"TED TALKS"

The meeting of 30 November was well attended and explored new territory.

Toastmaster Jen had a very clear agenda circulated and by the time the GE arrived had the mission statement being read by Graeme. It was then straight into General Business which Craig smoothly used to complete the taking of apologies: good teamwork!

Stephanie introduced Anna who gave a speech from the Entertaining Speaker and covered the objectives, Anna started off with bursting tribute to Jen not as Toasmaster, but as the lender of a book about the Power of TED. She gave the story behind the author and two examples of people who had achieved prominence through TED talks. Anna used the TV screen as demonstrated by David at the previous meeting. She also expertly coped with a technical glitch by positively standing right in front of the blank screen and so have the meeting’s attention.

Stephanie’s evaluation was unique in posing a series of questions starting with “Did you notice……?” This was a very positive was of focussing on the commendations she had to make. She described Ann’s speech as her own TED talk which was very complimentary and appreciated. A very positive evaluation.

Stephanie then found herself making an impromptu speech in response to our good wishes given by Anna for her imminent move back to Tokoroa. We wish her well and hope Toastmasters will feature somehow.

Darryl introduced Helen who was completing her last speech before reaching Advanced Toastmaster- Gold speaker status. Congratulations! Helen's assignment was “The Abstract Concept” and her speech was titled “The Abstract Concept”. She discussed the definition of what is an abstract concept or idea and gave her take on what could be defined as being abstract. A well delivered speech. Evaluator, Darryl gave a very positive assessment but then after some mental struggle gave his own possibly more accurate take on which examples were clearly abstract concepts and which were virtual.

Kerry introduced table topics with little fanfare and left the topics in the speakers hands when they picked their own folded piece of paper. Graeme, Linda, Carol, and Craig all managed responses for the requisite 1 to 2 minutes. Mike gave a very positive evaluation of each and even responded to the content which did tend to drag out his time in front.

We had a very quick Timekeeper’s report from Patrick and General Evaluation by Noel before Jen bought to close a meeting which extended beyond the allocated 55 minutes due to a few unplanned imporomptu interuptions.Best Speaker was Anna, Best Table Topic, Linda and Best Evaluator, Stephanie.

i   They all made for a very special meeting. Congratulations to all who participated.