they want to join.
Not bad for a club that almost collapsed.
Rob Julian DTM
Ohariu Toastmasters 