Toastmaster’s District 72 Convention 7-9 November 2014

The Convention was held at the Copthorne, Waitangi, situated in the beautiful Bay of Islands and was attended by over 300 Toastmaster’s from all around New Zealand, including over 100 ‘first timers’, which I believe was a record for ‘first timers’.


Four members of Napier Toastmasters attended, Sarah H, Sarah L, Craig and Graeme plus Laurence from Pania and five members from Hastings Club, made up the Hawkes Bay contingent. Having attended well over 30 Conventions in the past I have become a bit of an ‘expert’ and I can honestly say that I feel this was one of the best I have attended, not so much the organisation, which was good but not great, but the speakers and the general ambience of the locality made it all worthwhile.

Top: Lindsay Wright 88, Chris McCabe 84, Rob Julian 72, Gwyn Harrison 89, Robin Hunter 89, Craig Robinson 84. Bottom: Graeme Valentine 76, Denis McCord 83, Mary Harrison 89, Joan Hook 83, Larrie Talbot 86.

For those that are not aware, the Copthorne is situated adjacent to the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi and off course the area is steeped in New Zealand’s history. The Convention had a ‘Maori flavour’, understandably and this added to the occasion.

The Convention opened with a Powhiri and Banner Parade, outside on the lawn in beautiful weather, followed by the ‘official’ opening inside and some presentations. Then followed an extremely humorous and entertaining address from one of the Keynote Speakers, Peter Jackson NZOM (no not the Sir variety) but this Peter Jackson has been the Editor of the biweekly Kaitaia Newspaper for 31 years and recounted many tales about characters and stories that he has come across in that time. Imagine the police questioning someone about a crime, who would not confess, they put him next to a Xerox photocopier, put a colander on his head, attached some wires to the photocopier that had a page inserted saying that he is lying, questioned him, to which he denied knowing anything about the crime, opened the photocopier which said he was lying and he confessed!!-Wouldn’t happen today -would it? Not the greatest orator out, but really entertaining.

The Table Topics Contest was a highlite , the nine Divisions winners were asked the question “What can we, or should we do about cyber-bullying”, some excellent answers (not all of them really practical these days) and the winner was John Leadbetter, 2nd Sarah Bond and 3rd Gary Nicolson.Our Division D winner Maggie Jack was unplaced. The District Council meeting followed after lunch(always a highlite!!the meeting-not lunch) but it is necessary for administrative purposes and then there was an Education Session from and American Toastmaster, Naomi Takeuchi-DTM a Past District Governor of North Carolina, she is a professional speaker and spoke eloquently about being a Club Coach, Sponsor or Mentor. Well worthwhile information for all present. This was followed by another International guest Charlie Starrett DTM, who is a Toastmasters International Director, based in Australia, his topic was about Introverts and Extroverts and was titled “Mind The Gap-The Power of Introverts in an Extrovert World”, very interesting and thought provoking.

Saturday night’s “Dine and Dance” was from all reports a great success(not attended to by us , who preferred a quiet meal and chat at a local restaurant.)

Sunday started with a real highlite and that was the second keynote speaker Dr. Lance O’Sullivan- what a man! New Zealand of the Year 2014, Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award winner in 2013 and TVNZ Maori of the Year in 2012. A very humble local Doctor from Kaitaia, who has achieved so many great works in his 40 odd years we cannot begin to list them here ( in addition to which he has seven children). An inspiring speech that had us laughing and crying, and a tremendous way to start off Sunday morning. More workshops followed (a choice of three available) and then probably the ‘main’ attraction the District 72 Humorous Speech Contest. Nine contestants entertaining us all with great oratory and humour, I was glad I was not a Judge as I felt that anyone of 5/6 of them could have won without surprise, but there has to be one winner and that was Don Grant, from Nelson, who spoke about “Internet Dating”. 2nd was Ella Kahu “Oh Lord it’s Hard to be a Woman” and 3rdDivision D’s very own Jamie Gordon from Rotorua with “Just Follow TheArrows”. A very even contest and in my book all are winners. Just a sideline here that one of the Contestants was Deborah Lambie from Dunedin, Deborah is a Doctor and has just been announced as Miss NZ University 2014. There was an item on her on TVNZ News on the Monday following the Convention.(her final line in her speech was “what do you call the person who comes bottom of the class at Medical School--- Doctor!!)

Off course Napier also received an Award, a very nice physical trophy donated by a member from Dunedin (Ray Leckie) for the Club with the best website-and that is us- NAPIER (thanks Chris and others for all your great work)

Then we all went sailing on the sparkling waters off Russell for a couple of hours- a exhilarating way to finish a entertaining, educational and inspiring weekend.(and Graeme flew home!! WOW!!)

Next Convention is at Waipuna Lodge, in Auckland May 2015, details on the toastmasters website- be there!!!

Craig Robinson