Here’s a transcript of his speech, along with the timings he used as a guide. This is terrific Gerald, thanks for sharing these lessons in writing so we can all learn and be inspired by them.

Introduction

Good morning and a very happy Friday to all my fellow boaters, and welcome guests. Now I know that 2020 was a year that most of us would rather forget, but July 2020 happens to be the month where I not only started my second Pathways path, but also served as VP Education for that Toastmasters year.

So I thought it appropriate to choose the Dynamic Leadership pathway for my second path –  which is the pathway dedicated to developing strategies to facilitate change in an organisation or group… and considering the amount of change we had going on, I don’t think I could have chosen a better, more relevant path than this one.

So let me show you what I’ve covered in the last 2  and a bit years by guiding you on a journey across the projects and speeches that got me to where I am today.

Level one (1.5 mins)

Icebreaker  speech– Forging a new Path

• Spoke of my grand vision to begin a new Pathways path – Dynamic Leadership, which I started at the same time I began my role as VP Education in 2020… which was an appropriate choice considering the considerable amount of change that was happening at the time

Evaluation & Feedback project – 3 Speech Writing Tips / 3 More Speech Writing Tips

• Rule of 3 – speech structure – Beginning, Middle, End; Intro, Body, Conclusion; 3 core ideas to your speech
• Table Topic Your Speech – Break your speech into 3 core ideas, and give a 2 minute table topic on each idea… and voila! You have a 6 minute impromptu speech!
• Word Count – 700-800 words = 5 – 7 minute speech, depending on how fast you speak

Research Project – Ars Rhetorica

• Aristotle’s teachings on the art of persuasion in public speaking… where I had a friend pick a topic, write a few core concepts, which I then re-wrote and delivered in my own interpretation. Does it count as cheating? Maybe, but it was a fun one!

Level two (1.5 mins)

Understanding your Leadership Style – Owning it

• taking full accountability and responsibilities for your actions, whether good or bad, positive or negative – and making steps and adjustments to either course correct, fix, or improve your situation

Understanding your Communication Style – Who wants to know their communication style

• a fun one where I used all the PowerPoint skills at my disposal to emulate a ‘Millionaire’ style quiz… sound effects, transitions, anxious waiting… the works!

Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring – Patience, Young Padawan

• Yet another speech title with a reference to Star Wars… I can’t help myself. This speech detailed my experience of mentoring someone who was looking to enter the Data & Analytics industry, and helping to set them on the right track to attain their first job… which I’m happy to report, they were able to do!

Level three (1.5 mins)

Negotiate the Best Outcome (The Gambler’s Guide to Negotiation)

• Talked about negotiation strategies, using a few lines from the Kenny Rogers classic… know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run

Social Speeches – Finding the Confidence Within

• This speech I conducted as part of a special Toastmasters ‘Show don’t tell’ event, which had speakers from multiple clubs across Christchurch talking about their journey and successes they’ve found since joining Toastmasters.

Prepare for an Interview– You’re Hired

• This was an excellent opportunity to practice my skills for an upcoming interview, by having another Toastmaster conduct a mock job interview, which I felt helped a lot to eventually secure that position.

Level four (1.5 mins)

Managing Change – A change is gonna come

• Change is a constant, change is inevitable, and sometimes change is out of our control… this speech listed a few steps around dealing with change management by identifying –
  • Who the change will impact
  • how will they be impacted, and
  • what resistance can we expect?

Question & Answer – A Team of Champions

• This is where I spoke about the idea of ‘champions’ within the club, by growing in-house experts over a range of topics such as Pathways, Easy Speak, Technology, Humorous speaking etc. This was followed by a Q&A session, where my goal was to answer questions clearly and succinctly, which other than a few rambly moments, I felt I achieved

Level five (1.5 mins)

Lead in any situation (The Next Level)

• I talked about my leadership experiences in taking the VP Education role, comparing it to my previous role of VP Membership, and contrasting the different goals, aims and situations.

Lessons Learned (Ngai Tahu Speechcraft 2022)

• The latest speech I conducted from last month, talking about the many lessons and experiences I learnt from conducting the Ngai Tahu speechcraft course in 2022

There you have it, 3 years of Pathway summarised into 8 or so minutes, gone in a flash! But alongside these speeches and projects, I’ve been amazed at what I was able to achieve during this time:

… Completed 2X Pathways Paths, 2nd Place at District Humorous Contest, VP Ed, Treasurer, Mentor, Speechcraft Coordinator, Event Speaker, Contest Judge, speaker at 2 virtual conferences, took on a people leader role for a bit… and probably a few more I can’t recall.

Advice for those just starting their first path…

• Keep checking the content in your Pathways project. Not only do they tell you what to do, but they help you fill out your speech a lot too. If in doubt, check your project content.

Obstacles you faced / how you overcame them

• There were a few tricky ones which required a bit of prep and teamwork involved. Always double check the objectives of each pathway project to make sure you’ve done all the prerequisites. Also check the time of each speech, as the higher levels may require you to conduct more than one speech, or perform one that’s longer than 5 – 7 minutes – for instance, this one! Make sure you give a heads up to your VP Ed about these ones

So where to from here?

– Back when it all started, it was my career that was the biggest reason I joined Toastmasters, and I know that I wouldn’t have reached the heights that I have if it hadn’t been for Boaters.

– I’ve met so many people that I’ve learned from and worked with over the years, who just like me, have grown and flourished because of Toastmasters

– And after what feels like 100 job changes in as many months, I feel it’s time for me to refocus, reprioritise, and prove once again that I can achieve the same for my career, as I have been able to achieve at Toastmasters.

Member blog; Gerald Hartley

So for me as Toastmaster of the week, choosing Matariki as our meeting theme was an obvious choice. In my pre-meeting despatch and in the opening, I encouraged members to incorporate some te reo Māori during the course of the meeting, (leaving the prompt sheet of relevant phrases we were given in our recent workshop on the lectern for those, myself included, who need a bit of a reminder) and it was heartening that pretty much everyone chose to use at least one phrase. Major props to Jacqui Anderson who chose to incorporate a specific whakataukī that is not in our notes, into her evaluation. Koia kei a koe Jacqui!

It was also fitting – and to my knowledge totally unplanned, at least in terms of my chosen theme –  that our two speakers, Roydon and Dee, were completing their Pathways, both delivering reflections on what they had learned along the way; another cause for celebration.

Our Grammarian, Shaun, gave us ‘sublime’ as our word of the day. Meaning ‘of very great beauty or excellence’, it was a stellar word, which related beautifully to the theme and which people peppered into their speeches and roles throughout the meeting.

Introducing our first speaker of the day, Max took to the stage clearly having taken time to think about how he would introduce one of our highly regarded and experienced members, Roydon. He shared the project details, gave the speech time for the Timer and set the expectations high for what was to come, putting the focus squarely on the speaker; an exemplary introduction.

Finishing up his Visionary Communication Pathway, Roydon took us through his journey, experiences and reflections on completing 15 speeches (including “The Seduction of Finding Your Passion” and “Why Work?”) and being evaluated by 13 evaluators over the past five years. Peppered with anecdotes and analogies, his speech, ‘Where to From Here?’ was a masterful blend of wisdom and humour as he shared insights and stories both from his Toastmaster experiences and life in general. Engaging as always, Roydon shared that while he has typically been a planner with ambitions of achieving much in regard to his work life, the exercise of looking back at the speeches he’s made on his Visionary Communication path brought him to the realisation that his perspective of what’s important has changed over the past five years. These days, he’s thoroughly at ease being ‘Pops’, showing the grandchildren how things grow in the garden, and with the idea that you can plan for the future, but you can’t predict it. Essentially, he’s happy just chilling out and planting seeds here and there, and seeing what pops up. And finally, Roydon shared that he’s unsure which Pathway he’ll choose to take next, but he’s looking forward to it. And I’m looking to hearing more from Roydon, so Where to From Here? Somewhere interesting, informative and inspiring is my guess!

Kori, our second introducer showed that he is fast becoming a gun at setting the scene for the upcoming speaker. Not only was he well prepared with some interesting background information on Dee, but he also shared the necessary purpose and objectives with the audience, and built up a little bit of excitement as he welcomed Dee to the stage.

Dee’s Persuasive Influence Pathway reflection speech “Are We There Yet Papa Smurf?” focused on the challenges she has faced at Toastmasters including dealing with the various different personalities as well as her public speaking fears. Although she nearly called it quits early on, she told her personal story of how encouragement from her Toastmasters mentor and other members gave her the encouragement to continue,  put on her “Miss Piggy’s Pants” and find her voice. Dee has enjoyed success at contest level in her relatively short time at Toastmasters and consistently demonstrates how showing vulnerability at the front of the room can be a powerful storytelling/speech technique (the fact that her speech moved her Evaluator to tears is testament to that). And her delivery of a 12 minute speech was a textbook demonstration of how telling the same story in multiple different ways, applying the various lessons/techniques/styles outlined in different Pathways projects, is an effective way to get familiar enough with your content and story that you can confidently present for a decent chunk of time with no notes. Well done Dee on sticking with it and completing your Pathway.

Deb presented our newest members John Beach and Thomas Bernard with their club name badges as we formally welcomed them to the club. It’s always a treat to see new faces up the front of the room, so welcome to you both. It’s great to have you in the crew. She also thanked outgoing members Rachel Walton and Gerald Hartley for their contributions to Boaters over the past few years. Go well team. Enjoy your new adventures!

Table Topics Master David came up with some entertaining, thought-provoking and relevant Matariki-related topics which Alannah, John and Ruban all spoke to well. Alannah encouraged us to let our children wonder at the mystery of the stars (and be sure to point them out rather than assume that they’ll even look up), John related the stars to ‘tiny eyes’ and Ruban had us relaxing on the beach, with no phone, just looking up at the stars. Thanks for taking us all on a wonderful starry table topics wander team.

When it came to evaluations, Helen admitted it had been a challenge to find any, but she did a sterling job finding a few good ones for Roydon (he did give a very engaging speech). More vocal variety – such as dropping the tone or cranking up the volume – to disrupt and add interest to the flow, along with a bit more volume would add some interest. And she suggested that he think of an alternative ending rather than ‘thank you’. As she said, it should really be us, the audience, thanking Roydon for such a terrific speech.

As mentioned earlier, Jacqui was moved to tears by Dee’s speech, but despite that, she still managed to give a solid evaluation and demonstrate to us what she particularly enjoyed (including a demo of Dee side-stepping through time, which saw me get totally distracted by her fabulous red boots and I missed what she was actually saying, but overall, she found the speech very moving and not just in the sideways sense!).

Rachel – as always – gave some exemplary Table Topics evaluations for each speaker, and I will miss her keen insights in terms of giving perceptive and constructive feedback. Rachel also shared some more information on Matariki in relation to it being the time of year to reflect on departed whanau as well as what lies ahead, and it was interesting to add another piece of knowledge to our Matariki kete.

Sabine mixed things up for us with the General Evaluator’s role and instead of giving us her insights and observations on the meeting, asked us to evaluate ourselves, asking us each two questions “What’s one thing you did well?” and “Why did it work well?”. Surprisingly (well, at least, I thought so) everyone was able to quickly come up with a positive comment about their contribution AND tell us why it worked. It was fast-paced, interesting and a fun way to end the session. Thanks Sabine.

So overall, an interesting, reflective yet engaging session. A great end to the Toastmasters’ year and well worth getting out of bed for on a dark, but starry winter’s morning!

Member blog by Louise Landess.