"MONKEY DUNG and THE GREAT REVEAL!"

What a fantastic meeting, on the 4^th of August, with two stunning, very personal speeches, which were unforgettable!

It kicked off with a great start with warm introductions to the two guests Liz, Patrick’s wife and Allyson. Marc had a great template for the meeting and linked his David Lange quote in beautifully. He also linked comments in between each item particularly Darryl and Patrick’s speeches and kept the meeting moving forward effectively.

Both speeches had a strong moral or message.  For Darryl it was going outside his comfort zone and how this allowed him to enjoy his new found interest in acting and theatre.  This was a very well structured speech.  Darryl used powerful personal stories of always feeling like he had ‘a monkey on his back’ and how he was able to beat his shyness by going to toastmasters and to get involved in drama classes and now a production!

Wendy introduced and evaluated Darryl and told us a bit of ‘tittle tattle’ him preferring his steak medium rare steak and his favourite colour being green.  She commented on the structure of his talk ‘a monkey on my back’, his strong beginning, vocal variety and repeat use of the refrain ‘no way’.  She only had one recommendation and she suggested he use pause more but her overall evaluation of Darryl’s speech was very positive and commended him for sharing such an effective personal story.

For Patrick it was always being able to out perform his own expectations, make the best out of life and know your limitations.  Wow was a message! Patrick had a massive motorbike accident 12 years ago which dramatically affected his legs.  He had to endure months of rehab and countless medical procedures.

 He started very strongly as a ‘homie’ and revealed his legs slowly by pulling up his tracksuit pants.  This was stunning as we were all wondering which exactly of his ‘public parts’ he was going to reveal.  Patrick spoke confidently, fluently and powerfully about his story with his legs and how he’s been able to still achieve and to nail his goals and to push his own expectations.

Kerry introduced and evaluated Patrick and challenged us to think about what we were doing 12 years ago (when Patrick has his accident).  She added at the end ‘I told you it was going to be good’ and commented on his ‘powerful body language’. She gave thoughtful feedback on setting up the stage beforehand and recording himself.This was a 'model' evaluation, which I hope everyone took note of.

Jane controlled table topics effectively with issues and the topics covering obesity through to a capital gains tax for Auckland. Ian won the award for his very funny thoughts about his sugar consumption.

Carol as evaluator was very encouraging commented on the humour which was matched by her laughter.

I am really looking forward to seeing Daryl perform in October, please books some seats please!  This meeting was a real testimony to the power of toastmasters.

And remember to keep pushing out your pitch and open the jaw more, yah, yah, yah!

Best Speaker; Patrick

Best Table Topic; Ian

Best Evaluator; Carol