"BIODIVERSITY with THE MAGNIFICENT 7!"

Sandy was our Toastmaster for today, the room was set up very well and she welcomed everyone for our meeting.
After the apologies Craig was in for an EmpoweRRRRRRRed Mission Statement.

The theme for this meeting was biodiversity because of the Biodiversity Day last 21 May.
Sandy explained that although New Zealand doesn’t have any ancient buildings, we have a much more important heritage: our Kiwi’s and Kakapo’s; our New Zealand endemic species. And we should be very proud and also more than careful with them because if the last one dies in New Zealand, the whole species is gone. Forever.

For the word of the day our Grammarian Carol selected: Serendipitous, and explained with an example why this word is so meaningful for her.

Our first speaker Graeme was introduced by Jen with a personal anecdote and she was straight to the point.

Graeme’s title of his speech was: The Magnificent 7!

This speech was a contribute to the Magnificent 7. The people who supported him in the 3 days before Graeme’s final Humorous Speech contest. And according to Greame without their support he definitely wouldn’t won the final and become the best Humorous Speaker of New Zealand. Why? Because he was nervous. Nervousness isn’t new to Greame. He explained not only new members are nervous before a speech. He described a few different moments up to the minutes before his speech in the final where his nerves almost failed him from doing his award winning speech. His best friends who supported him, The Magnificent 7, kept him going and prevented him from losing control because of his nerves..
Graeme’s last words of this presentation: “I lived my dream. and I’ll never forget The Magnificent 7.”

In  her humorous evaluation, Jen commended Graeme on this personal speech, that everyone could relate to this and he definitely did meet all the objectives with his speech.

Lou introduced the second speaker Laurel with her speech titled: Emotional Hijacking. The introduction included some personal details from Laurel and the objectives of the speech as well. And a special mention to something that could happen to all of us: when we forget the title. This was handled by Lou very professional and it did not detract from her very good introduction.

A snake in the kitchen was Laurel's catching introduction to Emotional Hijacking which everyone immediately understood. With a clear image of the brain Laurel explained that the normal pattern of hearing and seeing goes through the Thalamus, the visual cortex and to the Amydala which triggers our response. Sometimes, like with the snake, it takes a shortcut and triggers from the Thalamis a direct response in the Amydala. Usually one like: RUN! The second image Laurel used in her presentation contained the DISC personality styles (Direct, Influencer, Steady, Conscientious). She explained the different styles and if we are not aware of our and others communication stype we can trigger a (too) direct response from our Amydala. To work effectively members need to be able to adjust their communication style and have different styles in the team.

The evaluation of Laurel from Lou was one like every evaluation should be. A question for the public, the objectives, great commendations, a recommendation and even the reference to the response of the members watching the speech of Laurel.

In the General Business our new member Benita took the oath together with the commitment from our members to support Benita.

Today’s Table Topics were presented by Anna and had a theme in line with the meeting: endemic species. Anna referred to the Blue Penguin, Tuatara and the Yellow Eyed Penguin.
Jane was asked what rare species she would place on a New Zealand note. At first Jane would change the current colours of the notes and put ‘New Zealand’ really prominent on it. And a Kiwi and the Queen, of course. The notes needs to be simple and of high quality.
Benita was asked what she would do to protect our endemic species. In comparison to other countries Benita states New Zealand is quite a safe country. To protect endemic species she would like to place them on a Science Island near Wellington and have domestic animals wear bells. Benita thinks should encourage biodiversity more and that we are heading in the right direction and should keep going strong.
Israel was asked about the creepy crawlies. And o-boy, he really hates them! And the day before our meeting he encountered a spider on his desk! What a horror. And he dashed straight for the Raid Spray to conquer it. But the spider did already run off! And Israel demonstrated his fear in a very scary and even more so humorous way by jumping around like the spyder was on his back and crawling towards hie ear. Yikes! And after this leapfrog demonstration Israel pointed out actually how disappointed he was in the biodiversity her because in Mexico they told him there are no spiders in New Zealand.

After the Table Topics Julie evaluated all the Table Topics contestants and she did that for the first time. For each and every member she applied CRC-method perfectly and with remarkable detail as well. Where did she got that from? Are we sure she wasn’t a Toastmaster member somewhere else? An awesome job, especially for a new member and we are looking forward to her future evaluations.

Last but not least was Patrick with his General Evaluation and he pointed out on the exceptional fun and educational meeting, speakers and evaluators.

After that Sandy thanked all the members and welcomed all of us for our meeting upcoming week.

This weeks Awards go to:

Best Speaker: Graeme

Best Table Topics: Benita

Best Evaluator: Julie.