U-Can-Speak postgraduate workshop!

Q&A

Want to know more about our workshop and club? Read on.

How will I benefit? Through a combination of practice, receiving constructive feedback, our club environment, and other factors, you potentially will decrease your nerves and increase your self-awareness and confidence.

What will happen at the workshop? Turn up, sign our guest book, and take a seat. When your turn comes, give your presentation. Later, you will receive a personalised oral evaluation as well as a written evaluation.

What will the evaluation include? Usually, 1 recommendation sandwiched between 2 commendations. Feedback is meant to be constructive, encouraging, and uplifting.

What else happens? Depending on the speaker numbers, we might have an impromptu speaking session that you are welcome to join in if you choose.

What type of place is a Toastmasters? Our club provides a supportive, positive meetings where you can work towards your potential, whatever your life goals are.

What will it cost? The workshop is free.

Do I need to book my slot? Yes. We will host a maximum of 5 speakers.

How do I book my slot? Contact univcantab@toastmasters.org.nz to book your spot

🏆 Contest Results 📢

Twice a year, our club competes in the Toastmasters speech contests. This includes the Humourous Speech Contest, for which contestants have prepared a 5-7 min speech that is humourous in nature, and the Evaluation Contest, where contestants give a short speech with constructive feedback for another speaker. Here are our club’s winners:

Humourous Speech Contest:
🥇 Michael
🥈 Mekdim

Evaluation Contest:
🥇 Sam
🥈 Jack

Congratulations to our winners! All four of them stepped out of the comfort zone of our usual meeting routine and achieved another important milestone as public speakers. The area contests, which is where our winners will compete against those of neighbouring Toastmasters clubs, will be held on Saturday, 12 February 2022.

Our audience for the U-CAN-SPEAK speech contests tonight

A big thank you to everyone who also contributed to our contest night:
Ben Y as Contest Chair,
Rameshi as Chief Judge,
Preethi and Reuben as Tally Counters and Timers,
Dayle as Contest Sergeant at Arms,
and our 5 Judges!

Congratulations to Sam for completing his Level 1 award in the Dynamic Leadership path! VP Membership Kate presented the certificate.

THIS MONDAY: Our Invited Speakers on Student Wellbeing & Time Management

At this Monday’s student-wellbeing and time-management workshop, we’ll learn mental and practical skills for looking after ourselves and excelling in an ever-changing world.

Cape Town’s Amy Thompson

Amy Thompson

After completing her Bachelor of Social Sciences degree in Psychology and Organisational Psychology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Amy is now pursuing an Honours degree in Organisational Psychology. While completing her undergraduate degree, she earned a spot on the UCT Dean’s List and was offered an invitation to the Golden Key International Honours Society where she now holds a position on the GKUCT chapter’s executive committee as a membership recruitment director. In addition to this, she also Chairs the Organisational Psychology Student Society at UCT. Amy is adamant about pursuing a career as an I/O Psychologist to further her passion for studying organisational behaviour, while improving employee health and performance.

UC Master of Psychology candidate Rameshi

Rameshi

Rameshi is originally from Sri Lanka and moved to Christchurch NZ with her family in 2007. She completed her Bachelor’s, Honours and Master of Science degree in Psychology at the University of Canterbury. During her studies she was exposed to various areas of psychology, learned many applicable theories, and developed her research skills. Her thesis was part of a pilot project conducted with parents and children in the community to test the feasibility and acceptability of a protocol designed for children with a mild traumatic brain injury.  Currently, she works for Barnardos, where she advocates for the safety and well-being of children within the supervised contact service. Some of Rameshi’s interests include reading, trying new recipes, and spending time with friends/family. She is also part of the U-CAN-SPEAK Toastmasters club, where she hopes to further improve her public speaking skills.

TBIG Project Director Stephen Threadgall

Stephen Threadgall, Project Director

He is from Scotland and studied Building Surveying at Heriot Watt University Edinburgh. He then gained by professional qualification with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). He then later moved to New Zealand in late 2004 and has been working in Project Management ever since, and in recent times has become an RICS assessor for candidates applying to obtain their professional qualification. In his years of project management he has worked on projects from $250k to $100million + and juggles multiple projects at any one time. He loves the outdoors and sports and spends a lot of time on his bikes with his 11 year old son where they recently started track cycling. Between work, family and his own sports he has to manage time constantly.

Student Wellbeing & Time Management Workshop – This Monday, 20 September!

We at U-CAN-SPEAK Toastmasters have put together an exciting line-up of invited speakers for another workshop in our popular series! Join us this Monday for a (free!) workshop on student wellbeing and time management, starting at 7pm sharp in Rehua 529. All are welcome 🙂

student-wellbeingDownload

While we are at alert level 2, please check out the hygiene measures that apply to our meetings for the time being.

Reverse Meeting Next Monday!!!

As we all love Table Topics and improvising (right?), we’re going to take that to the next level with a reverse meeting! Next week, we’ll run our meeting backwards, starting with notices, then the General Evaluator, the reports, … and the Sergeant-at-Arms’ opening last. This means: all those of you who pick roles in which you give feedback get quite a bit of power to dictate what others will have to do in their roles or speeches later on! If the Grammarian commends you for using the word of the day three times in your speech, you’ll have to use it three times! If you give a Table Topic, the Topicsmaster will have to come up with a question that suits your topic, but maybe they can give some small hints through their segues when they thank you for your Table Topic before you give it. The speeches are going to be impromptu, too, and they’ll obviously have to incorporate the challenges the Grammarian, Timer and Evaluator come up with 😉

This special meeting is going to be a superb training for our improvisation and listening skills, and there will be lots of laughter!

Either pick your preferred role on easy-Speak now, or wait to be assigned a random role on Monday!

🏅 Awards for Mek & Rameshi 🎉

Congratulations to our members Mek and Rameshi, who both completed their Level 1 awards! Mek is working on the Persuasive Influence path, while Rameshi has opted for Presentation Mastery. Both are already well underway towards their Level 2!

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Our VP Membership Kate was doing the honours!

Thesis in Three: Top Tips from Past Winners

How to explain your PhD project to a broad audience in under three minutes? How to effectively convey your passion for your research? How to make sure you are understood?

This Monday, UC’s 2020 winners of the three-minute thesis competition, Morgan Tracey and Sam Treceño, shared their experiences with our audience.

Sam, who also competed in the Asia-Pacific semifinals, emphasised three points to consider before the 3MT talk:

• Practice, practice, practice! Ideally in front of other people who can give constructive feedback, or alternatively record yourself on video.
• Repeat! You have to know exactly what you want to say and how, or you risk going over time. Once your words flow automatically, you can concentrate on vocal variety, gestures and interaction with the audience.
• Watch your appearance in ‘minute zero’! Before and while you are introduced, make sure you appear confident, relaxed and perhaps smile, as this is when the audience will get their first impression of you. If you have a friend in the audience, you may be able to establish eye contact with them as this interaction with someone familiar is often a very effective technique to reduce nervousness.

The former Vice-President of the PGSA also recommended to join Toastmasters to gain general speaking skills and confidence 🙂

Morgan explained the judging criteria of the thesis-in-three competition, which fall into the categories of

1. Comprehension & Content
2. Engagement & Communication

To score well in both areas, Morgan advised to

• state the motivation for or the potential impact of the research, include some findings and possible applications (explain the what and the why).
• speak slowly and clearly using everyday, simple language, without ‘dumbing down’ the content. After all, even though the audience has a diverse background, it is still composed of highly educated people.
• work on a confident appearance and radiate enthusiasm through your voice and body language.
• use illustrative graphics, ideally photos, on the slide but only minimal text. Your slide should be well organised and arouse interest. Interact with it to make it part of your presentation!

Morgan, who is nearing completion of her PhD in biological sciences, also recommended the website biorender.com for professional looking infographics and icons that are excellent for designing slides in biology, chemistry, life sciences and related fields.

Three-Minute Thesis Workshop TONIGHT!

Don’t miss out on tonight’s free 3MT workshop, run by UC’s public speaking club U-CAN-SPEAK Toastmasters in cooperation with the PGSA! We’ll start at 7pm sharp in Rehua 529.

Come along to find out from past 3MT winners how to effectively convey your passion for your research and how to be understood! Watch and encourage three UC postgrads, who have volunteered to practice their thesis-in-three presentations tonight and learn from the feedback they receive. If you’re keen, we may also be able to offer you a mini speaking opportunity (but of course you may also just watch from your seat). All are welcome – see you tonight!

Practice Your 3-Minute Thesis Presentation at U-CAN-SPEAK!

It was great meeting many new faces on clubs’ day this week! Please come and join us for our special three-minute thesis workshop this Monday (26 Jul) and our open night the week after (2 Aug).

For the workshop this Monday, we only have two slots left for any UC postgrads who are keen on giving their thesis-in-three talk in front of our friendly audience with helpful and constructive feedback from an evaluator! Don’t let this unique opportunity go to waste – simply flick us a quick message by the end of today (Friday) to secure your speech slot 🙂

All of our upcoming meetings are held in Rehua 529 and start at 7pm sharp, so we recommend you arrive a wee bit early. See you all there!

Thesis-in-Three Workshop with past Winners this Monday!

U-CAN-SPEAK Toastmasters proudly present Morgan Tracey & Sam Treceño, who both got placed in last year’s University of Canterbury finals of the three-minute-thesis competition! You may even give your own 3-minute presentation in front of our friendly audience and receive feedback from one of our invited speakers or club members. Send us a quick message by Friday to secure your spot! No need to be a member of our club – all are welcome to participate 🙂

This coming Monday, 26 July
Starting at 7pm sharp
Rehua 529