"TEACHERS! OH THE PLACES YOU GO TO!"

Hello everyone!  Pania Toastmasters welcomes you.  What a great meeting we had today.  Very good speeches.  Thoughtful evaluations.  Wonderful atmosphere.  Come along to our Thursday meetings.   Read more:

"OFF FIRST TIMERS & OLD HANDS!"

Of first timers and old hands

Another excellent Pania Toastmasters meeting. A mix of transformation, entertainment and education.

We were 11 members and 1 guest and Graeme was our toastmaster, a role he may have done more than 50 times. And he showed how to do it – professional and succinct, he explained meeting process to our guest and allowed the meeting to flow. It was about creating a successful meeting.

'A RUDE WOMAN ON A WELLINGTON WINTER'S DAY!"

Today’s Toastmasters meeting of Pania Toastmaster’s was warm , convivial and certainly no reflection of the gloomy winters day outside .

Carol had produced a programme that would warm anyone up !

After the usual housekeeping , we were treated to Tamara’s speech , a beautifully  crafted speech about a Wellington Winter’s Day and how that day changed her life .

Graeme was her evaluator . His evaluation was tidy , succinct and kind .He used the CRC (Commend-Recommend-Commend) method of evaluation and was able to offer some recommendations to Tamara that she may use if she gives that speech again.

Lou was next up, her speech was from the same pathway as Tamara’s, but a different story about a Rude Woman who impacted her life .

Lou gave a personal speech about something that happened to her long ago and whilst it  upset her at the time she turned it around to be a positive in her life .

Laurel was Lou’s evaluator , the evaluation was smooth , and in depth , Laurel was able to reference her evaluation back to the objectives required in the speech . It was a very helpful evaluation for us all, because Laurel is always able to get a few little pointers in from which we can all learn .

Table Topics from Anna were a real treat , Anna had some items in a bag , she blindfolded each speaker then asked them to describe the item , it was funny , clever and as there were no guests we could have a lot of fun with it .

Sandy was our table  topics evaluator , a real toughie today Sandy, but well managed , Carol was awarded the table topic of the day , well-earned  Carol, job was a good one !

Her compatriots Patrick and Tamara also did well and entertained us .

After the meeting a member for whom hearing is an issue , confided  that the seating arrangement adopted for last week and today , made it very difficult for people with a hearing loss to hear , because the distance is far greater and people with a hearing loss miss out on the pre meeting banter because it has to be sent so far across the room .

Another member said she had not enjoyed the arrangement because it is less personal .

Today the best speaker was Tamara and the best evaluator was Laurel .

But everyone did a great job , thank you madam Toastmaster .

"MENTORING with VEHICLES AND POTATOES!"

It was a bitterly cold day when a good number of Pania Toastmasters gathered for our meeting on Thursday 2nd July, the first for the new Toastmaster's year! Due to the weather the original Toastmaster , Laurel, was unable to make the trip from Waipawa so Patrick took over and did a great job. The theme of the meeting was to be "New Beginnings" and that was carried through to the Table Topics session. It was great to have a couple of guests including Trevor, back for his third visit

The first speaker was Peter, introduced by Craig. Peter has been a Toastmaster for over 40 years and rather than tackling a Manual assignment he went back to a number of years ago when we used to have an Impromptu Speech Contest, although his was a little different. It was arranged that the audience would all put a one word topic on each side of a slip of paper and the Evaluator would select two of the slips of paper to give Peter his Topic just before he commenced his speech of 5 minutes. The two words chosen were 'vehicle' and 'potatoes' and Peter gave an excellent story utilising these two topics with excellent gestures, humour, eye contact and an interesting and engaging story. Well done Peter on a tricky assignment well handled.
With a 2 minute question time to follow to let other members see how to approach this type of assignment, I believe it was a worthwhile change to our regular program. The important point about impromptu speaking is really to work out your opening and closure and fill in the body as you go!

Our next speaker was Sandy and she managed a Pathways assignment extremely well in talking about Mentoring. Sandy approached this speech without notes and spoke of her own personal experiences with Mentors and how they have assisted her through her Toastmaster's experience. Patrick evaluated Sandy's presentation and gave her worthwhile feedback including many commendations, which were well deserved.

Table Topics were presented by Hannah, who utilised the meeting theme with some interesting and challenging subjects answered by our guest Trevor,Lou and Pedro.

We did not have a General Evaluator this time but Benita and her son handled the Timekeeping and we finished a minute or two early to once again brave the 'artic' conditions outside.

An excellent meeting full of interest and educational as well, congratulations to Patrick for his full involvement as an Evaluator and the Toastmaster. They say a "Toastmaster Wears Many Hats" and today they were right!!

Best Speaker; Sandy
Best Evaluator; Craig
Best Table Topic ;Trevor

"CHANGE IN TIME OF COVID!"

Pedro organised a great agenda which was emailed out to us on Tuesday. I really liked getting the agenda early and being able to study it before the meeting. Pedro got caught up on the day and Carol who was in the Hot Seat stepped in with great Carol style. 

'STICK TO YOUR HOLIDAYS-with or without kids!!'

Pania Meeting Report for 18^th June 2020

We’re back! This was our first meeting back together in our meeting room, and the moment I entered I felt the warm buzzing atmosphere from seeing each other face to face again after the lockdown period. Graeme opened the meeting cordially, read the mission statement and introduced Jen as our Toastmaster of the day. Jen warmly welcomed all Toastmasters and our guest Kevin, and expressed how grateful we can be to be together again.

"ZOOMING BACK TO REALITY!"

Today, Thursday 11th June, Pania Toastmasters held what we hope will be their last Zoom meeting. It was an excellent meeting well run by the Toastmaster of the day Marc

"SHARING STORIES & ADVENTURES!"

Meeting review 16 April 2020

Another excellent example of a Pania online meeting was held today, ably led by our Toastmaster for the day, Anna. It was exciting to have 13 of our members in attendance, plus one guest from far afield. It was great to have someone new all the way from Vancouver join us, Michael Bown; not only that but he is also their District Director.

"ON LINE WE ARE @ PANIA"

General Evaluation for Online Pania TM Meeting 9/4/20

 Hope you all had a very happy Easter

·      The meeting was great, with a fabulous greeting from Carol and very well chaired.  It was well attended. She cleared the space and asked everyone to talk about a highlight which made the replies succinct and to the point. Some highlights were -

Sandy had a roller coaster with her parents, did traditional Easter German baking to surprise and delight them.

Jen was frantic at work, and missed her grandchildren’s hugs

Hannah is loving it with the kids, ‘real simple stuff’ and enjoyed her hubby’s birthday

Carol- had been re-reading John Kehoe – with the key message -choice, chance and crisis – about choice rather than crisis in lockdown

Anna talked about different structures for storytelling just as we have structures for talks which will be attached to the agenda

Stories

1.Benita – with ‘People and Place’ took us on her journey with Starbucks through four different countries.  She used very effective images, for example London was ‘grubby and unfriendly,’ Singapore –was ‘clean, green and effective’ and Hong Kong - fancy, glossy and edgy.’

Benita used strong vocal energy and a variety of gestures. Her story was well told and structured. However, breaking it into two parts and telling the women’s march, in protest of Trump as the second part would allow more time to describe the march. I would also recommend varying the volume, making it softer at times and slowing the pace at times

Benita tied the end back in with the beginning and concluded with comfort, community and cause, which summed it all up.

I was sooo disappointed not to see a picture of the pink pussy cat hat worn on the march.

2. Lou had been looking through her old photos, during the lockdown and found one of her old house, that was flooded three times and also a newspaper article about it. I would recommend adding some actions or using dialogue.

Her use of modulation was effective and it was well structured as it was tied back into lockdown. Lou excels at humour and she used it well in this story.

2. Laurel gave a reading from ‘Even Eagles Need a Push’ by David McNally. It was beautifully crafted, with effective eye contact, a character voice, well-paced, paused and modulated.  I would like to have heard more about the author at the beginning.

She compared the baby eagle clinging to the edge to Toastmasters and how we help people clinging to the edge. We nurture them to the edge and give them the confidence to open their wings and fly.  It was a powerful reading with a strong conclusion.

Zoom meeting this week – 3^rd online meeting 15/4/20

Anna Toastmaster

Stories – Hannah and Michael, 3-4 mins

Speaker – Lou practicing her humourous speech for online Division finals this Saturday 18th April. Tune In!

General Evaluator Marc

"WHAT A STORYTIME! ON LINE MEETING"

With the current Covid19 virus ruling our lives, Pania Club met today for the first time ONLINE!!
Many thanks to Marc and the others that put this meeting together, which was 'attended' by 10 members, although one was a silent attendee as he had no sound equipment.We even had our Banner on display- plus a couple of Teddy Bears made an appearance!

Marc acted as Toastmaster and had prepared a loose agenda which covered a general discussion to start with and then Anna, gave us a quick rundown on Story Telling, which had been sent to all the members by email prior to the meeting, and this was followed by some short stories from Carol, Marc and Anna. All gave excellent insight into a good, interesting and well delivered story following which we had a general discussion about the stories and the value of preparing and telling an impactful story, with some very good advice from Benita.

As our first online meeting I felt that it went well, just sorry I could not participate, but it was excellent to see Graeme tuning in who was joined, in addition to those above, by Lou, Laurel, Mehran and Tamara.

We are going to do it again next week at 12.00 on Thursday when Carol is going to be Toastmaster, again with 3 members telling a story so if you missed this week tune in next week and help to fill in your lockdown time with a bit of Toastmasters, with a difference.

"'COMMUNICATION & LEADERSHIP STYLES"

Today, was a red letter day for Pania Toastmaster's Club, A. we had to quickly find a new venue after the Blind Foundation closed their rooms from outside meetings because of coronavirus and B. we were treated to two excellent speeches on 'styles' , Leadership & Communication!

Anna, as Toastmaster, did a great job of drawing the disjointed program together at The Community Co Lab, attached to the Taradale Town Hall, which was a very spacious and airy venue, even if the acoustics were a little echoee!
The two speakers were Michael (Communication Styles) and Marc (Leadership Styles) both speaking from their respective Pathway assignments and they certainly both demonstrated their specific styles through their interesting and enlightening presentations.
They were well evaluated by Benita (Michael) and Pedro (Marc) who gave them suitable praise and were able to offer some suggestions for improvement. This was Pedro's first speech evaluation and he showed that he will be a worthwhile evaluator for future speakers.

Carol ran the Table Topic's session along the broad lines keeping positive, healthy and happy, appropriate in the current climate.
Four speakers covered their topics well, Peter,Hannah,Sahar and Sandy and Hannah was selected as the Best Table Topic speaking about indoor games she has played. Peter spoke on enjoyable activities (Skiing- if coronavirus allows it this year),Sahar (spending two weeks working from home) and Sandy (who would she like to spend the two weeks isolation with!!)
Mehran, as Timekeeper assisted Anna to keep us pretty well to time.

The General Evaluation and Table Topics Evaluation were forgone due to the meeting needed to discuss the current health problem and it was decided to have a break from regular face to face meeting until 23rd April(when it is to be reassessed) and that on-line meetings will be arranged for 2nd & 16th April.

Best Speaker; Marc
Best Evaluator; Pedro
Best Table Topics ; Hannah

Everyone please keep in touch and look out for details of the on-line meetings, we also take this opportunity to wish Lou well with her Division Contest Humorous Speech which is to be held online on Saturday 18th April (The Division Contest in Dannevirke on this Saturday having been cancelled)

"LIFE'S ADVENTURES!"

GE’s Report for Thursday the 12^th of March -

Short and sharp with elbow bumps

·      A fast efficient, meeting, Paula as Toastmaster set the scene –putting the agenda on recycled paper and she laid down the ‘challenge to do the right thing’ in terms of being environmentally friendly.  She suggested cutting out handshaking was appropriate at the moment and introduced the elbow bump which continued throughout.

"ARE YOU OUTSIDE LOOKING IN?"

ARE YOU OUTSIDE LOOKING IN?

Considering joining a Toastmaster's club and trying to make sense of what it’s all about by peering into the meeting via this blog, as it were, from the outside. This is for you. Welcome. Come for a visit and feel free to bring a friend.

This is usually a report on what the previous meeting was like; what happened, who spoke and how well and on what subject matter, who supportively evaluated their performances and what they thought. That, plus a raft of other narratives as is packed into these inevitably fascinating exchanges in the short one-hour duration of our weekly Thursday lunchtime meetings. 

Thus, a meeting report is somewhat redundant for many of the members, because as most of us attended and participated, we already know exactly what the meeting was like, who spoke, about what and how well. No description, no matter how fulsome would sufficiently acquaint the extent of the performances to those members who were not present. So instead, this time let’s speak directly to those of you who may be interested for yourself or another in attending a meeting as a guest and are not yet sure it’s for you. This a good place to start. Plonking yourself into a chair as a visitor to observe a club meeting would be better, but this will do for now.

The existing members of Pania Toastmaster's Club can often be heard saying that the members see themselves collectively as something of a family. And in so many ways, a family we are. You learn to trust people at a Toastmasters club because we share a lot about our lives as we gradually unfold our histories, viewpoints and experiences in our speeches and in the warm friendships that evolve over time from membership. A valuable asset.

Like most Toastmaster clubs do of their local region, Pania reflects the wide diversity of people you see in the streets of Hawkes Bay. At meetings, we are constantly impressed at how the intriguing life stories of people speaking so beautifully in an English that is sometimes a second or third language are related with such depth of emotion and eloquent expression. Perhaps a quarter or so of the members, with varying experience are English second-language speakers. There is never a sense that any linguistic difficulties that may concern them compromise the fluency of their stories. Their passionate views on life and their search for sharable solutions for common concerns are delivered with academic accuracy and raw heartfelt authenticity. We listen to their stories, entreaties, challenges and experiences, like all the presentations at the club, with delight and deep appreciation.

The Pania club membership is comprised roughly a third each of senior, significantly experienced members, those who have been on board for quite a few years and those who range from recently joined to having been around for a year or two. Strong threads weave themselves right though all three groups; 

a definable warm welcome and support for new and newish members while they get on their feet, 

seamless background back-up and mentoring steeped in experience for anyone who wants it or looks like they may welcome it, and 

a genuine interest in making the club experience joyful.

an astonishingly high-level of speaking ability across the board. Great for learning.

So, if you are looking in from the outside and wondering what it is; it’s a club of new, experienced, supportive friends who will ease you into learning, practising and perfecting high-level public speaking abilities faster than a speeding bullet! (Well, almost!) All while you having genuine fun,  you’re quickly learning to manage your nervousness and contributing to your fellow members much more than you might expect.

So wander in at 11:55 am next Thursday to the club meeting room. All we ask you to do is to stand and introduce yourself to the meeting, usually 12 - 15 members. Fifteen seconds or so is all. Who you are, what you do and why you’re here. That covers it. 

Better still, call us to say hello and we'll have a name tag and a welcome ready for you. It’s as easy as that. That’s what I did. That was over forty years ago. Been in Toastmasters ever since. It was the best thing I ever did. (Well, maybe the second-best thing! Oh! Perhaps the third ... well, OK, the fourth. Yeah. The fourth. Mmmm ... maybe the third after all!)

See you on Thursday then?

Peter

"A PANEDEMIC-SEX,RELIGION & POLITICS!"

Another fabulous meeting for Toastmasters Pania on Thursday the 27th of Feb 

Our experienced Toastmaster for the day was Craig who ran the meeting with a reminder that it was National Polar Bear day as well as National Pancake Day. Graeme called the meeting to order with no clown horn (thank goodness!) and proceeded to read the club mission statement for us - it is always good to be reminded of the over-arching goals for our time at Toastmasters.

We kicked straight into table topics ran by Laurel with table topics based about When, What and Why. Carol had to tell us about a recent mistake that ended up in stinky mess, Benita told us about a few temptations she had partaken in, Guest Kerry regaled us about a bad hair day and Graeme, well Graeme never sticks to the topic so who knows what he spoke about? Lou evaluated the 4 table topic speakers and had commendations and recommendations for everyone except Kerry - who was awarded the best table topic of the day as well! 

Paula gave us a warm introduction to our first speech for the meeting presented by Pedro. It was great that Paula gave us some background information into Pedro's journey through Toastmasters so far and reminded us that it was only Pedro's 2nd speech. She also gave some objectives and had some specific things to look out for. Pedro's very topical speech titled “How not to prepare for a pandemic” took us through some information about the current Coronavirus and what was not going so well in the fight against its inevitable spread. Paula's evaluation covered commendations and recommendations and then ended on a positive. 

Our second speaker Marc was introduced by Anna who let the audience know that this was a practice run for Marc to be representing Pania Club at the upcoming speech contest. As we were going to be completing a group evaluation so Anna also helpfully outlined what we should be looking for to ensure Marc got some valuable feedback - half of the room focussed on Delivery and the other half focussed on Content. Marc's speech titled "Sex, Religon and Politics" was a thought provoking speech about all the things we are safer to avoid in speeches. The purpose was to make us think, to make us realise how lucky we are to live in NZ (although we have our own terrible statistics on some issues) and to provoke the audience into trying to make a difference by talking about and researching issues such as rape, rascism, politics, gender inequality. We are a proud club to have Marc representing us at the contest with this hard hitting speech. 

  

Anna completed an evaluation on Marc's speech covering some great points and using the old rhetoric "Pause, Pitch and Pace" which we can all always apply in our own speeches as well. The group was then invited to cover anything that Anna may have missed resulting in a few extra points for Marc to work on - I am sure he took some valuable feedback from this session.  

Time Keeper Hannah finished off with an update on how we ran, and then after a quick general evaluation (carried out efficiently by Tamara) of everyone we finished our meeting for another week.

Thanks as always to our Sergeant at arms for having the room set up for us.

Best Speaker : Marc
Best Evaluator: Anna
Best Table Topic: Kerry

"FACEBOOK- A REALITY CHECK!"

Pania Blog – Thursday 20 February 2020

It’s a strange time of year, when Christmas has come and gone and we turn out thoughts to our regular weekly ‘fix’ of Toastmasters attendance and personal growth.  The energy is growing but is yet to hit full speed for our 2020 year. It was great to have 13 members attend today - Leigh, Lou, Graeme, Craig, Anna, Peter, Pedro, Israel, Mehran, Sahar, Hannah, Patrick and me.  We look forward to seeing our chairs full again when everybody gets back into full swing. 

"A NEW YEAR BEGINS!"

Pania Toastmasters first meeting fro 2020 was held on 23rd January and a few diehards managed to bring themselves back to Toastmasters after the Christmas break and enjoy a lively and entertaining meeting.