The World is Your Oyster for an Ambitious Man!

Our meeting on 13^th March was well coordinated by the Toastmaster of the night Steve, and while attendance was down a little we did have three guests, Mengying, Jane & Daniel who all indicated that they are to join at the next meeting.

Despite the last minute pull-out of one or two members, we still had a great meeting enjoyed by all. Steve, handled the program changes extremely well, which demonstrates his experience in creating an agenda that finished on time.

Steve - Masterfully adapted the meeting despite the changes

After our newest member, Rob, read the Mission Statement we were underway with the first speech presented by Sarah. This was from the Storytelling Advanced Manual-Project 3 - entitled “An Ambitious Man” The man’s name was Donald and he wanted to rule the world, seems he wanted to build a wall to keep the bad people out and get rid of all the bad people he all ready had! Also he ended up in the top job even though he was not the most popular candidate (sounds familiar!). Sarah put her story across really well with some reference to a well known American politician and ended up with a moral to the story (time will tell if this comes true) which was part of the objectives of the assignment.


This was Sarah’s final speech towards achieving her Advanced Communicator Bronze Award and while it has been a while coming-no one thoroughly deserves it more than Sarah - definitely a Advanced Communicator and a real asset to the Club. Congratulations Sarah!!

James, introduced and evaluated Sarah’s presentation and assured her that she had certainly achieved the objectives, with some excellent commendations and was also able to offer Sarah some very worthwhile suggestions for improvement. A great evaluation of an excellent speech.

Next up was Peter presenting another Advanced Manual speech from the Specialty Speeches Manual - ‘Uplift the Spirit’ entitled “The World is your Oyster”. This was based on Peter’s experiences and abilities that he has gained from his time as a Toastmaster, both in Wairoa and Napier Club's and how this has assisted him to take on assignments (and succeed in them) that he would never have dared to do before Toastmasters. Peter used examples from his own life as to how Toastmasters have assisted him to progress in the world, which all stemmed from a comment his father made when he was younger along the lines “that anyone can present a captivating speech if they want to”. This speech could well be utilised as a marketing tool for prospective members, and I am sure they would join! Peter travels from Wairoa for our meetings (a 3 hour return trip) so he ‘practices what he preaches!’. Well done Peter.

Peter’s speech was evaluated by Ian, who covered the commendations Peter was due very well and was also able to give Peter some excellent suggestions for improvement. Ian told us “what he liked about the speech” and in his suggestions clearly set out how he felt Peter could have improved the speech. Excellent evaluation Ian.

Ian - Providing evaluation on Peter's speech

Table Topics followed (an impromptu speaking exercise) nicely arranged by Graeme in another member’s absence, and this session went very well with the speakers requiring to have achieved fame in the nominated position and how they did this. Craig was a Prime Minister, Sarah was a helicopter Pilot, Rob was a movie star, Daniel was a pop star and Steve was a racing car driver. All answered well with imagination and humour, plus some great gestures.

Amy evaluated Table topics, and this was extremely humorous and interesting while still being worthwhile for the participants She utilised the Commend, Recommend, Commend formula with enthusiasm and with giving “multiple credit” to some of the speakers and telling others “to fake it until you make it!”

Steve gave an excellent Education session on “The Role of the Meeting Officers” i.e. Toastmaster, Speakers, Evaluators etc and we all took away an excellent handout detailing the responsibilities in the respective roles, which will no doubt improve the future meetings. Some of the longer term members commented that they were not aware of some of the items Steve covered. Well worthwhile then!

Steve (a Toastmaster wears many Hats) was also the Grammarian of the night and his word “Neophyte” (new to the role, new convert) was well utilised throughout the program.

The General Evaluator, Craig concluded the evening with comments about the Evaluators’ performance which he felt were all of a very high standard. Good evaluations are the hallmark of people improving their speaking ability and achieving their goals in Toastmasters and in Napier Club we have some of the best!

Rob who was ‘inducted into the Club’ as a new member during the Business Session, gave the Timekeeper’s report and showed that he will certainly be a very worthwhile member who will utilise imagination and wit to entertain us all. (He is another member who travels from Wairoa to our meetings!)

Rob - Inducted as a new member of the club

Awards for the night went to: 

• Best Evaluator - James
• Best Speaker - Peter
• Best Table Topics Speaker - Daniel
• Best Contribution - Graeme (for Table Topics)