The Power of ...... A Pause, Affirmations, Motivation and Sports

WOW - How fantastic to have seven friendly guests along last night!  A big welcome to you all.  Great to meet first time attendees Stefan, Bryan and Del,  as well, we had Jon, Netta and Amy returning for their second visit and fellow toastmaster Sue was also a guest from Bay City Club.  It was awesome to have some of you participate during the meeting, and thank you for all your feedback and comments at the end of the meeting. Wonderful to hear you enjoyed the night and we look forward to you all returning at a future meeting.

Our calm and capable Toastmaster for the evening, Peter, coped extremely well with a large number of last minute changes to the programme, and a large list of apologies (10 apologies! – everyone must have known that our President & Chief, Craig, was not going to be there!) -  Lucky we had so many guests to make up for it!

Chris gave an explanation of the General Evaluators role.  With the aide of a prop -an aerosol can of CRC - Chris explained the Commendation, Recommendation, Commendation feedback process as a way of giving a bit of praise to lubricate the feedback on how a speaker can improve.  Chris wrapped the meeting up with some good feedback for evaluators and other members on their roles.  Chris was ably supported by Rob, first time Grammarian who gave a “CONDUCIVE” report on the word of the day and highlighted the colourful descriptive language used during the night.  Graeme was efficient and precise with the timekeeping, and managed to capture the evening by incorporating his legendary humorous touch into his end of night timekeepers report.

The agenda sent some nervous panic into everyone when they saw table topics was going to be for 30 minutes!  Table Topic Master - Sheryl explained there would be a separate session first for Sue Ward, who will be representing our Area in the Division D Table Topic Contest in October.  Sheryl introduced a theme of Motivational Quotes from some of NZ’s great Sportspeople, (although topics were broad enough that speakers were not limited to speak on sports)

Sue spoke on the key ingredients or characteristics that make a winning team.  A passionate talk that explained how she has changed the sports team she supports and why. Members of the audience gave Sue some excellent commendations and very constructive and worth while recommendations.  Thank you to the audience for particpating and providing your views, I know Sue found it extremely valuable and we wish her well for the next Contest round.

Table Topics then proceeded as normal:

•  Sarah used word pictures to describe a young patient and the dental hygiene help she provided.
•  David gave us a lesson on debating rather than debating his topic “you shouldn’t take your eye  of your competitor".
•  Amy’s only regret was a missed boyfriend opportunity at high school.  Her message was "don’t dwell on regrets".
•  Rob being famous for real (with his pic so often in the paper these days), told us about the challenging moments of the food festival and how his natural talent overcame them.
•  Jon gave a personal insight on how his two kids inspire him.
•  Jan recounted her training as a “hotdog” skier.

Table topics were evaluated by James Kan and Christine who made good use of the CRC method in framing their comments for all speakers.

WOW... again - We were treated to three fantastic, entertaining high quality speeches.

First we had our newest member, Bryce give his second speech “The Sports Fan”  A powerful array of word pictures introduced the scene in the year 11AD with a journey to watch your new favourite Gladiator, with Bryce then transporting us forward 2000 years to 2011 and a comparison of the journey from Auckland Viaduct to the Rugby World Cup.  Bryce wove us through various types of sports and fans – fanatical ones, with their irrational raving enthusiasm, to Fickle Fans, to the “winners and grinners”.

Sarah dressed for the part and gave us an energised recount of her recent trip to Orlando, Florida for the TM International Convention.  A well structured daily rundown of the Convention, from Contestants to Clackers, Sarah shared with us a taste of the unique experience and people she met on the way.  This was followed up with a few minutes for Q & A.  We look forward to Sarah sharing with us the ideas she has gathered from the event at future meetings…. with one already making an immediate impact …. The POWER OF THE PAUSE.

Our final speaker, Paul, was “Lost and Found”.  Paul told us what a lucky dude he is and the role that powerful affirmations had in assisting him in recovery from recent surgery.   After a demotivating rehabilitation that included “a lot of lying around, doing little, on plenty of drugs”, Paul reinstated his daily affirmations to re-emerge “52 Again”!  A relaxed and confident speaker, Paul injected plenty of humour and enthusiasm into the evening.

Bryce and Paul’s speeches were introduced and evaluated by Graeme and David respectively.  Again the CRC method was used well giving a great balance of praise and constructive ideas for improvements that the speakers can take into their next projects.

Sheryl stood in for Craig at the business session:

• A summary was given of the Area D2 Contest day.  Danny represented the club very well in both the Table Topics and the Humorous Speech Contests but unfortunately was not placed in either.  The winner of the Table Topic Contest was Sue Ward from Bay City and the Humorous Speech contest was won by Laurence Bacchus from Hasting Club.  Congratulations to them both and all the best for the next Contest round – Division D on the 13^th October in Rotorua.
• A “Thanks” from Craig was passed on to those who attended the Area D2 Contest day and who helped Craig with preparations and roles on the day.
• A reminder that subscriptions were due Monday the 24^th Sept to take advantage of the discount.  All subs should be paid by this week as renewal and payment to the US needs to happen by Friday.
• A reminder that October’s meeting dates are the 3^rd and 5^th Monday’s being the 15^th and the 29^th of October,  a departure from our normal Monday because of Labour weekend.  This way we get 2 meetings in October instead of one!
•  A Thank you from Sheryl was extended to Graeme and David for consistently supporting, helping and stepping in and taking on roles often late in the piece.

The Awards for the evening went to:

Best Table Topic: Sue Ward
Best Speaker:  Bryce Adams
Best Evaluator: Graeme Valentine
Best Contribution: Sheryl Mackie

A big Thank You to all those who attended. Another great meeting, well enjoyed by all.  Nice that some of our returning guests felt more at home and...

Remember, the next meeting is 3 weeks away on Monday the 15^th of October.

Keep well until then and to reiterate the words of speaker Paul “success comes from what you think”, so try those daily affirmations!

Sheryl

VP Ed