To: "Craig & Jan" <craig-jan.r@xtra.co.nz>
Subject: Meeting report
Date: Friday, November 29, 2019 2:54 PM
Hi Craig,
Graeme kicked off our meeting today letting us all know we were in for a
treat, as Mehran was our Toastmaster for today’s meeting, and such was the
quality of his skill that we’d want him to be TM again next week.
Mehran certainly didn’t disappoint. He had spent plenty of time beforehand
planning this meeting, juggling many things to ensure our programme ran
smoothly. In fact with such competency at juggling I suggested he could
work in the circus!
I really appreciated his comments after each speaker, picking out special
things as in Lou’s speech about enjoying the little things.
New member Hannah, read the mission statement and did a good job. I
suggested to Mehran that he should arrange this before the meeting so the
reader could be familiar with the text and then use more eye contact.
Paula introduced Lou, building her up extremely well by mentioned not once,
but twice that she was a competition winner within the club.
And we were not disappointed by Lou’s speech, “Feed My Soul”. She displayed
all the skills she has developed in her time at Pania, as we learnt her
full name was Louise May “Not”. This was her first ice breaker under
Pathways and she recounted her first ice breaker and how much she had
improved. We found out that the things that feed her soul include her
grandchildren, her own children, followed by husband, friends, the ocean,
gardening and bird watching. Phew!! I don’t see how she could possibly have
time for anything else. A great speech where it was a pleasure to see how
far Lou has come.
Michael then introduced our second speaker, Sandy. Another good
introduction where we were told how Sandy needed to distill all her
knowledge into a 5 – 7 minute presentation.
Sandy’s knowledge and understanding certainly came to the fore with her
subject and how the number 42 “let’s go with it” attitude isn’t going to
work well for us. It was educational as well. We discovered sand is the
second greatest resource used in the world, and ten Google searches is
equivalent to a light bulb burning for one hour. Some very interesting
facts were presented that certainly got the audience thinking.
Craig ran the table topics session, with the theme of music.
We found out Hannah’s favourite solo artist is Elton John because of how he
sings and his flamboyance. In case you’re wondering, she’s definitely going
to his concert here in the Bay next year.
Peter’s most enjoyable musical is Handel’s Messiah, which he was privileged
to hear with a 300 strong combined choir on stage. Sounds like something
the rest of us need to experience.
Israel’s favourite song is Canta Corazon by Alejandro Fernandez (hopefully
I’ve got this right!). Apparently the best way to hear him is in the VIP
area after getting into a concert for free.
Craig, by keeping a crafty eye on time, was able to squeeze one more in and
so asked the same question of Sahar. Her favourite English speaking artist
is Taylor Swift, who, although being very girly, cheers her up and leaves
her feeling good (and isn’t that what music is all about?).
Paula evaluated Lou, pointing out all the many good things about her
presentation and delivered with plenty of enthusiasm. She did seem to have
a problem deciding the best position for the lectern?
Michael had plenty of commendations for Sandy, clearly showing he’d been
paying attention. I thought he should be prepared to offer recommendations,
although he did throw a sneaky one in anyway.
The table topics were evaluated by Leigh, and she too did extremely well,
picking up lots of good things about each presentation and coming up with
some recommendations.
It was left to Laurel to provide feedback on how well we all did against
the clock, before it was my turn to present the general evaluation, which I
managed to squeeze out within time so that we finished at precisely 1pm.
Well done everyone.
Best speaker: Lou
Best evaluator: Paula
Best table topic: Hannah
