"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.


Toastmaster Jen introduced the theme to us and in between the various speakers and other parts of the meeting recounted various stories of her jobs being paid in the ’old money’ before decimal currency.  This also included a great display on the old pre decimal bank notes and the original ‘new’ decimal bank notes (remember the $1 and $2 notes?); as well as pristine examples of the new polymer banknotes just released.

Our first speaker was Russell who delivered a money related presentation - “Effective selling”.  This involved an introduction about selling and how the needs of the customer were key to sealing the deal.  Then there was a role play with Patrick, where Russell enthusiastically sold him an electric heater.  Finally their was a brief discussion and summary of the techniques used.  Russell speech was positively reviewed by Linda. 

Our second speaker of the day was Helen who presented an informative talk about the history of the decimal currency changeover and also the changes to the various coins and banknotes as time has passed.  It was interesting to hear that there were suggestions of calling our currency the “Zeal” or the “Kiwi” rather than the “Dollar”.  Helen also told us about how the designs for the banknotes were not revealed until just a month before the changeover so as to thwart counterfeiters.  Graeme did a great job evaluating Helen and provided some good suggestions for improvement which must have been challenging.

Craig presented the Table Topics section of the meeting asking members questions related to the topic of the day.  Kerry did not think Zeal was a good name for our currency.  Chris would prefer to have 1c and 2c coins back so he can spend those he has in his jar.  Marc thinks that $1 and $2 coins are a great idea, though rather heavy.  Jane does find the differences between the Australian and New Zealand $1 & $2 coins sometimes confusing.  And, finally, David prefers to use cash rather than cards.

Darryl gave a brief but succinct General Evaluation (due to time constraints) assisted by the Timekeeper David, who did keep us to time!
In the general evaluation section the best Table Topic was awarded to Marc; the best Speech to Helen; and best evaluation to Graeme.
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