"THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ANIMAL FARM's GUT and the MIND!"

Another large attendance for Pania' meeting on Thursday 2nd June ensured a lively and enjoyable meeting.An innovative layout gave more room for the speakers to move forward and fully utilised the large meeting room.



As part of the introductions, Darryl recited the Mission Statement from memory and endured the numerous interjections. Toastmaster , Helen soon bought order and maintained it throughout the meeting, keeping to excellent time.

Wendy introduced Mike ,our first speaker, and his presentation of his extract from George Orwell's Animal Farm.Right from the start Mike's gestures and vocal variety had all imagining the farm being taken over by the pigs, who being more equal than other animals took on human characteristics.How do you display a pig walking on two legs complete with snorts? Mike had obviously put significant thought and practice into his gestures and  characterisations , which earned him the best speaker for the day. Congratulations Mike, an really tremendous presentation from the Story Telling Manual.

Barbara's introduction of Linda noted that the objectives called for Linda to choose a topic that would appeal to the audience. After a very catching introduction, Linda had everyone locked into her topic of how the gut is linked to the brain with illustrations that portrayed antibiotics
, stress and red wine and explained how they can effect the gut. She gave a great example of her son's dilemma when the family was in Iran , that we could sympathise with. Linda introduced a number of new terms and explained how they related to the subject. Well presented and extremely interesting Linda.

General Business was short and sweet, but raised the need for more of the members to utilise their Competent Leader Manuals and get meeting assignments evaluated.

Russell hosted Table Topics with the theme of initiatives that could improve the prosperity of Hawkes Bay. Patrick,Carol, Jen, Graeme ,Anna and visiting Toastmaster, Marc all enthusiastically supported each proposal they were given. David positively evaluated the Table Topics session and awarded best Table Topic to Carol.

We then had two very professional evaluations from Wendy and Barbara, who while giving deserved praise to Mike and Linda were still able to provide useful recommendations. Best Evaluator was given to Barbara, for staying in the third person during her evaluation.

Emma gave her first Timekeeper's Report in a very efficient  manner and showed she had quickly mastered stopwatch and lights, and Noel contributed an efficient and worthwhile General Evaluation of the meeting (Ed).

Overall a very entertaining and informative meeting that managed to have a speaking role for all who attended.

We do it all again next week when the Toastmaster is Craig.