Hi all you Pania members,
Well, what a panic on a Thursday morning! as most of you will know by now the Council, at its meeting on Wednesday night, decided after viewing a structural report they had commissioned to be done on the Memorial Square building, that the building had to be closed forthwith due to the danger of an Earthquake striking and the building collapsing!!! (with us in it at a meeting).Apparently it was only deemed to be at 12% of the standard required , when the minimum in the interim is 33%. Christchurch has a lot to answer for-or perhaps for us to be thankful for!!!
However, the show must go on and we found a very suitable alternative venue in the Lounge at the Methodist Church. This was chosen as a temporary measure (who knows what may transpire in the future!) due to its proximity to our old meeting place and also that Jan had a key.The Council had offered us an alternative venue in the Library seminar room, but that was a little to far away at short notice.
So thanks to emails and phone calls and Ian & Graeme calling at the Memorial Square rooms to collect our gear (no the roof did not collapse!) the meeting got underway on time with a minimum of inconvenience due to everyone pitching in to assist (as is usual with Toastmasters).
Ian was the Toastmaster and ran the program extremely well, excellent agenda, good comments between items and we finished right on time!! Congratulations Ian (have you done this before?)
We had two Prepared speeches both being the “Your Body Speaks” assignment from the Competent Communicator manual.First up was Darryl with “Plane Sports” (no that is not a typo). Darryl took us through the physical and mental anguish of travelling by plane and how exhausting that can be with luggage to carry,security to survive and long trips requiring ‘comfort stops’.A extremely well thought out and presented speech that certainly had ample opportunity for the use of gestures that were worked to the maximum. Excellent humour as well, not sure who was the most tired at the end, Darryl or the audience! This won Darryl the “Best Speaker Award”.
The speech was well evaluated by Graeme, who was still able to give Darryl some suggestions for improvement and many commendations.
Not to be out done our next speaker was Jen with “Terrorists in Paradise”, sounds ominous does it not! well, it very nearly was for Jen, the ‘terrorists’ were the Anopheles mosquitos who carry Denegue fever and Jen when living in the Maldives with her husband was bitten and went through a tremendous amount of pain and discomfort, which she shared with us to great effect covering a taxi ride home, after a day at work teaching, when the fever was coming on at its worst.The fever can be deadly, but fortunately for Jen and us, she survived to tell an excellent tale, which had the opportunity for great gestures and body movement!
Wendy evaluated Jen’s speech and commended her for excellent Body Language, while giving her a suggestion for improvement. Remember evaluations in the 2nd(or 3rd) person, Wendy,
Table Topics was run by Craig and participants had to give the positives of a Job which they chose from a pile of cards. Mike was a Jockey(!!!) decided that if he was to be a Jockey he would need to ride a Clydsedale. Pip was a Baker, loved playing in the dough and the early mornings starts with the birds and the sunrise.Laurence was a Supreme Court Judge, a word of warning don’t come before the Court if Laurence is in session, if you were not hanged you would probable go down for life!! Then Sheryl was a Street Cleaner, many positives in this job, finding treasures,chatting with the “men of the road” etc etc. Excellent answers to all the questions, which allowed everyone at the meeting to have a say.
Viv gave a very precise timekeeper’s report, and as mentioned kept us right to time, while Jan completed the meeting with a very full and worthwhile General Evaluation (she seems to think that some members of the Club should ALWAYS do their job well!!).
Well that was our first meeting in the ‘new’ venue, and many thought it was a good venue, much quieter that the memorial Square rooms and good acoustics, so we will BE MEETING THERE IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE and you will be kept informed of developments.
See you all next week in THE METHODIST CHURCH LOUNGE, down the driveway at the right of the Church12.10pm Thursday 9th May.
Regards,
Craig
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