Our Penultimate Meeting for the Year

With evaluations being a core tenant of Toastmasters it wasn’t hard to encourage six members to take part in the Clubs Evaluation Contest.

After the meeting was opened, guests welcomed & apologies noted by the Toastmaster Chris, control of the meeting was handed over to Evaluation Contest Chairman Wayne.

A quick reminder of the rules and while speakers were drawing for speaking order and asking last minute questions of the Chairman, the Judges were conducting their own briefing under the direction of the chief judge to ensure they all knew what they were meant to be doing and would judge the contest in the correct manner. Thanks to visiting judges Jen from Pania Toastmasters and Peter from Hastings Toastmasters.

Our visiting and guest speaker for the contest Laurence, gave a very motivational presentation titled “The Vaccine Dilemma”.

Guest Speaker Laurence

Laurence had prepared well and gave a thoughtful presentation on what was probably new information to many on the rise of autism in the world and it’s link the vaccinations – thought provoking. He then had the “pleasure” of sitting through evaluations from six contestants. With each Evaluator in the contest not able to hear previous contestants, the outcome decided by the judges could not even be guessed at until the announcement of the results towards the end of the meeting.

From Left: Contestants Sheryl, Peter, Amy, Laurence(Speaker), Steve, Kim, Hannah and Contest Chair Wayne

After the contestants had finished, Wayne handed control of the meeting back to Toastmaster Chris. Although Chris had prepared the agenda, it seemed at times he had trouble following it, but with a lot of humour and prodding from members, eventually got the meeting back on track.

Just as well, as we heard an excellent speech from Dee “Be Prepared!”, on her first rafting trip down the Mohaka River. A salutary tale for us all. Not only was it the first rafting trip she had organised, it was her first rafting trip! Dee it seems is the type who tends to just go off and attempt something and hope it works out. Who could forget her telling us about buying a map with the river running off the end just where they wanted to start the trip and being too tight to go and buy another or the experience of buying hideous trackpants that were waterproof, wind proof and smell proof! With being capsized, losing the raft, attempting to walk out and being so frozen they spent half the night in the Mangatainoka Hot pools in the middle of June, a great tale well told with lots of humour and body language emphasising some of the more dramatic moments of the trip.

The speech was ably introduced by Sheryl who gave us some background on Dee and in her evaluation gave plenty of positive feedback in areas where she felt the speech objectives had been met and suggestions for adding more impact in areas where she felt Dee could have more effectively meet the objectives of her presentation.

Onto our second speaker James whose speech titled the “Seven “P’s” had us all wondering. The introduction of James by Hannah, left us none the wiser.

James turned out to be an expert on and passionate about the use of the correct grade of timber. He told us that although Kiwi’s are great DIYers, they don’t really have much idea about the effects of using the wrong grade of timber on their projects. How many of us knew there were 5 grades of timber and 6 levels of treatment? Along with a couple of examples of differently treated timber, James soon had us educated about what we should be doing when next purchasing timber for our next DIY project. Oh, and the “Seven “P’s” – Perfect prior preparation prevents piss poor performance.”

His speech was evaluated by Hannah who has come a long way in her short time at the club. She showed her level of confidence by opening her evaluation of James’ speech by saying “At Toastmasters we like to see passion and James is passionate about timber”. She found plenty to like about his presentation and gave good suggestions for the future in relation to the objectives of his speech which were based around speech construction using an effective opening and conclusion.

With the meeting flowing well, although a little behind time, Netta presented a truncated Table Topics session based on her theme of being a Judge at a particular event.

First up was Peter who had the enviable job of being a judge at a Miss NZ Contest. A wonderful start I thought as he nominated Miss HB as the winner and explained why. Colin next up, judged a Dog Contest. A great challenge for Colin who told us he was not a dog lover. Managed to kill time masterfully! Rebecca was chosen to judge a modern art exhibition and used masterful gestures and word pictures to describe her “object de art”. Finally Craig had to choose the “Sportsperson of the Year”. A more suitable topic could not have been found for a sports mad person. He eventually told us Brodie Retallick would be his choice.

A humorous evaluation of Table Topics shared by Peter and Amy gave all participants something to think about.

Steve, running the club business section in the absence of Club President Sarah, reminded us our next meeting would be a Christmas theme and to wear our favourite Santa costumes and those so inclined could bring a favourite Christmas nibble.

The meeting was wrapped up by General Evaluator Graeme who ensured all taking part in the meeting received feedback, Craig who reminded us of the word of the night “Empathy” and gave feedback on good and not so good use of the English language.

Winner of the Evaluation Contest according to the Judges was Amy, Runner up Kim and Third place Steve.

By popular vote, Table Topics was taken out by Rebecca, Best Speaker by Dee, Best Evaluator Sheryl and Best Contribution to the Meeting, chosen by the Toastmaster was contest Chairman Wayne.

A fun evening. Can’t wait for the Christmas edition!

Steve