This was the title of Jeanette's speech at Pania's meeting today and it provided the material for an extremely interesting and well presented speech that had a lot of structured argument to persuade us!
Graeme was the Toastmaster for the day and as usual ran a very efficient and entertaining meeting, attended by 13 members, starting on time and finishing a little early. Graeme is to be congratulated on his regular role of stepping into the Toastmaster's duties, at the drop of a hat, where would we be without him?
Jeanette's speech, while a reasonably new member, was assignment 9 from the Competent Communicator Manual "Persuade with Power" and this she achieved extremely well. Starting with the demolition of a building block tower(which had us sitting up and listening) she stated that 'parents are the greatest influence on their children's future' and with sound argument and reasoning went on to convince us that (as most of us probably knew) that women can make as good as (if not better) Engineers as men.Jeanette is off course fully qualified to state this fact and advised that more and more women are taking up Engineering than ever, with the days of 'stereotyped' engineers well and truly past.A quote she utilised "Science, maths and engineering can give you the exhilirating power to become not mere spectators or consumers, but active explorers, makers and doers, who will help invent the future" endorsed her point and she made us aware that over the past 100 years in American history, length of life has increased 40 years, 3 years through medical advancements and a whopping 37 years through engineering expertise! Great work Jeanette and wonderful use of visuals and quotes.
Barbara, introduced and evaluated Jeanette, and gave her many commendations, including the great opening,resources utilised and her rapport with the audience, while recommending that she should have had less reliance on notes in this assignment, and not to apologise and make it obvious that she has lost her place.Great evaluation Barbara, which will be very helpful to Jeanette.
Helen next presented a Bard reading, first explaining what a Bard was then giving a reading entitled "A Soldier-His Prayer" from book of poems put together as the result of a competition run by the 8th Army Battalion, when stationed in Africa, during WW11.It seems this particularly poignant poem came fluttering into a soldier's hands on a scrap of paper in a trench, so the author was unknown.Interestingly enough, the Book belonged to her mother, who was living in London at the time and is personally signed by General "Monty" Montgomery.(and her mother!)
Well read , Helen, and a great selection.
Table Topics, were presented by Wendy, who followed on the Art Deco theme by giving song titles from the 30's and requesting the speakers make something up around these.
David had 'Did you see a dream Walking?'- seems he did through his wife, Margaret's, vision in assisting with the building of a kid's playground in Masterton and the fun his Grandchildren had there recently-worth a visit apparently!
Noel 'They Can't take that away from me', alluded to Jeanette's speech (Noel's also an Engineer-as is his daughter and was his son) and endorsed her sentiments about the increase in women in that profession.-Not sure he spoke to the subject -but it was very well done anyway!
Carol, 'Happy Days are Here Again', Carol always seems happy and spoke fluently of Art Deco weekend and dressing up with her daughters, when we can celebrate with a happiness an era when depression was rife!
Cheryl, 'Over the Rainbow', told us of her experience (with a slight detour to Masterton!) when she saw both ends of the same rainbow- a first for her! great that you got back on the subject!
Linda, 'Tea for Two'. a very interesting tale about about drinking tea in Iraq, when it is not usually for two- but for many and it is black tea sucked through a cube of sugar- held in the mouth!. Tried it when she came back to NZ, but we have the wrong type of sugar cubes!-Great story Linda.
Darryl was general Evaluator and also evaluated Table Topics, gave Wendy praise for the interesting subjects and questions and was able to commend and give a recommendation to all the speakers.In his Evaluation of the rest of the meeting he had time for some in depth comments, which were appropriate and special mention to Jeanette for her novel use of visuals.It can be difficult when you are evaluating but we need to watch the overuse of ahs and ums.
Ian filed in very well as Timekeeper and his report was precise and timely!
Best Speaker; Jeanette
Best Evaluator; Barbara
Best Table Topic (a contest at last!) Linda.
Well done everyone who had a chance to speak-that was all of us (I read the Mission Statement!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment