'THE PAST FOUR WEEKS HAVE BEEN A SUCCESS!

What an excellent attendance , 13 members plus one guest ,Carol, and she was awarded the best Table Topics! well deserved, what a great start!!
The attendance was also worthy of mention, this is Hawkes Bay show week (not known in the past for people coming to enjoy our meetings  before the long weekend) Well done everyone!

The first speaker on the program was Jane presenting "Introduce The Speaker" an assignment from the Speciality Speaker's Manual. Jane introduced a very successful businessman from San Fransisco, now living in New Zealand and renown for giving tourist first class accommodation at economy rate prices,  my kind of guy!
Barbara introduced and evaluated Jane, commending clarity of voice and excellent enunciation, also saying the objectives were well and truly met. Recommendations included more hand movement and eye contact, good advice Barbara.
Second speaker was David, doing his Ice Breaker for the second time in 6 weeks, his first Evaluator expressed disappointment on hearing more about Toastmasters than David himself, David accepted the challenge-Well done! His speech entitled "The Past Four Weeks" covered a family get-together in Wellington, his love of reading-selling books and attending a Winemakers and Brewers Convention in Dunedin, which included buying more books. Thanks David-yes we did get to know you!
Noel introduced and evaluated David complementing him for not using notes, having a pleasant voice and telling us more about himself. Noel recommended David slow down his speech rate a little and perhaps use more pauses. Thank Noel.
general Business covered next week's programme, a new forward programme out and asking for a good response next week as it is the Area Governor, Ian's visit on 31st October (Halloween).

Brenda gave a very good Table Topics session using thoughts from Jen's speech about dementia on 17th October. Russell was asked "How he uses his Spare Time?", obviously Russell is an avid reader and gave a very good response. Wendy promoted going to Santa Monica, California as a place to visit in response to Brenda's question "Where do you like to go and why?" Cheryl was asked "What are your beliefs and why are they important to you?" family comes first was her reply and she spoke of the need to 'connect and support one another'. Mike was asked "How do you respond to new situations and difficulties?" he hides away (they could be scary!), closes the door ,pulls down the blinds in the hope they will go away (he apparently used to have black hair!!). Our guest Carol was asked "What makes you feel; respected and loved?" her children are her inspiration and spoke of them and how much they mean to her.
Well done Brenda and to the five members who were lucky enough to get a question!
Wendy was the General Evaluator and gave a thorough report (as always) giving all those taking part praise and ideas where she felt they could improve. Thanks, Wendy for your meaningful input. Wendy was assisted by Timekeeper Sue McM who demonstrated lots of concentration.
Jen Evaluated Table Topics giving good feedback with commendations and recommendations in her usual insightful manner.

Thanks everyone for explaining your roles so our guest, Carol, would understand everything the was happening.
The meeting finished on time-see you all next week, Toastmaster is Craig.

Thanks again Graeme for this report.