"FUN CAR"

Only the one speech at Pania's meeting on 4th December and what a speech it was! members were welcomed by Toastmaster Ian, who ran a very well controlled meeting to good effect. The Speech was presented by Barbara (now we all know what a great speaker Barbara is and this effort was certainly no exception) it was Project 2 from the "Story Telling Manual" specifically "Speaking to Inform.


Barbara introduced the speech  participants- Mary, Maxwell & herself. Mary came into Barbara's life complete with scarf, dark glasses and a Mazda MX5 sports car. Needless to say the sports car did command considerable attention.Barbara saw it as a 'fun car', not all that practical but fun to have. Many years later Mary told Barbara that she had bought another car and asked Barbara if she would be interested in buying the Mazda. Barbara (a very sensible lady) provided Mary with good reasons why it was not possible i.e. too small, she had one Grandson and seven Granddaughters and of course there was the question of money. Several days passed and Mary came back and offered the Mazda at a 'give away' price. Barbara (now a very business like lady) bought the car and drove it home to a garage and section crowded with cars, motor bikes etc. Barbara told her husband, who asked two questions "what model and what cost?" He was very pleased with the answers he received and the upshot was the Barbara and Maxwell(her Grandson) went out and bought and Ice cream to celebrate. A really delightful story with lots of humour and very well told with visual aids used to very good effect.
Mike evaluated Barbara giving her lots of worthwhile praise especially with regard to speech construction, speech rate,enunciation and humour. He did suggest that Barbara remove the dark glasses when it was no longer relevant.

David introduced Table Topics giving participants a 2 minute time frame, Wendy was asked what role she would like in Parliament- Education was the answer and went on to give very good reasons why. Everyone agreed until Wendy suggested raising GST to 20% to cover the extra costs!!
Laurence was asked to retain one thing after getting rid of all his possessions and spoke of keeping his cell phone while trying to make us believe he had made the right decision.
Helen (now a member of our great Club) had written a book called "H.B. for Dummies" and was asked to explain its contents. She spoke of Arts and Craft/Market place and meeting people. Interesting thoughts.
Carol had also written a book called "Husbands & Owners Manual" Excellent response, almost as if she had been prewarned of the topic! Well done.
Ian was given the following phrase "I told the police I shouldn't have done it because" and used his imagination( and we know that he has a lot of that) which cumulated in going back to his school days and trying to play a prank on someone.
Graeme was asked "If you could be any age for a week when would that be?' he chose 90! His reasoning was that when he finally got to be living to that age he wouldn't make the same mistakes as he did the first time!! ( not sure that makes sense?)
Mike had "Flying in a hot air balloon any place in the world where would it be?" and chose Victoria falls ( predictable really) as he spoke of when he lived in that area many years ago. Good effort Mike.

Darryl evaluated Table Topics- a daunting task especially with 7 speakers. He gave a well reasoned response with both praise and suggestions for improvement. People taking part would have learnt from this experience. Thanks Darryl.

General Evaluator Laurence wrapped up the meeting with a very good and inciteful report. I like how he brought certain aspects into a more clearer focus which helped us appreciate his comments all the more, a well balanced report which I really enjoyed. He was assisted by the Timekeeper Helen, and it was clear that our margin to complete everything on time is very small, thanks Helen for stepping in at the last moment. The Grammarian was Carol and the word of the day "ruminate" was used extensively throughout the meeting- a good word to ruminate on!

Best Speaker; Barbara
Best Table Topic; Carol
Best Evaluator; Darryl.

Our final meeting for the year is Thursday 11th December and as we traditionally do for this meeting you are requested to bring along a small gift for the HB Today Christmas Appeal funds, but before it gets there you have the opportunity to talk about it in Table Topics .A prepared Table Topic what more could one want?  This will be followed by some Christmas Cheer and there will be no meeting report logged on the Blogspot!

SO MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND READERS, HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY PERIOD AND HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR IN 2015.

WE WILL BE BACK AS NORMAL ON 22nd JANUARY 2015- SEE YOU THERE!

Thanks Graeme for this report.