"PROLOGUE" to 'THOSE WERE THE DAYS"

On a mild Thursday afternoon 24th July, 11 Pania Toastmasters gathered for their weekly meeting under the guidance of Toastmaster Laurence who had a clear and concise programme and ran the meeting efficiently starting and finishing on time! Highlites were the Bard reading by Mike of Dylan Thomas's poem "Prologue" and a speech by Graeme entitled "Those Were the Days".Not forgetting Table Topics, and one could not sleep through that!!

The meeting opened with Craig introducing Mike, who was doing a 'non-manual' assignment although it could have fitted into the,  Interpretive Reading Manual, Reading Poetry."Prologue" by Dylan Thomas was Mike's choice, and he informed us that Dylan Thomas is a favorite of his although in some of his work it is difficult to work out what his meaning is! However, Mike presented the material extremely well with great vocal variety, enunciation and tremendous ability to not slip up over any of the great many words (and not all of them easy to pronounce ) that Thomas put into this work. Not sure at the end if any of us (including Mike) knew exactly what Thomas was trying to convey, but the use of words and phrases is excellent in this work and Mike achieved a very high standard in sharing them with us. Great work Mike!
In his Evaluation, Craig rightly gave Mike plenty of praise and was able to add a couple of suggestion for improvement.

Next up was Graeme, introduced by Darryl, he was doing  the  Vocal Variety assignment from the Competent Communicator Manual entitled "Those Were The Days!" Graeme used his imagination and took us back to his childhood (not so long ago!) in Bluff and told us about the huge dragons that he found living under Bluff and that had a network of acquaintances up and down the country (rumour has it that they caused the Christchurch earthquakes when they were moving underground!), Graeme used great Vocal Variety (and an extremely vivid imagination) in this presentation and Darryl gave him due credit for this in his evaluation, which was very comprehensive and included three suggestions for improvement (not always easy for a speaker of Graeme's experience). Perhaps Darryl needs to watch the timing of his Evaluations!

Table Topics followed and Carol was 'in charge'.She was a DJ on the Radio and the Table Topic speakers had to comment on the subject of the day "snoring". The first 'expert' up was Dr.Mike, "why,how, when do we snore" he suggested a nose realignment (does not always work) and in the end a bucket of ice cold water! Dr Noel was next up," how to stop snoring" operations are not always successful , drastics measures are often required and at the end of the day just stop them sleeping!
Wendy, was a caller on the line who lives with a chronic snorer, how does she manage, turns out he is a shift worker and when he sleeps during the day the walls move in and out and the ornaments shake like an earthquake- no solution was available but good luck with the future! Next up was Craig, apparently lives with a chronic snorer as well but  being hard of hearing and wearing hearing aids-just takes them out at night and does not have a problem! Who said being partially deaf can be a nuisance!!
Great effort by all the speakers and by Carol with the questions- does she have a problem???

General Evaluator, Wendy then summarised the meeting with good comments for the speakers and especially the Evaluators and all who took part, she was assisted by the Timekeeper, Barbara, who kept us all(mostly) to time and we finished on time anyway!

Best Speaker; Mike
Best Evaluator; Darryl
Best Table Topic; Craig

Again next week we meet, Toastmaster is Carol, turn up and make it a another great meeting.

"A FRIEND IN NEED"

This was the title of a Speech given by Jen at Thursday's Pania meeting attended by nine members and two guests, Division D Governor from Rotorua, Richard  and a past member Jan, it was excellent to see them at our meeting and listening to Jen's speech which was from the Advanced Story Telling Manual "The Moral of the Story".

"PLAIN BARMY"

Nine members and two Guests (Sandra & Keith) attended Pania's meeting on Thursday 10th July and were to learn the secrets of Home Brewing per David's speech entitled "Plain Barmy". Jen, Toastmaster of the day,welcomed us all and particularly the two guests who appeared to enjoy the meeting.

"DISCOVERING IRAN"

This was the title that Noel gave to his speech on Thursday 3rd July at Pania's weekly meeting, and what a fascinating speech it was!Noel has recently returned from s visit to Iran and gave us an insight into what it was like from a tourist point of view.