"MEETING WITH A DIFFERENCE!"

Pania's meeting on 11st August was a meeting with a ' difference'.
Two reasons 1. Craig and Jan were unavailable.
                     2. Our programmed speakers were either unwell or had work commitments.
So what happened?? Luckily our Toastmaster was Wendy and she make improvising look easy.
Did you know that all horses had birthdays on the 1st of August? (in the Southern Hemisphere anyway, in the North it's the 1st January) Wendy does and she used that as her theme for the programme, which was up to her usual high standard.
After the general housekeeping, i.e. welcome, apologies, Mission Statement etc we had a general discussion on out forth c coming Table Topics Competition on 15th august. emphasis was made on encouraging our newer members to accept the challenge that this opportunity offered. An excellent question and answer session followed. based on the reaction it seems that we all have something to look forward to on the 15th August- be there to participate and be entertained!

Today's Table Topics were also different, instead of the usual 1 minute time frame this was extended to two minutes (same as the Table Topics Competition) and everyone handled the timing particularly well. Congratulations to Jen on her selection of topics, members were asked to assume the persona of well known identities (ie Kim Dotcom, Ritchie McCaw) and say what happens to them on a typical day. Lots of laughter and plenty of imagination shown by Barbara, Ian, Darryl, Graham and Mike. Darryl evaluated the session and commended those taking part (apart from himself off course!)

Our grammarian was Cheryl, word of the day "loquacious", a very apt word for Toastmasters and not only was it used but also 'practised' with great gusto. Cheryl gave a very comprehensive report later on. The second part of the meeting covered the Humorous Speech Competition to be held on 5th September. This was well received and gave the impression that some of our newer members may give it a go.
general Evaluator Mike Coombe provided good feedback to those taking part, especially Darryl who was evaluating T/Topics for the first time. Thanks for your thoughts Mike. Noel gave a very clear and concise Timekeeper's report.
The Best Table Topics were awarded to Barbara.
Congratulations to Wendy for showing us what experienced Toastmasters can do when there is a meeting with a "difference"!!
Well done everyone.

A special thanks to Graeme for preparing this report and I feel no doubt contributing greatly to the "meeting with a Difference".