SPEAKER_03 0:00

Oh, I certainly did. I used the Finder Club on the TI website and lined up a few clubs to hit when we would be there, and I got two clubs in Ireland that I was able to visit.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Hi, my name's Brendan O'Sullivan, a Toastmaster from Brisbane, Australia. Welcome to my Toastmasters World Tour podcast. Please join me as I travel virtually around the world and chat to Toastmasters from different countries and all walks of life. Let's explore. Its heritage architecture and port, and it's a gateway to the nearby Fraser Island, now known as Gari, the world's largest sand island. I chat to the newly crowned District 69 Toastmaster of the Year, Deb Barnett. Listen in to find out how that came about and hear about her recent overseas Toastmasters club visits. Welcome to the show, Deb.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

I'm so excited and honored to be chatting to the recently crowned Toastmaster of the Year. Congratulations. Thanks, Brendan. But just let me check in with you because I'm totally unfamiliar with the process of becoming nominated as Toastmaster of the Year. I know if anyone should have been nominating you to be Toastmaster of the Year, it should be me. You were so helpful late last year when I organized my online speechcraft course. Not only were you a regular Zoom master for me, but you were also a sounding board and an unofficial mentor for me as I navigated that for the first time. You also helped me again in the last week as I ran a skin cancer education session over Zoom. Yet as richly as I believe you deserve to be nominated, Toastmaster of the Year, to my shame, caught up in my own world and not knowing much about it, I didn't nominate you or anyone else for that matter. So who nominated you? Can you nominate yourself? Can you then vote for yourself multiple times? How did it come about?

SPEAKER_03 2:43

Well, firstly, I'm just so honoured to even be considered. I'm not too sure who nominated me. I certainly am not the sort of person who nominates themselves. And, you know, there's plenty of worthy people out there, and and they certainly should be nominating or sticking their head up, but that's just not my style. I'm not even too sure what the criteria is. And it's it it really comes about uh for me because I get asked to help people with their speech craft and support them and things like that. I get uh asked to do different roles for district and and I do where what I'm comfortable doing, how I can best support my fellow Toastmasters. As a Toastmaster, I've had a wonderful run uh being supported by others and being given opportunities to do things, even if I know I've got no idea how to do them. I just go ahead and do them if I think I've got the capacity to do them well and to be the most supportive Toastmaster and to give back that support, basically, that I've received throughout my journey.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, well, I was gonna say the keyword is support. That's what I found with you 100%. You were the most supportive person, just so generous with your time and always so pleasant. And I felt like I possibly could have been quite annoying the way I leaned on you, but you were so patient and supportive was just incredible. I was just blown away by how generous you were.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

So myself, but uh if somebody asks and you can do it, you'll do it. You know? And it's you're just so appreciative and and clear with what you want and what you want to achieve, what your goal is, that it is a pleasure to help people like you, Brendan. It's just wonderful to be asked. People think of you, it's nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

I think you're amazing, and so I can a hundred percent vouch for I can't think of anyone more deserving for Toastmaster of the Year. So it came out of the blue.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Yes. Yes, I usually turn up to these uh changeover dinners when I am uh in Brisbane, when I am at District Leader Training, and and you know, it's it's a lovely opportunity to see everybody again, you know, that networking thing and which, you know, I enjoy. But at the end of the night I've had enough peopling, that's my introversion coming out, but I do enjoy getting out and seeing everybody and being inspired and hearing the stories of what other people have done. I've been there and there's been lots of Area Director of the Year awards given out and Division Director and Toastmaster of the Year. And half the time I don't know what these people have done in the background to be nominated, to deserve it. And it's wonderful that they do acknowledge people who have put in the hard yard, who have put in the extra work. In saying that, there's always people that are nominated and they miss out too. So there's a lot of wonderful people in Toastmasters who do get acknowledged on the night. And it's just very nice to be there.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Sure. So is that how you found out at district led training? About the award? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

No, I found out when it was announced at the changeover dinner.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Ah, the changeover dinner, okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Yeah, so that was quite shocked.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

And did you have to get up and do a little table topics uh you know, except and speak?

SPEAKER_03 6:12

Well yes, which is really hard to do when you're in shock. Trying to look as if you're cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

I wasn't at the dinner, but if I'd been at the dinner, could I have protested and said, like, you know, I think it should have been me.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Um you could have, but uh never heard of that happening, but anyway. You'd be unique in protesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

With anyone salty.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Uh not to my knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Although, you know, there's so many wonderful people, as I said, so yeah, they're probably deserve to be, but no, couldn't have not only a more deserving person, but couldn't have gone to a nicer person.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

So I'm sure that's I'm sure everyone like me would have been equally happy for you. Recently I gather you went on a grand tour overseas. Where did you go?

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Oh, we did a bucket list trip. You know, when you go places and you don't get time to see this or do that, that's what happened to us. And we had a huge spreadsheet full of bucket list items. I thought, nah, we're gonna go and do these, but we're still well, we're still healthy and and happy to travel. So we took off to London. And we love the history of these places, you know, they're just so much more tangible history and much older than what we have in Australia. So we love going to London and just wandering around. So that was our first stop. And then we did an amazing guided tour from Brussels to Paris of the battlefields, World War I and World War II battlefields. And that's something that really interests my husband, and he loved it. But you know, it's just amazing to see the sites of these horrible wars and what happened all those years ago. And for me, it was more a lovely drive in the French countryside than somebody else was driving. But, you know, I was just so moved by these places and places like the Men and Gate, you know, they're just iconic for the saddest reasons. Um so we had a little bit of time in Paris and ticked off a few more bucket list items after the tour. Then we went to flew to Dublin and had a bit of time there, a few more bucket list items. Pied a car and drove around Northern Ireland, which was just amazing in itself, beautiful scenery, but you know, the the remnants of the troubles are still there. Still some there, you know, six-foot walls guarding public buildings from car bombs, which was the weapon of choice at the time. And I think, oh my gosh, it's still there. That's amazing. Dairy is the same, you know. And came back to a town called Mullinger, which is where my great-great-great-grandfather uh lived and worked until he was declared a convict, if you like, and uh set off on a big cruise to Australia. So it was nice to go there. We haven't quite got all the information because the records aren't complete and they seem to stop at a certain place. But you know, genealogy is one of my hobbies, apart from Toastmaster. So it was lovely to actually go to Mullingar and um then over to Edinburgh a few more, bucket list items, and we thought, oh, we'd like to go to York. And York was just amazing. Again, for that history, those city walls, those those buildings still standing and old, old building that's still there from 1244 or something that used to be a hospice and seeing the sarcophagus still sitting there and you know, they put make them into planters these days, very useful. But yeah, it's just an amazing trip. We really loved it and we started the next bucket list on the old spreadsheet. But um, no, it was great.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Sounds fabulous. Now I've heard that sometimes Toastmasters, when they're overseas, they can pop in and visit other clubs. Did you take advantage of that opportunity?

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Oh, I certainly did. I used the Finder Club on the TI website and lined up a few clubs for to hit when we would be there. And I got two clubs in Ireland that I was able to visit. I think one of the clubs in London that had a tube strike that day, so it was a little bit difficult to get to, and probably still a bit jet-lagged, actually. So I didn't quite have the energy to be good company that day. So we passed on that one. But we went to one in Dublin, and it was a smallish club, had young professionals in it, and they were trying to rebuild the club and doing a fantastic job. But my favourite, of course, was Mullingar again. It was a large club in a pub, in an Irish pub. Wow. And uh experienced people and inexperienced people, and it was a wonderful night out. But it didn't matter which of those clubs we went to, you get that same warm Toastmaster's welcome. They just love to see guests coming through the door, even though they weren't going to convert me to a toastmaster because I already am. And of course, you get a table topic and everything. So yeah, it was it was a wonderful experience to go and see clubs on the other side of the world. And uh, you know, as an area director, as you know, you go and visit other clubs in your area, and to see the the same formula, but just as different personalities being done in another country is just really a heartwarming thing. I just enjoyed both of those clubs.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Did you just rock up or was it prearranged?

SPEAKER_03 11:54

No, I just rocked up. Again, I didn't know if we were going to be tired after a day of playing tourist or what, but uh, we just rocked up to both of them, uh, looked up where they were, got all that information off Finder Club, and just rocked up if we were uh feeling energetic enough to go.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Fair enough. Do you remember the names of the clubs that you went to?

SPEAKER_03 12:16

The one in Dublin was ISFP or something, it was in the financial district. Can't remember exactly, and the one in Mullingar was Mullingar Toastmasters Club.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Okay. And so they made you feel welcome. And you got to do a table topics.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Yes, yes, yes, that's the standard thing we do for guests is we give 'em a table topic. So uh yeah, that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

So you let them know that Aussie Toastmasters are the best, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

Well, I actually had an area director visit the same night, so they were arguing if it was the area directors club or Mullingar was the best in County Westmeath in that area. But yeah, look, I took my Aussiness and and just presented as I do at home, basically. But yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Did you notice any differences between the Irish clubs and the Australian clubs that you're part of?

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Not a huge amount. I think just like any clubs that we've seen in Australia, they vary in their experience level, the personalities, you know, that that goes across any club. And they basically do the same things as we do. Uh sometimes they're a little bit different, or they might not do perhaps a warm-up like my clubs in Australia do. It really varies between clubs just as it does in Australia.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Fair enough. Yeah, you went to two Irish clubs, but you visited many other countries. Those countries weren't Toastmasters there not good enough. Yeah, you know. Didn't want to visit them.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

You've hit off just about all of those accents in Britain, but they just didn't align. As I said, the London one had a tube strike that day and Edinburgh was just we were there the wrong week.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Fair enough. You went through France and obviously you need to be fluent in French if they were running a French speaking one, but did they have any English-speaking clubs in France? Did you have a look into that?

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Uh no, I didn't actually look into that because we were on tour for most of that time.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

So, you know, that sort of restricts your movements because they all put on binners and things like that. So it just depends on the tour that you're on, but I couldn't see a gap in the club to to get away.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Oh well, they're lost, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:40

So it would have been interesting because I don't speak French French at all.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, but they might have had some English speaking clubs. Having visited a couple of overseas clubs, has that prompted you giving you any thoughts of perhaps joining an online overseas club?

SPEAKER_03 14:58

It's possible. I when I do travel, I deliberately miss clubs that are online because I think oh I could just do this from home, you know? And uh Yeah, I hadn't thought about it since I got back to be honest. Um fair enough. This would be, yeah, a case of just finding an online club. Yeah, that's that's worthwhile. I'm already in in WebLec online here, so I've got one online club. So uh we'll just see if I can clear some time and consider doing that, actually. Nice just to get that accent sometimes, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Beautiful Irish accent. 100%. Is there anything else you'd like to add today, Deb?

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Uh no. Oh, look, I just no, and I've said this before, I I just love the opportunities that you get at Postmasters just to do things, and it's always nice to be asked, you know, but we have so many different arms of it. You know, you can just be a speaker in your club and that's okay. And if you want to go out of your club, you can do contests and go up that battle ladder, and uh, there's also the opportunities of a club executive, and you know, if you prefer to go up that direction, but there's so many opportunities to look outside your own club. And, you know, I I love doing that now. Uh initially I was a bit too frightened to go outside my own club and do things, but uh you know, when when you do, you think, oh, everybody else out there's human too. It's all cool. You know, it's just the fear of taking that step. But you know, and I just I just uh really do enjoy supporting people if they're doing speechcraft or they want to be a contest speaker, I'll listen to them on and I'm not an expert at it, but I'll offer what I can. And uh just support people organizing cots and organising conferences and things like that. If they want that support, I'm I'm here and I'll help them.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Oh, that's wonderful. Once again, couldn't be anyone more deserving. Congratulations on Toastmaster of the Year. Thanks, Brendan. I hope everyone at home is cheering and clapping like I am in my mind. And thank you so much for coming on to the podcast today. It's been such a pleasure and an honour, and wish you well. Thank you, Deb.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Thanks, Brendan. It's been a lot of fun. Always good to talk to you.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Thanks for listening to today's show. One of the key elements of Toastmasters is evaluations. This is how we grow and improve, both by encouraging comments for things we've got right and points for improvement. We all learn and benefit from these evaluations, not just the person being evaluated. So any feedback in the comments is greatly appreciated. If you have a Toastmasters story you'd like to share, or would like to be on the show, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at Toastmasters World Tour at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.