max brown - club president

I joined Remuera Toastmasters in 2014 to improve my presentation and workshop skills as a business coach.

Now as a retiree I’m no longer pursuing a career - I’ve have time to pursue other passions. I bought a boat a couple of years ago to do some fishing, with limited success, but with friends and family we’ve had some great days on the water.

What I like most about Toastmasters is mentoring other people to grow and to develop the confidence to pursue their ambitions, armed with the skills to communicate clearly and confidently.

Manjula Perera - vice president membership

Maris dunn - vice president public relations

I have always wanted to improve my public speaking ability. I am in awe of people who are natural speakers, so when I discovered that this skill could be learned through Toastmasters, I grabbed the opportunity.

Joining Toastmasters in October 2015 was one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

The Toastmasters landscape offers greater opportunity for self- improvement through developing public speaking abilities and enhancing leadership skills. Not only did I learn about speech skills and techniques, I was also trained to be a leader. The opportunities offered are limitless. I have gained tremendous confidence to stand up in front of an audience. I have been given the opportunity to hone my leadership skills. I have previously held several Club Officers Positions including being Club President. I was also an Area Director this past Toastmaster year.

Professionally, as a Chartered Accountant, it has been a great career boost. The enhanced speaking and leadership abilities gained at Toastmasters have been carried through to work.

My role as the Club President is to provide guidance to ensure that we have a healthy club and the members receive the maximum benefits that the club offers. I lead the club towards earning the Distinguished Club recognition by achieving the goals set at the beginning of the year. I represent the club in the Area and District Councils. Most importantly, I am there to support the club officers and members.

BASHAR BAROUDI - vice president education

I joined the Remuera Toastmasters Club in 2020 and before that I was a member of Orakei Toastmasters in 2017. Joining Toastmasters is one of the best decisions I’ve made. In fact, I’ve found enjoyment meeting and learning more about people

Working in IT, developing the backend solutions, wasn’t the most social time for me. My story started when I was studying for my Master degree, where I have to give presentations for almost every research paper I have completed. That wasn't a fun time for me, and always tried to avoid it whenever I got the chance. Till then, I wanted to focus on a few aspects of my character and things like public speaking, leadership, as well as my general confidence as a person. I feel confident and proud to say that Toastmasters achieved that and much more for me. Toastmasters has helped me reduce unnecessary thoughts and feelings before speaking. It brings me to a level of articulacy so I can speak with conviction and reach the hearts and minds of others.

Not only that, in Toastmasters there are many different roles where you can participate and help other club members. I am always feeling proud to support people along their journey. It's all about the feeling of self satisfaction that one gets by helping someone else in need. If you have not visited a club yet, I challenge you to try it. I am positive you will meet people to help you. They will lift you up and mentor you, to help you grow as a confident communicator and leader.

Peter altmann - Secretary

Toastmaster’s membership has held my interest for several decades. It is that good!! As a corporate marketing executive, prior to retirement, I found the skills learned at Toastmasters benefitted me enormously right through from small company meetings to speaking at international conferences. The practical benefits were the expertise to know how to prepare presentations, the confidence to deliver, the self-belief to be able to talk confidently off the cuff and the satisfaction of being able to effectively coach others. 

Our club is blessed with a wide diversity of ages, professions, ethnicities and life experiences which guarantees interesting, educational, entertaining and thought provoking meetings. A personal contribution I like to make is to provide constructive and supportive evaluations of others so as to help with their development.  I also enjoy the competitiveness of speech contests where the pressure to perform adds an extra stratum to the learning process. 

I spent over 25 years as a volunteer with a family support agency including time as their national chairman and media spokesperson. The skills acquired at Toastmasters contributed to performing these roles with confidence.

My other passions include skiing in NZ and Canada, classic cars, motor racing, travelling around NZ, coffee roasting and reading. My wife Sandra and I have two children and three grandchildren.

As club secretary I prepare the agenda for club officer meetings, take the minutes and other secretarial duties such as correspondence.

alan rowe - Treasurer

I have been a member of Remuera Toastmasters Club since 1 April 2015 and the Club’s Treasurer from 1 July 2016.

I heard about Toastmasters long before social media and the internet while at Uni as part of presentations on personal and professional development and I was intrigued.  However, I was engrossed in study, then careers and professional development followed by business ownership, these all involved personal development and took all my energy and time.  Nevertheless, over the years I had in the back of my mind that Toastmasters was something I should check out.   It was only in early 2015 that I felt able to commit to something new.   I quickly discovered Remuera Toastmasters Club on the internet and that it operated out of the St Marks Church which was just along Remuera Road from my workplace.  I just dropped in on a meeting and was warmly embraced and made to feel most welcome.  I was a guest for several meetings.  The club members and the convivial social environment really appealed to me.  The meeting format proved to be a wonderful challenge which interested and challenged me in new, different ways to what I was used to.   I quickly felt part of a wonderful group of people and a challenging and interesting activity; I still feel that way. 

Basically as Club treasurer I am responsible for keeping timely, accurate and up-to-date financial records of the Club which includes partial responsibility for setting up payment from the Club’s bank account.   However, there are some aspects of the role that I think should be explained in more detail. These days almost all transactions are electronic so there is no handling of cash or cheques; I set up all payments from the Club’s Bank account (such as rent, compensation and other miscellaneous expenses) by internet banking which then have to be authorized by one other executive member.  Another major part of my role is based on membership subscriptions. Membership of both the Club and Toastmasters International is for 6 months (1 April to 30 September and 1 October to 31 March) and the membership fee for both entities has to be paid in either March or September, as the case may be.  For each 6-month period the Treasurer issues an invoice to each members for the relevant amount (which includes a fee to renew (or join) both (a) the Club and (b) Toastmasters International for 6 months) and, when payment is received, a receipt is sent to those who want one.  The Treasurer then has to arrange payment to Toastmasters International to renew each member as a paid-up member of Toastmasters International.