"HAS WONDER WOMAN RETURNED @50?"

In a meeting of many 'firsts' our Toastmaster of the day, Linda ran an excellent program at Pania Toastmaster's meeting on 11th October. Well drawn up, clear, uncomplicated program and a  wonderfully warm welcome assisted Linda to make the meeting an excellent one! We had two guests (who were there for the third time,) Julie & Jenny, next time they may be Toastmasters!! It was also great to see Jane & Russell back with us after their winter break.

'WILL GENDER EQUALITY EVER BE ACHIEVED?"

This was the very interesting topic for Pania's Table Topics Contest held at out Thursday lunchtime meeting. The Chairman, Laurel, handled the Contest with extreme professionalism and this enabled everything to run smoothly.

In this Contest each contestant draws for speaking order and then one by one come into the room to answer the same topic for between 1 and 2 minutes. We had five contestants and all of them without exception spoke extremely well to the subject and within the limited time available to them had some excellent ideas both for and against. It seems from the general consensus of the speakers that we will struggle to achieve gender equality certainly in out lifetime, but things are getting better!! One speaker (a male) even felt that we were getting to the stage of males being pushed aside to the preference of females!!

The Contestants in speaking order were, Marc, Carol, Mike, Darryl and Paula so we had a mixture of plenty of experience with the first four and then Paula, who has only been with the Club since June.However, as mentioned, all performed really well, to what turned out to be a very good topic for them and they can all feel justifiable proud of giving it a go and performing so well.

As in any Contest there needs to be a winner and first place  (for the second year in a row) went to Marc, while Carol was placed second and Mike 3rd.
Our special thanks to those who made the effort to enter the contest (after all it does not require much preparation) also to Laurel for her excellent running of the Contest and for thinking up the Topic, and to the Judges and other assistants, particularly Steve & Christine from Napier Club.

We do hope that our two guests (Julie & Jennifer) there for the second visit enjoyed the slightly different meeting.

Marc now goes on to represent the Club at the Area R3 Contest on 3rd November , when he will come up against the winners from the other five clubs in the Area.,We wish him well!!

Napier Club are holding their Table Topics Contest (and their Humorous Contest) on Monday 8th October at the Greenmeadows Community Centre, Tait Drive and everyone is welcome for what will be a great night's entertainment.(and its' free!!)

"CAMPERVANS and OTHER JOURNEYS"

“Campervans and other journeys”

What a wonderful meeting we had on Thursday.

Our Toastmaster was Anna, who ran the meeting with great energy and enthusiasm after trying to convince us she was grumpy from a recent break-in.

"KNOWING WHO IS GOING TO CONFORM IN YOUR AUDIENCE"

Knowing who is going to conform in your audience!

Marc was the Toastmaster for the day, with a well-organized and run meeting infused with humour. Heather expertly read the mission statement and apologies were accepted.

"HATS OFF TO THE HUNTSMAN v. THE KIDS!"

It was a miserable day outside when we gathered for our weekly Toastmasters meeting . But, the atmosphere inside was warm , welcoming and friendly . For an hour we all forgot our other lives and shared in a convivial , entertaining hour . A BIG WELCOME to our newest member, Heather, who did extremely well with her Table Topic.

"Chose Toastmasters & Learn about Iran!"

Well what a great meeting we had at Pania Toastmasters on Thursday 23August!   Lou our first time Toastmaster started exactly on time at 12.05 and did her chairperson role very well indeed.  Our two speakers had rather intriguing speech titles "Desert mountains and join toastmasters".    Read more.

"SEEING GOALS MATERIALIZE!"

A clear vision on good leadership brings happiness!

Again we had what I enjoy so much at Toastmasters: the fabulous mix of a humorous, but also informative meeting at the Pania Club! There was a long list of apologies, but nevertheless we had a very successful meeting, including time to catch up over lunch after the official part was over.

Jen was our Toastmaster, leading into the meeting with an account of her recent most horrific day with a computer system crash – which she presented in her typical earnest way, but never failing to make us all laugh and giggle and see the quirkiness in the situation.

First speaker Graeme was introduced warmly by Tamara, who informed us that the objective of Graeme’s speech was to use visual aids. Matching the objective in a double sense, Graeme talked about his trip to an optometrist. Wittily, he weaved through his speech the mystery behind the acronym OPSM, also jesting about the staff and his interpretations for his poor eye sight, but then lead to the discovery of his eye problem that needed hospital treatment. Everything came to a positive end – but with us still pondering about OPSM. In her evaluation, Tamara summarised that the speech’s objectives were met and gave a clear analysis of the speech’s structure and how the message was conveyed.

Trish was Table Topics Master with the theme Happiness, and we learnt of the existence of a world happiness day in August, which was then expanded to the whole month of August.

As the first Table Topic speaker, Trish asked Marc to talk about what excites him most in life. Marc, in two minutes packed with energy, vocal variety and gestures told us he likes to be challenged and this is why he loves Toastmasters and specifically Table Topics – to make something up on the spot –even if it’s lies. This earned him the award for the best Table Topic Speaker. There were three more table topics on the theme of happiness, answered by Sandy remembering past and current volunteer work; Mike, who talked about the joy of picking up ukulele lessons as an adult; and Patrick who told us that ending up lonely at old age is nothing to be afraid of, as there are many happy things one can do at a later stage in life.

Lou evaluated the Table Topics session in a comprehensive way, by offering commendations and recommendation to each speaker.

The second speaker Laurel was introduced by Patrick. He explained that the goal of Laurel’s speech was to learn and review researched matter. Laurel presented on the research done by an Auckland professor on social and psychological aspects of corporate leadership. The core message was that in order to achieve goals, there is a high need to capture voluntary cooperation and willingness of the employees, which Laurel explained by using the example of the Toastmasters organisation. She also visualised a conceptual model on courageous conversation on the board and touched on the background vita of the professor. Patrick evaluated the speech and highlighted the quality of research, structure and content. With all this Laurel was providing an extremely informative talk.

Toastmaster Jen led through the meeting smoothly, and keeping it on time, cordially shaking every participant’s hands as they were called on stage.

I (Sandy) finished the meeting with the general evaluation, noting that a lot of my recommendations I would give to myself, too, while I was realising the difficulties in this role. The time keeper Linda kindly shortened her report to a few seconds to rescue the general evaluator going significantly over time – some room for improvement here, but in the end, that’s why we are here!

We all finished the meeting with upright humour and moved to a shared lunch to catch up with each other.

Best Table Topics – Marc

Best speech – Graeme

Best evaluator - Patrick