Varsity Toastmasters International Contest

The International Contest - Christchurch May 06

2006-05-21T17:00:00.000+12:00

The mornning of the contest arrived, and everyone eagerly awaited the contest, but first we were treated to inspiring educational by Belinda Coffey on how to dramatize our speeches.

We had 7 amazing speeches from contestants which were all very inspirational and motivational. I was very glad not be a judge in this contest, as all contestants performed superbly.

The results of the contest were as follows...

Third Highest Honors: Pat McCarthy
Second Highest Honors: Jasvir Nagra
First Highest Honors: Anna Campbell

Alas a member of Varsity will not be heading to the States this year, but nonetheless Varsity club is extremely proud of Jasvir who gives his all to the club.

That's all for now, until next year, when a New Varsity Club Champion will be selected!

District Convention 06 - Christchurch

2006-05-17T10:20:00.000+12:00

Doesn't time fly by so fast, especially if you let it?

Varsity Club's own Jasvir Nagra will be representing Division A in the International Contest this weekend in Christchurch.

He will be supported by 7 members of Varsity Club that are traveling down to Christchurch with him.

Christchurch beckons, even though it will be a few degree's colder, I am sure that we will receive a very warm welcome. The Convention starts on Friday night, with the District Executive Meeting and Theatre Sports Event. On Saturday there will be the Evaluation Contest and the District Council Meeting. There will be educationals on Saturday, with speeches by the Key Note speaker Ralph Brown & CL Award recipient Professor Paul Callaghan.

It is sure to be an exciting convention.

Division A Contest 2006

2006-04-01T15:58:00.000+12:00

The Division Contest was held at Fickling Centre today morning, starting with the evaluation contest and followed by the International Contest.

There were 7 contestants who spoke on a variety of topics from Beauty in the Beast of a Landrover, to switching off the box that steal time from us (television).

Jasvir spoke again about his Grandmother, Bebe, and gave a beautiful speech.

The resuls of the contest were as follows...

Third Highest Honours : Joan Hook with "Be A Winner"
Second Highest Honours : Barry Edwards with "Window of Opportunity"
Highest Honours : Jasvir Nagra with "Hold out Your Hand"

Jasvir will now go on to represent Division A in the Distric Contest to be held at the District Convention from the 19-21 May in Christchurch.

Varsity Club & all other clubs from Division A will be there to support Jasvir.

Area A1 Contest

2006-03-05T17:00:00.000+13:00

There were 3 contestants at the area A1 contest, each one of them experienced and capable of becoming the Area A1 Public Speaking Champion.

Jasvir gave the same speech he used at the Club Level incorporating the commendations & recommendations given to him by the Judges from Varsity Club.

Jasvir won the contest, and now has the daunting task of representing Area A1 in the Division contests to be held on the 1st of April at the Fickling Centre in Auckland.

It is sure to be a exciting contest with the best of Auckland battling it out to see who will be able to represent Division A at the District Convention in Christchurch in May.

Club Contest 1st March 2006

2006-03-01T20:00:00.000+13:00

What a contest it was, 7 astounding speeches that amazed our judges and audience alike.

Unfortunately there can only be 1 representative of the club.

The results of the contest are as follows...

Third Highest Honours : Chad Wijerante
Second Highest Honours : Sajeewa Dayaratne CTM
Highest Honours : Jasvir Nagra CTM

Jasvir will go on to the Area Contests on the 4th of March at Kohia Teachers Centre in Epsom.

Another Year, Another Contestant to be Selected!

2006-02-22T17:00:00.000+13:00

Another year has flown by so fast, and the Varsity Club International Contest is upon us again.

We have 7 great speakers who are all competing for the right to represent our club, in no particular order...

Chad Wijerante, Joyce Lau, David McDowall, Hari Kumar, Jasvir Nagra, Sajeewa Dayaratne & Julian Fong.

Who will represent Varsity Club in the Area A1 contests? Well you'll just have to wait for another week to find out!

Third Highest Honors

2005-08-23T23:00:00.000+12:00

The Interdistrict Contest is finally over and what a roller-coaster ride it has been.

Jasvir received the Third Highest Honors in the Interdistrict Contest.

Second Highest Honors went to Donald Yee from District 80 (Hong Kong)
Highest Honors went to Douglas Kruger from District 74 (Southern Africa).

Both of these contestants had participated in the Interdistrict contest before.

Well done Jasvir!

The Day of the Contest

2005-08-23T10:34:00.000+12:00

The day is finally here. It's been a roller coaster ride, and both Jas and I are very excited and pumped up for the contest today evening.

We have our contest de-briefing at 12pm, and a dress rehearsal at 5 pm. The contest it self starts at 6.30pm

We have checked out the contest arena, it is a huge hall, and usually there are about 300 people for the interdistrict contest. However this time, since their are 13 districts competing, it is going to be split up. Organisers are not sure as to how the split will be in terms of numbers so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

I will post a full update of the contest and of course the results that everyone is so eagerly anticipating later on tonight.

Toronto Welcomes Jasvir

2005-08-19T08:41:00.000+12:00

We arrived in Toronto with no problems, we had 2 long flights, Auckland to L.A. was eleven hours, and after a 3 hour transit in L.A. we were in for another 5 hours flight to Toronto. We were welcomed officially in the Airport itself, but someone obviously told the airport to expect a celebrity, but as usual they made a typo.

We arrived at our hotel the Westin Harbour Castle and our room has got a fantastic view of the city and the lake. We went for a long walk, to gather the sights, this was at 2 am in the morning though so most places were closed. Thankfully jet-lag hasn't seemed to affect either Jasvir or myself so that is a plus point.

Jasvir is busy polishing his speeches and practicing them with great enthusiasm. There is now less than 5 days to the Inter-District Contest. At times I have to keep pinching myself to make sure that I am not dreaming. It is very exciting. More updates to follow as and when the occur.

We're off to Toronto!

2005-08-16T23:35:00.000+12:00

It's 11.30 pm on Tuesday night, I have just dropped Jas off at his flat and arrived at home myself.

The past few weeks have been hectic for the both of us making sure that Jasvir gets as much practice and more importantly feedback on his speeches that have been prepared for the next stages in the contest.

We leave for Canada tomorrow evening, and I would like to take this opportunity to say "Thank You" to a few people.

There are large number of Toastmasters who have shown their support in so many ways but I must mention a few by name for the outstanding amount of support that they have given me. They are Sajeewa Dayratne, Brian Arps, Peter Anich, Johnathan Zhuang, Joyce Lau. Most of all I am indebted to Tony Keegan for empowering me to take on the task of being the support person for Jas.

The generosity and enthusiasm of everyone and has overwhelmed me so much.

I will update this web-log of events as they happen in Toronto as often as I can.

The Inaugural Moosehunters Brunch - Beware of poor moose puns

2005-07-31T12:30:00.000+12:00

It was a typical Auckland Sunday Morning, the sun was out peeking behind the clouds and there were patches of rain on the forecast. However it was going to be an EXCELLENT day, because all the planning and organizing over the past 4 weeks finally came to a head, it was the day of the Inaugural Moose Hunters Brunch.

I arrived at 10.30 at the Restaurant, moose behinds in tow, with a large number of additional props to be used at the event. I met Peter coming in, and he was in his full Canadian Mounty Uniform, what a sight to behold.

The crowds of hunters gathered at the venue and started streaming to their tables, by 11pm we were all seated an eagerly anticipating the start of the event, lunch was served first and while everyone was eating they were able to peruse some words from Jasvir and Sajeewa in a booklet that was produced specifically for the event. You can view a copy of the booklet here.

Peter warmed up the audience by getting three people to come and demonstrate their Moose Calls to attract various moose to their untimely demise. The moose calls were "moosical" and well received by the audience.

Next Jasvir presented his first speech of the event. It was a new speech that he worked on specifically for the brunch, and everyone was blown away. Unfortunately due to the layout and set up of the restaurant, he was unable to move around and use gestures as effectively as he normally does. Also he was unable to make eye contact with some of the guests. Everyone was given an evaluation form to fill out for Jasvir's speech to help him that little bit more.

After Jasvir's speech, to give him a short break before presenting his next speech, Peter called upon a few of the attendees to come up for short table topics (impromptu speeches). Everyone performed brilliantly, and there were a large number of laughs.

Then the moose behinds were auctioned and raised NZ $125.00 which was great! We also auctioned a holiday bach for a weekend.

It was now time for Jasvir's second speech and as usual he did not disappoint, he was restricted again with movements and gestures due to the layout of the restaurant, but other than that, his speech was magnificent.

After his final prepared speech, Peter gave thanks to all those people that were involved in the preparation of this successful event and those that helped things run smoothly. A great round of applause went up for Tony Keegan, Peter Anich, and finally Jasvir for their great efforts, (and I was mentioned as well).

It was an extremely successful event and could not have been possible without all those who helped out and of course the support of all those who came.

The Final Moose

2005-07-30T17:00:00.000+12:00

After two weeks of hard work, the moose were ready for presentation and auction at the brunch.

Here in full technicolor glory is one of the three that were auctioned on Sunday.

Amoosing Papier Maché

2005-07-23T10:30:00.000+12:00

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, I had already bought materials required for the budding artists that were due to arrive at any moment. Chicken wire, and lots and lots of newspapers. I didn't buy the newspapers but got them from a friend, he was able to give me a weeks supply of the New Zealand Herald.

So we proceeded to come up with a plan of how we were going to get this done. The first idea was to get "someone" to be used as a model, of course the logical person was Jasvir since it was indeed all about him. He declined, and no amount of persuasion could convince him otherwise. So to Plan B, with use of complex mathematics and precision engineering we decided that trial and error was the best method of creation.

A few hours later, we came up with our first prototype.

The First Prototype

From this we then created an additional 3 behinds and 6 legs.

Now came the fun part covering our wire frames with papier maché.

covering the moose

By 6 pm that evening we had 3 moose behinds created. Now all we had to do was paint them, nail their behinds to a shield and we were all done.

Moose Brunch?

2005-07-19T11:00:00.000+12:00

As mentioned earlier part of our weekly meetings was to deal with the logistical side of things, one of which was fundraising to help Jasvir.

Peter Anich from Twilight Talkers came up with a brilliant suggestion of having a brunch where all toastmasters could be invited. This event would be one that Toastmasters will talk about for months to come a formal event full of fun, humor and entertainment. The theme needed to be something to do with Canada, so it was decided to have it as a Moose-Hunters Brunch.

This was a great idea and had the full backing of the committee. Part of the idea was to auction some Moose Memorabilia, and I was charged with this task.

Anyone could make a moose head, all you had to do is go out and shoot one and mount it on a shield. We wanted to be unique and do something that was never done before. So it was decided to make Moose-Behinds.

I used my brilliant artistic skills to come up with a rough sketch (pictured below) of what was required, and sent it to members of Varsity Club to rally some support.

Needless to say, I scared off nearly everyone, but a few brave souls namely Joyce Lau, Sajeewa Dayaratne and Jasvir himself came to my rescue.

More details on the creation and photo journal to follow.

A Night with Jasvir & John - Pukekohe

2005-07-18T19:30:00.000+12:00

Once Kevin Warwood heard about our mission to get Jasvir to Toronto, he immediately pledged his support. He was able to organize an event at which Jasvir would be able to speak to a larger audience than normal Toastmasters meetings.

He organized an event where Jasvir and John Shackleton would be speaking. John is a top sports coach with a sports psychology background who shows international business audiences techniques to exercise the biggest muscle in the body - the brain.

The night started out with Tony Keegan giving a humorous speech to warm up the audience. He presented a very funny speech about marriage, divorce and online dating, and three of the most ludicrous situations that he found himself in. It definitely warmed up the audience, and prepared us all for a great evening of entertainment.

After Tony's speech Jasvir presented one of his speeches that he hopes to use in Toronto. This was similar to the one that he presented at Twilight Talkers, but took the recommendations and commendations from that speech into account. This gave the speech that little bit of extra zing this time around.

John Shackleton then took to the stage, and proceeded to present us with an extremely inspiring lecture. He spoke to us with great enthusiasm, and conveyed a strong message. However throughout the speech he maintained a jovial atmosphere which made it all the more interesting.

We then took a short break, after which Jasvir took to the stage again with his second speech. This was the new and improved version of Deranged Marriage, as per the first speech Jasvir had incorporated all the recommendations, which made the speech more polished.

John then came back on stage to finish his presentation, and I was inspired to go and put his teachings to practice.

Finally Jasvir came and presented his third speech. This was the same speech that he delivered at Tauranga, for those who missed it before. It was as if we were transported back to Tauranga. Jasvir entertained us with his speech "When the Chips are Down"

At the end of the meeting everyone thanked Jasvir and John for an excellent evening. Jasvir was given feedback and lots of encouragement from various guests and Toastmasters that attended the event.

All in all it was a great evening.

Twilight Talkers - The Dentist Speech

2005-07-12T18:30:00.000+12:00

We had the pleasure of being invited to Twilight Talkers Club for their weekly meeting. Jasvir was going to give another speech that he hopes to use in Toronto.

He was introduced, he stood up, and regaled us with seven and a half minutes of sheer brilliance the whole club was left in awe.

It was clear from the speech that he wanted an opportunity to try new angles, and different methods of presentation.

This was recieved well at Twilight, and as with anyone speaking, he left with useful recommendations and commendations.

Impromptu Speech at Varsity

2005-07-06T18:30:00.000+12:00

It was our weekly Varsity Club Meeting and we were all set for our usual three prepared speeches. Unfortunately two people had to cancel at the last minute due to an emergency. I began to panic, we were expecting a few guests tonight and first impressions always count. I did not want our guests to shy away from Toastmasters due to an unforeseen circumstance, or a poor meeting.

I spoke to Jasvir just as we were getting the room ready, and coerced, I mean asked him nicely to give a speech. He had about 10 minutes before the meeting was about to start. He accepted.

The speech started out talking about how a day was going terribly wrong. He then proceeded to weave an extraordinary story as to how things started going from wrong to right, and everything seemed to work, and before he knew it, it turned out to be a great day.

The message Jasvir conveyed was that we should always look on the positive side of things. Also when we interact with people in any service industry a smile and friendly manner will get you a lot further than if you lose your cool and start yelling like a maniac.

Jasvir did what I thought was impossible, he came up with a brilliant speech in less than 10 minutes and delivered it flawlessly. If it not were the fact that I knew he only prepared it 5 minutes ago, I would have sworn that he put in a lot of time and effort into this speech. It was simply amazing.

Club Officer Training - Deranged Marriage

2005-06-23T18:00:00.000+12:00

It was now a month since our weekly meetings had been occurring. Jasvir was ready to give one of his speeches to a broader audience. The guinea pigs, er... I mean, privileged guests were the executive members of various clubs coming for Club Officer Training for Area A1.

Jasvir's speech title was "Deranged Marriage"

He stood up and with his usual charm and flair proceeded to wow the audience with his speech. As usual after his speech, everyone provided feedback to him individually to help him get that extra edge.

As Toastmasters say, there is always something that can be improved on in a speech, and we ensured that Jasvir did not go away empty handed.

The Next Step - Weekly Meetings

2005-05-29T10:00:00.000+12:00

A few weeks after the Tauranga Convention, Jasvir contacted me to come along for a meeting with a few other Toastmasters. We all met in Ponsonby in order to determine what needed to be done next. According to the rules of the International Contest Jasvir needed two new speeches, one for the Inter-District Level and one for the International Level. In addition to the creative side, there was also the logistics side of things. Where would Jasvir stay, would he have a support crew? Would anyone be willing to go along and help him with these areas so that he could concentrate on his creative side and work on his speeches.

There were a hundred reasons that I could think of not to put my name forward, I wouldn't get leave, I couldn't afford it, I'm not a great speaker so what help could I offer, but I knew deep down, that I had already made the decision to go along. It was just a formality of being asked by the committee or Jasvir.

Over the next few weeks a plethora of toastmasters including Tony Keegan, Brian Arps, Deborah Cox, Jennifer McCartney, Peter Anich, Sajeewa Dayaratne, to mention a few names, all helped Jasvir in any way that they could. Be it meetings to help with brainstorming, or helping with fundraising, or even just to have a chat to see how things were going.

I was and am still overwhelmed with the amount of support that each one of these members gave and helped with. Toastmasters is an amazing organization, and I believe that I will be a part of this organization for life.

Celebration Time - Tauranga

2005-05-08T15:00:00.000+12:00

We were waiting outside the auditorium, awaiting for our president Jasvir to come out so we could lavish praise and let him know how proud we were. We had our club banner in the background, and got someone to take a photo of all of us lifting Jasvir into the air.

It was an unforgettable experience. Every single member that was there will be able to say, they were there when Jasvir won the International Contest in Tauranga. After a celebratory lunch we headed back to Auckland still reeling from the afternoons events.

Sajeewa and I decided that, for those members who were not able to make the Tauranga trip, there should be an opportunity to celebrate in Jasvirs' Victory. We decided to get a small something for Jasvir to keep as a memory of this momentous occasion. We made a collage of photos and got it framed, and presented it at our weekly meeting, and of course there was chocolate cake. :)

After this meeting is when we all started realizing the implications of Jasvir's win. He would now be going to Toronto to compete in the Inter-District Competition against the best Toastmasters from around the world.

... and the winner is

2005-05-08T13:00:00.000+12:00

There we were all waiting eagerly for the announcement of the winners. As in normal Toastmasters contests all contestants were called onto stage and their achievements were recognized.

The time we were waiting for was finally upon us, the Third Highest honors, and second Highest honors were announced.

Jasvir was not one of them.

We all sat there hoping, waiting, anticipating, finally Kevin Warwood announced,

and the first highest honors goes to... Jasvir Nagra

The applause and screams were deafening, we were all on our feet cheering! Jasvir Won! It was unbelievable, I quickly looked around for other members from our club in the auditorium and could see that everyone was on their feet applauding.

Jasvir came onto stage and accepted the award and trophy, and just as he was heading off stage, Kevin said "Wait right there, you need to come back on in a moment".

I was wondering what this meant, when Kevin enlightened us all, Jasvir had not only won the International Contest, but he won the Most Entertaining Speaker as well. This was a great honor not just for Jasvir but for his home club, Varsity Toastmasters as well.

After the presentation of the awards the club members all headed out to wait for Jasvir to come out, it was time to celebrate.

The International Contest - Tauranga

2005-05-08T11:00:00.000+12:00

It was Sunday morning, 8th May, Mothers Day, the day of the International Contest.

We all woke up early and headed down to the convention centre. I met Jasvir after his contest briefing, he was going to be speaking last. This was very good news, and what every speaker secretly hopes for.

Jasvir decided not to attend the educationals but instead take a break and gather his thoughts and calm his nerves. I gave him a few final words of encouragement, wished him luck and headed to the morning session of the convention.

It was now 11am, the contest was about to start. The club split up into a few groups seated around the auditorium. Seven of us decided to sit right up front, and we had our resident camera man Sajeewa ready with his camera about to video Jasvirs' speech.

One by one the contestants came and each person that came up and spoke showed so much skill and talent. It was not just by chance that they were up here, they were all excellent speakers. Finally it was Jasvirs' turn, this was going to be the first time I would see him perform this particular speech. The Contest Chair introduced him...

...with "When the Chips are Down", Jasvir Nagra

We all applauded as loud as we could, and all looked up with great big smiles. Jasvir proceeded to weave a wonderful speech, one that captivated us all, and with each passing minute, the speech got better and better. He concluded a short seven and a half minutes later. It was a superb speech.

We all sat in our seats, waiting as the ballots were collected, awaiting nervously the results of the contest.

Tauranga Convention Saturday

2005-05-07T17:00:00.000+12:00

Weeks became months, and nothing exciting took place until the end of April. I had already decided to go down to Tauranga with Jasvir, who was now our club president, and a few other members from our club. However John Quach decided we should try and get more people to come along and support Jasvir. He made a speech to the club rallying support and ended up convincing 14 people to come support Jasvir before the contest.

Jasvir and I left Auckland early in morning to get to Tauranga for the District General Meeting. After the formalities we caught up with the rest of the members from our club and went out for dinner at a restaurant. We had heaps of fun joking around and making sure that Jasvir had a break from thinking too much about the contest the next day.

After dinner we dropped Jasvir off at his motel and headed back to the backpackers we were staying at. We were all excited about the next day and could hardly sleep, if it was bad for us we could only imagine what Jasvir might have been going through.

The International Contest was less than 12 hours away.

The Beginning

2004-12-16T21:30:00.000+13:00

There I was sitting in our weekly Toastmasters Meeting, I hadn't been a member for long, maybe a month. The biggest thing I was dreading was being called up for a Table Topic, never did I imagine that I would be asked to take up a quest.

Our club mentor Tony Keegan and Area A Governor Brian Arps had come for a visit to the meeting with an ulterior motive. To get our club members to support our fellow toastmaster Jasvir in his quest to become the New Zealand public speaking champion and then the World Champion.

Tony put it brilliantly, "Wouldn't you like to say that you were part of the World Champions winning team?"

I knew at that stage sitting at the back of the room that I would help Jasvir in any way that I could in his quest to become the World Champion in Public Speaking.