"MILK and MISCHIEF"

That was the intriguing title from Jen's Storytelling assignment today at Pania's meeting. This was her second project from the "Let's Get Personal" Manual and what a story!, talk about chaos!!. The story was all about a nine week boat trip from Glasgow to Wellington that she made many years ago with her brother ,Trevor. The activities that they got up to were quite a revelation and the story almost fell into the category of 'believe it or not!'


Jen was introduced by Graeme, who in his evaluation told Jen that she had achieved the objectives of this assignment. He gave praise for her openness and honesty along with the word pictures and humour used.For improvement Graeme suggested less reliance on notes, more eye contact with the audience and to utilise pause between blocks of information. A great speech which everyone really appreciated- Well done Jen!

Toastmaster for the day, Laurence, kept the meeting flowing along very nicely, his programme was clear, concise and correct, that was until he realised that Darryl (the Grammarian) was somehow missing not from the meeting-but from the agenda!! All was well though and Darryl's word was 'literally' which he explained very well along with giving encouragement to try including it into member's speaking opportunities.
Carol gave us a Bard reading, which was both entertaining and enjoyable. It was called "Gruffalo" from a book written by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler. Her presentation excelled for two reasons (1) The speech rate was ideal (nice and slow) and (2) Her charactarisation was quite outstanding. These aspects, especially the first one after her previous speeches, augers well for future speeches. Well done Carol!!

Table topics with Mike had us wondering as to what he might come up with this time- and he did not disappoint- well !! maybe just a little?. This was phase two of a previous fun filled session- yes- more of the same! Laurence had 'Swimming Cook Straight' using the four words luminous,gravel,inventive and snake- good luck Laurence he in fact did very well! 'Sky Diving of Te Mata Peak' was what Graem had to answer utilising cold,passion,itch and window. The answer somehow became 'diving through a plane's window'.When is this man going to speak to the subject? David had 'Fishing of a Wharf at Huriri' and his four words were humble,victory,stab and carrot- he used them all and liked some of them so much he did them again.
Table topics were evaluated by Ian, who provided feedback for all three speakers and awarded the best TT to Laurence.

After being left off the programme, Grammarian Darryl gave an indepth report which showed that he had been listening well. I liked how he drew our attention to some of the wonderful words used in today's meeting- Congratulations Darryl.
Carol gave us the Timekeeper's report, which provided those taking part with enough 'evidence', to hopefully
not take nearly as long next time!!
General Evaluator , David, while restricted by time, still gave helpful advice and encouragement which was appreciated, after all that is how we improve. I liked David's recommendation to Carol, i.e. do not show Bard pictures while reading and trying to make eye contact- future bards note well!!

Best Speaker- Jen
Best Evaluator- Graeme
Best Table Topic- Laurence.

Another great meeting- come along and see for yourself next Thursday.

Thanks again Graeme for this report.