"PARTY IN YOUR HEAD!"

"Party in your Head" was the intriguing title of our only speech today at Pania Toastmaster's weekly meeting and what an interesting presentation it was!
The meeting was opened by 'first time Toastmaster' Sandy, who did a wonderful job of keeping the items connected and also utilised the theme of a 'full moon' to advantage. A colourful and well set out program set the scene, well done Sandy!

After a unfortunately long list of apologies, supplemented by the presence of two guests, Trish and Tina ( who  capably read the mission statement) we were underway with the speech by Carol, "Party in Your Head!" introduced by Darryl.Carol brought along her Yoga Mat as a prop and explained to us about the 'vagus nerve' (Google it if you have not heard of it) and the importance that it has on the well being and health of individuals. Three interesting points emerged for me from this presentation,1. You cannot frown with a pen in your mouth!! 2. It takes 66 days to form a habit!! 3. Touching is good for your health (just be careful where you touch!).Carol presented this informative speech in her usual bright and cheerful manner and it also contained plenty of humour, which was one of the objectives set. Who is going to do 'that' exercise for the next 66 days when they first get out of bed in the morning??
Darryl praised Carol (rhymes eh!!) for her presentation and also had some worthwhile suggestions for her but overall thought it was an excellent presentation.

With only one speech we had an elongated Table Topics session run superbly by Mike, during which six members (including guest Trish) gave their  varied opinions on subjects gained from song titles and words from some of Mike's favourite singers. Mike was even encouraged to sing some of the words (but one must do what one must do!!). The subjects ranged from Moon Dancing to being positive about the rain to being swallowed in the bowells of the earth to liking where you live to changing times and finally to shopping in second hand stores. Great answers came from Graeme, Paula,Linda,Jen,Noel and Trish.
Jen evaluated the Table Topics session and had many commendations for all the speakers and also for Mike, who she actually was able to utilise part of her time during table topics to give us a few lines from Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. 'hallelujah!!!'

During the business session our latest member, Paula, was 'officially inducted into the Club' and we know that she will be a great asset to us. Craig , briefly discussed the Distinguished Club Plan and the fact that we had achieved 5 goals but required another member to make our membership 20  by 30th June and 'officially' be recognised as a Distinguished Club, when one of our guests Trish, volunteered as that member and signed up after the meeting. Well done everyone on achieving "Distinguished Club" status.

Craig, as General Evaluator, wrapped up the meeting with the assistance of Lou (standing in for the arranged Timekeeper, Noel). We do it all again next week, when we will have the first of the 'President's Lunch meetings', where, after our normal 55 minute meeting, those than can will stay for a quick bite to eat and some socialising until 1.30. This will be once a month and advised in advance.

Best Table Topic ; Trish
Best Evaluator; Jen
Best Speaker; Carol

"NO FISH!! FEELING S.A.D.?"

Baby it’s cold outside!’ crooned Frank Sinatra in the 50’s, and the same could be said for the meeting today with the winter solstice upon us. While the meeting theme was wintertime, the welcome from our Toastmaster Craig to our three guests and members was as warm as ever. Craig also took on the grammarian role with the word ‘EXTREME’.

First up was an inspirational speech by Lou, and she was warmly introduced by Carol. Using the objectives as a guide, Carol prepared the audience by informing them of what she was looking for and I’m sure this helped our guests to appreciate that there is much more to speechmaking than just standing in front of an audience. ‘No Fish’ was the title and the role of plastic in causing the death of marine life both fish and birds was well-delivered by Lou, as were the steps we can take to limit the use of these death traps in our own lives. I particularly liked the way she told us how she walks the talk of creating a greener, safer world.

Carol suggested that Lou review her main points at the conclusion of her speech. This would help the audience retain the information and the useful steps that we can take to reduce our own environmental footprint. A second recommendation ‘not to be nervous’ may be harder for her to follow, but this will definitely rectify itself with continued speech practice.

Marc introduced our second speaker Laurel with the apt description ‘illustrious’. ‘Feeling SAD’ was the title of her speech. Laurel suffers from Seasonally Affective Disorder during the drab winter months. Her story of her particularly difficult first few days of life in the bleak winter of 1946 was a poignant introduction to why she dislikes the cold so much. This winter affliction affects many people and I’m sure that members felt warmed and informed by her well researched information. ‘Brain freeze and low sex drive’ are just some of the ways our bodies react to the cold.

There were some difficulties identified by Marc with managing the labels as they were applied to the whiteboard. But it was an interesting method to illustrate the myriad of ways that the body is affected by short, cold winter days. I really appreciate it when members try new ways of delivering information.

The Table Topics session was very professionally managed by Tamara. It followed the theme of the Winter Solstice and the natural rhythms of the earth, and she had excellent topics to challenge the participants.

First up was Graeme - What types of winter activities do you enjoy? - For a man who grew up in the bottom of the South Island, he finds the mildness of Napier a breeze to cope with, so he doesn't find any problems in winter that he needs to surmount.

Paula - Your favourite celebration? - This took a little while to get off the ground as she told us about the horrors of Christmas, but she soon warmed to the theme and chose Easter for relaxation and family time.

Carol – How do you relax? – She revelled in warm soapy water, candles and bath salts, followed by clean white sheets in bed with no children or watching a movie with her husband, ah bliss….

Mark – What is your vision for the future? – Never one to let an opportunity pass him by, Marc shared his vision for a stunning TM conference to be held in Napier in two year’s time. Sounds great!

The Table Topics session was ably evaluated by Sandy who executed a skilful commend/recommend format and gave all participants good feedback.

The meeting was summarised by Linda, The General Evaluator, who in the limited time available aptly gave good feedback to the Evaluators, and said "read the Blog" for more details!! She was assisted by the Timekeeper, Graeme, who it is fair to stay pointed out that we were running close to time part way through the meeting. Toastmaster-take note!!! (Ed)

Best Speaker; Laurel

Best Evaluator; Sandy

Best Table Topic; Paula (our newest member!)

"THE MAGIC OF BELIEVING!"

The Magic of Believing.

Tamara was the first time Toastmaster and had a well laid out and colourful programme with the theme The Magic of Believing. She also had a new and very practical room lay out, although the TM’s table could have been set further back to enable the speakers to include everyone.

Sandy was the first speaker with her informative presentation about the consequences of global warming. Sandy was introduced and evaluated by Lou. Her first time as an evaluator. Lou did a very good job and told us a little about Sandy in her introduction and read the speech objectives. She referred to the objectives again in her evaluation and spoke in the third person. Her recommendation for Sandy was to slow down a little.

Graeme was the second speaker with a presentation from the Competent Communicator manual. For the eighth time apparently! Graeme told us about his trip around the lower South Island on his new motor bike when he was just 21. He sent telegrams (a pre-internet email) to his Mum at every stop and was home in time for tea.

Graeme was evaluated by Darryl who commended his vocal variety and picked up on Graeme’s phrasing of a sentence and found a flaw in Graeme’s time and distance calculations.

Craig was the Table Topics Master and kept to The Magic of Believing theme. He quoted words from the I Believe song, but didn’t actually sing. The four Table Topics were all about belief. The afterlife, self-esteem, Santa Claus and is NZ all it is promoted to be?

Table Topics were evaluated by Marc with good commendations and recommendations.

The meeting was well summarised by the General Evaluator, Mike, who had stepped in at the last minute and he was assisted by the Timekeeper, Linda, who was a little late arriving but got us finished on time!!(Ed)

Best Speaker – Sandy

Best Evaluator – Marc

Best Table Topics - Linda 

"CYCLING & THE COMMUNITY"

CYCLING AND COMMUNITY

On a wet and chilly Thursday lunchtime there was a gathering of Pania Toastmasters.  All those fulfilling roles were … except for the Toastmaster or the Day!  Fortunately Graeme stood in and kicked off the meeting, until our schedule Toastmaster for the Day, Carol, arrived after battling heavy traffic. An excellent colourful program was provided (if a little late!) with a June theme.
 Our first speaker was Noel speaking from the old classic Competent Communicator manual.  His talk about the chess like game of cycling pelotons was entertaining and informative.  In his evaluation, Mike congratulated Noel on ‘stepping outside the box’ of a traditional speech and using voice, props, and actions did something that was different to other speeches Noel has done.
  Next up was Table Topics presented by Laurel.  Each ‘victim’ got 4 random cards with pictures on them and were required to make a story from them.  Craig talked about building houses with a garden; Tamara talked about travelling and eating food; Carol talked about her travels to the UK and a possible Russian adventure; and Mike was just being a clown.
The second speaker of the day was Craig who talked about the Napier City Patrol which supplemented the police in providing patrols of the Napier area in an effort to reduce crime.  It was Tamara’s first evaluation and she did well praising Craig for his presentation and even providing recommendations, always a challenge when evaluating an experienced speaker.
  Table topics was ably evaluated by Linda who was able to cheerfully provide both commendations an recommendations to all speakers.
 Darryl summed up the meeting extremely well, in the extra time that he had available and was assisted by the Timekeeper Graeme, who managed to keep us ahead of time!! (Ed)
Speaker of the day was Noel; Evaluator of the day was Tamara; and Table Topics Speaker of the day was Carol.
We do it all again next week with Tamara as the Toastmaster, I am sure we are in for an excellent meeting!
—

"BIODIVERSITY ROASTING!"

Today's Toastmaster's meeting at Pania Toastmasters was well led by Toastmaster, Mike in a friendly, relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.

Linda's  introduction of the first speaker, she introduced two people! Linda also explained the speaker, Darryl, would perform ‘The Roast’ that would poke fun at a particular individual in a good-natured way with Patrick as his ‘subject’.

Darryl roasted Patrick in a very funny way and started with a well preformed mimic of Patrick’s Dutch accent followed with references to his body length, tech savvy knowledge and how Dutch spouses love to call each other “poopie”. Yes, that indeed does refer to: poo! Bah! At the end of Darryl’s roast he rhetorically questioned why Patrick is always smiling and  full of energy. Of course Darryl already knew the answer: Cookies! The authentic Dutch cookies. With some additional plant extract purchased from the well known 'coffee' shops!!

In Linda’s evaluation she commended Darryl on his humour and the way he performed The Roast in an very organised manner, without upsetting his subject!!

Graeme introduced Anna's speech, about a speech contests for children that she is organising, with regards to Biodiversity. Graeme prepared the audience to act as the aimed audience: 10 year old’s.!!

Right from the start of the speech Jen and Darryl were able to meet the criteria with ease, like this was the first moment to unleash all the saved up feelings from the moment they turned 11. Entertaining, but foremost interesting, to experience.

The main act, Anna’s speech, did explain to us what biodiversity is, how to involve people with biodiversity and how to speak about biodiversity. To assist her with the speech Anna handed out the beautiful designed A3 stencil with all the information she is using to give insights about how to plan a great talk, biodiversity speech topics and reference to more information.

Graeme’s evaluation of Anna's speech did give Anna a few recommendations which she is probably  able to use to refine her speech and he also commended  Anna on her interesting topic and the use of her abundant knowledge.

The Table Topics for today was presented by Jen and she picked the Queen’s birthday as theme.

Graeme was very upfront that he was thinking it would be a disaster when Charles takes over the sovereignty. After that Graeme shared his reflection about all the things Charles actually did that had not made it to the news and did change his mind to be sure Charles will do very well as new King.

Tamara was asked about what preparation she would do and receive when she’ll meet the Queen and Tamara is very keen on wearing a bright pink dress and also rehearsed how she would move and to be even more polite.

In his representation for New Zealand Craig would wear a Maori feather Korowai with a suit and would state that he is perfectly capable to represent New Zealand because he really IS the average Kiwi. He also would welcome the Queen to visit Napier. Craig was able to give a twist on the subject and also expressed his concerns about the ‘social climber’ Camilla.

With his Dutch background Marc was asked about the Royals of The Netherlands and he was clear that the only reason he would visit The Netherlands is when he was Knighted. The only problem with that is the bad shape of his knee and therefore Marc demonstrated when and how he would do the warm-up just before the King would tip him with his sword.

In this Table Topics we also had two persons new to table topics and performed their first Table Topics ever:

Paula was asked about her opinion if a country wanted to move away from The Commonwealth and Paula promoted that strongly. She did add, with reference to Brexit, that it would be very sensible to make that decision only if sported by a majority of their inhabitants.

In her reflection on the Royal Wedding Liz answered that she watched the wedding at her friend's place, the bride herself. Together with some good friends, all famous people of course. A wonderful experience, although she was a bit worried about the excessive speed the chauffeur was driving her friend ‘Meg’  to Windsor Castle. Well done to our two guests , who were asked and agreed to take part in Table Topics.

Kristy’s first evaluation was this Table Topics Evaluation. And what a job she did! There were a lot of speakers and for each and every speaker she had at least some commendations and her recommendations were also perfectly pitched with her explicit reason why she thinks improvement is possible. With this first evaluation Kristy made us look  forward  to the next time we are being evaluated by her when making a speech.

Meeting was wound up by General Evaluator , Patrick and Timekeeper, Laurel with their well presented reports.

Today, a swag of impressions, information and jokes, all within the 55 minutes a week  Pania Toastmasters  stands for. 

Trophies:

- Best Speaker: Anna

- Best Table Topics: Paula

- Best Evaluator: Kristy