That's what we had at Pania's meeting on Thursday 27th November attended by 12 members and two guests, one of whom, an existing Toastmaster from Hastings ,joined! Welcome Helen, you have assisted us many times over the past few months and we are very fortunate to have you as a member, I am certain that neither you or us will regret it.
The meeting was controlled in excellent fashion by the Toastmaster, David, who had a clear, concise picturesque program and kept us to time right through, loved the little clock faces on the program indicating the times!
The program opened with Craig introducing our first speaker Jen. Jen was completing the 2nd assignment in the Advanced Manual 'Special Occasion Speeches' Speaking in Praise entitled "Jacqui". Jacqui, after 16 years with Jen's son Bruce is, on 30th December, to "officially' become her daughter-in-law. From what we heard about Jacqui then any parent would be glad to have her as a daughter-in-law. A wonderful presentation that certainly achieved the objectives of this assignment and then some. Well done Jen, I believe you should repeat this speech at the wedding and it will go along way to dispelling the myths about "mother's-in-law"!!! Great stories, anecdotes and positive things about Jacqui told with sincerity and feeling which shone through clearly.
Craig evaluated Jen's presentation and gave her well deserved praise for the speech, advising that she fully fulfilled the objectives, but also suggesting a couple of areas that he thought she could improve on, such as eye contact with the audience and use of the hands.
Next up was one of the most exciting parts of any Club, an Ice Breaker, presented by our newest member Jeanette. What an Ice Breaker it was, an obviously very capable, extremely well educated and motivated young lady, an Industrial Engineer no less, with two young children, who now take up her planning days fulltime! An extremely well thought out and presented Ice Breaker, in which we learnt a great deal about Jeanette as she told it in an interesting and captivating manner. Congratulations Jeanette, we look forward to further speeches from you, I am sure that from what you have told us you have many great personal experiences to share with us.
Jeanette's evaluator, Mike, started with one word WOW! and rightly so.Mike suggested that Jeanette may have had some experience with public speaking but this did not detract from the quality of her first speech to the Club. A natural and easy to follow presentation, was Mike's summing up with no recommendations!
Wendy ran the Table Topics session and used a word or start of a sentence to get the speaker's rolling. Ian had " A Blue Moon" and spoke eloquently about the irregular occasion these occur.Carol "Santa Claus" (Carol had her young daughter with her so had to be careful what she said) but apparently Santa only brings presents for 'nice' children (people) not naughty children (people) so I have missed out again. Darryl "Aunty Mary", a very good tale about Aunty Mary who moved to a Rest Home and took a brick of her old home with her to remind her of those days- well done Darryl, good, quick thinking on your feet!
Helen "Silent Night", well Helen was not going to talk about Silent Night but told us about Judging a speech Contest at Hastings Intermediate School and how impressed she was with the quality of the speakers.(Table Topics is all about improvisation!)
Graeme, had "Yesterday" (all his troubles seemed so far away-sorry Beattle's fans) but recounted a great time spent at the recent Convention in the Bay of Islands. David concluded with "Rose" (not by any other name) but a person he used to work with who was really switched on to everything but some child leaving a deposit in the corner!!Help David (is that the Beattles again?)
Cheryl evaluated Table Topics, always a difficult task with so many speakers, but was able to commend everyone for their efforts. Perhaps when evaluating we need to steer clear of repeating what speakers said and attempt to find a recommendation or two for them, not always easy but really the essence of evaluation.
Graeme wound up with a helpful General Evaluation assisted by the Timekeeper Noel, Graeme had praise for everyone, particularly the Evaluators and useful recommendations.
Best Speaker; Jeanette
Best Evaluator; Craig
Best Table Topic; Carol
Thanks to all those who attended our 30th celebrations last Tuesday and to those who made it possible, particularly Carol for her organisation and arranging the beautiful Cake (which I am still eating!!) Graeme for his rhyming comments on the members and Jen for Table Topics.
A REMINDER THAT OUR LAST MEETING FOR 2014 IS 11TH DECEMBER, BRING A SMALL GIFT ($5 or less) FOR A CHILD OR ADULT AND BE PREPARED TO TALK ABOUT IT, THEN YOU CAN HAVE SOME XMAS CHEER!!
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