Graeme's Impressively Large Gavel

Tonight our Toastmaster for the evening, Graeme, wielded an impressively large gavel, ensuring our meeting started ‘bang’ on time.

Graeme and His Impressively Large Gavel

Our guest, Carol, was welcomed by Craig.  It was great to have a visitor not just from another club, but from another area – and an Area Governor no less.  Thanks for joining us Carol.

Dee introduced the General Evaluator’s role. Tracey and Colin were Timekeepers for the evening.

Our Grammarian, Martin, inspired us to use the word of the night, which was in fact ‘inspire’.
Given that the meeting was held on the newly Mondayised holiday for ANZAC Day, it was no surprise that our Table Topics Master James chose ANZAC Day as his theme.

• Sheryl spoke on her favourite holiday of the year.
• Tracey spoke on her feelings around enlisting.
• Colin described his first time flying over France.
• Martin discussed his feelings around changing the New Zealand flag.
• Sarah gave her thoughts on Mondayising ANZAC Day
• and Carol shared a little white lie she had been led to believe for some time

Guest Carol - Area Governor from Wairarapa

Ian introduced Steve, who presented a project from the Interpersonal Communication manual entitled ‘The Coach’.  Steve reminded us that we are all coaches in life, and it is helpful to consider the following question starters when helping others; what, why, where, when, how and who?  Steve then called for Chris to ‘volunteer’ to participate in a role play of an employee’s 3 month review.  We were reminded to never get in the situation where there are 2 angry people because nothing gets resolved that way.

Our Area Governor, Craig, gave an overview of his role and a very inspiring speech.  He encouraged us each to grow from a tiny acorn to a mighty oak and to consider what our Toastmasters goals will be for the next year.

Our Area Governor - Craig

Wayne and Christine evaluated Table Topics and Ian evaluated Steve’s speech.

Table Topics Evaluators Wayne and Christine

Sarah presented the business session and our immediate Past President ran an educational on the upcoming club officer elections.

The general evaluation, timekeepers report and grammarian’s report were all given.  The most unusual language of the evening was, “Give him a round of a hand” as said by Steve.

The awards for the evening were as follows:

• Best Table Topics: Sheryl
• Best Evaluator: Ian
• Best Speaker: Steve
• Best Contribution: Craig

Thanks everyone for another informative, inspirational and innovative meeting.  See you all next time.

Sarah L.