Hello fellow
Toastmasters and interested parties,
What a great meeting Monday
night for our Humorous Speech Contest.
We welcomed two
guests, Judith and Rex, who were visitors from the Hastings Club and part of
the judging panel for the Humorous Speech Contest.
It was great to have Paul
McPherson mobile again and getting back into the swing of things by being our capable
Toastmaster for the evening (plus filling in assistant timekeeper for David).
First up was our Humorous speech contest, which was chaired by Graeme Valentine. A great job by Graeme – I am just coming to appreciate how much is involved for a Contest Chair, in the organising and in the lead up to these Contests, as well as the multiple aspects to juggle on the night. A big thank you to Graeme for this. Six great contestants stepped up for the challenge, and once everyone was organised we had Craig warm up the audience up with a speech that included a few impersonations (Tim Shadbolt and Ronald Regan), a joke, and a clever play on words.
The first contestant up
was Ian Wright who had “pre race jitters” in getting team Wright to the
starting line in Taupo for the big Marathon run. Some interesting body language as Ian showed
us how he warmed up for the race while driving!
Chris Heath was the
second speaker with “In sickness and In Health” …… well there was a little more
emphasis on the in sickness part and how his wife took great care of him when
he fell ill on his recent trip in Samoa.
Some great descriptive language by Chris and a situation I am sure we
could all relate to. And who knew crabs liked fish pie!
James Kan followed
with “Growing up with a difference” Very enthusiastic, well spoken providing us
with humorous new insights into James life and upbringing.
David Grant was
certainly a “Trail Blazer” with his descriptive and entertaining speech on his
families orienteering adventures. Some
great vocal variety I thought and very animated and entertaining.
Danny Mills’s advice to
the adrenaline junkies was “Just Do It!”.
Danny gave us various interesting and humorous insights into extreme
sports to “die” for. Not so sure that I
had heard of some of them before like running in Stilettos? Great flow and topic!
Peter Manson gave us a
lesson on his method of being a supermarket shopping hero on a budget. I can still visualise Peter with recyclable
bags under one arm, a packet of wheat-bix under the other, 6 loaves of bread
for a $1 between the fingers of one hand and 3 bottles of wine between the fingers
of the other. Such great juggling skills!
Well done to the six
of you who entered, they all very entertaining and humorous speeches.
And a big
congratulations to our winner – Danny Mills.
Danny will represent the club at Area Contest on the 15th of
September. Congratulations also
goes to Ian Wright for taking out second place.
A special Thank
You to all our various judges, and particularly our guest judges, Judith and
Rex. Summary comments from the two guest
judges were to accentuate vocal variety to really bring out the humour and
watch the timing (lights), think about starting your wrap up once you get the
amber light. Sound advice for any speech
project.
Table Topic’s session
was introduced and run by Peter Manson. Peter
choose a great theme - our essential resource -“water”.
Sheryl spoke first on
water we use at her place. Steve gave a
humorous take on shopping for water, playing off Peter’s earlier speech, but
not sure where the rain storm came in.
James Ward admitted he didn’t have too many ideas on water restrictions.
Bryce’s view on an $80 million dollar water storage facility was that it would
make a great personal swimming pool, home for crays and his personal water
sports activities. Christine’s topic was
how we should share our recreational water resource, which she expanded to
conserving and storing water.
Congratulations to Bryce for winning Table Topics for the day.
With time running
against him, Craig gave a prompt but concise table topic evaluation. Good recommendations to all, And as the only
evaluator of the evening Paul decided to award Craig the best evaluator!
Craig had a brief
business session, the key points were:
- Update provide on Sarah’s travels and on the International Toastmaster Conference
- Bryce has been appointed to the executive
as the Clubs Sergeant at Arms.
Craig thanked the other volunteers.
- Copy of financial statements for the year
were provided for those members that wanted them
- Reminder of the Area Table Topic and
Humorous Speech Contest on the 15th of September starting at
1:00 pm in the Greenmeadows East Community Hall. All are welcome to come and support
Danny in her dual effort to represent the club in the Table Topic and
Humorous Speech Contests.
- Volunteers for judges for Bay City club
Humorous Speech contest. David
volunteered.
Lucy gave a time
report on table topics and the balance of the meeting, which had managed to get
back on track.
Danny gave a brief General
Evaluation with a few succinct recommendations to conclude the meeting.
Keep safe until next time everyone,
Sheryl
VP Ed
Excellent summary of the meeting, which certainly entertained me during the night, one thing that we all learnt and that was TIMING of your speeches-note it well!!
ReplyDeleteSarah, you missed agreat night, but then again what did we miss where you are?
Thanks Sheryl
ReplyDeleteYes that was an excellent evening and a lot of fun. Timing........Hmmmmmm..... hopefully better next time. However trying something new was certainly a great experience. You (we) are a great audience!
Peter