Commitment
Congratulations to Carmel Philippe Shugg who was accredited as a Critic in July. Carmel attended the critic/coach training in 2014 and has been developing her skills at Club 64 (Leedy Speakers).
Carmel is especially passionate about seeing young people develop their public speaking skills, which is one reason why she set about establishing Club 64 at her workplace, the Department of Sport and Recreation in Leederville, in 2011. Since then she has guided the club as its President, setting the example by presenting at Autumn Convention in 2012, entering the Arthur Garvey Speaker of the Year twice and serving as AGSOY MC last year.
This year she encouraged another member to step up to the President’s role, sought critic accreditation and will be spending the rest of the year coaching within Club 64. What an asset to the club and Rostrum! Thank you to Freeman Tony Lightman who has encouraged Carmel in her coaching journey.
Congratulations Carmel!
Jo Turbett, Director of Training
Committed!
Director of Training Jo Turbett and former Director of Training Freeman Ruurd Speelman recently demonstrated their commitment to Rostrum by giving up yet another Saturday morning – and ended up behind bars for their dedication!
Not the local station, but the carpark at the Osborne Park Community Centre where they had been presenting an intensive workshop on the What-Why-How-Show principle which is integral to presenting a critique in Rostrum. The security-conscious staff at the centre locked the gates to the undercroft carpark early, leaving Jo, Ruurd and a number of others unable to leave at the conclusion of the workshop.
The workshop was a success, expertly facilitated by Jo and Ruurd, with professional assistance by Freemen David Coulson and Wayne Passmore. The four attendees were drilled on how to apply the WWHS and received one-on-one mentoring from the trainers. They all agreed it was a Saturday morning well-spent, but for the inconvenience of a lengthy wait in the carpark – until some clever person located the magic ‘Open Sesame’ button. Thanks to Jo, Ruurd, David and Wayne for their ongoing commitment.
Rose Fogliani, Editor (Photo by Wayne Passmore)
From the President
Me again.
I hope you are all enjoying the Informers that have been coming out regularly this year. Rose does a great job of informing, entertaining and inspiring you with a mix of material. You can help to make her job easier by contributing articles. Not just accounts of special functions, but anything you like (well, within reason). Perhaps your club had a wonderful, innovative meeting – send us the agenda. I see them appearing on Facebook, which is terrific, but it’s not much more effort to also flick an email to Rose.
You might have a really good tip for speaking, or an account of how you overcame nerves, or entered a speaking competition, or did a critics’ training course or…
Perhaps you came across a great idea on the internet, or have a book on public speaking with interesting suggestions. Remember books? Those things with a cover and pages and so on. Ha ha.
Even a good (clean) joke or a quiz or a gripe or question about Rostrum. On that, the Rostrum WA Board is open to ideas and criticism. Last week we invited some potential new leaders along to a Board meeting and thoroughly enjoyed hearing their ideas, especially what they thought could be improved, – all presented in a constructive, pleasant manner.
We discussed the matter of tutors (or coaches or critics if you prefer). We agreed that the number of tutors has dropped and frankly, some of us need retraining. Of course it’s a two way street. Many experienced critics have been doing the job for many, many years and would love a break, but not so many young members are undertaking the training. You don’t have to commit a huge amount of time – Director of Training Jo Turbett has a new training model which she will be explaining in more detail in coming months. Apart from helping Rostrum, nothing improves your speaking better than learning the skills of a tutor.
It’s the same with finances. If you don’t know how your fees are being spent, ask your Dais representative, or come along to a Dais meeting yourself. The next one is on Friday 2 September, 6:30 for a 7 pm start – wine and generous nibbles provided. Just remember to RSVP so we know how much wine. And by the way, it is ‘Day’us’ not ‘Die’us’.
Then there is Meetup. This is one of our main marketing tools, but it will only work if it is run by clubs and embraced by members. Ask your club Meetup rep to explain it to you and keep your club up there. Even if you aren’t the administrator for your club, join up. It’s free and it only works properly if many members participate. Marketing Director Elliott Chipper has done a wonderful job in getting us started – now it’s up to you. While individual members don’t pay, there is a fee for each host group (ie club). We have had a free starter pack but from next month we have to pay $15 per club per month. The Board has recommended that Rostrum WA pay the fee for three months for clubs that are actively participating. After that we will assess how successful it is and whether clubs are playing their part. So join now! Rostrum needs you. (Yes I’m parodying a World War One recruiting poster).
And then there’s the Speaker of the Year competition coming up. Club 19 are doing a great job so far. I look forward to attending the heats.
I have been meeting with more of you as I get around to visiting clubs, even getting up earlier in the morning than I like and ploughing through rain and wind. But worth it for the warm welcomes and enjoyable meetings I have been attending.
Freeman Sue Hart, President, Rostrum WA
VALE
Freeman Anthony (Tony) Bolt
December 1926 – June 2016
Members of Rostrum and Freeman’s Council were saddened to hear of the recent passing of Freeman Tony Bolt. Tony would not have been known to newer Rostrum members, but those who knew him will no doubt remember him well.
Speaker, Freeman and Reverend, Tony Bolt began his long Rostrum career in the early 1960s as a Foundation member of Club 11. He loved speaking and was one of the club’s better speakers, later donating the ‘Tony Bolt’ trophy which the club used for its Most Improved Speaker for many years.
Tony later joined Victoria Park Club 15 where he remained an active member until the early 1980s and was awarded the honor of Life Membership. The Northam club had the pleasure of his membership for a while too.
Tony was very popular and his skills as a critic were highly sought after. His love for Rostrum was demonstrated at every opportunity. He attended and actively participated wherever he could at many Rostrum events such as Speaking Competitions, Anniversary Dinner, Autumn Convention and Rostrum Christmas functions.
Tony was instrumental in starting the Rostrum Informer and, thanks to his well-placed contacts, the newsletter was printed very economically for a number of years.
In 1978 Tony became a Freeman of Rostrum and the following year was elected Dais President in WA, a position he held until 1980. At his funeral, his daughter spoke of her father’s love for Rostrum and how much being a member had enhanced his life.
RIP Freeman Reverend Tony Bolt.
Freeman Susan L’Herpiniere, with thanks to Freeman Bill Smith
(Photo from The West Australian 25 July 2016)
It’s about goals and teamwork
The R Alan Crook Award recognises the best club in WA and is awarded at the Rostrum Annual Dinner each year – this year on Saturday 19 November. All Rostrum clubs in WA are eligible to win the award and country clubs are also eligible for the David Price Award for Best Country Club.
What makes a Rostrum club the ‘best’ in WA? It’s the club that is judged, on the basis of a written submission, to be the most effective in promoting the aims of Rostrum in WA which are to:
- Promote the practice of effective speaking;
- Defend freedom of speech in the community;
- Encourage members to think truly and speak clearly; and
- Enrich fellowship in both the club and the organisation.
Clubs are judged on the following criteria which must be addressed in the submission:
- Membership, including net gain in membership, and attendance at meetings;
- Completion of PDP, IDP and ADP by members;
- Active Critics, accreditations and re-accreditations;
- Representation at Dais and support of Dais activities;
- Entries and attendance at AGSOY; and
- Activities and innovations within and outside the club which promote the aims of Rostrum.
The judging period is from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2016, and the closing date for submissions is Friday 14 October 2016. More information and details on how to prepare the submission are in the Rostrum WA Inc Regulations (Amended April 2016) Sections 2.1 and 2.2.
It’s been said before, and it’s still true – clubs that win the R Alan Crook Award or the David Price Award grow and prosper. It’s about having goals: as individual members striving for self-improvement, and the club as a team working together to ensure that members are helped to achieve their goals, and that the club continues to flourish.
Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. Vince Lombardi, American football coach
It’s also true that you have to be in it to win it. Now is the time to gather your team together, consider what your club has achieved, and prepare a submission.
Rose Fogliani, Editor
Modern communication
Some terms used to describe modern digital communication which, by the time you read this, may already be obsolete.
- Chipmunking n. informal the practice of continuously using one’s handheld device during a meeting or while engaged in a public activity.
- Egocasting n. the practice, enabled by the rise of media sources that can be personalized, of allowing oneself to be exposed only to art, literature, music, comment, etc. that one already knows to be to one’s taste.
- Me-casting n. informal a humorous description of podcasting emphasizing the egocentric aspects of creating one’s own online broadcast.
- Meatpuppet n. a person who joins an online community at the behest of another person solely to provide support for that person’s opinions. See also sockpuppet.
- Podfading or podfade n. the tendency of new podcasters to stop producing podcasts after an initial period of enthusiasm.
- Podslurping n. the use of portable media devices, such as MP3 players or USB sticks, to steal confidential business data.
- Sockpuppet n. a pseudonymous extra online identity created by a member of an online discussion forum to agree with his or her posts, thus giving the impression of support for his or her opinions.
From J Crozier, C McKeown and E Summers I smirt, you stooze, they krump. Can you still speak English? 2006
POSTCARD FROM THE ROSTRUM VOICE OF YOUTH NATIONAL FINAL
Melbourne, 30 July 2016
Dear all
We had a great trip and the girls did really well. Our junior Esther Nixon (5th from left) was placed third and our senior Tabitha Malet (2nd from left) did not place but did a brilliant job in a very hotly contested senior competition. A highlight for the girls, apart from the public speaking, was all the people they met and the night trip to the MCG.
Best wishes
Juliet
Juliet Park, Rostrum WA Voice of Youth Coordinator
