Proceed At Your Own Risk

It was an entertaining, enlightening and enjoyable meeting last night. Well attended by 14 Club members plus a warm welcome to our two guests Dee and Lana. Wonderful to have you along and hope to see you back again soon.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Craig Robinson. Craig was very excited to kick the meeting off with the announcement that the Napier Club had won best website in D72 (NZ) at the Convention over the weekend.


Congratulations and a certificate of appreciation was presented to Chris Heath for all his efforts in setting up, maintaining and updating the Club website. An awesome achievement by Chris for the Club and it is great to have his hard work recognised.

Toastmaster - Craig

James Ward debuted as General Evaluator and explained his role well for the benefit of our guests.

Grammarian - Wayne

The Grammarian for the evening was Wayne who gave an “AUSPICIOUS” overview of his role, followed by time keeper Graeme who gave great promise that he would keep the meeting to time.

An innovative theme for Table Topics was clearly explained by James Kan. Speakers had to critique pieces of modern art that had been drawn by James. In their critique, speakers had to explain the significance of the art piece, how they may have drawn it differently and place a value on it.

- David Grant critiqued an alien looking robot entitled “where is Mummy?” which took him straight back to his nursery days of sputnik type toys.

- Wayne Bickers provided an instant scream of horror when he saw his oddly imaginative art figure which reminded him of a prison escapee, but thought perhaps more colour was needed like some evil red eyes.

- Peter Manson had a cryptic picture with the words ONE LOVE, MAN and a Peace Sign. Peter thought it a bit dubious and would have added something flowery to it.

- Netta spoke on a piece that illustrated the evolution of technology from calculator to I pad and the evolution of man from smart to dumb. Whilst not quite up to the standard of art shown at the Louvre, Netta indicated she would keep it as you never know James may be famous one day!

- James Ward spoke to “Time Slip. Gone” an unusual splodge, which he thought looked like spilt coffee with a clock face in the middle. It made James feel overcome with emotion and colour would add even more to the emotion of the piece.

Table topics were evaluated by the duo of Chris and Amy, and it was obvious they had enjoyed the impromptu speaking session, as had the audience. Well done James Kan for presenting a session filled with so much originality.

A slight change in the programme format from normal saw some short interludes between the usual slots where Convention attendees provided brief reports on various sessions from the weekends “Blown Away” Convention in Wellington. Many thanks for Graeme, Craig and Sarah for sharing their impressions and insights from various speakers and sessions.

We had three prepared speeches.

Steve & David

Firstly Steve Tutbury gave us a demonstration speech that needed to explain an activity. Steve clearly demonstrated “How to fail a job interview”. With the scripted assistance of David Grant as interviewer and Steve as the applicant, they presented a mock job interview. Steve was very natural and relaxed as he did a tremendous job of portraying what not to do in a job interview.

Netta

Netta presented her third speech. She provided a light hearted and entertaining warning to “proceed at your own risk” when it comes to having children as there are NO returns, NO use by dates, NO instruction manuals and NO warnings when it comes to parenting kids! A wonderfully structured speech with lots of gentle humor, well done Netta.

The third speaker was Sheryl who presented project two from Speaking to Inform and had research whether or not 8 glasses a day of water was really needed for health and wellbeing.

Evaluators were Ian Wright, Sarah Hall and Peter Manson respectively, each provided their own insights by way of commendations and recommendations for the speakers to take forth into their next projects.

Craig chaired an informative business session:

• Reminder there is an executive meeting next Monday
• Next club meeting (27th) will be Club Officer Elections (seven club officers needed)
• Participation certificate presented to Wayne Bickers for participating in the Club Evaluation Contest earlier in the year
• Forward programme for next two meetings were covered
• James Ward advised he is travelling overseas from June so sadly the next meeting will be his last
• A Triple Peaks Certificate was awarded to Craig by Graeme in recognition for sponsoring members and educational achievements.

In his General Evaluation James spoke highly of the Evaluators referring to great examples of text book evaluations. Graeme accounted for the over and under runs in his timekeeper report, a lot speaking to try to fit into 2 hours! Wayne gave a detailed report word usage particularly the use of redundant words and fillers used instead of starting new sentences.

Awards for the evening were voted on and presented as follows:

• Best Table Topic: James Ward
• Best Evaluation: Sarah Hall
• Best Speaker: Steve Tutbury
• Contribution: Chris Heath

Congratulations to all.

Next meeting the 27th of May, this will include club officer elections.

Until then, take care all

Sheryl

VP Education