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
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