While numbers were slow to build up, with a few latecomers, we ended up with 12 members and a young guest at Pania's meeting today. Hannah, who is Barbara's eldest Grand daughter, said she enjoyed the meeting, as I am sure that the other members that attended did also.
Graeme was our Toastmaster for the day and he handled the meeting with his usual professionalism, covering the several programme changes that were required and getting us through a full meeting to finish at 1.01pm.
After some discussion the first speech was by our newest member, Graham presented his Ice Breaker to the Club and we all now know a little more about the man and his family and his successes in life to date. This is all about what an Ice Breaker presentation is and Graham handled it very well, after a temporary hiccup early on he settled into a relaxed speaking style and imparted some very interesting and informative information about Graham. Congratulations Graham, on your first speech at the Club, we look forward to many more experiences that you have had in your varied life to date.
The second speech was presented by someone at the other end of the experience (Toastmaster's wise) scale and that was Craig. Craig was filling in for a member who was unable to attend and completed an assignment from the Competent Communicator manual 'Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids' Entitled "Changeover" it was about 10th July 1967 (Craig was very, very young then!!) when as a young Bank teller he experienced the changeover from Imperial Pounds ,Shillings and Pence to Dollars & Cents. Craig utilised a chart to explain the way that the conversions were done( 12p into 10cents) and handed around some old bank notes and coins to remind those old enough of that time 46 years ago.
Table Topics were presented by Wendy, she had three topics; Mike was first up and was required to comment on a suitable name for the 'royal' baby. Mike in his usual forthright style chose Algenon Jeremy Forsythe , which he felt becoming for one of young George Albert Louis rank. Mike is a non-royalist and it shows! but everyone to their own!. Viv was the next speaker and her question involved what suitable gift we should give to Baby George, Viv (another non-royalist) spoke vehemently about all the wrongs that the British have caused for New Zealand and felt that the Royals should start a large regular transfer of funds into New Zealand's accounts to in some way compensate for those wrongs!! Cheryl , was the final speaker and after brief comment on the Royal baby, answered her question about the America's Cup. She loves Oracle and would really like to have a ride on it-but surely riding on New Zealand's entry "Emirates Team NZ" would be more appropriate?
Evaluations were carried out by Ian (Graham),Jan (Craig)-and they still went home together!- and Sue for Table Topics. All covered the requirements of their Evaluations and had some useful feedback for the speakers. Let's see as Evaluators if we can remember to keep our Evaluations in the 3rd person. So much better for the audience and the speaker.
The business session was an important one as there were several presentations to make. Craig presented Barbara with the Pania Toastmaster of the Year trophy for 2012/13, and also presented Graeme with his Advanced Leader Bronze certificate. Graeme then presented Sue McM with her Spirit of Success Certificate for completing the first five speeches in the Competent Communicator Manual. Hearty congratulations to the three of you, who have worked hard for your respective honours.
Barbara rounded the meeting off with her general Evaluation assisted by the Timekeeper Darryl. This was an excellent General Evaluation by Barbara, with good comments for all the speakers and some of her own recommendations for improvement.
Overall, another excellent meeting- lets do it all again next week when your Toastmaster will be Wendy- watch out for the programme with a difference!
No comments:
Post a Comment