"THE SCUBIOUS PIP"

Thursday 13th November saw another great Pania Toastmaster's meeting supervised by Jen as the Toastmaster and included a Bard and a Prepared Speech together with Table Topics on the programme.


"The Scubious Pip" was the title of Mike's Bard reading, it is one of many poems written by Edward Lear who was born in 1812. Mike gave an excellent introduction to the reading and the poem itself was light hearted and humorous. It contained lots of descriptive language, new words and plenty of rythym. Mike did a great job of pronouncing difficult words but also keeping his reading bright and breezy, he also held the script at a height that allowed him to make good eye contact with the audience. Well done Mike!

Noel, in his speech, gave a visual presentation showing the 1931 Earthquake and subsequent Art Deco rebuilding of Napier. 164 new buildings over a 20 year time span. Noel used his engineering expertise to high light both the uniform building and seismic code used in those days. A very interesting and informative presentation, and what I liked was that Noel expanded on key points only and couched his words in layman terms so everyone could understand. Unfortunately, time did not allow questions which I'm sure would have been forthcoming. Thanks Noel.

Graeme gave both Mike and Noel feedback in his role as General Evaluator with a lot of praise for both of them for what was an enlightening experience.They are both members who maintain our high standards.
Cheryl introduced the word of the day, albeit a little late in the programme, the word 'taradiddle' was used extensively, once its meaning was known which is 'small lie' or 'fib'.

Table Topics with Barbara sure received some interesting answers, Barbara asked participants to respond to newspaper headlines from today's issue.'Buy a bargain for charity' was Jeanette's line and she provided various options available and dare I say it "the only one to tell the truth" (but then again there is nothing to say that you have to tell the truth in Table Topics!ED).'Dark horse slow to reveal himself', Darryl chose intrigue and imagination to answer the question ,good effort.
'Grass roots granted wish' guest from Hastings, Helen, admitted to not knowing, told an almost believable answer with flare! 'Stress levels jump as exams begin', Laurence showed a preference to string us along with plenty of humour.
Barbara told each speaker what the Titles really related to which resulted in a very good session enjoyed by all.
David provided feedback for all those taking part, he highlighted Jeanette's thoughtfulness and then gave best Table Topics to Laurence.
Cheryl gave us an overview of her Grammarian's role and showed she had been listening.
Carol told us how long we took in her Timekeeper's report.
Toastmaaster, Jen, did well to keep the meeting within the allotted time frame and set a very good example in her role, she made an appropriate comment about people arriving late and having some disruption to the meeting.
There was an excellent attendance today and thanks go to everyone for making the effort. A special thanks to Helen for visiting us again.

Best Speaker; Noel
Best Evaluator; David
Best Table Topics ; Laurence.

DON'T FORGET THE 30th CELEBRATIONS AT THE NAPIER RSA 25th November

Thanks to Graeme for this week's report.
Sorry, but no report last week- no one who was there would volunteer.