"SCOTLAND'S DAY OF DESTINY"

Pania Toastmaster's meeting on Thursday 14th August included two speeches both from the Advanced 'Speaking to Inform' manual, Project Four " A fact Finding Report" and were titled "Scotland's Day of Destiny" by David and "Really Really Stupid Meters" by Laurence.Toastmaster of the day was Barbara and she was a busy lady but ran the meeting extremely efficiently.


David was the first speaker and in his speech was referring to the date in September when Scotland may finally become independent, he displayed good knowledge on the subject which attracted considerable interest from the members present and time was given to a question and answer session which allowed them to clarify aspects they were not sure of. Well done David.
In her evaluation Barbara praised David's outgoing style, his interesting material, natural body language and the answering of the questions. Suggestions included a stronger opening to draw the audience in early on and utilising props to add a little more substance within the body of the speech.

Next up was Laurence who gave members an insight with regard to smart meters.He stated three aspects that we need to be aware of 1.Security-they are accessible to would be hackers adding a risk factor with them being able to manipulate information. 2.Cost-this does increase after the smart meter is installed, due to interference from cellphone towers etc.3. Health-smart meters are harmful, Laurence cited books that tell the real story. Needless to say he did attract a number of questions at the conclusion.In her evaluation, Barbara praised him on having a very informative talk, his clarity on why we should not have them and that the props used were very good. A suggestion was that Laurence could have extended on the time that he had available.

As mentioned our Toastmaster, Barbara, was very busy during the meeting as she was undertaking the 'Introduce the Speaker' assignment from the 'Specialty Speeches Manual', which meant that she was introducing all the speakers, and she actually also evaluated them as well (or though this is not a requirement of the assignment). The fact that ladies can do anything was clearly evident throughout the 50 minute meeting with Brabara's efforts which she carried out in an exemplary manner. The term 'pop up toastmaster' sure came to fruition.

Table Topics were presented by Jen and what a session it was, members were presented with a gift for different reasons and the purpose was to gauge their reactions and see what they said.
Wendy was given hers on her retirement- great start "thank you for the face lift lotion!" and other comments included possible wolf-whistles while walking down the street- Well done!
Noel was taking "6 months leave playing golf" and was grateful for his golf-club covers, thought he might give them to someone while playing 18 holes-great gesture Noel.
Mike was made redundant, opening remark "thank you (original)-am I allowed to open it-well look at that", turned out to be a personal water carrier, Mike used his ever present great imagination to expand on the topic.
Ian was transferring from Hawkes Bay and going to the Auckland Branch, by the time the gift was unwrapped, he had about 15secs left of his 60 secs answer. The Paisley tie said it all! (seems that Ian was overwhelmed at Jen's generosity and was lost for words!).
The Table Topics Evaluator, Barbara, gave an excellent balance of praise and suggestions which left the speakers feeling good.

Darryl gave a very good Timekeeper's report, highlighting how well the meeting was managed.

A very good meeting up to its usual standards, thanks to everyone , particularly Barbara for her tremendous efforts and certainly well achieving the objectives of her Manual assignment (with interest!)

Best Speaker; David /Laurence (unable to be split)
Best Evaluator; Barbara
Best Table Topic; Mike

Thanks Graeme for the report (with a little bit of literary licence) see you all on Thursday 21st August.