"PACE, PAUSE,THE BIG MOON and LOTS OF STORIES!"

Toastmasters 1^st Feb!!

Pace, Pause the Big Moon and lots of stories

What a great way to start the new year with Noel as the Toastmaster and he kicked off referring to the amazing blood and blue moon.

He asked Helen to introduce Lou who came back again and is keen to join!  Noel seamlessly introduced the participants and the meeting flowed well. 

Marc’s speech was entitled Be careful what you wish for!

about his impressions including the three key note speakers at the Gisborne Conference last year. He particularly liked the

 speaker, James Milton, one of the first to develop a bio-dynamic winery in the world.   Marc was inspired by hearing the range of speakers, some good some not so good - to put in a bid for the 2020 national conference in Napier!  Mike’s evaluation was very humorous with a great use of pause.

Sandy took us on a journey through trail running with her seventh speech from the Confident Communicator’s manual and was ably evaluated by Carol. Sandy received best speaker.  She had no notes and used a relaxed extempore style. Sandy took us on her journey through coaching and how through technical work, nutrition and mental work she was able to knock off the 26 km’s of the Classic Traverse and run through sand, hills and even be smiling at the finish line.  Carol received the best evaluator for her warm, friendly and funny evaluation with slow pace and plenty of pause.

David had fun easy Table Topics and acknowledged Ian who ‘in his time was a wonderful speaker, laced with humour, a charter member of this club and here for 35 years’. Laurel evaluated table topics with lots of humour.

Some highlights were –

·      Helen and her Rod Stewart picture

·      Craig killing cockroaches in a Rotorua amongst the rain, heat and family.

·      Linda – use technology to have fun and it can help your brain, Linda received best Table Topic.

·      Graeme – gloriously off topic which was council improvements, he couldn’t care less but it’s all about the animal kingdom and the response animals have to humans.

As a club we are great at telling stories.  Everyone that spoke had a story to tell.  They were well told with effective use of pace, pause.  Every reason to go howl at the moon!

We do it all again next Thursday 8th February, meanwhile our thoughts go out to Ian, who after over 35 years as a member of Pania Toastmasters has had to defer his attendance in the interim due to ill-health.