"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