"SCUBA DIVING AT BIRTH!"

Open Water Diving / Birth Repercussions" These were the two intriguing titles of Pania's excellent meeting held on 24th May.  Read more:

Linda chaired the meeting beautifully.  Not only did she give a very friendly greeting but also reminded us of Saturdays Royal Wedding.  A nice touch appreciated by everyone.

Darryl  introduced Tamara by outlining the speech objectives and what a speech it was!  Her enthusiasm and knowledge was outstanding.  The detail gave everyone an insight as to what under water swimming is all about.  Well done!   So was the explanation of the sort of  qualifications one requires.  Tamara should feel proud of her efforts.  After all this is only her second assignment!

Darryl showed his experience with a very thoughtful evaluation.  Darryl gave a nice balance by placing more emphasis on praise with some suggestions for improvement.   This included aspects such as speech rate.

Marc introduced Kristy by following a similar path to that of Darryl.  Interesting that Kristy was also presenting her second assignment.  So good to have another person setting herself such a high standard!  What an easy to relate to subject.  So true to life - that of getting hand me downs!  Wow!  What a story. Brought back memories for me that's for sure.  Seemed like the audience felt much the same.  Liked your use of humour.  Well done Kristy!

Marc is a very experienced evaluator and his feedback was a lesson for us all.  The explanation he gave for his comments gave clarity as to why he said what he did.  Kristy would have benefitted from such inciteful comments.

Pania is lucky to have people like Darryl and Marc as evaluators.  Come and see for yourself!

Table Topics were provided by Patrick.  He chose to ask the speakers subjects relating from Queen Victoria's day (from way back in 1819) and relate it to NZ as it is now.  Wow!  Sure got us thinking!
Especially Lou, Mike, Linda and Craig.
For one brief moment I wondered if Patrisk didn't really like us.
Very good effort from those taking part and thanks Patrick.  I looked at all the questions and appreciate his efforts.

Noel evaluated Table Topics and provided each speaker with worthwhile comment.  Noel always sets himself a high standard and today was no exception.  Thanks Noel.

Craig gave his timekeepers report. Short, sharp, succinct.  Thanks Craig.

Linda concluded the meeting on a very positive note by thanking all those taking part.

Best speaker -  Tamara
Best evaluator - Marc
Best table topics - Linda
 

              

"The AGM was Under Milk Wood"

Toastmasters meeting 17 May 2018:

A quick Annual General Meeting Under Milk Wood

Today's Toastmasters was an historic one.

Not only because we listened to a beautiful bard, and had excellent evaluation's, it was the Pania's first and fastest (ever?) AGM!

First of we started with the very intense radio drama presented by Mike from poet Dylan Thomas called "Under Milk Wood."

A marvellous well presented bard echoing the silence of a small town in the dark of the night.

Because we all know Mike as an expressive speaker, this bard with all it's whispering, voice pitches and pauses was an exemplary performed, beautiful story.

Noel evaluated Mike's bard with good analytical quality together with a useful and well explained recommendation, next to all the rightful comments.

Next up was our AGM (Annual General Meeting) presented by our current and   next President of Pania Toastmasters: Marc.

Within a short time frame, Marc was able to get through the Executive Reports, Financial Report, Election of Officers and our upcoming Club Social Dinner at the right pace throughout .

Also present this meeting was the Toastmasters Area Director, Christine , she used this opportunity to have a short talk about the challenges for the Toastmasters 'community', splitting of the Districts into two smaller ones with the advantage to be more visual. She spoke also about the introduction of the Pathways program, gave special thanks to the current and new executive officers and Christine ended her talk with the reference of AI and computers taking over a lot of different jobs, except the jobs with high degree of personal communication, and for the same reason (sales was one of the lowest occupations expected to be taken over by automation) she praised Toastmasters for the ability to improve the personal communication so important in the sales process of one to one.

Our Table Topics was presented by our colourful Laurel. She introduced the magnificent colours in the rainbow and gave all the colours present, in the right sequence(ROYGBIV). The table topics were related to one of the colours each contributor was allowed to pick.

Kristy went for the things that makes you see Red and revealed some spicy private matters and her Red busy work life.

Greame picked the Blue for the question if we have sufficient Blue police with our growing violent society. And for a long time...Graeme actually answered a Table Topics question! With a firm NO. He also questioned if the huge amount of people we do need would be able to meet the high demanding profile and mentioned he has a lot of respect for police officers.

Tamara stated she likes the positive influence of Orange that much she would like to encourage people to take more advantage of the Orange traffic lights. Why not?

Linda's Violet with the reference to roses and violets was asked how she'd handle rude and objective people. Linda answered that question from her profession as psychologist and stated that anger is an primal emotion we need to take control of our self and the best way to start is with a lot of marshmallow-control!!.

Christine picked the NZ clean Green country question and stated that NZ is not that green as we think it should be and asked to mind our and others behaviour in throwing away rubbish.

Laurel ended the superb Table Topics with the question for all of us: "Where does your Yellow brick road lead you?" An excellent session with some colourful answers!

Last and certainly not least was the first Table Topics Evaluation from Lou. And in exactly 3 minutes she was able to make very good commendations for every speaker and she did also made some good recommendations. Evaluations at Toastmasters is one of the most challenging parts and Lou did make a very good impression with added value for this and her upcoming evaluations.

Patrick completed the meeting with his General Evaluation assisted by the timekeeper Darryl, who advised that we started early, but the Toastmaster of the day, Craig, said it was the Toastmaster's prerogative and we had a very full program to complete, which we managed on time.

Best Speaker; Mike

Best Evaluator; Lou

Best Table Topic; Graeme

Officers selected for the Upcoming Toastmaster's Year commencing 1st July 2018 were;

PRESIDENT; Marc

V/P EDUCATION; Patrick

V/P MEMBERSHIP; Jen

V/P PUBLIC RELATIONS; Tamara

SECRETARY; Craig

TREASURER; Carol

SGT at ARMS; Graeme

That's how we roll at Toastmasters Pania.

"IF YOU ARE HALE & HEARTY YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!"

"Celebration Time !! Ah Ha!"

Celebration was the theme for today's Pania Toastmaster's meeting well run by Anna, Toastmaster for the day, who connected the items together in a celebratory manner with her usual enthusiasm and exuberance!!

While a smallish number of members attended we had an excellent meeting, with one guest, Barbara (Laurel's sister), two great speeches and Table Topics. First up was Patrick, introduced by Laurel, Patrick was doing his second speech from the Pathways program 'Motivational Strategies' entitled "I can do anything!" He went on to prove that even with his serious accident many years ago-he probably still can do anything. Spoke about a walk/run that he did last weekend of 28kms, including uphill sections and tackling mud!  A long day (over 6 hours-but who is counting?), the point is he completed the course on track for a triatholon!! Patrick's (for whom English is a second language) is coming on extremely well and this speech was no exception.
In her evaluation, Laurel, rightly praised Patrick for his many good points and was able to give him a couple of excellent suggestions for improvement, particularly how he could go about implementing those suggestions. Well done to both Patrick and Laurel.

Next speaker was, Linda, introduced by Carol, Linda's speech was again from the same 'path' as Patricks, again the second assignment and was entitled "Hale & Hearty!" Linda explained the need for good health both physically and mentally drawing on her work as a Psychologist in four areas (Sleep, Nutrition,Exercise and Stress). A very well constructed speech and while some technical terms were utilised the material was presented in such a manner to enable the 'layman' to understand.Congratulations, Linda, interesting and educational, and well put across.Carol , in her evaluation, had excellent structure to it and and many compliments for Linda, plus a couple of worthwhile suggestions. Excellent.

Table topics was run  by Jen, and she prewarned members that they would be based around our theme of Celebration. Mike ,Anna & Carol were the lucky recipients of questions and all answered well with good structure and humour. A really fun session!!
Graeme evaluated Table Topics in his usual efficient and humorous manner, with some 'tongue in cheek' suggestions to the speakers all taken in good heart.(must have been a flow on from Linda's speech!!)

The business session by Craig covered the Conference in Auckland last weekend, where unfortunately our Marc went overtime in the Evaluation Contest!!! Timing is important. Past member Kerry is to be our new Area Director (we will be in Area M2 with Palmerston North/Whanganui).Also when doing a speech from the Pathways program, the speaker must bring along a copy of the Evaluation form for the evaluator to complete.

Craig wrapped up the meeting with a quick General Evaluation assisted by the Timekeeper Lou.

Best Speaker; Linda
Best Evaluator; Laurel
Best Table Topic; Carol

We do it all again next week, come along and enjoy!!

"SPEAKING OF THE DANCING QUEEN!!!"

What a welcome Pania toastmasters got to their meeting on Thursday , our resident Dancing Queen……. Carol, took us on a journey back in time , when ABBA commanded the airwaves.

Carol had produced a bright cheery programme. She had done a good job of briefing other contributors to the meeting of her them for the day .

With two exceptions ,we could all remember the ABBA days and to the two members  who don’t ……….bad luck !!! It was a great era.


Mike introduced Anna who spoke about filling your life and living your dreams .In a beautifully crafted speech we learned what some of Annas dreams are .

Mikes evaluation was well done , he re visited the objectives, spoke in the third person , had a lot of commendations for Anna intermingled with his recommendations .

A great table topics session by Tamara , she presented some curly thoughts that had meters thinking and even got Craig singing .

The next part of the meeting was devoted to the explanation of officer roles ,where we hope we can whet the appetite of a few new members or even not so new to serve on the committee , its not hard work in fact its the easiest  committee you will ever serve on .
Two changes that will make a difference though , are that Craig understandably no longer wishes to hold the role of VP Education . This is a vital role any one interested should spend time with Craig prior to his or her taking the role. .

During the general business a round of applause was given to Craig who seems to walk on water when it comes to his bouncing back  !! Most people take more than one week off after a heart attack and subsequent surgery !!

The general evaluation,by Jan , included the time keepers report by Patrick,( a lesson in brevity .) followed.

The table topics were evaluated by Darryl , with good commendations given to speakers and to the Table Topics master .

A big thanks to our dancing queen, Carol, for a great meeting .

Best Speech; Anna
Best Evaluation: Darryl
Best Table Topic; Kristy