Girls Can Do Anything

Apparently that’s right!! and particularly so if you have “The Perfect Shot” at it?

Hi to all Pania members and others reading this email, our meeting today was another great example of what Pania  Toastmaster’s Club does week in and week out, education, entertainment and enjoyment in great “mouthfuls".

Yes an excellent meeting ,well coordinated by Toastmaster Viv and kept to time by our Timekeeper Sue. Viv ran the meeting efficiently with some very good joiners between items including happenings on this day over the years.Martin Luther King was assassinated this day! He had a dream, and today ours came true with the the quality of the two speeches on the program. In view of the sudden change in the weather we had an excellent attendance of 13 members and our guest Graham, back for the third time!

First up was Barbara, introduced an evaluated by Wendy. Barbara was presenting an Advanced Assignment “Bringing History to Life” and gave an extremely interesting and very well presented speech on Napier Girls High School, entitled (you guessed it!) “Girls can do Anything”. 126 years after the opening of the school (on the existing site) when it had 16 pupils and a female Headmistress (unheard of in those days!!) it now has 961 pupils still with a female Principal (PC correct title) and Barbara as the Principal’s Personal Assistant, Barbara has been at the school (working) for 20 years come June this year. Barbara has included Girls High in speeches in the past and they never fail to impress with the interesting aspects of school life and Barbara’s obvious passion for the school. A really worthwhile presentation that fulfilled the objectives of this assignment, agreed to by Evaluator, Wendy, who had a couple of small recommendations for Barbara plus a great deal of well deserved commendations.

Next up, not to be outdone, was President Laurence. He was introduced and evaluated by Craig. Laurence never fails to please in his presentations and this was no exception. Entitled “The Prefect Shot” and, no it was not shooting with anything deadly (well fatal anyway), but shooting with a pool cue in the eightball game. It seems our Laurence has hidden talents , and is a pretty fair pool player, this presentation which was from the CC Manual in the use of gestures to enhance a speech, what a wonderful medium to demonstrate gestures, facial expression etc in a speech and Laurence utilised the opportunity to the full. In the end after some suspenseful moments, Laurence utilised the perfect shot ‘to sink the black’ and win the Championship. Well done Laurence on the win, and on the speech. Craig’s evaluation waxed praise on Laurence’s use of gestures, and the total presentation, but he was able to offer a couple of suggestions that he felt could have enhanced the speech even more.

The General Evaluator, Mike could not split the speakers for the Award so offered it jointly to both, Barbara and Laurence- sitting on the fence-but a very fair decision!

Graeme presented Table Topics, an excellent idea of combining two animals and seeing what you ended up with e.g. a kangaroo and a owl( a flying kangaroo or a hopping owl who carried its young in a pouch!!!) unfortunately time was limited and he did not have the opportunity to fully explain the idea to the speakers, Jan, Cheryl and Noel who valiantly attempted to provide a minutes worth of entertainment, given the subjects selected and succeeded in entertaining,if not necessarily making a great deal of sense!! Jan was awarded the “Best Table Topics” award.

During the business session Viv was awarded her Advanced Communicator Gold award, a tremendous effort from one of the Club’s most prolific speakers and extremely well deserved.As a matter of interest that is about the 5th Advanced Communicator Award that has been achieved in the Club this TM’s year! Well done.

Mike carried out the General Evaluation in his usual efficient manner and was able to add some input into what the Evaluators said about the speeches, worthwhile information for everyone present.

Please note there will not be a meeting on 25th April (Anzac Day) and on the forward programme will be carried forward until the 2nd May.

While there is another week to go we wish Laurence the best of luck in his attempt on 13th April to win the Division D Evaluation contest to be held in Whakatane, if anyone wants details please contact Craig or Jan.

That’s it for another week, enjoy the much needed rain!