Meeting Report – 12 September 2011

What a fantastic meeting! – no surprises there. Monday's meeting was ably run by Danny, and even with four stimulating speeches, it finished earlier than usual.

Best Speaker - Emily Murray

Toastmaster
Danny kicked the meeting off with a very warm welcome to all, especially to our guests James and John. The club mission was read out by Chris, and what a wonderful job of it he did; definitely the highlight of the night. You could say, Chris's 15 seconds of fame came true, only to be upstaged by the excellent speeches and evalutations that followed!
Apologies: Colin, Nick, Paul and Millie.

General Evaluator
For the benefit of the guests, Sarah outlined here role as General Evaluator and reminded everyone to bring their Competent Leader manuals along. Competent leadership skills are easy to achieve because they relate directly to the roles we perform at each meeting.
Assisting Sarah was Chess (Timekeeper), who stated in no uncertain terms that she will be keeping us to time, as she did not want to be here at 10 p.m. Ching-Hui (Grammarian) rounded off Sarah's team, asking for nothing less than "spontaneity" and for all meeting participants to use the word and its derivatives.

Table Topics
David came up with some creative table topics and dished them out to the unsuspecting members who trembled (with anticipation) at the thought of being given a table topic.
We were treated to a wide array of spring related table topics from Diane, Chris, Steve, Peter, James, Chess and Ian. Diane spoke of her overgrown garden and implored us to enjoy the spring. Chris told us how to make a hungi pit out of a collapsed rabbit burrow and tasty rabbits. Steve's spring tide was a tsunami. Peter admitted that he doesn't spring clean. It's an early morning winter clean for him that clears out the clutter in time for spring painting. James told us about his favorite spring sport – beach volleyball and Ian (on the subject of the Springboks) admitted that because of the Rugby World Cup, he almost forgot to come along to the meeting!

The topics were confidently evaluated by Sheryl, who gave all the speakers encouraging feedback in the form of commendations and recommendations.

Speakers
As usual, the speeches tonight were of  the high calibre that we have become accustomed to expect at Napier Toastmasters.
With very warm introductions by evaluators Ian, Graeme, Adrienne and Peter, the speeches by Christine, Craig, Bridgette and Emily were well received by all.
Christine's alarm made some of us almost jump out of our seats, and it certainly captured my attention. With such vivid word pictures, I got caught up in the drama and chaos of the sinking Wahine.
With Craig recounting his 15 minutes of fame, Chris's 15 seconds were soon forgotten. Craig gave us an ecstatic and uplifting tale of how he basked in the glory of Charisma's win at the races (a horse his Dad trained; not the one Mark Todd rode at the Olympics).
A word of advice: Don't play tennis with Bridget. With the title "Tales from the Battlefield", it soon became apparent that Bridget loves to win, but like my 15 seconds of fame, her win of one game was soon overshadowed by her opponents winning the set. Bridget challenged us to play tennis, a life-long game, a social activity, or for those who need a neck workout; a spectator sport that keeps heads turning.
For her icebreaker, Emily the person, gave us EMILY the acronym:
E = Educated
M = Multifaceted
I = International
L = Loquacious
Y = Yearning
It was a lively and creative icebreaker that could have made us feel somewhat less accomplished; on the contrary it inspired me to want to do more!

The evaluations by Ian, Graeme, Adrienne and Peter were all informative, with a range of commendations and recommendations. Speech objectives were recounted and the CRC (Commend Recommend Commend) method of evaluation was explained. Graeme's recommendation for Craig was that he would have liked to see the horse; given that the horse has long since departed, that might not be such a good idea!

Peter Manson Evaluating Emily's Speech

Business Section
Sarah (on behalf of Colin) handed out certificates to the following members:

• Diane Reid – Club Table Topic Participation Certificate
• Jeanette Neil – Club Table Topic Participation Certificate 
• Chess Severyn-Parrish – Competent Communicator

Congratulations Diane, Jeanette and Chess. Sadly, Diane is leaving the Club after 3.5 years. Diane - We wish all the best with your future endeavours.

Chris announced the very blog that you are reading now.

There is an executive meeting scheduled for Monday next week.


General Evaluation
Sarah rounded off the meeting with an evaluation of the evaluators; providing feedback relating to the evaluators'  humor, time, vivid language and excellent introductions. Chess told us how long we all took; even if she did not record some of the times. Ching-Hui tested our listening skills with questions about who said what during the meeting.

Meeting Awards
Before closing the meeting (only minutes after 9 p.m.), Danny presented the following awards for tonights meeting to:

• Emily - Best Speaker
• Graeme - Best Evaluator
• Chess - Best Table Topic
• Sarah - Best Contribution

Congratulations to Emily, Graeme, Chess and Sarah. It was a fantastic meeting, and I'm already looking forward to the next meeting.

I hope I haven't left anyone out.

Have a great fortnight!

Chris