Butter from Bulls !!!

Richard Cook Receiving the Best Table Topics Award for 2013/2014

No we didn’t have another backwards meeting, but it was a meeting that was full of insight, humour and good cheer.

The meeting was started on time with Colin steering the ship this evening.  Apologies from Steve Tutbury.

We were all reminded to get out our Leadership manuals especially if we had a role this evening – every little bit helps.

Ian was our trusty General Evaluator this evening and as he said his role is to give feedback to the evaluators because “ Feedback is the hallmark of how we improve ourselves”. He also introduced his team, Rebecca as timekeeper and Hannah as Grammarian with the word of the evening – Plethora, “Toastmasters provides a plethora of opportunities to improve our speaking skills.”

Sarah Hall had the pleasure of running table topics this evening and although Paul was surprised she came up with the idea all by herself, the rest of us were not surprised by her creative thinking. Table topics consisted of each person being allowed to talk about whatever they wished, but there was a catch! Inside an envelope Sarah held slips of paper with aspects of public speaking. In the first minute of your speech you had to demonstrate this aspect poorly, in the second minute you needed to do the aspect well.

James was first, while trying to bargain and be second. James talked about the plethora of issues in learning English and the troubles of saying the th sound (e.g. three). He demonstrated - on purpose - poor eye contact with the audience for the first minute, followed by the opposite (i.e. good eye contact) in the second minute. In the end, he concluded his speech by mis-pronouncing (on purpose?) plethora as "pletora".

Chris’ aspect was the use of the speaking area. Chris gave us a great demonstration in his first minute where he used a wide area, managed to make Sarah Hall uncomfortable by getting in her personal space and then approaching Colin….for a hug? The second minute Chris stuck to one spot.

Christine’s aspect was voice volume. In her first minute she used a really quiet volume and explained the reason she joined Toastmasters was to learn how to project her voice so everyone can hear, without the use of aids.

I (Amy) was next, making the audience try and guess my aspect. I spoke about the joys of holidays, not having to get out of your slippers all day, trying to remember what day it is… and the joys of not killing your children. Aspect was the use of lectern, in the first minute I leaned on it and spoke to the lectern; in the second I moved away from the lectern.

Ian was next and his aspect was use of gestures, although most of us were convinced it was voice variety. Ian spoke of his excitement of getting his psychometric test results. He found out he is a leader that people want to follow.

Richard talked about his journey of getting to know us and how much he enjoyed his time here at Napier Toastmasters, all while scratching….. himself……. His aspect was distracting mannerisms!!

Netta was a little stuck at first as to what to use for her prop. Netta told us of her bad day, a council run in, flight issues and a cat being hit by a car.

Peter was the last speaker for the evening; he also told us his bad day of filling up his water bottle and trying to get the dents out, resulting in squirting water all over the ceiling, then his failed attempts at trying to dry up this water with a dirt encrusted broom!! Peter’s aspect was speech rate.

Christine introduced Craig for his icebreaker speech titled "Three Certain Things".

Craig gave a great speech about his three certain things in life, although we were all glad he forgot to mention the final one – being death! He told us he in fact was born, not dragged from a cabbage patch. His life of growing up in Bulls and working at the family store as the delivery boy. He even told us you could get butter from Bulls! By starting his working life he found out the next certain thing… TAXES. Craig then told us of his 38 years of working with the BNZ bank and travelling around the country. It was a very enlightening speech, thank you Craig.

Christine was also very complementary of Craig’s speech in her evaluation, stating Craig had great pace in his speech but she would like to see a greater use vocal variety.

Paul and Kim

Table topic evaluators for the evening were Kim and Paul. They did a superb effort of evaluating all the speakers. The main recommendation was that James should join Toastmasters again, to which James sheepishly smiled. They ended by congratulating Sarah on a great session.

Wayne introduced Richard as our next speaker and for his final speech at Napier Toastmasters :’(. Richard’s speech titled "You Reap What You Sow". Richard talked about his achievements and failures and reflected on it was the amount of hard work you put in. When you are happy with your achievements it has often taken hardwork, dedication and sacrifice. Richard talked about how some of his other achievements were not so successful, because he hadn’t put in the effort beforehand which really did reinforce the theme - you reap what you sow.

Wayne evaluated Richard’s speech by stating it was Richard’s best speech! He recommended Richard to put a bit more hard work into learning the speech and not having to rely on the lectern so much but commended Richards ability to captivate his audience with his vocal variety.

Peter then introduced Dee with her speech, on researching your topic. Dee’s speech was titled "I’ve Got My Eyes on You". Her speech was full of interesting facts about body language and how 50 to 90 percent of our message is communicated through body language. Dee took us through some interesting examples of body language and where we can find more information.

Peter

Peter gave a thorough evaluation of Dee’s speech, giving examples of how to improve. Peter recommended that Dee address the whole audience, not just one side and to try and reduce the use of notes further. He commended Dee on her great use of statistics and the engaging opening of her speech.

Tony then introduced Graeme for his speech which was to use vocal variety. Graeme’s speech titled "Those where the days".

Graeme

Graeme’s speech told a story of his younger days and his imagination of his non-human friends which consisted of spiders, cockabullies and lizards. Graeme also told us of his hallucination - I mean imagination - of his time spent with dragons below earth.

Tony gave a complementary evaluation of Graeme’s speech, commending him on his natural voice variety and his use of expressiveness. Tony found it hard to give Graeme a recommendation but stated he could have had a clearer and more enthralling introduction and to try and use gestures throughout the whole speech.

The business session was HUGE!

• Leadership training, Friday 18^th at Greenmeadows Community Hall – 6.30pm - 9.30pm
• Amy received her Competent Communicator award
• Richard was awarded best table topic speaker tonight, as he won't be here for the award evening :’(  - CONGRATULATIONS Richard!!!
• Reminder about our awards evening and dinner – Boardwalk Ahuriri, Monday 4^th Aug 6.30pm onwards.
• Gifts were given to the outgoing committee from Craig – very sweet!
• James should join toastmasters again.

The general evaluation led by Ian started by inviting Hannah back up to give her report. Hannah played ‘Who said that’ and her word was used 14 times in the evening – well done everyone! Rebecca gave a brief run down on times, everyone was good except for the naughty people! Ian commended Colin on the running of the evening but recommended that he take more control and use the gavel; just "whack" it on the table! Ian was happy that all the evaluators followed the CRC method, but to be careful to not contradict commendations and recommendations. It was a great reminder to us all that when recommending an improvement we should give an example of HOW to do it.

Overall a great evening with a touch of sadness, Richard it is so sad to see you go. With your rate of moving 7 times in 10 years I am hopeful you will be back in the bay so you can get up only 10 minutes before having to go to work! You were a huge asset to the club and will be sadly missed. All the best for your travels.

BEST awards of the evening:

Table Topics - Netta Brown

Speaker - Graeme Valentine

Evaluator - Peter Mason

Contribution - Sarah Hall

Amy Edwards