"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

It was Netta's first time as Toastmaster this evening, and she did a great job at handling the changes; staying calm despite not having a full compliment of rostered members right at the start of the meeting.

Our guests Richard and Paul were warmly welcomed, as were our new members Tom and Kane. 

Wayne, as general evaluator, introduced his team of helpers: Amy lit up the room with a dazzling green, amber and flashing red light display and timed all the evening's activities with great precision. Graeme gave us the word of the night which was "benign". The word was used twice by Steve.

Table Topics

Craig was called to step up and deliver table topics at short notice, and despite not having a list of topics, he had a cunning plan that was executed with ease. It was as if it was planned all along. Craig gave the first topic which was about the boat race. Each subsequent speaker had to use the previous speakers last statement as the springboard for their own table topic.

• Sarah Lee was first up, wanting to sell her red socks. 
• Christine will never give up and will remain committed to supporting whatever she commits to through thick and thin.
• Kane, keeping calm and carrying on with Christine's theme queried why some people supported Team NZ and others didn't. He opted to jump on board and support Team NZ.
• Tom spent his day docking 700 lambs and commented on New Zealand's ability to lead through innovation. 
• Amy believed in all things New Zealand, from yacht races to whale watching.
• Chris spoke on the benefits of working your way through the Toastmasters programme.
• Netta shared the stories of her children when they were young, and the walnut shell yachts they sailed.
• Netta's final statement, in reference to Amy's topic was "Don't even think about the whales", and with this James announced that that is exactly what the Japanese whale researchers should do.

Prepared Speeches

We had four speakers this evening.

From the Story Telling manual, Sarah Hall told us a story about Silly Jack. Jack lost everything he earned, each time being told by his mother how silly he was. Finally by carrying a donkey, he made a girl laugh for the first time in her life, and he was rewarded by her father with enough rices to make his mother happy.

Chris gave a speech from The Entertaining Speech manual. It was about the the benefits of being naive and included a personal story from his childhood about what he got up to at a public swimming pool.

Dee's speech was an inspirational speech about kayaking and the places you can go to see things that you wouldn't otherwise see, like penguins, seals and killer whales; a great way to see the country from a different perpsective.

Sarah Lee

Sarah Lee was surprised that her daughter knew more about Anzac day than she did and this spurred Sarah into action to find out more. This lead to a lot of research into Anzac day and ended with a poignant quote by Bertrand Russell: "War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

The speeches were evaluated respectively by James, Christine, Graeme and Hannah with plenty of commendations relating to the use of pause, speech rate, voice projection and the injection of humour.

In the business session, it was announced that both Amy and James will be going on to represent the area in Rotorua. Congratulations to both Amy (Table Topics) and James (Humorous). Tom was inducted into the club and Kane received his badge.

 Tom (right) Receiving his Membership Pack from Craig (left)

Kane Receiving his Badge from Sarah

As general evaluator, Wayne commended:

- Amy for her timing

- Graeme for setting up the room

- Netta for handling agenda changes

- Craig for taking on Table Topics at short notice, 

- the evaluators for their constructive feedback.

Congratulations go to:

- Graeme for the best evaluation

- Sarah Lee for the best speech

- Craig for best contribution, and

- Netta for best table topic.