"MOON STRUCK!"

What an interesting meeting!  Started off with Carol our Toastmaster giving us an insight with regard to current Lunar activity.  Loved your agenda.  This theme was apparent throughout the whole meeting.  Thanks Carol.  Your efforts were very much appreciated.

'TO USE (BODY LANGUAGE) OR NOT THAT IS THE QUESTION!"

Our meeting last Thursday , was as warm and friendly as the weather outside . 

Toastmaster Noel , provided us with a very nice agenda and a warm welcome . 

Kerry Howley paid a visit and as our new Area Director it was  a triple pleasure , an ex member, the presidents wife and Area Director ! 

Heather came along for the first time and we hope she will come again. 

"ICE BREAKER IN SIBERIA!"

The meeting of 12 July was attended by 12 hearty souls and we were pleased to have Barbara  back as a visitor, but quickly had a role as Mission Statement reader. Toastmaster Graeme welcomed all with bright yellow agenda and took a long list of apologies which was accepted with due process.

First speaker Paula was introduced by Craig. Paula explained in her icebreaker, entitled "A Soundbite and a wee insight into Paula!" her role as a paid and volunteer motivator and skills coach and then described the goals she wished to fulfil in her Toastmaster's membership. As Craig evaluated this was a “top bracket” icebreaker by Paula with her attention grabbing start, dynamic gestures, and passed on a sense of enjoyment that all added to gaining and maintaining attention. Craig struggled to find just one recommendation but suggested that Paula limit the number of items to be introduced and discussed, which applies to all 5-7 minute speeches. Excellent Ice Breaker, well done Paula!

Carol introduced Tamara who gave her third speech about her recent trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Mongolia. She illustrated her address with photos using the television the club now has on tap. Her description of a Siberian sauna sounded like it was almost an actual ice-breaker! Her descriptions of the landscapes and experiences were fascinating. Carol’s evaluation was very positive and mentioned how standing in the right location when using screens needs to be carefully considered.

Lou introduced table topics with a theme of “making time to help” in which Marc Barbara and Paula were asked to describe different instances of helping by themselves or by others. All three responded very well as evaluated by Mike who was unable to identify recommendations. He judged Marc’s as the best table topic.

Noel rounded off the meeting with a very efficient General Evaluation assisted by Sandy, who  gave a comprehensive timekeepers report and Noel gave awards for best speech to Paula for her Ice Breaker and best evaluator to Craig. A great meeting well coordinated by Graeme.

"FOOTBALL- MY OTHER WORLD!"

Football - My Other World.

Yet another interesting, informative and fun Pania meeting on 5th July.

Craig was the Toastmaster and had the Football World Cup as his theme, with flags and balloons to emphasize the festive occasion.

New member Trish read the Mission Statement.

Craig was also Linda’s evaluator.

Linda, gave a presentation titled My Other World, about her experiences in Iran. She made use of the club’s new TV and showed a Power Point of photos of her life in Iran. Linda also got dressed appropriately for Iran.

In his evaluation, Craig gave the objectives of the project and recommended that Linda position the TV further forward and look at the laptop screen rather than back at the TV and therefore maintain better eye contact with the audience. He also recommended that Linda quote her research sources.

Craig had some commendations for Linda, but they could have been promoted a little more to give a more balanced evaluation.

The next speaker was Marc, who was introduced and evaluated by Graeme.

Marc presented his Pathways Icebreaker, which coincidentally matched the theme of the meeting and was all about football and Marc’s successful history as a player, referee and coach. Marc wore a football shirt and had a number of personal, football related visual aids.

In his evaluation, Graeme gave good commendations, such as use of visual aids, speaking rate, eye contact.  His suggestions (Graeme prefers suggestions to recommendations) for Marc were to give himself more speaking space and to move the visual aids table closer, so that he didn’t need to walk back and forth as much.

Graeme overlooked stating the project objectives and the speech title.

Table Topics was presented by Darryl who had a sports theme that was complementary to the meeting theme and interspersed the topics with shouts of Goal and Strike.

Tamara - Spoke about playing an underwater sport and chose underwater hockey. Tamara knew something about underwater hockey because her brother used to play it.

Trish – Favourite sport as a child. Trish spoke about growing up on a farm and riding horses, so Equestrian was her favourite sport and still is.

Noel – How to combine cycling, skiing and soccer in one sport. Noel avoided directly answering the topic but spoke about rugby and soccer.

Darryl summed up the session with a shout of We Won.

Patrick was the Table Topics evaluator and gave good commendations for each speaker but not many recommendations, except for Trish to use her hands for gestures, rather than clasped.

Mike, as General Evaluator, summed the meeting up well with suggestions for some of the Evaluators and many commendations. He was assisted by the Timekeeper, Carol, and we finished pretty well on time.(Ed)

We then had the first of a possible monthly nibble/chat session for those that could stay so that we had some social time with the other members. I believe this was worthwhile and could well be continued, even perhaps bi-monthly! (Ed) 

Best Speaker – Marc 

Best Evaluator – Craig 

Best Table Topics - Trish