Pania Toastmasters held their final meeting of the year today and as usual members were encouraged (and everyone did) bring a gift for the HB Today Christmas Appeal, which they had to speak about as their Table Topic.
Club No 1996
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
"SHAKE, RATTLE & SNAP- OUCH THAT HURTS!!"
Our penultimate meeting of the year today Thursday 7th December and what a beauty it was, well conducted by Mother Christmas herself, Carol, resplendent in hat, backed by music and full of the joys of this time of the year!!
Sunday, 3 December 2017
"TEACHING AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS- How To Ski!!"
Meeting 23rd November:
Numbers have dwindled as the festive season draws
closer, but meetings remain as lively and informative as always. Carol, our
Toastmaster of the day, created a colourful salute to summer on the meeting
programme, which was accompanied by her warm, enthusiastic welcome.
Thursday, 30 November 2017
"TED TALKS"
The meeting of 30 November was well attended and explored new
territory.
Toastmaster Jen had a very clear agenda circulated and by the
time the GE arrived had the mission statement being read by Graeme. It was then
straight into General Business which Craig smoothly used to complete the taking
of apologies: good teamwork!
Tuesday, 14 November 2017
"P's & Queues!"
Pania Toastmaster Club Meeting
Thursday 9 November 2017
Panias programme was presented
by Mike who presided with panache over a poorly patronised meeting.
The Mission Statement was
played out by Sandy.
Patrick pointed out Laurel's
purposes portraying her performance of “in Pursuit of the Perfect Partner” using
many “P’s” as possible. They were indeed plentiful.
Anna purred with ‘preciation
about previous person Laurel's patter before putting Graeme on a pedestal so that
he could poke fun and puns using plays on voice in “What colour do you want?”.
Picking on your partner is a dangerous pastime Graeme.
Perceptive evaluations followed
by Patrick and Anna of Laurel and Graeme's performances. They praised positives
and perused problem parts.
Linda took the podium for Table
Topics themed Social Issues. What we got was politics, personalities and
problems from perenial procrastinators, Graeme, Jen, Sandy, Laurel and ...
Patrick! Although like peas in a pod to me evaluator Noel pondered and the pick
of the platoon was Oral Laurel.
General Business followed with
Craig for predictable pronouncements and publicity concerning future periods
projected programmes. Pensioner David appraised the past hour with a patently
general evaluation in partnership with Timekeeper Craig.
Best Speaker and Table Topic
Laurel, Best Evaluator Patrick
Ponody’s Perfect!
"DON'T FORGET YOUR GREENS!"
‘Don’t forget
to eat your greens’ Thursday, November 2nd
2017
·
Toastmaster -
Laurel gave us some facts about what Halloween really means - mischief night,
not at all about just giving out sweets to greedy kids. She was very
professional and ran a tight ship.
·
Speeches – Helen
spoke on the ‘Merits of Silver beet’. She has it grown wildly in profusion near
her home and she produced some very long plants. She spoke of her enthusiasm
for it and the health-giving benefits of silver beet and how she tucks into it
for breakfast!
The second speaker
was Patrick and he spoke about his recent triathlon, his first time and about
body waste or ‘unwanted products’. I commended him for cleverly weaving in a
sensitive subject in a humorous way, which engendered chuckles especially at the
end.
·
Mike won
best evaluator for his thoughtful evaluation of Patrick and for using his
warm, resonant voice in such an effective way.
·
Barbara did a great job of evaluating Russell’s
transport orientated table topics, giving specific feedback as well as
being positive and upbeat with her recommendations.
·
Feedback –
a great use of pause throughout the meeting, our aim of reducing the use of
‘ums’ still needs focus. Using more vocal energy will result in a
greater overall pitch range and smiling more allows for a more modulated and
resonant voice. Laurel rounded the meeting off expertly with time to spare.
Don't forget to eat your greens!!
Monday, 30 October 2017
"COWS WIN AN AWARD!"
Today’s meeting started off
lively with Anna as the meeting Toastmaster. She welcomed everyone, including
Peter, our guest, and put us all in a mood anticipating a fun meeting. Anna used
her flamboyant manner to have everyone begin with a voice warm up session, much
to the member’s amusement as it was quite different from the usual opening
style.
Carol introduced Darryl, and
gave us the objectives of his speech from the Special Occasion manual,
“Presenting an Award”. We found out that Darryl’s goal is to visit every light
house within New Zealand. Darryl in true style, eloquently presented his speech
as to why the recipient should be given the award winning cup, and rounded his
speech off wonderfully by presenting the cup to the unexpected recipient, a cow.
Carol evaluated Darryl’s speech very thoroughly but her fast and vigorous manner
led the General Evaluator to offer more than one recommendation.
Graeme created a very
thought provoking Table Topic session by asking a particular participant to call
a number as they came out to the front. He then asked the participant to take
the role of a particular minister of the newly formed government, and to explain
the plans for the future. The timeframe given was two minutes to lay out a
strategy.
Mike called number 6 so
Graeme informed him that he was the new Minister of Police and how was he going
to handle this position. Mike gave a robust, but, as Helen as evaluator pointed
out, at times disarranged rendition of what he would have the police doing to
clean up the law breaking. His speech surprised with the idea that the poor
police officers would all be riding about on tandem bikes. Mike was very
descriptive and he finished off by saying the days of crime were to
end.
Craig called number 2 and
Graeme said he was the new Minister for the Pike River re-entry. Craig became
quite excited about his new responsibilities and told us how he would have the
back of those who would volunteer to go into the mine but he would not be
following them into the mine, just waiting at the entrance. Evaluator Helen
suggested that Craig’s exaggerated hand gestures were to distract the audience
from the fact that he did not wish to go into the mine himself.
Laurel called number 1 and
gained the title of Finance Minister. She became very serious with an amazing
amount of information. Helen commended her for this information but recommended
Laurel use more voice fluctuation.
As the second speaker, Jen
presented an educational about how to begin a speech, gave an example, and asked
questions of the audience. One such question was whether the opening example she
used would have taken up more than 10% of a 5 to 7 minute speech. Also, Jen put
a strong emphasis on the opening being used to grab the listener’s attention. As
the speech was an educational, it was not evaluated.
Grammarian David gave the
word of the day as ‘reciprocate’ along with the meanings. He also looked for the use
of pauses as opposed to ‘ums’. Both David’s introduction of the requirements and
his summary was short and sharp, much to Anna’s delight - as it fit into her
fun, short and sharp meeting.
Peter, today's guest, came
out front and told us how he had enjoyed the meeting.
Awards were presented and
Jane as today’s time keeper gave a well presented outline of the participants
speaking times while the General Evaluator Sandy, summed up the meeting with comments for the Evaluators to think about!
The meeting ended on time
with Anna thanking us all for coming along.
Best Speaker:
Darryl
Best Evaluator:
Carol
Best Table Topic:
Craig
Next meeting will be
November
2nd.,Toastmaster Laurel.
Sent from my iPad
On 26/10/2017, at 5:08 PM, Craig & Jan <craig-jan.r@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
Thursday, 19 October 2017
"OLD FRIENDS ARE LIKE DIAMONDS- PRECIOUS & RARE!"
Is your Inner Child in need of therapy?!
Our fabulous Pania Toastmasters meeting opened on time and
was well set up by our master at arms Graeme with Linda as our competent
Toastmaster of the day. Linda’s theme throughout the meeting was spring and she
used this very effectively – even talking about spring cleaning! It was great to be joined by four guests, Gavin(ex- Pania member);Chris (ex- Napier member); Christine (Area Director) and another guest who is keen to join.
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
"WIN-WIN WITH GAUDI!"
The Win-Win GaudÃ
Negotiations
We look back at yet again a
wonderful and enjoyable Pania Toastmasters meeting on Thursday 12th October. Darryl welcomed us all right on
time and with his fabulous sense of humour, in a well prepared setting.The expectations of the
audience were raised because of two longer speeches and we were not disappointed!.
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
"GRUMPY GRAND PARENT MEETS WONDER WOMAN"
Pania ToastMaster 5th October Meeting
Patrick started the meeting on time with not a hair on his head flustered when a mobile phone rang from within the audience, it was as if it never happened, perhaps I only dream't there was a phone ringing... Um, ah maybe I did, maybe, um I didn't... Patrick was ably supported by Jen who, as grammarian for the meeting, informed everyone that she would be counting the um's and ah's that people would use during the meeting. I hope you are feeling at home reading this report Jen; ah, a busy person's work is never done.
Patrick started the meeting on time with not a hair on his head flustered when a mobile phone rang from within the audience, it was as if it never happened, perhaps I only dream't there was a phone ringing... Um, ah maybe I did, maybe, um I didn't... Patrick was ably supported by Jen who, as grammarian for the meeting, informed everyone that she would be counting the um's and ah's that people would use during the meeting. I hope you are feeling at home reading this report Jen; ah, a busy person's work is never done.
Friday, 29 September 2017
"THE FEAR OF GOING BUSH IN A RED DRESS!"
Special 2-hour meeting – 28
September 2017
It’s not often Pania
Toastmasters has the opportunity and luxury of a 2-hour meeting, so four
speakers took full advantage of the extra time today.
Being a lunch-time club with
mostly employed and busy members it’s hard to fit in more than two 7-minute
speeches in our fifty-minute time frame. Each additional speech means
sacrificing other equally important components of a meeting. We hope to provide
this opportunity at least twice a year. Not everyone was able to stay for the
extra time – hopefully by planning in advance everyone will be able to stay for
the whole meeting.
Craig, our Toastmaster
demonstrated excellent chairmanship and smoothly slipped in several programme
changes to accommodate last minute arrivals without impacting the time
scheduling. Slick chairmanship Craig!
After opening with an
enthusiastic welcome and correctly following procedure for the taking of
apologies, Craig moved on smoothly by introducing and asking Jen to present her
Educational speech titled ‘Controlling your fear’.
Jen spoke from personal
experience as she described the brain numbing, body incapacitating phenomena
that seem to appear in times of threat – especially when asked to speak in
public! Her demonstrations of these manifestations were like watching the
exorcist all over again! Great acting Jen!!(Or maybe it was real??) She then
continued to offer us very practical tips to help us when we feel that fear.
These included sniffing something – no not what you were thinking! A gentle
aroma in a tube that can be sniffed to calm the nerves, or a spray in the room
to create a soothing ambience. Thankyou Jen for an action packed, yet practical
educational presentation, sprinkled with humour in the usual Jen
way.
Noel then introduced Sandy who
mentally took us into the bush with her speech # 4 – Your Body Speaks. Sandy
began with a brief role play of her brother humorously checking whether she had
correctly chosen what to put in her backpack. She then began to describe her
‘Going Bush’ trip using vivid visual and physical language. Every one there was
on that trip with her, especially when Sandy was trying to escape the severe
storm - we were all running with her! Very effective body language
Sandy!
She was ably evaluated by Noel
who stated that recommendations were difficult to find with Sandy’s standard
being so high. He did raise a possible difference in interpretation of what
‘Going Bush’ meant to Kiwis but we’ll let that debate simmer in our
minds.
Next on the agenda was an
advanced speech from Russell ‘Conquering the Cold Call’. Not an easy assignment
as this topic is the stuff of nightmares for many - cold callers and those being
cold-called alike.
Darryl expertly introduced
Russell by reading the introduction for this project speech directly from the
manual. This helped us to understand Russell’s specific challenge.
Russell explained there were
three parts to his presentation – an explanation of cold calling, a role-play to
demonstrate how cold calling can work and lastly wrapping up. After smoothly
covering the explanation, Russell invited Graeme to play the part of his
prospect in the role play. Quickly going into role, Graeme adopted a suspicious,
closed body language pose and made Russell work hard. With Russell’s quieter and
softer approach, he eventually broke through Graeme’s defences and achieved an
agreement to receive more information. Given that Russell’s product was a
Defibrillator, this was never going to be easy! Russell then followed by
including some statistics and reiterating the steps to a successful cold call.
It’s really good to hear the advanced manuals being used as they certainly
expand our knowledge and issue a real challenge – well done Russell (and
Graeme!)
Darryl gave an excellent
evaluation of Russell’s speech by reiterating the objectives, commending
Russell’s response to an unrehearsed role play (that’s really thinking on your
feet!) and the statistical detail. Darryl recommended that Russell sell a bit
harder by using a stronger use of questions as recommended in the manual – he
backed up his comment by giving an example of such as question. He finished by
nicely rounding off.
Our last speaker was a
motivational speech by Anna, introduced and evaluated by Graeme. Graeme
introduced Anna by clearly stating the objectives of Anna’s speech, followed by
a brief personal background, followed by the title ‘Red Dress Thinking’.
Anna explained that in her role
as a coach and mentor she often comes across barriers that individuals place in
their own way. Speaking from personal experience Anna explained how our
experiences can create ‘triggers’ that cause us to choose certain behavioural
choices that may not be resourceful. She drew an ‘H’ shaped model on the
whiteboard and after acknowledging her sources she explained how we should try
to raise our thinking above the bar to be more resourceful and helpful for
ourselves. She then gave multiple examples including how she felt and thought
dressed in a cardigan as opposed to a special red dress which enabled her to
feel very special and empowered. She also spoke about stretching and extending
our thinking to achieve change. This was a 15 to 20 minute presentation so
congratulations to Anna for sustaining her energy and enthusiasm for that
long.
Graeme began his evaluation by
asking us to confirm whether Anna’s three objectives had been met and whether
she had achieved her call to action. The answer was ‘Yes’! He followed with
three recommendations for Anna to be firstly more explicit when introducing
unfamiliar terminology, suggesting that a deeper explanation may be needed.
Secondly to secure permission to use a model before doing the presentation not
during, and lastly to give more clarification around the concept of ‘red dress’
thinking by introducing the concept earlier.
Mike was in charge of Table
Topics today and as was expected, had prepared excellent questions based on
current affairs. He gave clear, specific instructions and expected exciting,
dynamic answers, which were delivered. Not everyone’s ideal subject so well-done
Mike for pushing boundaries!
Barbara sincerely gave her
balanced opinion of the American National Anthem vs NFL players and teams
debate.
Linda was energised by her
topic around head injuries in sport and whether more dangerous parts of contact
sports should be removed.
Graeme was very firm,
passionate, even adamant in his condemnation of the debacle between Donald Trump
and North Korean penchant for playing with missiles. Patrick supported MMP
elections as he has grown up with them and it works in
Holland!
Four excellent, impassioned
responses!
Jane evaluated the Table Topics
and demonstrated her listening skills by reiterating the content of each topic
and commending each speaker. As General Evaluator, I suggested that Jane gives
one recommendation to each speaker if possible as this is the way we
learn.
Patrick slickly told us that we
were a little over time in the first half of our meeting but pulled it back in
to be on-time for the second half.
Congratulations everyone for a
great meeting! There was an apparent energy in this meeting that was good to see
and feel.
As General Evaluator, I found
the meeting much more of a challenge – just shows how soft we get with a short
meeting, or maybe it’s just me getting soft!
Evaluator of the
Day – jointly awarded to Darryl and
Graeme
Table Topic of the
Day – a highly impassioned
Graeme!
Best Speaker of the
Day – Sandy
Great meeting and
congratulations to everyone on achieving such a high
standard!
Laurel – General
Evaluator
Monday, 25 September 2017
"FORGOTTEN SOMETHING? WORLD ALZHEIMER'S DAY!"
Jane was our Toastmaster on the day and she did her best to keep the meeting
in order by hoovering left of stage when the speakers time was drawing to a
close. The extra 5 mins at the beginning was useful as the meeting was kept to
time.
Marc was our first speaker and he took the opportunity to inform us that it
was World Alzheimer's day. He spoke of his personal experience especially with
his mother, Celiy. His speech was a call to action for those who may observe one
of the 10 warning signs he showed us in ourselves or someone close to us that we
should have it investigated further. Marc took out speaker of the day.
Our second speaker, Helen, gave us a report about how the open five Hawkes
Bay club's demonstration meetings went. There were 17 visitors across both meetings and we will
be expecting a visitor to Pania in the near future.
Craig did a stellar job of introducing and evaluating Marc's speech and he
took out evaluator of the day.
Anna introduced and evaluated Helen in fine style with vocal variety and
enthusiasm.
Darryl ran the Table topics session and he did a fabulous job picking the
appropriate members to have a go at his topics which required an opinion to be
expressed. Unfortunately the table topics were cut back to one minute again for
this meeting. Sandy was nominated as having the Best Table Topic.
Stephanie did a fine job of evaluating table topics however I did suggest
that she remember to evaluate the delivery and not just the content.
Our timekeeper Mike did a good job although self evaluated his missing of
the lights for Marc. He was obviously engrossed in the topic when he assisted the General Evaluator, Kerry, who summed the meeting up very well and had good comments for the Evaluators to follow up on..
My recommendation to the members at the end of the meeting is that we could
have a focus on fillers, the ums, ahs, so's and if you are Bill English the ah
well's.
Kerry
Sunday, 17 September 2017
"AREA TABLE TOPICS & HUMOROUS CONTESTS"
Friday 15th September Area D2 (the five Clubs in the Hawkes Bay) held their
Council meeting, Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests at Greenmeadows
Community Hall. Approx 30 Toastmasters attended and I believe enjoyed a
entertaining and enthusiastic evening.
Following a brief Council meeting ably run by the Area Director, Christine,
during which the Club Presidents gave brief reports on their Club’s activities
recently.From those reports it seems that generally Clubs in the Area are doing
well and if not currently at Charter strength(20 members) are positive about
achieving that status over the next 12 months. Three Clubs are currently sitting
comfortably over Charter strength.
'WHY CUBA"
A fabulous sunny day and a meeting to match !!
Kerry was our Toastmaster , she had mailed us all the previous night to say
how much she was looking forward to seeing us , so the metaphoric welcome mat
had already been rolled out .
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
'WEDDINGS, FALLS & FUNERALS!"
"Weddings, Falls and Funerals".
Yet another very interesting and entertaining Pania meeting. The wedding theme was set by Toastmaster Helen, as it was her 21st wedding anniversary. The theme was maintained by Graeme with his wedding related Table Topics. 1) Why do women have a shower and men don’t? 2) Why doesn’t the bride marry the best man? 3) The term Maid of Honour is misleading. Answered by Marc, Carol and Craig repectively.
Saturday, 2 September 2017
"Victim or Aggressor?"
What an amazing presentation we had from Jen our main speaker today! She was
giving a 5-7 minute impromptu talk and was required to give five speech titles
to her evaluator. Barbara (her evaluator) selected one of them and so began a
speech called "Victim or Aggressor".
Read more.
Read more.
Sunday, 27 August 2017
"INSPIRING INFORMATION"
Meeting for the 17th of August: Inspiring
Information
Toastmaster Graeme kicked if off this very informative meeting with a warm friendly,
humorous introduction.
Laurel was the grammarian and chose
‘onomatopoeia’ as word of the day and gave a couple of examples including
‘belch’ and mentioned how such words have ‘fabulous energy, are vital and
how they enrich the language’.
Thursday, 24 August 2017
"OH! WHAT A NIGHT!"
On Thursday 24th August Pania Toastmasters Club held its Table Topics & Humorous Speech Contests at St Andrews Hall, Atawhai Lifestyle Village and what a night it was!!
Traditionally the Club has run its Contests during the 'normal' lunchtime meeting slot, but this year President Marc suggested that we 'make a night of it', and so we did!! Several members from other Clubs attended (apparently to "check out the talent" in the Humorous Speech Contest) and they would not have been disappointed. The club members were also very well represented and with a little bit of wine, some nibbles and a lovely supper it was a very successful evening.
Traditionally the Club has run its Contests during the 'normal' lunchtime meeting slot, but this year President Marc suggested that we 'make a night of it', and so we did!! Several members from other Clubs attended (apparently to "check out the talent" in the Humorous Speech Contest) and they would not have been disappointed. The club members were also very well represented and with a little bit of wine, some nibbles and a lovely supper it was a very successful evening.
Wednesday, 9 August 2017
"A MAN'S BEST FRIEND!"
GENERAL EVALUATION FOR 10 AUGUST 2017
The TOASTMASTER, Craig (The Birthday Boy) presented us with a very well-presented Agenda.
The Programme commenced and closed punctually. The Programme was competently and pleasantly conducted by Craig who kept to the time allocations. Many thanks for the lovely birthday cake, enjoyed by all.
The TOASTMASTER, Craig (The Birthday Boy) presented us with a very well-presented Agenda.
The Programme commenced and closed punctually. The Programme was competently and pleasantly conducted by Craig who kept to the time allocations. Many thanks for the lovely birthday cake, enjoyed by all.
Monday, 7 August 2017
"OP SHOP KNICKERS!"
A
great meeting held today (Thursday 3 August) at Toastmasters. The meeting was
ably chaired by Russell , who opened the meeting with a warm welcome,
introduced our two guests, accepted apologies and read the Mission
Statement.
Friday, 28 July 2017
"FAILURE TO VOTE IS NOT AN OPTION!"
Are
you ‘Ready for an Emergency’, can opener too?
At Toastmaster meetings there are more roles on the agenda
than just speaking.
In fact there is more to
Toastmaster club meetings than just listening to a member speak.
Toastmasters is where many life benefits are learnt, for
example, improving confidence, learning to listen and reply effectively. All
these areas can be most useful in all parts of a member’s life and in particular
in the workplace.
Wednesday, 19 July 2017
"THREE LITTLE WORDS for DOCTOR, DOCTOR!"
An excellent Pania Toastmaster's meeting held today under the auspicious of Sandy as Toastmaster for the first time, Sandy utilised weather as a theme and ran the meeting exceptionally well and right to time!
We opened with the usual Club Mission Statement, read by Anna and then went right into the first speech introduced by David. The speaker was Barbara (and it was great to have Barbara back in the fold after a few months away). Barbara was doing an assignment from an Advanced Manual 'Speaking To Inform' specifically 'Resources For Informing' and it was entitled "Three Little Words".
These words were "Wellbeing, Mindfulness and Resilience" and Barbara wound these into a excellent presentation giving us several meanings of putting these words into practical situations to make a better life for every one. She also mentioned a seminar she attended where Dr Lucy Hone a Physcologist who has written a book "What Abbey Taught Us" and has experienced first hand one of life's major traumas in loosing a child in a motor accident.A very competent presentation and some excellent material for all those present to consider. Well done Barbara, you have not lost any of your speaking skills!
David Evaluated Barbara's speech and gave her due praise for the material and the presentation style but felt that perhaps she needed some more time to link the various parts of the speech together.
Next up Marc introduced Carol , who was again speaking from an Advanced Manual Assignment, 'Interpersonal Communication' specifically 'Diffusing Criticism'.This is not a Manual we often hear speeches from and Carol did an excellent job in the limited time available with a three part presentation.entitled "Doctor, Doctor"(no not the TV programme) but a situation where she utilised Helen as a patient and had some explaining to do to satisfy her difficult client. Carol gave us some excellent visuals like a quote from Frank A Clark "Criticism like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a person's growth without destroying their roots" and five things to remember "Listen,Acknowledge,Question,Paraphrase and Agree with truth" when dealing with criticism. Again a very worthwhile subject, which like Barbara's speech we can all learn and grow from the material presented. Excellent effort Carol.
Marc gave a very polished and effective evaluation for Carol and something we we could all learn from. he had many worthwhile commendations and also three suggestions for Carol, which he felt could have improved the presentation, which unfortunately suffered from a lack of time available.
Russel provided four well thought out local issues to discuss for Table Topics and those selected Noel, Anna, Patrick and Ian answered their respective topics well. Helen gave them all praise for their presentations in her Evaluation of Table Topics plus had an outstanding item from each of them which impressed her, she also gave us a short educational from the latest TM Magazine if you get stuck with a Table Topic, well done.
Craig wound up the meeting with his General Evaluation assisted by the Timekeeper Graeme, who seemed to enjoy utilising the bell today!! but at least kept us right to time.
During the business session, Craig presented the Pania Toastmaster of the Year Trophy to Helen (the 2nd year in a row for Helen) and extremely well deserved for her.
Helen has, in addition to being the Club President, always been willing to assist other members and has almost single handed continued to push the "Five Club Promotion' assisting all Clubs in the Hawkes Bay. A big CONGRATULATIONS to Helen.Next year it could be you.
Best Speaker ; Barbara
Best Evaluator; Marc
Best Table Topic; Ian
We opened with the usual Club Mission Statement, read by Anna and then went right into the first speech introduced by David. The speaker was Barbara (and it was great to have Barbara back in the fold after a few months away). Barbara was doing an assignment from an Advanced Manual 'Speaking To Inform' specifically 'Resources For Informing' and it was entitled "Three Little Words".
These words were "Wellbeing, Mindfulness and Resilience" and Barbara wound these into a excellent presentation giving us several meanings of putting these words into practical situations to make a better life for every one. She also mentioned a seminar she attended where Dr Lucy Hone a Physcologist who has written a book "What Abbey Taught Us" and has experienced first hand one of life's major traumas in loosing a child in a motor accident.A very competent presentation and some excellent material for all those present to consider. Well done Barbara, you have not lost any of your speaking skills!
David Evaluated Barbara's speech and gave her due praise for the material and the presentation style but felt that perhaps she needed some more time to link the various parts of the speech together.
Next up Marc introduced Carol , who was again speaking from an Advanced Manual Assignment, 'Interpersonal Communication' specifically 'Diffusing Criticism'.This is not a Manual we often hear speeches from and Carol did an excellent job in the limited time available with a three part presentation.entitled "Doctor, Doctor"(no not the TV programme) but a situation where she utilised Helen as a patient and had some explaining to do to satisfy her difficult client. Carol gave us some excellent visuals like a quote from Frank A Clark "Criticism like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a person's growth without destroying their roots" and five things to remember "Listen,Acknowledge,Question,Paraphrase and Agree with truth" when dealing with criticism. Again a very worthwhile subject, which like Barbara's speech we can all learn and grow from the material presented. Excellent effort Carol.
Marc gave a very polished and effective evaluation for Carol and something we we could all learn from. he had many worthwhile commendations and also three suggestions for Carol, which he felt could have improved the presentation, which unfortunately suffered from a lack of time available.
Russel provided four well thought out local issues to discuss for Table Topics and those selected Noel, Anna, Patrick and Ian answered their respective topics well. Helen gave them all praise for their presentations in her Evaluation of Table Topics plus had an outstanding item from each of them which impressed her, she also gave us a short educational from the latest TM Magazine if you get stuck with a Table Topic, well done.
Craig wound up the meeting with his General Evaluation assisted by the Timekeeper Graeme, who seemed to enjoy utilising the bell today!! but at least kept us right to time.
During the business session, Craig presented the Pania Toastmaster of the Year Trophy to Helen (the 2nd year in a row for Helen) and extremely well deserved for her.
Helen has, in addition to being the Club President, always been willing to assist other members and has almost single handed continued to push the "Five Club Promotion' assisting all Clubs in the Hawkes Bay. A big CONGRATULATIONS to Helen.Next year it could be you.
Best Speaker ; Barbara
Best Evaluator; Marc
Best Table Topic; Ian
Saturday, 15 July 2017
'MEMORIES!"
Pania Toastmaster Club Meeting Report 13th July
2017-07-14
Although heavy rain, the cold and the threat of snow rained
on Laurel’s parade preventing her attending to deliver her speech as Speaker 1
the meeting began a minute ahead of schedule and was a fulsome, vibrant and
entertaining meeting.
Thursday, 6 July 2017
"DOLLARS & DEALS!"
Did you know that in a few days (10th July) will be the 50th anniversary of New Zealand
adopting decimal currency? This was the theme of this week's meeting at Pania
Toastmasters. And what a great meeting it was, with a lot of facts about the
event and the changes in currency that has followed.
Saturday, 1 July 2017
"TERRIFIC TOASTMASTER'S TOOLS & COOKING MAGNETS!"
TERRIFIC TOASTMASTER’S TOOLS and COOKING
MAGNETS
No, this is not the title of a new cooking show although if
it was, we have the ideal host for it! These were the titles of the
presentations delivered by Patrick and Jen today. Intrigued?
Tuesday, 20 June 2017
"Being Informed on How To Shoot Your Husband!!!"
Are you informed?
Darryl was our Toastmaster of the day and opened our meeting
on time. There were a number of changes to the programme due to last minute
movements but we managed to get underway without too much delay. Sandy read our
Mission Statement and we moved directly to General Business for a change. Helen
discussed the prevalence of spam through the Toastmasters inbox and Craig
discussed the lack of spam in the forward programme! The new programme looked
great and was received with vigour – as opposed to spam which is not kindly
received at all!
Wednesday, 14 June 2017
"THE BIO-DIVERSITY OF SHOPLIFTERS!"
The Biodiversity of Shoplifters
What a well led meeting we had on Thursday 8th June well led by the Toastmaster of the day Linda. by Linda.At Pania Toastmasters we are always under time pressure with our 50minute meeting and Linda handled this extremely well with focus on the speakers and Table Topics without the impression, nor need to rush.
Thursday, 1 June 2017
"FINDING OTHER WORLDS!"
This was the intriguing title of our one speech today at Pania's meeting, Darryl set out the Solar System for us and explained it extremely well, under the guidance of our Toastmaster of the day , Anna, who ran a very efficient meeting that finished right on time!
Monday, 29 May 2017
"ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR KINDNESS CHALLENGE?"
“Are you
Ready for your Kindness Challenge?”
May 25th Pania Toastmaster’s meeting was
entertained by Carol who gave a 10 to 12 minute speech. The speech illustrated
the style of presentation she does to promote one of her businesses. The props
used created a very colourful appearance within the meeting room and this also
enhanced the overall atmosphere of the meeting.
Mike evaluated Carol and he found both commendations and
recommendations, which is in line with the ‘CRC’ method of evaluation, ‘commend,
recommend, commend’. When this method is used to appraise a speech the
recommendations are more easily accepted by the speaker as they appear very
helpful as opposed to being critical.
Carol finished her speech off by offering us all ‘The 7 Day
Kindness Challenge’ and Mike finished off by suggesting he and Carol discuss the
projects objectives to decide if they had actually been meet satisfactorily.
Stephanie created six most interesting Table Topics for;
Craig, Darryl, Mike, Carol, Helen and Patrick to reply to in one minute. Table
Topics is an excellent way of practicing spontaneous speaking. This can be a
most useful tool to have especially when it comes to work interviews or
answering teenager’s questions.
During the business session Craig gave a quick review of the recent District Conference in Wellington where Amy from Napier Club was placed third in the International Speech Contest and Craig was unplaced in the District Evaluation Contest.
Patrick went onto evaluate each Table Topic speaker in a very
enthusiastic manner. Patrick was actually asked to give a table topic speech and
he very cleverly asked another member to evaluate himself. This led to a
complete evaluation and the presentation of the ‘Best Table Topic’ award
going to Darryl rounded off that part of the meeting very nicely.
The General Evaluator, Helen, summarised the meeting and
evaluated the evaluators.
This was followed by the
presentation of the Best Speaker award to Carol and Best
Evaluator’s award to Patrick.
Helen also thanked Sandy for doing a fine job as Chairman of
the meeting. This was Sandy’s first time in the role and as she has been unable
to attend a meeting for several weeks, a very big round of applause must go out
to her!
Well done Members and see you all at next weeks’
meeting.
Monday, 22 May 2017
"Turning Tides Convention Report"
On the Weekend of 12th to 14th May the semi-annual Toastmaster’s Convention
was held in Shed 6 (next to ASB Arena,on the Wellington waterfront). Almost 400
Toastmasters from around the country attended to see the District Evaluation and
International Speech Contests and attend the Council meeting plus Educationals
and Keynote speaker addresses.
Saturday, 20 May 2017
"EVALUATE- YOUR BODY SPEAKS!"
Our meeting on Thursday 18th May was attended by only 11 members, probably due to the sudden 'extreme cold' and the expected squall which arrived during the meeting. Carol stepped in at the last minute as Toastmaster and ran an excellent meeting, which was entertaining and educational. her flowery program certainly brightened up the day!!
Monday, 15 May 2017
"ON YOUR BIKE!!"
It was a small, but enthusiastic group of Toastmasters who
braved the cooler temperatures to attend today’s (11th May) meeting. However, we soon
warmed after joining in the meeting programme. We were ably looked after by our
Toastmaster of the day Craig who had to negotiate a few changes to the program.
He kept us entertained by a variety of interesting dates and events as well as
finding time to prepare a last-minute speech.
I enjoy the grammar component when we have time in the
programme and Laurel, our grammarian of the day, presented us with the very
pertinent ‘prattle’ as our word of the day.
Graeme introduced Craig’s speech which required the use of
visual aids. Craig then took us on a virtual bike ride along some of his
favourite rides from among the 200km long bike pathways of the local area. By
giving us a map to follow as he spoke and personal examples, I am sure there
will soon be more riders from TM joining him on the pathways in future.
Graeme’s evaluation was masterful with a re-iteration of the
objectives, lots of warm praise for the speaker and 3 useful recommendations.
·
Give sources of facts for increased
credibility, use large visuals to avoid talking to the board and stay on
topic.
This type of feedback not only assists the
speaker, but it also serves as a useful reminder for other members to observe
when they are preparing their own speeches.
The Club Executive Election was then held run by President Helen and the following committee was elected to oversee the running of the Club from 1st July to 30th June 2018.
President; Marc
V/P Education; Craig
V/P Membership; Helen
V/P Public Relations; Patrick
Treasurer;Carol
Secretary; Linda
Sgt-@arms; Graeme
Many thanks to Anna & Jen for their input over the past 12 months and until 30th June 2017!!
Table topics by David was cleverly aimed at specific speakers
and the destinations that they had experienced, but the topics were also broad
enough to allow all members to think of their own travel stories. It was good to
have the chance to hear from a range of excellent speakers.
·
Jen started us off by enthusiastically
talking about a very special trip to New York. With her memories of wonderful
food, warm people and things to see, it sounds like a ‘must see’
destination.
·
Marcus waxed lyrically about Christchurch in
winter, albeit from behind glass and accompanied by the warmth of the sun, to
enjoy frosty vistas, clear blue skies and avoid the smog.
·
Laurel recounted her experiences of culture
shock when working in Fiji, and not as a tourist in her bikini on its sandy
beaches. Group cultures are a challenge that often confront the Western
traveller and this reminded us of the rewards of engaging in a culture rather
than judging it by our own cultural standards.
·
Helen is a B & B hostess with the
‘mostess’ and she outlined the business model which supports her establishment
and how it feels from personal experience when things aren’t tailored for
visitors comfort.
·
Carol recounted her memories of growing up in
a large family on a dairy farm. Feeding the chickens, collecting eggs, checking
the baler for ‘critters’ and slipping in gumboots through mud with her townie
friends, bought back memories for me too.
Darryl gave warm feedback to all participants, which was
well-deserved, as they all gave excellent responses to their topics. With such
good talks that it was not surprising that Darryl struggled to give
recommendations.
Thanks goes to our team, Graeme, Ian, David and Craig who set
the room up for us each meeting.
Warmest wishes for Craig as he competes in the Evaluation
contest in Wellington.
Best
Speaker: Craig
Best
Evaluator: Graeme
Best
Table Topic: Jen
General
Evaluator: Linda reported well on the meeting and was assisted by the Timekeeper, Carol and Grammarian Laurel, who did not prattle on!!
"FEEDBACK- LYING WILL BE THE DEATH OF YOU!"
Feedback – Lying will be the death of you
Well we had such a powerful meeting on Thursday 4th. We were led by
one of Pania’s most experienced Toastmasters, Laurel who started us on
time and got Ian to read the Mission Statement. Craig introduced Helen who
performed a play from the Interpretive Reading Manual, Project 4 and this will
complete her Advanced Communicator Gold Award. Helen formed a play by herself
called “An Insurance Salesman”. We experienced a waiting room in which three
different personalities sat waiting. We had to discover what they were waiting
for by listening to the play. It was extremely entertaining and were totally
engrossed. It was in fact a waiting room for the next advancement after death.
All three had died and it was the insurance salesman that was the common
denominator. Helen left us hanging as we still don’t know how they all got to
the waiting room in the first place! I guess we will just have to WAIT for
another play to find that out! Well done to Helen. Craig was not sure what
they were waiting for either but gave great feedback to Helen in his
evaluation! Craig said Helen had researched her characters well and used great
hand gestures. Craig commended Helen on her voice changes and her changes in
each character in the play. Craig also said her set up of her props and the
stage for the play was cleverly executed. Recommendations - Craig felt more
voice changes in pitch for each character was needed (which Craig demonstrated)
and different body languages for each character. Craig finished by saying Helen
had done a tremendous job and overall had an excellently presented
assignment.
Next Mike Coombe talked to us about Effective Evaluation.
Mike was also going for the Penultimate award of the ACG. He commented that he
was feeling golden already! Mike enthralled us with a lovely PowerPoint
presentation on being an effective evaluator. Mike told us about using the CRC
method of Commend Recommend Commend. He told us to try using two or three areas
of improvement for the speaker to improve on and to write these down so the
speaker can reference this later - try to finish on a high when giving an
evaluation. Mike also talked about giving evaluations is the third person which
sparked a debate amongst the members. Some members felt speaking in the third
person was not required whilst others felt it was a requirement. Overall a good
robust discussion was had with all agreeing to disagree. Mike will be
presenting a Part Two to this at a later stage.
Laurel then took Table Topics and Darryl selected “the
Biggest Lie he ever told” and proceeded to tell another one. Why do we
lie?.....to get out of trouble and to impress somebody! Stephanie selected “For
which two qualities could an employer recommend you?” Stephanie said integrity
but lies are not good in professionalism. Patrick got “what is the best offer
you’ve ever turned down?” To which, Patrick said it was NOT an offer from his
wife to move to the South Island. However, he turned down an offer working for
someone else and started working for himself.
General Evaluator, Carol summed the meeting up proficiently with the help of the Timekeeper, Graeme.
The meeting finished on time – absolutely no
lie!
Best Speaker: Helen
Best Table Topic: Darryl
Best Evaluator; Craig
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
'FEEDBACK- GIVE IT GOOD OR BAD!"
Feedback – Give it Good or Bad
Wow, what a great meeting we had. We were immediately
welcomed into a meeting room that was set up completely differently than it has
been in the past – you knew there was a new Toastmaster for this week! We
started on time, went through a slight road bump as we couldn’t find the stop
watch and then the Toastmaster read the Mission Statement.
Sunday, 23 April 2017
"OUR ORATORICAL TRIP!"
It was great to be back at Pania's weekly meeting after the venue was closed last Thursday due to the weather and today’s (20th April) meeting saw a good turnout and a very enjoyable
occasion.
Toastmaster, David gave a very warm welcome dressed in his
Hawaiian shirt trying to convince us it was still summer but others knew
better!
First speaker was Patrick with the speech title of “Our Trip”
in which he described the five and a half week trip he and his wife had recently
taken mostly around the South Island. He conveyed that wonderment that anyone
visiting that part of God’s own for the first time experiences. He will be going
back there. He fulfilled his objectives of using visual aids to support his
speech by using and seamlessly swapping from a large map and a projector
displaying a number of stunning photographs to emphasise his experiences. Some
of the photos had accompanied a front page article in the “Caravanor?” magazine.
So were addressed by a recognised journalist.
Linda’s evaluation was very positive and indicated how
Patrick had exceeded the objectives. She went on to give a ‘couple’ of very good
recommendations which grew to four but all would be of great value to
Patrick.
Graeme introduced second speaker Helen who was to deliver an
“oratorical interpretive reading” and then set the scene of a 12 year old
Canadian, Severn Cullis Suzuki speaking at the United Nations Conference on the
Environment and Development at Rio De Janeiro in 1992. Helen delivered it with
the same passion we can see on the Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=oJJGuIZVfLM
.
Graeme in his evaluation noted how Helen had encapsulated the
essence of the very moving speech and enhanced it with her gestures which no
doubt added to the vocal delivery.
Mike then introduced Table Topics with candidates asked to
respond to or expand on some short quotations. Carol, Darryl, Marc and Laurel
all responded well with three setting some sort of record of all speaking for
exactly 1minute and 10 seconds according to Timekeeper Craig. Jen gave very
complimentary evaluations and awarded best table topic to
Laurel.
In my summary of the meeting I awarded best speech to Patrick
and best evaluator to Linda to end a very successful meeting
Noel
Saturday, 8 April 2017
'FINDING OIL in THE MATUKITUKI VALLEY!'
An
excellent turnout at today’s meeting of Pania Toastmasters boosted by the
presence of three guests, who all appeared to enjoy the meeting from their
comments at the end. Helen, Toastmaster for the day ran a very professional
meeting with an excellent program to guide us along.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
'FOOLING AROUND'
Fooling around
Two days until April and
there’s no fool like an old fool! Craig , our Toastmaster for today's meeting
made the coming April Fool's day his theme and Linda, the Grammarian and Mike the
Table Topics Master picked up on the theme. I ask why not theme Eric Clapton or
Celine Dionne who both had their birthdays today?
Enuff grumbling. Splendid
programme however. Linda's word of the day was “flummoxed”. First speaker Russell was introduced by Darryl and gave us a Status Report on “Water Management in
Hawkes Bay”. And he confirmed our suspicious that all is not well (haha) behind
our taps. Darryl's evaluation was comprehensive and perceptive with a number of
good recommendations, eg. don’t rely so much on the script.
Anna’s education presentation
was a treat. It was about tailoring your speech for the audience. She used Carol
to demonstrate audience analysis is about putting yourself in their shoes. This
speech means Anna is now an Advanced Communicator Silver. No wonder the speech
shined!
Mike based Table Topics on
fantasy. He provided the first sentence of some fairytale fantasy and
participants were asked to put themselves in the story. Kerry flew in a forest,
Laurel had a King crying and Jen somehow got trolls and birthing in the same
scene. Beam me up Scotty! Carol gave a useful evaluation and revealed that April
1st is her birthday. But she didn’t say what number.
Laurel came up with the goods
(was I nagging?) and gave us a useful guide to Impromptu Structures.
In the wrap up Linda told us
how eloquent we are and Helen tick ticked off our timing. David gave a truncated General Evalauation, time was agin him!
Best Speaker, Anna
Best Evaluator Carol
Best Table Topics, Jen
Monday, 27 March 2017
"LIFE IS COMPLICATED BUT OUR JOURNEY IS OUR OWN!"
"Never trust a women" and "Life is complicated but our journey is our own!" intriguing words spoken by Marc and the Title given by Stephanie, our two speakers at Pania's meeting on Thursday 23rd March.
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
"WHAT'S AT THE END OF YOUR FISHING LINE? debate"
The meeting opened on time and our able toastmaster Craig set the scene by
offering us several reminders about the upcoming District Conference , he
offered to collect registrations and post them , an offer accepted by many .A
really good initiative to get as many along on April 8th as possible .If you
were not at the meeting feel free to contact Craig who can furnish you with the
necessary info .
Wednesday, 8 March 2017
'WHY IRAN if I had ONE MORE DAY!"
Two very interesting speeches today at Pania Toastmaster's weekly meeting under the professional guidance of the Toastmaster of the day, Laurel, who ran a very tight program following an excellently set out Agenda with smooth transitions between items.
Laurel celebrated the 58th Birthday of the Barbie doll and wondered why we do not see 58year old Barbies being made today???. Some people may of course have a 58 year old Barbie! Most in our Club are not old enough , but if you have, it could be valuable.
The first item on the program was a prepared speech presented by Linda, introduced by Mike. Linda was working from an Advanced Manual the specific assignment being "The Abstract Concept". This is always a tricky one to know what to talk about but Linda handled the task extremely well with a speech entitled "Why Iran?". She spoke of a recent trip to Iran (she has dual citizenship as she lived there for many years and used to teach there) and explained in very clear terms how the abstract concept of the brain is enhanced through travel. So when you hear the saying 'travel broadens the mind' you can believe it! A very well presented and interesting speech, also giving much insight into the pitfalls of travel to that particular country, if you are thinking of it! Excellent Linda.
Mike gave a strong evaluation , praising Linda for 'exposing' herself to us through the many commendations that she deserved for the speech and also finding 2/3 worthwhile recommendations for Linda.
Next up was Darryl, introduced by Helen, Darryl was also working from an Advanced Manual with the assignment "Speaking in Praise".Entitled "One More Day" Darryl spoke fondly of his father who passed away in 2009 and included parts of the Eulogy he gave at the funeral with additions. An excellent example of this particular assignment and extremely well put together and presented by Darryl, not an east task but very well handled.
Helen in her Evaluation commended the many good points that Darryl made and confirmed that he certainly achieved the objectives ,she advised that he certainly gained "leadership from his father".
Table Topics was run by Marc and four members, (Craig, Jane, Jen & Graeme) were requested to give min-icebreakers in 90 secs so that the newer members could learn a little of their background.
Kerry, evaluated Table Topics and commended all the speakers while also finding a worthwhile recommendation for each one as well. Great effort Marc and Kerry, one could almost have felt this was an 'impromptu session!'
International Speech Contestants were given their certificates and Mike also received a "Spirit of Success" certificate for completing another Advanced Manual recently.
Don't forget to support Mike & Barbara at the Area Contests tomorrow night in Hastings!!!
Ian gave us the Timekeeper's report, Russell gave a brief (time was running out) General Evaluation
and Laurel wrapped up the program succinctly.
Best Speaker; Linda
Best Table Topic; Graeme
Best Evaluator; Mike
See you all next week when the Toastmaster is Craig.
Laurel celebrated the 58th Birthday of the Barbie doll and wondered why we do not see 58year old Barbies being made today???. Some people may of course have a 58 year old Barbie! Most in our Club are not old enough , but if you have, it could be valuable.
The first item on the program was a prepared speech presented by Linda, introduced by Mike. Linda was working from an Advanced Manual the specific assignment being "The Abstract Concept". This is always a tricky one to know what to talk about but Linda handled the task extremely well with a speech entitled "Why Iran?". She spoke of a recent trip to Iran (she has dual citizenship as she lived there for many years and used to teach there) and explained in very clear terms how the abstract concept of the brain is enhanced through travel. So when you hear the saying 'travel broadens the mind' you can believe it! A very well presented and interesting speech, also giving much insight into the pitfalls of travel to that particular country, if you are thinking of it! Excellent Linda.
Mike gave a strong evaluation , praising Linda for 'exposing' herself to us through the many commendations that she deserved for the speech and also finding 2/3 worthwhile recommendations for Linda.
Next up was Darryl, introduced by Helen, Darryl was also working from an Advanced Manual with the assignment "Speaking in Praise".Entitled "One More Day" Darryl spoke fondly of his father who passed away in 2009 and included parts of the Eulogy he gave at the funeral with additions. An excellent example of this particular assignment and extremely well put together and presented by Darryl, not an east task but very well handled.
Helen in her Evaluation commended the many good points that Darryl made and confirmed that he certainly achieved the objectives ,she advised that he certainly gained "leadership from his father".
Table Topics was run by Marc and four members, (Craig, Jane, Jen & Graeme) were requested to give min-icebreakers in 90 secs so that the newer members could learn a little of their background.
Kerry, evaluated Table Topics and commended all the speakers while also finding a worthwhile recommendation for each one as well. Great effort Marc and Kerry, one could almost have felt this was an 'impromptu session!'
International Speech Contestants were given their certificates and Mike also received a "Spirit of Success" certificate for completing another Advanced Manual recently.
Don't forget to support Mike & Barbara at the Area Contests tomorrow night in Hastings!!!
Ian gave us the Timekeeper's report, Russell gave a brief (time was running out) General Evaluation
and Laurel wrapped up the program succinctly.
Best Speaker; Linda
Best Table Topic; Graeme
Best Evaluator; Mike
See you all next week when the Toastmaster is Craig.
Saturday, 4 March 2017
"THE PAIN OF ROAD RAGE!"
Pania Meeting 2 March 2017
Carol was in the Chair and had
prepared a colorful Meeting programme with Hawkes Bay Horse of the Year theme.
Throughout the meeting she passed on interesting snippets of information about
HOY.
It was a well run and enjoyable
meeting.
As part of the meeting
preliminaries, our visitor Alistair read out the Club Mission Statement.
First speech was Kerry whose
assignment was Vocal Variety and the topic she chose,Road Rage, was appropriate,
as was the title “What the beep beep you’re doing!!” And that was just her
passenger. We learned alot about aggression and stress. Her advice to us was
“let it go, let it go ...”
Graeme her introducer and
evaluator was mightily impressed with Kerry's experiences and suggested that she
slow down her delivery. Not so much that she annoy other drivers though!
Second speaker was Jen. The
goal of her speech “A pain in the proverbial” was to explain an abstract concept.
She has suffered chronic pain for many years enriching the “Pain Industry”.
Pills, potions, gadgets, health providers ... you name it Jen has spent a
fortune with not much to show for it. Great visual aids: she tossed them one
after the other into a waste basket. She says that so far the best relief was
the simplest, a back support, $70.
Barbara introduced and
evaluated Jen. She commended her for sharing her experiences and recommended she
lay out the visuals on a table for better emphasis.
Impromptu Table Topics were
presented by Craig based on current news headlines. Mike described how a
rotating apartment tower on Bluff Hill would result in all day sunshine for the
occupants. Laurel enthused over banana smoothies. Helen has cracked getting
service from Call Centres. Stephanie has no interest in politics and prefers
humour.
Table Topics were evaluated by
Jane. She commended the speakers on their presentations, she awarded the Best Table Topic to Mike.
Business session with Helen.
“Area Contests this Friday (10th) Salvation Army Rooms, Cnr Avenue & Warren Streets, Hastings starting at 6.45pm. Carol reminded us subs due by 20th, $95.
The report on time was read out
by Noel and David wrapped up with a general evaluation. He shamelessly copied
the Oscar awards by giving Carol his shopping list to read out. He then
announced that the Best Speaker was Kerry and Best Evaluator, Graeme.
Monday, 27 February 2017
"MY NEVER ENDING STORY!"
Today 23rd February, Pania Toastmasters held
their International Speech Contest as part of their regular Thursday program
and three members entered the contest, Chaired by Craig.
"BUZZ & GUTS"
Buzz and
Guts!
Yes, this was the subject matter in the two excellent
presentations made at our club meeting on 16 February.
As we’ve come to expect from sisters Petrice and
Rebecca, we were once again educated and enlightened - Petrice creating a
real buzz over her enthusiasm for Honey Bees and Rebecca keeping our attention
focussed on looking after ourselves by maintaining a healthy gut.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
"TAKE THE TERROR OUT OF ONE SMALL STEP!"
Another great Pania meeting on 9th February.
David started the meeting on time and had a well organized programme, with timing lights details for each item for the General Evaluator and the Timekeeper,which enabled us to finish right on time.
David started the meeting on time and had a well organized programme, with timing lights details for each item for the General Evaluator and the Timekeeper,which enabled us to finish right on time.
Thursday, 26 January 2017
'"TAKE CARE WITH THE DIAMONDS!"
Take Care’ and ‘Diamonds’ were both great speech titles for this week’s
speeches at Pania Toastmasters Club.
And what a
great meeting room to hear these speeches, clean, tidy and always well organised
thanks to, both of our vigilant members, Graeme and Ian.
Marc, our
Toastmaster of the day, welcomed everyone and presented a well organised agenda
which was followed by all in a prompt manner. A big thanks must go to members
who step up and fill in for those who get called away suddenly, excellent team
work!
David, our
first speaker was introduced by Graeme in his usual professional manner. He read
the objectives of David’s speech so we all knew what goals were to be reached.
Graeme evaluated David’s speech by offering commendations and recommendations.
He did this by using examples of various parts of the speech and offered ideas
for improvements. Both Graeme and David’s contributions finished with very good
endings.
Anna
introduced and evaluated Barbara. Anna began her evaluation by commending
Barbara on the beginning of her speech and then went onto read and discuss the
objectives. Barbara is particularly clever with creating poetry and she shared
part of a poem from a very dear and long time friend’s funeral service. They had
known one another for 50 years hence the title, ‘Diamonds’. Anna offered a
recommendation for using more pitch, pace and pause during the poetry reading.
This was good information for all those who read poems/ articles during their
speeches.
Table Topics
was led by Jane who used some very different and thought provoking topics. Jane
also gave the topic first and then the speakers name as this gets everyone
thinking about what they would say on the topic.
The Table
topic speakers were; Helen with “recycling bottles as they do in Australia”,
Noel with “capital gains tax”, Russell with “fines for dog attacks”, Linda with
“police pursuits, chasing stolen cars or lives”, Ian with “a branch line for
trucks between Pan Pac and Napier Port”.
Table topics
certainly had the speaker thinking. Carol who did a great job evaluating each
speaker by commending them all and offering recommendations where necessary. She
used positive examples for each in a clever manner.
Thanks to
Rebecca for keeping time on all the speakers. Helen as General Evaluator
finished the meeting off by evaluating the evaluators, presenting the awards and
then Marc closed off another successful meeting right on
1pm.
Best speaker;
Barbara
Best Evaluator;
Carol
Best Table topics;
Linda
Thursday, 19 January 2017
'SEISMIC THOUGHTS on WHO LIKES MONEY?"
‘Seismic Thoughts & Money on Your Mind’
The first
Toastmaster’s meeting of the year started with a great turnout of members and
one guest, with an interesting jam packed meeting agenda. It was ably
facilitated by our Toast Master of the day Darryl, and everyone was met
personally and given a clearly written agenda to follow. A reminder to members
to fill in their leadership books was also timely, maybe this will be the year I
complete mine!
In
addition, the new whiteboard (evidenced by the plastic wrapping) was unveiled
and was well-used throughout the meeting. Thanks Craig.
We were
privileged to hear two thought provoking speeches. Our first speaker Noel was
warmly introduced by Barbara and we also heard how he had influenced her return
to the TM fold. The title of his speech was ‘Seismic Thoughts,’ and we were
treated to insider knowledge of how engineers and the Wellington City Council
had worked together in checking buildings to ensure public safety after the
recent earthquake. Earthquakes are inevitable in this country and each one has a
unique pattern which determines the extent of damage that results. Listening to
this speech was reassuring for Barbara and she gave a very positive evaluation.
She had one recommendation to give it more impact – stop, drop and
hold!
Our
second speaker was introduced by Graeme with the question, ‘Who likes money,’
well who doesn’t? So we were all primed to hear Patrick’s speech ‘What is
Inflation’. This technically difficult topic was broken down for the fiscally
challenged, along with the role that inflation plays and the factors that
influence it, and all of which were ably explained. The concluding comments
asked us to weigh the benefits of inflation versus deflation and made us aware
that what the government does with the budget affects us personally. Graeme gave
a very affirming evaluation and no recommendations. Given that this was a speech
put together at very short notice this was well deserved
feedback.
Table
Topics was well received by the audience with questions put by Petrice on what
participants had done in the festive season. Laurel had grandchildren from
Australia running amok through her house for Christmas, in Carol’s household
everyone chose their favourite scrumptious sounding dish, Craig had all his
family together in beautiful Gisborne for his favourite holiday memory, Mike
went to bed early on New Year’s Eve but got up for the fireworks and Helen
neatly sidestepped her New Year’s resolution by an ‘intention’ to take mini
holidays in NZ. All of the speakers spoke well and entertained us with their
stories of holiday fun. As a result Russell had no recommendations for anyone
and gave positive feedback to all.Linda gave us a well rounded general Evaluation, in the time available and Jen utilised an app. from the Toastmaster's website to assist with a full Timekeeper's report.
A most
enjoyable meeting and a taste of many more to come this year.
Best
Speaker: Patrick
Best
Evaluator: Barbara
Best
Table Topic: Craig
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