"SEEING GOALS MATERIALIZE!"

A clear vision on good leadership brings happiness!

Again we had what I enjoy so much at Toastmasters: the fabulous mix of a humorous, but also informative meeting at the Pania Club! There was a long list of apologies, but nevertheless we had a very successful meeting, including time to catch up over lunch after the official part was over.

Jen was our Toastmaster, leading into the meeting with an account of her recent most horrific day with a computer system crash – which she presented in her typical earnest way, but never failing to make us all laugh and giggle and see the quirkiness in the situation.

First speaker Graeme was introduced warmly by Tamara, who informed us that the objective of Graeme’s speech was to use visual aids. Matching the objective in a double sense, Graeme talked about his trip to an optometrist. Wittily, he weaved through his speech the mystery behind the acronym OPSM, also jesting about the staff and his interpretations for his poor eye sight, but then lead to the discovery of his eye problem that needed hospital treatment. Everything came to a positive end – but with us still pondering about OPSM. In her evaluation, Tamara summarised that the speech’s objectives were met and gave a clear analysis of the speech’s structure and how the message was conveyed.

Trish was Table Topics Master with the theme Happiness, and we learnt of the existence of a world happiness day in August, which was then expanded to the whole month of August.

As the first Table Topic speaker, Trish asked Marc to talk about what excites him most in life. Marc, in two minutes packed with energy, vocal variety and gestures told us he likes to be challenged and this is why he loves Toastmasters and specifically Table Topics – to make something up on the spot –even if it’s lies. This earned him the award for the best Table Topic Speaker. There were three more table topics on the theme of happiness, answered by Sandy remembering past and current volunteer work; Mike, who talked about the joy of picking up ukulele lessons as an adult; and Patrick who told us that ending up lonely at old age is nothing to be afraid of, as there are many happy things one can do at a later stage in life.

Lou evaluated the Table Topics session in a comprehensive way, by offering commendations and recommendation to each speaker.

The second speaker Laurel was introduced by Patrick. He explained that the goal of Laurel’s speech was to learn and review researched matter. Laurel presented on the research done by an Auckland professor on social and psychological aspects of corporate leadership. The core message was that in order to achieve goals, there is a high need to capture voluntary cooperation and willingness of the employees, which Laurel explained by using the example of the Toastmasters organisation. She also visualised a conceptual model on courageous conversation on the board and touched on the background vita of the professor. Patrick evaluated the speech and highlighted the quality of research, structure and content. With all this Laurel was providing an extremely informative talk.

Toastmaster Jen led through the meeting smoothly, and keeping it on time, cordially shaking every participant’s hands as they were called on stage.

I (Sandy) finished the meeting with the general evaluation, noting that a lot of my recommendations I would give to myself, too, while I was realising the difficulties in this role. The time keeper Linda kindly shortened her report to a few seconds to rescue the general evaluator going significantly over time – some room for improvement here, but in the end, that’s why we are here!

We all finished the meeting with upright humour and moved to a shared lunch to catch up with each other.

Best Table Topics – Marc

Best speech – Graeme

Best evaluator - Patrick