"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.

Amazing what can happen from these situations.

First of all, we had our usual whip round to see how everyone is faring. Apparently there is plenty going on, from bread making to swimming and rowing, along with the dreaded home schooling, along with what life is like in Canada right now! Needless to, we seem to be enjoying those that are with us and missing those that can’t.

Michael was our first storyteller for the day and he recounted a recent weekend experience riding the rapids on a raft. Even more impressive was his grip on technology, enhancing his speech with a series of slides that confirmed the beautiful scenery and grand occasion it was. Just the sight of the breakfast that was prepared in the morning for them was enough to get me interested.

Hannah was our second storyteller, and in her case it was a time when her parents decided to do an OE, minus her of course. Being left behind required a party to be organised and we were transported along as events started to unravel. Fortunately for Hannah it all worked out in the end, even if she was grounded for the rest of the school holidays.

Our third speaker was Lou, who put another practice in before she was to compete on the weekend in the Division R Humorous Speech contest with her Feed Me Now! speech. Even though most of us had heard it a couple of times before, it was still entertaining, and we could see the extra polish that Lou had applied to her presentation.

We were then able to give some feedback to our speakers on their presentations. I was impressed by Peter’s insightfulness with Lou’s speech and the simple, yet effective things he’d picked up.

That just left it for me to splutter on for a few minutes more and end the meeting bang on time. It was great that we learnt about “alt” and “a” keys and how they can unmute, and about screen sharing power point presentations. An educational and enjoyable meeting. Well done everyone!