"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.

Craig   conducted the General Business session, confirming next week’s programme and reminding members of the Humorous Speech Competition and Table Topics Competition on the evening of 24 August at Atawhai.

A special thank you went to Craig for his tireless efforts in organising the forward programme and keeping a good balance of speakers each week.

Helen introduced our first speaker Anna.  A great introduction outlining the objectives of the speech, and she spoke a little bit about Anna, and gave her a cheery welcome.  The title of Anna’s speech was ‘Op Shop Knickers’.  Anna’s presentation was hilarious – with good word pictures describing her second hand silky knickers - no shyness at all.  She proceeded to tell us about not being able to take a bag on a flight to Auckland, so had to leave without any of her clothes.  However, on arrival in Auckland she went to Save Mart and bought a very nice bright green one piece suit and some very sexy silky green knickers. She wore these to a conference in Auckland where she was presenting a workshop.  When she told a rural family member what she had done he was mortified, and after another swig of beer and another puff on his cigarette, he told Anna he couldn’t believe she would wear op shop knickers and wouldn’t even put such things on his dog!  Anna wore the green outfit on the day to show us just what you can find in an op shop – and she looked very stunning might I add!  Anna will never cease to amaze us with her witty and humorous presentations.  Anna won the trophy for best speaker of the day.

Helen gave Anna an excellent evaluation of her speech and offered her good feedback.  She commended her on many areas of the speech, especially mimicking the male family member swigging the beer and drawing smoke from a cigarette.  She also offered her some good advice on her choice of words and speech rate.  She congratulated Anna on an overall great ‘performance’ and wished Anna well for the Humorous Speech competition.  A very polished evaluation from Helen, which saw her win the trophy for best evaluator of the day.

It was a pleasure to have our Area Director Christine  join us at Toastmasters today, and talk to us about her role and what it involves.  She had diagrams and a map to outline the Toastmaster areas in NZ, and pointed out the different areas and  in particular our area.  A very strong and powerful presentation, one that Christine was obviously very comfortable and familiar with.  Christine is obviously a very committed and dedicated toastmaster, and enjoys spreading the good word about our local Toastmaster's Clubs.

Table Topics was presented by Patrick.  A great session where his ‘victims’ were asked to talk about ‘Do It Yourself’ projects they have done recently, or wish to do in the future. Some very good mini presentations came forward from the participants, with a variety of ways to ‘do it yourself’, be it renovating, painting, going on Facebook / You Tube, or just not being appreciated by your other half.  Jen did a great job of evaluating the table topics managing to find a commendation and recommendation for all.  Helen’s grandson (Lliam- a visitor, who has been several times before!) was the winner of the best table topics, and Jen was worried that ‘Nana’ may have to have a word with him on the way home about what he watches on Facebook!!  A great original idea for the Table Topics session by Patrick.

Darryl gave a glowing Timekeepers report, managing to add a little humour to every person who was timed.

And of course I ended the programme with the General Evaluator’s report.

Thank you Russell for keeping our meeting on time, and making everyone feel welcome.

Another great meeting for Pania Toastmasters.