"LOSING THE MOST TO GAIN THE LEAST WITH THE RAIN AND ENVIRONMENT!"

Lou ran a good meeting with the theme ‘Benefits of Rain’ and asked Sahar to introduce her guest which was her husband, Medon.

Recognition and thanks were given to Marc for the new music stand – very helpful and appreciated by all.

Craig’s introduction of Anna gave us a good insight and background into the project that she was working on from an Advanced Manual 'Facilitating Discussion' Project Three – 'The Problem Solving Discussion' which many of us “newbies” haven’t seen. Helpful and powerful as Anna wasn’t giving a speech so much as an excerpt of a presentation on “3 Locals, A Global Mess and Powerful Source to Change”

Very interesting information shared, and Anna certainly grabbed our [audience] attention when she held a banana and a Kumara and asked us to consider where we would put these …. Bold opening and in usual Anna style, filled with good information, humour and gratitude for the people who supported her and contributed to her research. A 10-minute spot with discussion and input of ideas from the audience on how we could look at ways Pania as a club could support reducing the carbon footprint.

Definitely food for thought not only for the club, ourselves personally. Thanks Anna.

General Business by Jen was specific and to the point. Get your RSVP’s in for dinner on Thursday 27th.

Julie gave us a delightful introduction of Israel including background on what the purpose of his talk was going to be. The language and articulation together with mannerisms and gratitude and compassion for the speaker continue [I feel] to raise the standards at Pania Toastmasters Club.

“Losing the Most to Gain the Least” topic for Israel’s entertaining and intriguing story about a boy with his hand stuck in a very expensive vase. It was almost a Fable (in my eyes) with underlying messages of hanging on to something (in this case a penny) and not wanting to drop that inexpensive item [or behaviour] and it is resulting in significant loss. Financial or otherwise.

Israel was able to blend this with some personal anecdotes and wonderful summary and question he posed to us [audience] to consider ‘what are we holding on to that perhaps is costing us more to not let it go?’

Graeme  brought his experience and wisdom again with the table topics asking us to choose a number, he would give a word as topic to speak on, then part way through the TT, he would add another word and just like that, speaker would have to change topic mid-sentence – or certainly mid-thought.

We were grateful to have this “new” TT technique lead by Havelock North Toastmaster member and Pania guest, Sarah. She spoke about ‘Orange’ and shared stories of her experiences teaching in Japan. Then was given ‘Drinks’ and Sarah effortlessly transitioned the story to orange drinks in Japan.

Honoured with Mike’s presence, Graeme snapped up the opportunity to give him the word ‘Silver’ to talk on. Mike was his passionate self, sharing with us that Silver was his favourite colour and how Mike loved all things silver. The second word was ‘hair’ and Mike emphasised that he has silver hair and wears this as a ‘badge of age’, that he is “aged and wise”. Then he was escorted off stage – very entertaining for all.

Benita was given the word ‘Pink’ and shared her dislike for the colour and when she was given her second word of ‘girls’ that was quite timely because Benita was speaking about her daughter and how the colour pink has impacted her life and choices since Benita threw out a pair of pink plastic shoes that belonged to her daughter. An “empowering Parental moment” Benita shared and picked up the best TT award.

Craig educated us during his evaluation of Anna’s talk giving great advice and pointers for us all to consider as well as commendations that were well deserved. Emphasis has been for each TM to choose whether they want to print an Agenda or not. Some members prefer this, others do not – whomever is the TM of the day will choose what they do.

Julie’s evaluation was also educational by way of articulation of language and choices of words to describe her take on Israel’s speech. Quote: “Israel’s comfort level in front of the audience was exemplary” and “total pleasure”

TT evaluator Jenny used the new higher music stand to free up her hands and gesture and commend the TT speakers as well as TTM. Beautiful smile, great energy and great word pictures.

Paula rounded the meeting of , with a full General Evaluator's report, as for a change we had time 'up our sleeve' and was well assisted by Sahar as Timekeeper. (Ed)

Best Evaluator Award: Julie

Best Speaker: Israel

Best TT Award: Benita

Meeting closed on time, thanks everyone.