"TALK ABOUT GIFTS GALORE!!"

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.

"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!!

"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.

"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!

"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 2^nd 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!!

Anna Coleman

"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:

"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.

"WIN-WIN WITH GAUDI!"

The Win-Win Gaudí 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!.

"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.

"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

"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. 

http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/stop-um-uh-filler-words/

Kerry

"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 .

'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.

"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.

"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’.

"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.

"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.

"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.

"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.

"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

'MEMORIES!"

Pania Toastmaster Club Meeting Report 13^th 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. 

"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.

"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?

"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!

"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.

"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!

"ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR KINDNESS CHALLENGE?"

“Are you Ready for your Kindness Challenge?”

May 25^th 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.

"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.

"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!!

"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

'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.

"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

'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.

'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

"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.

"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 .

'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.

"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 20^th, $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.

"MY NEVER ENDING STORY!"

Today 23^rd 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.

"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.

'"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

'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