Our meeting on 14th November consisted mainly of the Evaluation Contest and a brief Table Topics Session. We were pleased to welcome three Guests, Carol (back for a second visit) Steve T from Napier and Bay City Clubs, who was a guest Judge and welcome back to Past member Jan who was 'arm twisted' to act as the Chairman for our Contest . Only nine members attended, which is fairly typical for a Contest meeting, but those who did I believe enjoyed the occasion.
During a brief business session, Craig gave us a quick rundown on the Convention in Palmerston North last weekend , which was attended by three current (Craig, Graeme and Laurence) and three past members of the Club (Jan, Viv and Mary) . By all accounts it was a well worthwhile event to attend with a very high standard in the Key Note speakers, organisation and also the Contests. The Table Topics Contest was won by Division 'D' representative John Twaddle from Whakatane with the Topic "We are losing the art of Oral Communication" while the Humorous Contest was won by Dave Young from Christchurch. Our representative in the Humorous Contest was James Kan from Napier Club and he performed extremely well to finish in third place of the nine contestants. Next Convention is in Christchurch next May.
The Evaluation Contest (the winner of which could well be in Christchurch next May) had three Contestants evaluating an excellent Test speech given by Sue McM. The title of the speech was "Absent Friends" and Sue spoke about the dolphins at Marineland and wondered why, when they are kept in captivity overseas, we could not continue to do so here! It was a well presented speech with excellent us of word pictures and gestures, although read, Sue maintained very good eye contact with the audience and imparted information about her personal experience with dolphins both here and in England and factual information about the species. A great speech for the Evaluators to work on and Barbara was chosen by the Judges as being the best, and will now represent the Club at the Area Contest early next year. Congratulations Barbara!
While the Judges deliberated (and it did not take long) we had Table Topics provided by Chairman Jan. David was asked "what he is going to eat on Xmas day"- answer, generally so stuffed with nibbles by lunchtime not room for much else but probably "chicken, spuds and lots of gravy"!
Carol (our guest) was asked "what she was going to eat on Boxing Day" if she survived Xmas day it would be leftovers. Wendy -three days after Xmas-hopefully Crayfish and Snapper which is like having Xmas for a week! Darryl -Xmas Eve- finish work early-wander down to the County Hotel, have a couple of wines and nibbles and then Thai on the way home.
All answered well and made the audience hungry! Well done to Carol on her second attempt at a Table Topic- she seems a natural!
Jan closed the meeting at 1-00 sharp and we will see you all next week , when the programme will be back to 'normal' with Toastmaster Jen.
Spare a thought for our member Brenda, she comes from the area worst hit in the Philippines by the recent storms and has family still there, she is awaiting news on some family members survival. We do all pray that her family members will all be safe, it must be so devastating being so far away and being able to do so little. We can at least donate towards the assistance of these poor people!
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