Tall Tales and Fairy Tales!

Welcome Fellow Toastmasters and Guests

Thanks to all who attended and contributed to an extremely entertaining and inspirational meeting last night.  A big welcome to guest, Alison, fantastic to have you along and hope to see you back again soon.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Ian Wright who was welcoming and did an awesome job of adapting the programme for those unexpected last minute changes.  Ian calmly bridged any gaps and transitions in the programme with ease and that kept the evening flowing and the audience engaged.

Sheryl Mackie introduced her role as General Evaluator for the benefit of our guests and newer members and provided a very thorough General Evaluation at the close of the meeting. Sheryl was ably supported by Amy Edwards and Sarah Lee as the Grammarian and Timekeeper respectively.  Amy was a very “Amiable” Grammarian giving her report with heaps of energy.  Sarah Lee did a great job of keeping us on track which meant we finished the meeting on time!

Table Topics had a great and believable introduction by Chris Heath, which turned out to be a “Tall Tale”.  This set the theme for some creative situations and lead to a very animated and entertaining table topic session.   

• Bryce spoke with confidence and humour about his 30^th Birthday Tandem Parachute jump.  Accused of being a “chicken” he eventually completed the jump.
• Amy was energised and imaginative in the way she disarmed 4 masked bank robbers with her super hero powers.
• Paul was abducted by aliens, declining their offer of surgery he “took over” their spaceship to return to earth
• Craig tripped at the zoo and fell into the Chimpanzee cage where he felt quite at home, as demonstrated by his great body language!
• Sarah Hall swam with Sharks at Westshore beach, used her “phone a friend” option to link in to other speakers stories.  Great speaking technique Sarah.
• Ian was arrested by the FBI in Hawaii for his terrorist like antics at the airport.

Fantastic body language and vocal variety exhibited by all speakers, which made it a really entertaining and fun session – well done everybody.

Peter Manson gave a great table topic evaluation and summary with some praise worthy commendations and recommendation for our impromptu speakers. 

We were then treated to some amazing speakers:

Giving her debut, Icebreaker, speech was new member Netta Brown.  Netta presented her speech in the 3^rd person as the narrator of a fairy tale and in doing that she very cleverly linked her own life story to that of a fairy tale.  Well done Netta, a very thoughtful, compelling and moving way to share your life story, thus far, with us.

Our second Speaker was Bryce Adams who Got To The Point about how small deeds can make someone else’s day and is part of what makes “Good People”.  Bryce was confidently spoken, using some wonderfully descriptive language that really engaged and inspired the audience.

The final formal speech was by Jan Alve who made great use of visual aides to show “Your life in a jar”.  Golf balls, stones, sand and coffee all represented Jan’s message to take care of the big and important things in life!

Speeches were well evaluated by Graeme, Craig and Paul respectively and were informative, with a good range of commendations and recommendations for each speaker to take into their next projects.  Well done to Craig for stepping in and introducing and evaluating a speaker with no notice! 

Sarah delivered a motivating Educational session from her recent stint at the TM International Convention.  Sarah enthusiastically delivered a summary of the John C Maxwell session.  He is an author and motivational speaker who was the winner of the 2012 Golden Gravel Award bestowed each year on a non-toastmaster.  So many great snippets of inspiration, that it would be worthy of its own Blog!  I know I got some motivating take always on the key to success, particularly, knowing your purpose and passion, working on your strengths, having great daily routines, managing your decisions, following through, and giving to others.

Craig ran an efficient business report:

• 6 members of Napier Toastmasters attended a recent club meeting at Hastings Toastmasters.  They will reciprocate by visiting our club next March
• A ribbon was presented for attendance at Division Conference
• Reminder to read your toastmaster Magazine – particularly the latest one has an article written by Laurence Bacchus, who is a local Toastmaster.
• Final meeting for the year is 10^th Dec, It will have a Christmas theme and there will be a shortened programme followed by some festive fare
• We will kick of the New Year with a BBQ – details to come at next meeting
• Netta and Amy were presented with their name badges
• Graeme passed on his thanks to David for his help recently at Pania Club
• Craig was presented with his Competent Leader Certificate

Thank you everyone for a terrific and fun night!

The Awards for the night went to……

Best Speaker: Bryce Adams
Best Evaluator: Graeme Valentine
Best Table Topics: Amy Edwards
Best Contribution: Jan Alve

Congratulations to you all.

Have a great fortnight and look forward to seeing you all at the final meeting for 2012!!

Sheryl
VP Ed