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"YOU WILL BE FINE WITH THE DCP"

Napier Toastmasters meeting on 27th November was well attended and it was great to welcome four guests at this time of the year. The Toastmaster for the night was Song and she did a wonderful job in her first time as Toastmaster, with a well organised program (that had initially been decimated with late withdrawals) and kept the evening flowing well.

While we were down to two speeches (from the initial four) the evening was still entertaining and educational and the program worked right through until 9.00pm

Our first speaker was Ian with a speech entitled "DCP", introduced by Greg. This was a replacement speech which Ian stepped in to complete and he commenced by talking about the DCP 'December Christmas Party!' however this was to attract our attention (and it worked) as he was actually going to talk about the 'Distinguished Club Program' in Toastmasters. He achieved a high level of motivating members to complete assignments, which all go towards the Club's progress plus of course their personal progress and opened the eyes of a few members (not only new ones either!.) A well constructed presentation which certainly achieved its objectives of motivating us. Greg gave Ian some worthwhile feedback in his evaluation.

Next up was Nic, who has only been a member for about 3 months but delivered his third speech to the Club entitled "You will be Fine" and was introduced by Ros. Nic utilised some interesting incidents from his first arrival in NZ from France including almost being arrested for 'driving to slow' while getting used to driving on the left hand side! Nic has some very interesting experiences to share with the Club and this was another of them, while achieving the objectives of the assignment and giving his Evaluator, Ros, some areas to suggest improvements for his next speech.

In the business session , President Jan, informed us about the last meeting of the year on 11th December, fun Table Topics, bring a plate to share and a $5 gift to share, Club will assist with refreshments, to be held at The Co-Hub behind the Taradale Town Hall 7.00pm as the Greenmeadows Centre is utilised by the Council for Xmas fare distribution.

Table Topics followed (an impromptu speaking assignment) and Ian utilised some Robbie William's tunes to inspire questions which were well answered by all who participated including a couple of the guests, who had been primed up before the meeting. Some excellent answers came through, particularly from guests Dave & Elliot but Andy took the cake as the best Table Topic, which was "What keeps him awake at night?"

After supper (we were dieting as the biscuits were forgotten) we had the evaluations of the speeches by Greg and Ros and Table Topics by Jan, this was an exceptional example of a Table Topics Evaluation and gave all the speakers commendations and in most cases a couple of areas they may look at improving on, which everyone could learn from. This is not easy to do when you have 6/7 speakers in a row. The meeting wrapped up with the General Evaluation by Craig assisted by Timekeeper Ian (he wears many hats!!) and Grammarian, Ros whose word of the night "perspective' was used fairly regularly by the speakers.

Another excellent meeting, enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening and after our Christmas break following the meeting on Monday 11th December we recommence at Greenmeadows on Monday 12th February. Join us for the New Year.

Best Speaker : Nic                  Best Evaluator : Jan

Best Table Topic : Andy         Best Contribution : Ian (3 roles in one night!)

Toilet Rolls, Drones and a Trip to Anaheim

Our first meeting in November started with a rousing call to order by Sergeant at Arms Graeme.  This was followed by Toastmaster Ian presenting apologies and having Nic read out our Club’s Mission Statement.  We also had two guests join us, Joyce and Eleen, who were warmly introduced by VPM Ros.

Formalities aside, we dove into what was an engaging and filled programme.

First up, GE Jan introduced her team of Timer Michelle and Grammarian Song, who presented us with the word of the evening - procrastinate.

Then Table Topics Master Kiri gave us a brief education on New Zealand politicians and then challenged our impromptu speakers to various thought-provoking subjects to address.

Introduced by Patrick, our first prepared speech was by Greg who discussed and embellished on his impassioned plea for people to put the their toilet paper rolls in the proper setting of ‘over' in his presentation entitled “Over or Under”.  This was a longer speech and his challenge was to address a variety of ‘disrupters’ who appeared in the audience, which he did very competently and professionally.  His current employment has clearly honed his skills in this area.

Our second prepared speech of the evening was from Christian, who was introduced by Ros. Christian’s speech was entitled “To Give Thanks” and he regaled us with an adventure he had with a lost drone.  Christian’s colourful imagery took us up into the dense forested hills and down into a dark gulley as he sought to retrieve his wayward drone.  Well done Christian.

Andy then came to the floor to give his evaluation of the Table Topic speakers, which he did in the third person for each as he gave good recommendations as well as commendations to each speaker.  Always a challenging role, Andy did a great job of demonstrating his listening and critical analysis skills.

Following supper both Patrick and Ros gave their respective evaluations before President Jan presided over a brief business session.  The main highlight was recounting the recent Division R Conference Day and Division contest results.

TM Ian then presented a short educational on the International Speech - what it is, what can be achieved (a free trip to Anaheim, California, USA and a place in the World Championship of Speaking) but most importantly that everyone can participate, you simply must take that first step and enter the Club’s upcoming International Speech contest in February 2024. (And there is a nice long summer break between now and then to craft and practice your speech!)

GE Jan and her team returned to the floor at the end for their reports, which were thorough and concise.  Song displayed her listening prowess with words and phrases that caught her attention and also reported how often her word of the evening had been used.  First-time Timekeeper Michelle gave a clear and comprehensive report of the evening’s proceedings.  Well done to both!

Awards were then presented and TM Ian brought the evening to a close by inviting the guests to share any thoughts they had on the night.

Thank you all for contributing to a well run meeting.

Best Speaker : Greg                Best Evaluator : Ros

Best Table Topic : Patrick       Best Contribution : Greg

Next meeting, Monday, 27th November

Masculine & Feminine Energies - a Quantitative Snapshot

That was the intriguing title of one of the speeches at Napier Toastmasters meeting on 28th August , on a cold winter's night and a few late apologies but still a good turnout of members and one guest.

The Toastmaster for the evening was Greg, and what a great job he did! Meeting agendas were out more than a week in advance, although several subsequent copies were required due to some changes in the program. Greg had a theme for the evening of "today in history" and related during the program several events of interest that occurred on this day. He segued the items on the program well and allowed the evening to run smoothly and to finish on time.

The word of the night, plethora, was introduced by Christian as Grammarian and this was used regularly during the meeting, you could say we had a plethora of the use of plethora!

Our first prepared speech, entitled "Everyone Wins" was presented by Tony, who was completing his Pathway of "Presentation Mastery" and what an excellent final speech it was. In this assignment, Tony was to outline the progress he felt he had made and highlights of his just over three years that it took to complete this path, which included something like 68 meetings and 18 speeches! As usual with Tony this final assignment was extremely well organised and presented and while he is now taken a break from Toastmasters we know that he will be back. Tony's message was that the Club, the public and he himself wins from his Toastmaster's experience. Ros gave an excellent evaluation of Tony's presentation with many well earned commendations and was able to suggest an area she felt the speech could have been even further improved.

Next up was Andy, with his assignment as headlined above. In this assignment Andy was to practice the use of visuals using technology etc and while there were initially a few hiccups, which everyone will have  benefited from, the final presentation was extremely well done and thought provoking, which many of Andy's presentations are. An excellent message was well delivered with the aid of the slides etc, which certainly added great impact to the speech. Ian evaluated Andy's presentation and gave us all some things to think about when using technology.

Table Topics were next, an Impromptu speaking assignment, led by Song and she produced some very interesting and generally easy to talk to subjects centered around things to do in Hawkes Bay. Those not rostered on the program and some that were had the opportunity to comment on Song's subjects and all did this well, even our guest who gave an excellent answer for her first Table Topic. The Table Topics were evaluated by Steve, who once again showed his expertise at this level with excellent commendations for all the speakers and several very worthwhile suggestions for improvement.

After the tea/coffee break we had the third prepared speech presented by Patrick and entitled "Get your life sorted!". While Patrick has been a Toastmaster for some years, he has only recently returned to the Club and so utilised this speech as an Ice Breaker (the first speech that new members give to the Club) as since he was with us previously, we have had a number of new members that would not know Patrick's background. A well delivered speech it was, which certainly gave us an insight into what Patrick has been up to since he was with us a couple of years ago; children, project manager for their new home etc. This speech was evaluated by Jan and again, as we come to expect from Jan, this was an excellent evaluation with many commendations and a recommendation or two. We had a series of four experienced Evaluators on board tonight and the quality was extremely high.

The General Evaluation team of Craig (G/E), Christian (Grammarian) and Nic (Timekeeper) wrapped up the meeting with both Christian and Nic doing their roles for the first time and making an excellent fist of it! The meeting had quality right through it and was interesting and educational as is usual for Napier Toastmaster meetings! (and we finished on time!!)

                    Best Speaker: Andy, Best Evaluator:  Jan, Best Contribution; Craig
                                                  & Best Table Topic: Jan

                         We do it all again on 11th September, why not come along!

A trip to China, Tomoe River paper & a Washing line

Our Toastmaster of the evening, Tony, got proceedings underway very promptly tonight; in fact, 3 minutes before 7.00pm.  I assume Tony just couldn’t wait for what was going to be a very exciting and interesting night.  With apologies received, amendments to the well laid out program, Tony told us how August was littered with animal ‘International Days’ with the 8th being for cats, and the 26th for dogs.  Roz also introduced our guest, Michelle.

Ian provided an outline of the General Evaluator role, and introduced his lovely support ladies. Poppy, a regular visitor to the club, was our last minute stand in grammarian, and introduced the word ‘articulate’. Kiri, being our first time timekeeper, also explained the importance of the role, and explanation of the green, amber and red lighting system.

First up, was a speech by Song relating to her recent trip to China. Song was clearly excited to be back, but more importantly recanting her travels back in China.  Boy has things changed in the larger urban cities, with the phone being the means to pay for items. This allowed (or did it) for Song to tell and show 3 items from her shopping spree of 30 goods!  So much power, and I guess you literally pay for it later! Song not only was enthusiastic and bubbly, but so descriptive. As recounted by her evaluator Greg, it felt like we were there and part of the journey.

Second speaker was Jan providing the 3^rd part in her tri series of speeches relating to fountain pens, ink and now the last component, paper.  It was not just any paper, it was her favourite and the very special Tomoe River paper and blotter. Jan made what could have been a pretty boring topic into something exciting as she exudes about the whisper thinness of this crafted paper. To conclude, Jan encouraged us to take up the fountain pen challenge and revel in all its majesty.

Our third speaker, Craig, provided an educational session. Tonight, the topic was around the structure of a speech.  While Craig used the OBC (Opening, Body and Conclusion) framework he also used a wonderful visual aid to reinforce his message – a simple washing line. And out from his bag of tricks were items that complemented his story. These were :
A sock – in your opening, sock it to us; grab our attention; be expressive
Some underwear – reminds us to be brief, keep to time, don’t wonder off
A dish cloth – keep the speech clean; no religion, etc …you know what I mean
A nightie – the body of the speech; 2 or 3 key points, which you then expand on
A bra – those main points should be balanced, and to see things from both sides
A tie – as part of the conclusion, tie everything you spoke about together
Craig concluded with the 4 P’s; Preparation, Practice, Practice and Practice

Patrick provided our Table Topics for the evening taking ordinary kiwi sayings from the Dinkum Kiwi Dictionary by David McGill. A great idea, and something that had real potential to get a yarn or 2 from the participants. Some of the sayings were challenging to say the least e.g. Up the Boohai Shooting Pipis with a Hayrake, but all of the participants; Ian, Nic, Arsh, Kiri and Christian took up the challenge and provided some interesting tales. Good practice for the upcoming Table Topics Contest.

Each of the evaluations were of a very high standard. Greg, used words like indescribable exuberance, great hand gestures, lots of vocal variety and all those word pictures which allowed us to be part of Song’s trip in China. 

Likewise, Graeme provided nothing but praise for the way Jan presented such an unexciting topic - paper.  Why; because Jan was polished, methodical in her presentation and flow, and most of all turned it into a great learning experience. But was Jan convincing enough and will Graeme take up the fountain pen challenge!

Most memorable was the evaluation of Table Topics by Roz. Roz provided positive commendations, with a recommendation to assist all of the participants. Roz then lifted it up a gear, and got excited with the word articulate; expanding it to speculate, triplicate, and anything else ending in ..ate.  This quickly became our (unplanned) second educational, in how to introduce excitement (vocal variety) into a speech, strut onself around the floor (gestures) and the all important eye contact with the audience.  Well done Roz.

Our General Evaluator Ian provided the appropriate praise to Tony for a well run meeting. Tony has this calm, pleasant voice and nothing seems to phase him.  He is so well prepared and likewise turn our August meeting date as an opportunity to recognise the many International Days for animals in August.

Poppy commended all the speakers who used the word articulate, and also commented on the dreaded ums and ahs, which were more prevalent in Table Topics.  Breath in and pause instead of those filler words – great advice Poppy.

Kiri, our first time timekeeper, provided timings for all of the items on the program and ensured we were tracking to time, with comments like we were 2 minutes ahead at that point, and then later, we were 4 minutes behind.  A timely reminder especially to GE Ian!

Best Speaker : Song                Best Evaluator : Greg
Best Table Topic : Ian             Best Contribution : Craig

Well done Napier Toastmasters - another great evening

Ice Breaking in Triplicate and our Awards Evening

It may have been a chilly night outside but inside the hall it was toasty warm with the heat pumps on, great fellowship and lighthearted banter prior to the meeting being opened.  Our Toastmaster for the evening Ian, had prepared a wonderful programme that gave all attendees a speaking opportunity, yet got us through the evening in plenty of time to allow for the awards presentation and some awesome food and refreshments afterwards to finish off our annual awards presentations.

Roz introduced our guest, Ellie and we also had longstanding member Patrick who kindly re-introduced himself, while having a couple of years off while building a house and raising two children, with the help of his wife :).

Our grammarian Kiri chose to introduce us to her word of the night, plethora of which there was plenty of use.  Her report at the end highlighted this and the high level of use of specific phrases, as well as  listening for poor use or filler words such as "um" and "ar". Good to hear she heard very few of these, showing that our Toastmasters have mastered ways around using words that do not add to their presentations. 

Our time keeper, Andy, filled in this role at the last minute and presented a succinct report at the end.  His duties kept us on track with the meeting running on time.  Well done Andy!

Three speakers, all doing their Ice Breaker speeches, and their evaluators occupied the majority of the formal part of the evening. We were treated to three completely different Ice Breaker speeches from our newest members Ali, Arsh and Nic whose  countries of origin were Samoa, India and France.  What a divergence of information we learned about each of the speakers from their early childhood through to what they are now doing and reasons for joining Toastmasters.  Such a range of talent with backgounds in law, IT and environmental protection. Can't wait to hear more from them.

Evaluations for all speakers were ably presented by experienced members Roz, Jan and Craig. 

Our General Evaluator Steve admitted he found it difficult to decide who the best speakers and evaluators were, such was the high standard.  However, a decision had to be made.
Best Speaker of the night went to Nic,
Best Evaluator went to Roz,
Best contribution of the night, decided by our Toastmaster Ian went to Kiri.

Our awards ceremony was interspersed by Table Topics run by Tony.  His theme of speakers being given a year to talk on, generally 1980's to 2010's proved surprisingly difficult to speak to unless there was a significant event in their lives such as having a child.  Just goes to show how we move on so readily.   

The Awards were presented to those members who had excelled during the previous Toastmasters Year (2022 - 2023). They were ...................

Best Speaker; Tony Fulton
Best Evaluator; Jan Stroup
Best Table Topics; Roslynn Young
Most Humorous Speaker; Tony Fulton
Most Improved Speaker; Andy Prebensen
Toastmaster of The Year; Roslynn Young
Tracey Webster Memorial Award; Jan Stroup

Lastly, while not an award, special mention was made of Craig who had accepted the position of Area R3 Governor.  What an awesome pair, our President, Jan,  as Division R Director and now Craig, as Area Director.  Congratulations!  

While the formal part of the evening was over, the serious business of trying to eat some very delicious dishes took part. Steve with his '3 thai' dishes, sausage roles, carrot cake and many other platters were bought by our members.  

😊 Thank you to everyone for making the evening one to remember and celebrate 😊.

Pound, shillings & pence to Dollars and cents

Our Club meeting on 10th July began on a pleasantly rain-free evening. 

Our toastmaster Craig got things off to a great start with a warm welcome highlighting that back in 1967, on this very day, we converted from pound, shillings and pence to dollars and cents.  Not only was this mentioned, but Criag supplied a prestine set of pounds, shillings (a florin, a half crown and a 1 shilling) and some pence (3d, 6d and a penny). For some, a distant walk down memory lane.

General Evaluator, Tony, introduced our grammarian for the evening, Greg, who challenged us to use the word 'Assauge' wherever possible - an interesting choice and one that did indeed challenge quite a few speakers! On the timing lights for the first time was Ali.

Ros got the show underway with a 'panel of experts' theme for our Table Topics presenters. These so-called experts tried to solve many of the problems that have beset the world with new inventions, breakthrough in medicines, environmental outcomes and the like. A well thought theme, Ros.

Our first prepared speech for the evening was by Kiri, and this was her icebreaker speech - the first in her pathway. Kiri had also prepared a detailed information board and a slide show to accompany her speech, which amazed us all with a level of detail not seen before - and this really helped to add depth and dimension to her speech. 

The second prepared speech was by Christian - and was also an ice breaker! Christian used the opportunity well to introduce himself to the club and let us learn about his background and his reasons for joining toastmasters. 

During the business session our outgoing club president Roz handed the gavel (literally) over to our new club president Jan - who is also our new District R Director.  Mention was also made of the opportunity to pay 'in advance' to avoid the impending subscription increase to World HeadQuarters.

Our third prepared speech was actually an educational - and was presented by our VP of Education Ian. Ian delivered a well-organised presentation on the topic of the Pathways available within Toastmasters - this was extremely relevant as we currently have quite a few new members beginning their journey. 

The evening concluded with 2 well delivered speech evaluations from Jan and Steve, a thorough Table Topic evaluation by Andy, a concise timekeeping report by Ali and the general evaluation from Tony. 

Our next meeting is a shortened toastmaster meeting, followed by our Club Awards night on Monday 24th July - an opportunity to relax and enjoy toastmasters even more! Don't forget to bring a plate.

Best Speaker : Christian    Best Evaluator : Steve
Best Table Topics : Steve  Best Contribution : Kiri