Raconteurs: Toastmasters Club

Club executive members for the new Toastmasters year gathered on Saturday afternoon alongside executives from other clubs across Adelaide. Key discussions focused on how we can better support our members🎯 and help them achieve their personal and professional goals 🚀

With a strong and committed executive team this year 🎤, we are excited for a highly rewarding year ahead.

The Raconteurs Toastmasters meeting on 11 June, chaired by Julian Z. once again saw a full house at the club. We were inspired by three outstanding prepared speeches:
🗣 Jarrod Schutt on Understanding Your Communication Style
🗣 Darrell Klar on “The Compass Within – The Six-Month Journey”, sharing his experience organising, running, and participating in the D73 Conference
🗣 John Walker on the 5 things he has learned by serving the club as a Treasurer.

In line with the meeting theme, John Walker chaired an engaging Table Topics session focused on beloved pets in our lives.

Congratulations to our award winners of the night:
🏆 Outstanding Evaluation: Maryanne Katsidis
🏆 Best Performance: Julian Z.
🏆 Outstanding Prepared Speech: Jarrod Schutt
🏆 Outstanding Table Topics: John Gillespie

We are now just one meeting away from concluding a highly successful Toastmasters year at Raconteurs. We look forward to welcoming everyone to our next meeting:
📍 The Bartley Hotel, Bartley Terrace, West Lakes Shore
🗓 Thursday, 25 June at 6:45 PM

We ran out of seats at the Raconteurs Toastmasters meeting on 29th May🎉
We were inspired by three amazing prepared speeches:
🗣 Lorraine Walker on the impacts of social media.
🗣 Johnny Rizk on his journey as a migrant.
🗣 Maryanne Katsidis on her story as an entrepreneur and the importance of speaking up.

We also celebrated Darrell Klar’s outstanding performance at the District 73 Toastmasters Conference attended by 160+ people, where he secured 2nd place in the Humorous Speech Contest 👏

Congratulations to our award winners of the night:
🏆 Best Performance: Johnny Rizk
🏆 Outstanding Table Topic: Maryanne Katsidis
🏆 Outstanding Prepared Speech: Johnny Rizk
🏆 Outstanding Evaluation: Marc Ocampo Ramos CEng, FIChemE, FSEng, RPEQ, CMEngNZ

It was wonderful to see former club member Rob Wood visiting and sharing his insights at the meeting.

Looking forward to welcoming everyone to our next meeting!
📍 The Bartley Hotel, Bartley Terrace, West Lakes Shore
🗓 Thursday, 11/06 at 6:45 PM

At our recent meeting on 14/05/2026, chaired by Darrell Klar, we held our annual club officer elections. Congratulations to our incoming 2026–2027 executive team:
👤President: Brooke Dilmetz
👤Immediate Past President: Darrell Klar
👤VP Education: Lorraine Walker
👤VP Membership: Maryanne Katsidis
👤VP Public Relations: Julian Zheng.
👤Treasurer: John Walker
👤Secretary: Marc Ocampo Ramos
👤Sergeant at Arms: Johnny Rizk

We were also delighted to induct two new members, Amy Graham and Mel Riviere. Welcome to the club! 🎉

Awards of the Night:
🏅Best Speaker: Brooke Dilmetz
🏅Best Table Topics: John Walker
🏅Best Evaluation: Johnny Rizk
🏅Outstanding Performance: John Gillespie

Next Meeting Details:
📍 The Bartley Hotel, Bartley Terrace, West Lakes Shore
🗓 Thursday, 28/05 at 6:45 PM

Whether you’re looking to build confidence, enhance your communication skills, or connect with a supportive community, we’d love to see you at our next session!

On Thursday evening, our club came together along with former members Deborah and Jo to farewell and celebrate one of our most respected Toastmasters, Kerry Pienaar.

Kerry has been award-winning Toastmaster, and many of us have benefited from her insightful, high-quality speech evaluations over the years. Since beginning her Toastmasters journey several years ago, she has consistently excelled, earning speech contests at club, area, and district levels.

On the night, Kerry delivered a heartfelt farewell speech, reflecting on her journey, the friendships she has built, and the personal growth she has experienced. She concluded with the moving song You Raised Me Up by Josh Groban, leaving the room inspired and earning a standing ovation.

As Kerry now focuses more on her work in executive coaching and professional speaking, we wish her every success in this exciting next chapter. She leaves a lasting legacy within Raconteurs, and we look forward to welcoming her back again in the future.

Thank you, Kerry. You will be greatly missed.

Our recent meeting (09/04/2026) chaired by Lorraine Walker was filled with powerful stories, heartfelt moments, and plenty of inspiration.
🎤 Warm-up Session: Led by Guil Zanella, members shared travel experiences inspired by the last word spoken by the previous speaker — a creative and engaging way to kick off the evening!

🎙️ Prepared Speeches: Johnny Rizk and Marc Ramos delivered compelling speeches. Marc’s deeply emotional delivery truly resonated with the audience, earning him a well-deserved standing ovation.

Awards of the Night:
🏅 Best Speaker: Marc Ocampo Ramos
🏅 Best Table Topics: Amanueal Mamo
🏅 Best Evaluation: Maryanne Katsidis

Congratulations to all participants for making the night so memorable!
📍 The Bartley Hotel, Bartley Terrace, West Lakes Shore
🗓 Next Meeting: Thursday, 23/04 at 6:45 PM

If you're looking to build confidence, improve communication, and connect with a supportive community, we’d love to see you at our next session!

Kerry Pienaar Darrell Klar Julian Z. Johnny Rizk Melisa Gocaj Behzad Pourdarab Alejandra Rodriguez Marin Javier Franco Brooke Dilmetz Su Park Marc Ocampo Ramos CEng, FIChemE, FSEng, RPEQ, CMEngNZ Maryanne Katsidis Jarrod Schutt Jennifer Lim Amy Graham

An invitation to members, families and friends; the Quiz Night fundraising event is on this Saturday evening - 18 April.
Pizza is provided and we have a liquor license. Put 'Raconteurs' as your booking reference.
Please get your tickets now!
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1559818

🌟 Raconteurs Toastmasters meeting on 26/03/2026 was full of energy and fresh formats:
🎤 Warm-up: Led by Jarrod Schutt, members justified whether the Easter Bunny can or can’t make the chocolates this year—using only “fortunately” or “unfortunately.” A fun and creative start to the night!
🎙️ Panel Discussion: “Unseen Perspectives: What Can We Learn?” Moderated by Darrell Klar, panelists shared personal stories and their views on what’s important to them, entirely unrehearsed. Thank you to all our brave panelists for their insight.

Awards of the Night:
🏅 Best Speaker: John Walker
🏅 Best Table Topics: Mylène Rivière & Johnny Rizk
🏅 Best Evaluation: Maryanne Katsidis & Brooke Dilmetz
🏅 Outstanding Performance: Darrell Klar & the Panelists (Maryanne Katsidis, Brooke Dilmetz, Jarrod Schutt, John Walker)

Whether you’re traveling for a vacation or enjoying a staycation this Easter, we wish you a safe and happy holiday! 🐰🍫We can’t wait to see everyone at our next meeting:

📍The Bartley Hotel, Bartley Tce West Lakes Shore
🗓 Thursday 09/04 at 6:45 PM

🎉 Congratulations to our Raconteurs champions! 🎉
Last weekend, our members showcased incredible public speaking skill at the Division (state level) speech contests.

🏆 Darrell Klar: 1st place in the Humorous Speech Contest.
🏆 Darrell Klar: 2nd place in the Evaluation Speech Contest.
🏆 John Walker: 3rd place in the International Speech Contest.

As the winner of the Humorous Speech Contest, Darrell will proudly represent South Australia at the national-level contest in Melbourne in May.

We couldn’t be prouder of Darrell and John for their dedication and outstanding representation of our club and Area C10. Let’s all wish them continued success as they continue their Toastmasters journey.

Thank you to those who came and supported our contestants on the day: Maryanne Katsidis, Brooke Dilmetz, Lorraine Walker, Johnny Rizk, John Geillespie