The Birth of Piara Waters Toastmasters
Yes, you read that correctly, we were originally called Piara Waters Toastmasters because our journey began in Piara Waters at the Piara Waters Pavilion.
We held our demonstration meeting on Wednesday October 9th, 2019 in the Pavilion. There were many members from other clubs and District Officers who gave us great support that night. We had 35 people in attendance and 11 people joined on the night.
For the next 4 months the membership slowly grew until late in February 2020 where we had the last few join to achieve Charter Strength. Our gratitude must go out to the members of our sponsoring club, Canning Vale Toastmasters, who supported and helped us grow in confidence so much in those early days. We were guided through these months by our founding Club Sponsors and Mentors who formed this committee; President – Liam Palmer, Vice President Education/Treasurer – John Palmer, Vice President Membership – Zach Anning and Vice President Public Relations/Secretary – Robyn Richards. Emily Salmon, one of our very first members acted as Sergeant At Arms for this period. We held our first Speech contests in February 2020 and our club was underway.
On March 11th, 2020 Toastmasters International officially Chartered Piara Waters Toastmasters Club number 7519719. We elected our first official committee of; President – Zach Anning, Vice President Education – Michelle Holland, Vice President Membership – Lena Hopkinson, Vice President Public Relations – Anushka Bartholemuesz, Secretary – Michael Lester, Treasurer – Taf Kunyenda and Sergeant At Arms – Emily Salmon.
By the time we had chartered, many members had presented speeches from their Paths and were already becoming confident and competent. So much so, that even with the COVID lockdowns causing us to meet on Zoom, we survived and prospered throughout the first half of 2020. That first 4 months of officially being a club we recognised our first Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), John Palmer. What an amazing beginning to our club!!!
For the Toastmasters year of 2019-2020, August saw us welcome our second Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), John’s Grandson, and at the time, the youngest member in the world to achieve this award, Liam Palmer. We were extremely proud to have been a part of your journey Liam. Our club achieved Distinguished Club Status, District 17 awarded us Club of The Year in Southern Division. We achieved from Toastmasters International the Online Ovation Education Award Silver Award for Online Attendance Accepted between January 1 – June 30, 2020 and four education awards earned in the Distinguished Club Program and the Membership Resiliency Award for Net member gain between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020.
Our Charter Luncheon
We held our Charter Luncheon Celebration at the Gosnells Golf Club on Sunday August 23rd 2020 with 30 people attending and celebrating with us. District Director, Henry Yau presented Club President, Zach Anning with the Club Charter Certificate and the Charter members in attendance, their Charter Certificates.
During the ensuing Toastmasters year we continued to meet each week and had fun as our camaraderie built. We achieved The Smedley Award for adding five new, dual or reinstated members during August and September.
To continue to grow our membership we participated in the 2021 City of Armadale’s Harmony Day at Harrisdale Pavilion and showcased our member’s skills throughout the day.
We were proud to achieve President’s Distinguished Club in June 2021 for the first time. To achieve this award a club must achieve 9 or 10 of the goals set by Toastmasters International, as well as maintain at least 20 members or have a net gain of 3 members. We achieved all 10 goals. This was cause for great celebration and a trend we hope to repeat often.
A Change of Venue and Name
During June of 2022 we had a group of Bollywood Dancers using the adjacent meeting room at the same time as our meeting. This lead to us searching for a new, quieter venue and Carey Baptist College Harrisdale Campus came to our rescue. We held our first meeting there on August 3rd, 2022 for meeting number 126. The classroom in the library became our comfortable new home and we settled in quickly. Just a few weeks later we voted to change our name to Harrisdale Piara Waters Toastmasters Club.
The 2022-2023 Toastmasters year saw us achieve President’s Distinguished Club again with all 10 goals met, as our club continued to grow and prosper. Our hard working club officers devoted their time to building our membership and supporting our new members on their path to confidence. We had many members representing us in speech contests at Area, Division and District level. This was the year we celebrated our first District Champion as Sam Craig was crowned the District 17 Table Topics Champion. Sam also represented us in the Evaluation Contest where she placed second, and she represented us in the International Speech Contest.
During the 2023-2024 Toastmasters Year we achieved the Talk Up Toastmasters Award for adding five new, dual or reinstated members during February and March and again had representatives in the Area, Division and District Contests. Cassie Walraven represented us all the way through Club, Area, Division and the District 17 International Speech Contest. Whilst she didn’t place, she gave an outstanding speech and we are so proud to have her as a member of our club. Robyn Richards also represented us all the way through Club, Area, Division and in the District 17 Evaluation Speech Contest. Again we achieved President’s Distinguished Club with all 10 goals met.