The Programme You’re About to See May Differ from That Advertised

Amy - Prepared for the Impending Zombie Apocalypse

Twas again a grand gathering for the Napier City Toastmasters, with Hannah at the helm, proceedings got underway in a timely and enthusiastic manner.

Toastmaster Hannah

Wayne was employed to read the mission statement which he orated in a professional and clear tone.
Chris explained his role as general evaluator and made special note of how and why the, commend, recommend, commend pattern in evaluation is important in empowering and growing people’s confidence while providing feedback to enhance speaking techniques and skills.

Kane and Kim outlined there interpretation of the time keepers roles and how they were to rule the bell with an Iron Fist. This was not an idle threat as the timekeepers bell rang on 3 occasions.
Grammarian Paul followed the script and introduced the "inspiring" word of the day with several examples of its use.

Hannah then welcomed our new member Rebecca and apologies were seconded from the two Sarahs, Hall and Lee.

Ian got stuck into the “fun part” of the evening introducing his relevantly themed table topics session based around ANZAC day.

• Christine powerfully and inspiring told us that ANZAC day should ABSOLUTLEY remain a public holiday. 
• Sheryl told us that ANZAC means remembrance of reality and lessons learnt for young people who have a tendency to think nothing of killing people on video games.
• Rebecca recalled her ANZAC day, in which she celebrated the fallen by having a very nice sounding day out with her husband and not taking too much of the ceremony on board.
• Wayne let us the three reasons why he should be given tickets to celebrate the 100th year celebration of ANZAC day in Gallipoli 
• Amy spoke about her knowledge of the origin of the poppy used to symbolise ANZAC day.............
• Richard talked about why it was a good thing that the plastic poppies are now made in China. 

Table topics were evaluated by the laid back “T – Team” Tom opened the evaluation in a humorous fashion and Tony wrapped it all up in a profound manner. Lest We Forget!

Colin, Dee and Netta introduced and outlined the objectives for the prepared speeches from Graham, Amy and Steve.

Graham spoke about his reality check and importance of not leaving dreams to the last minute. Sighting one misfortune of putting things off until you retire he then compared it to a occasion when someone had an amazing experience before they were befallen with some misfortune. He left a charged message of not letting yourself wish life away until the next major event on your calendar.

Amy went through a significant transformation from news reader , to make up saleswoman, and finally deadest zombie look alike advertising and demonstrating the benefits of her overpriced make up kit to see if we were ready for “an-natural disaster”, the impending Zombie Apocalypse.

Steve almost a managed to convince Ian in a role play of accompanying him to a convention to remember, after he outlined the types of negotiation and the 6 stages achieving a successful result through negotiation.

Craig ran through an education session where he reminded the crew to think over putting themselves up for contention in the upcoming elections for executive committee on the 26th of May. That date again, the 26th of May.

To outline the roles the:

• Sergeant at Arms, Graham Valentine explained he had the easiest job on the committee
• Treasurer, Christine informed us she was the most powerful managing the checkbook
• Secretary, Wayne let us know that there was a lot of support in this role
• VP Public Relations, Steve sees this as a challenging leadership role
• VP Membership, Craig (in Sarah Lee’s absence) let us know Sarah made the members very happy
• VP Education, Chris was not put on the spot recalled his first experience and how much better at this role he has become wrapping up the enjoyment and experience he has gained.

Moral of the executive election story is “It's waiting for you, Just do it!”

Tonight we were double lucky with Craig running a business session in which Rebecca our newest member was presented with her name badge, Dee with her Spirit of Success award for getting halfway through her competent communicators manual and Wayne with a number of shinny manuals for finishing his Competent Communicator manual. Well done Dee and Wayne!

Chris ran through a through evaluation of the evening following the CRC method proving very specific and encouraging feedback to all of those evaluating.

Mathematician (Grammarian) Paul ran us through the numbers of “inspiring” uses of said word as well as volume of um’s used as word fillers. Something for most of us to work on.

Hannah awarded the:

• Best Speaker Award to Amy (Zombie Land) Edwards
• Best Evaluator Award to Dee (Bad makeup reminds me of my childhood) Ford
• Best Table Topic Award to Richard (China’s the best place to make Poppy’s) Cook
• Contribution Award to Graham (I know you like chocolate biscuits) Valentine.  

Testament to a good night out Hannah closed the meeting a few minutes late and we all went home to nightmares of Amy’s vivid animation of the Zombie apocalypse......

Richard Cook