"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