"AN AFFAIR WITH BIRDS"

Two meetings in one…

Last Thursday the club held it’s AGM as part of its meeting, so to ensure everything ran to time we had “Captain Efficiency” Jen at the helm, and she ran a very slick meeting indeed.

It was an incredible attendance too; eighteen in total, requiring our sergeant at arms, Graeme to go fossicking for more chairs!

Israel read our mission statement with that great voice of his, showing excellent pace as well.

Patrick introduced our first speaker, Lou, covering her speech objectives on using visual aids. I suggested using the format speaker, title, title, speaker at the end of the introduction.

Sadly, the laptop and tv must’ve had an argument the night before, as they refused to talk to each other, and so Lou was forced to use her laptop instead to illustrate the different birds in our backyards. Lou had some wonderful illustrations as she told us about the kinds of birds we are likely to see and I’m sure converted a few of us into avid bird watchers.

I mentioned that Kerry and I bought a projector last year and have it available if anybody requires it.

Carol introduced Julie, again covering the objectives. There were a few um’s and ah’s in her introduction which it would be great if she could reduce or eliminate.

Julie spoke about her affair and kept us guessing as to what it might be. A wonderful way to start things off. Julie told us a story about her house buying history, interspersed with travel from Sydney to London, Wellington and finally Hawkes Bay. And then right at the end we were left with two things to take away from her experiences.

Patrick’s evaluation of Lou was thoughtful and with great structure, while offering Lou plenty of commendations and a couple of recommendations.

Carol too had excellent analysis in her evaluation, providing good feedback to Julie on her speech.

Sahar was our timekeeper and did a great job on keeping us all on track during the meeting.

It was now time for the AGM, where all the reports were presented and voted in by the audience. It was so pleasing to see we smashed the quorum requirement. Also pleasing was the healthier bank balance, thanks in no small amount to Craig with the two sausage sizzles held at Mitre10. This certainly helps relieve some of the pressure that comes around when semi-annuals are due.

Following the reports, we were asked to vote in our new executive for the coming 2019/2020 year. My congratulations to those that put their hand up and offered to take on a role, as well as my sincere thanks to those that have been on the executive for the past year.

We still had a bit of time left so it was a case of quick-fire Table Topics, which was a fun and fitting way to end this part of the meeting.

Finally, for those that were able to stay behind, we were able to enjoy a scrummy lunch together before heading on our merry way!

Best Speaker Award; Julie

Best Evaluator Award; Patrick