Pania Toastmasters met today and what a tremendous meeting it was! 22 people attended including three guests, two excellent speeches,great evaluations and some quick-fire Table Topics all squeezed into 50 minutes of entertainment and enjoyment!
Graeme was the Toastmaster of the day and he led us through a full and exciting programme, the guests included Ian (from Hastings Club) Bonnie, a student at EIT and Ana a neighbour of Helens and a prospective Councillor.
What a thrill it was to to a room full of people and it was great to see Laurel (a Charter Member of almost 32 years ago) back at her Club, that she has always belonged to, but has been away in Auckland for many years. Welcome back Laurel, who is now living in "The Bay".
The meeting opened with an Advanced Speech by Linda from the Interpretive Reading Manual, "Read A Story".Linda chose an article from the latest Toastmaster Magazine about a family of Toastmasters (her title was "Tea & Tales") and put across the story extremely well using vocal variety,empathy, pause and excellent interpretation of the article. Linda utilised a somewhat different pose when holding the book and I believed that this worked well on this occasion allowing her plenty of eye contact, while still keeping her attention on the script.Darryl evaluated the presentation and had many worthwhile commendations for Linda while also able to offer a couple of suggestions for improvement. Well done to both Linda and Darryl.
Next up we had an Ice Breaker, the first speech a new member usually gives, however in this case the member, Noel, has been a Toastmaster for over 25 years, and is recommencing another Competent Communicator Manual. We learnt many new things about Noel that many of us, that had known him for 25 years, did not know and it was a very 'powerful and personal' presentation. Noel spent some time talking about the death of his son in Canada some 6 years ago and the difficulties in overcoming the loss of a family member to suicide and talking about it is one of those remedies that the 'experts' say will assist. Well done Noel in sharing this with us and we do hope that this may be the first of more presentations from you.
Jen evaluted Noel and praised him for his approach and the information he shared with us, it was a very empathetic evaluation by Jen.
Table Topics were quickfire as time was running out, Helen presented a court case where someone had stolen a pig (Patrick), someone spoke as to his good character (Emma), someone gave evidence that he was guilty (Carol-she had many pork meals at Patrick's place) and then the person whose pig was stolen (Ian) proved that it was his pig!(he recognised its squeal!).Well done to all who took part, and sorry for those that missed out-your turn next week! David rapidly evaluated Table Topics,but could not find anyone guilty!
Craig rounded up the meeting with a quick General Evaluation assisted by the Timekeeper ,Wendy and we almost made it on time!
Best Table Topic; Emma
Best Evaluator; Darryl (a family takeover!)
Best Speech; Noel
Finally a BIG CONGRATULATIONS and thanks to Helen for all the excellent work that she has put into the "Five Club Promotion" campaign, I know others may have assisted in a small way, but Helen has really driven this campaign solo and something is working as all Clubs in the Area have had an influx of guests and new members. The campaign is on going, so do your bit and hand out those 'personal invitation cards' and promote your Club or others if the time does not suit.
Pania meets again next Thursday, with another Ice Breaker from a long term member- be there!!
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