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.
Next up we had the Area D2 Table Topics Contest, chaired by Paul (President
of Havelock North Club) .The five Club winners Marc (Pania);Iain (Havelock
North);Jenny (Bay City);Amy (Napier): and Te Whiti (Hastings) were required to
answer the question “How Do You Define Success” in a time of between 1-2
minutes. All spoke well and confidently to the topic, with some different ideas
about Success. Placings were 3rd , Jenny; 2nd, Amy; and 1st, TeWhiti, who
utilised a prop in the form of a Toko Toko (walking stick) to good advantage,
but also spoke extremely fluently to the topic.
After a refreshment break we had the Humorous Speech Contest, Chaired very
capably by Sarah (Napier Club). In this contest speakers are required to present
a Humorous Speech, basically of their own creation for a time of 5-7
minutes.
To ‘warm’ the audience up we had Ian (Napier) present a very funny speech
about the early days of IT, this was extremely well received by the audience and
set the scene for a great contest. The five contestants were Jenny (Bay
City);Marc (Pania);,Sarah (Havelock North), Jane (Napier) and a representative
from Hastings Club. Most spoke about a personal experience (probably enhanced a
little for the occasion!) but all were well presented and extremely humorous. I
felt that overall the standard in this contest was very high, and they certainly
made me laugh on numerous occasions. Congratulations to them all , for this is
probably the hardest speech to write and present.The placings were 3rd
(Hastings); 2nd Marc (Pania) and 1st Jane (Napier). Jane presented a very well
structured speech about the need to keep moving (the only people she knows that
do not move are dead!!) and gave us hilarious insights into preparing for a run.
The humour used was in some cases extremely subtle and went over with much
laughter and smiles from the audience. You could say it was a speech ‘fit’ for
the occasion!
Jane & Te Whiti now represent the Area at the Division D Conference in
Rotorua on Saturday 7th October commencing at 1.00pm at the Princess Gate Hotel,
when they compete against the other six area winners in the the Division.
Prior to closing the meeting the Immediate Past Area Director, Ian (Napier)
presented the Area Toastmaster of the Year Award and Trophy to Peter from
Hastings Club. Peter was the Division Director last year and has done a great
deal for Toastmasters over that period. An award well deserved. (Clubs put
forward their Toastmaster of the year and based on a formula the winner is
selected by the outgoing Area Director.)
Craig
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