TOUGH LOVE - WITH A DIFFERENCE

After a chilly start our meeting today warmed up as we went along and some excellent Toastmastering was demonstrated! 10 members attended and our Toastmaster Viv had a varied program lined up for us and set the ball rolling with the Mission Of a Club. To warm up, Viv showed excellent body language during her reading of the Mission Statement with plenty of movement and enthusiasm!

Our first speaker was Barbara, introduced by Ian and as we have come to expect from Barbara she did not let us down in her presentation. From  the Advanced Storytelling Manual, the assignment of ‘Let’s get Personnel” was entitled “Tough Love- With a Difference” and it certainly was. Barbara told us about her purchase and raising of three Golden Brown hens called Cherry Blossom,Honey Bee and Sugar Plum  and how they became part of the family with a number of humorous interludes along the way. These included a visit to the neighbours after the hens made their escape early one morning, in her dressing gown and leading them back home along Church Road, rattling their food jar like the Pied Piper.She then gave them a good ‘dressing down’(in her dressing gown!) and grounded them for a week!!!. Apparently it worked as they stayed at home in future.An excellent personal story told with great enthusiasm, gestures and humour.Well done Barbara, as was mentioned an excellent entry for the next Humorous Speech Contest!

Next on the agenda was an Education Session from Graeme. This covered the very important role of Mentoring and reminded us all that for new members particularly, this is a vital role which can really assist the new member to ‘fit into’ the Club. Graeme also reminded members about the use of the Competent Leader Manual and assisting newer members to utilise this valuable tool for promoting Leadership qualities. Graeme was presenting this session as the final part of completing his Advanced Leader-Bronze, which will enable the Club to again be a Distinguished Club this year as it is our Fifth Educational goal and we have the required 20 members. Thanks Graeme for this and all the work you tirelessly complete for Pania Toastmasters.

Table Topics followed a brief business session, during which Jen was presented with her “Spirit of Success” certificate for completing the first five speeches in the Competent Communicator Manual. Congratulations Jen, we eagerly  look forward to the next five! Jan ran the Table Topics session and the topics were themed around what happened on this day in History (or one day either side-as nothing much did happen on this day in history!) Sue was asked ‘what is a paper dress pattern?’ as this was invented by Ebenezer Scrooge(no sorry Butterick) in 1826,Sue actually remembers them!!.  Wendy was asked ‘what advice would you give to Jane Seymour?’ 3rd wife of Henry 8th who he married on this day in 1536, Wendy reply was make the most of your marriage as it probably would not last very long!! (wise words in hindsight). In 1911 the HMS Titanic was launched on 31st May, Cheryl was asked “to tell us about the idea of a 2nd Titanic?”, she gave an excellent answer because apparently some Australian with money to burn(or sink) is actually planning to build and launch a ship bigger,better and hopefully more seaworthy than the Titanic and call it “Titanic 2”.

In 1935 Babe Ruth (American legendary BASEBALL star) played his last game , Graeme was asked to tell us about it. He had heard of Babe Ruth but said he played SOFTBALL (due to an overheard aside from an audience member), (the yanks would be furious), so lets not tell them!

Ian evaluated Barbara’s speech and appropriately commended her for her efforts, his one recommendation was to utilise more time as it was so interesting and entertaining! Jen evaluated Table Topics and gave lots of praise to the speakers for their interesting replies (in most cases), Jen could perhaps find some recommendation to assist the speakers(difficult but not impossible).

Craig completed the General Evaluation assisted capably by Timekeeper Cheryl, the main suggestion for improvement was to utilise the third person when evaluating (not first person) and you are then including the whole audience in your evaluation.

Best evaluator award went to Jen for the humour in her evaluation of Table Topics, best Table Topic’s speaker was Wendy (at least Jane Seymour did not loose her head!) and best speaker was Barbara (and nobody made any paltry remarks or cried foul!)

That’s it for this week, see you all on 6th June, have a great l o n g weekend (for those lucky enough to enjoy!!)