OH Dear, Our Final Meeting for the Year!

But what a great meeting it was on Monday 8th December when the majority of our members enjoyed an excellent meeting and some “Christmas Spirit”.

Club President Sarah L. and Toastmaster for the Evening Ian.

Toastmaster for the night was Ian, and we were all getting more than a little worried when he had not arrived by 6.59pm, however he burst in looking breathless and apologetic right on 7.00. Seems he had arrived much earlier at the meeting, but realised that he had forgotten the Agenda and rushed back home to get it.(fortunately he does not live in Wairoa!) All was well when he did arrive and while we got underway a couple of minutes late he ran an excellent meeting, with a colourful Christmas program and ensured that everyone had the chance to speak. This included all of us sharing in reading the Mission of the Club with a little help from Ian.

Apologies were received from Kane, Sheryl,Paul,Colin,Wayne & Peter although they heard it was going to be such a good meeting that Sheryl & Wayne turned up anyway!

Table Topics got the meeting underway and Rebecca had an excellent line up of topics for us (not Christmas related as she thought we would all expect that) but finishing off a sentence. The sentences were quite long so I am not going to repeat them here (I did get most of them down!) suffice to say that everyone spoke well to their topic. Wayne had the police knocking at the door and ended up sharing donuts and coffee with them, real Christmas Spirit shining through there.

Hannah - Enjoying her Swim

Hannah was gasping for breath and told us about her first Triathlon and the problems with the swim leg-turns out she ended up swimming an extra 300 metres to keep clear of the throng! Is there no end to this young ladies talents?

Sarah H had a blind date to fulfill , seems it may have been Santa Claus but we will never know, because it didn’t work out and she is still single! come on young men everywhere what are you waiting for?

Sarah L had a fear of flying (and she was the pilot on her first solo flight!) bypassed the problem well by handing over to the co-pilot and giving him the extra responsibility- he thought she was a great Captain.

Ian arrived at the Doctors to receive the results of a Blood test, seems this really happened (or did it??) and gave us a blood curdling account of a recent trip to South Africa when he fell ill and while not mentioned, Ebola was hinted at!! Great story!

Graeme was seen bundling a body into a car and we had some gruesome details about dismembering a body( nearly put me off my supper!) seems the idea was that the body was just the worse for Christmas Spirit-not dead!

Dee had a proposal (of marriage) at Christmas time and had to decide if the spirit was to accept or decline gracefully, after some thought she accepted and it was the best thing she had ever done- Christmas Spirit certainly shone through in this topic.

Sheryl slipped on a rock while crossing a stream, got rather wet but helped all the others in the party to cross safely-that’s the spirit!

While Craig made out he was too fat for the red suit handed to him, seems he made all the kids cry when he was Father Christmas anyway- was this a “believe it or not?”

Only two prepared speeches with the truncated Christmas program and the first was presented by Tony a “Get to The Point” assignment, entitled “Safety in the Work Place”, well presented and organised and something that we all need to be aware of. Tony spoke about Hazard I/D, Risk Management and how to look at Eliminating, Isolating or Minimising risks and wrapped it up extremely well by getting the audience to go through those areas for Santa when he is delivering his Christmas fare, i.e. cleaning chimneys, reducing food intake(for Santa) designating hazard areas or just eliminating Christmas altogether!!! Well done Tony very interesting and entertaining.

Steve evaluated Tony’s speech and after an excellent introduction, which brought in a Christmas theme, advised him that he certainly met the objectives and gave him some worthwhile recommendations regarding examples of hazards, structure of the speech and use of notes.

Graeme was our other speaker and what a tremendous presentation we had from him. While not strictly a manual assignment, in the “Toastmaster’s Tribute”, Graeme spoke about every member in the Club in rhyming couplets giving an interesting and sometimes previously unknown facet of each members abilities. A really amazing effort which had us laughing, gasping and ooing right from beginning to end and we thank Graeme sincerely for the effort that this must have taken.

Chris had the unenviable job of evaluating Graeme and even managed after many commendations, a recommendation or two regarding a variation in volume and greater eye contact and then finished up with a tribute to Graeme in rhyme!

Sarah H & Kim evaluated Table Topics and as one would expect from two such polished evaluators did a great job of C.R C ing every speaker and commended Rebecca on her topics which allowed everyone to speak easily with their answers. A recommendation could be to ensure as Table Topics Master that all those not allocated a role on the program be given the opportunity to speak in Table Topics, before selecting people on the program and perhaps keep the sentences shorter. This aside, Rebecca looked resplendent in her flared trousers and the ‘balls’ sewn on her blouse- she even went to the Supermarket dressed this way( much to her husband’s digust) and received more than a few funny looks!

This brought to a head that Netta and Christine had not spoken, so Ian gave them each a Table Topic, Netta had a delegation of students fronting her and told us how you keep high school students engaged with talking about a pharmaceutical career and mentioning drugs! Christine then told us about her workouts at Curves and punctuated the speech with plenty of exercise by way of great gestures.- Now everyone had had a chance to speak- well done.

The business session was a record, on two counts time, 1m.36secs and Craig did not speak!! Don’t forget the BBQ, Anderson Park, 26th January-you all have personal invites-read them and diarise!!

Sarah L wound up the meeting with her General Evaluation and covered all that needed to be said well, with excellent comments (and rightly so) for Toastmaster Ian.

Timekeeper Amy

Amy gave us a precise and exact Timekeeper’s report-brief and to the point while Grammarian Hannah, whose word of the day (was two words) “ Christmas Spirit” was used regularly during the meeting (and this report!) congratulated us all on our language (English mainly!) and selected a couple of phrases that stood out for her.

Then we really got into the Christmas Spirit and enjoyed some wonderful fare, brought along by members and some provided by the Club, together with some liquid refreshments. Many thanks to those who brought plates (with something on them!) and to Sarah L for her wonderful organisation, also those who made the effort to wear something different and make the occasion a memorable one.

Best Table Topics; Sarah L : Best Speaker; Graeme : Best Evaluator;Chris

Best Contribution; Tony.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and Happy New Year One and All

Craig