The meeting was opened superbly and confidently by first time Chairman Ashley who welcomed our first time guests Hannah, Kahu and Layeequlla (who signed up to become a member at the end of the night) and second time guest Leigh.
General Evaluator Steve introduced his Timekeeping team of Jane & Sarah and Grammarian Christine. Christine enlightened us all by introducing us to a number of words recently added to the Oxford Dictionary including Twitterarti, meaning a person who tweets a lot or who has a large number of followers. Some entertaining use and variations of the word followed during the evening.
Amy had done some homework (unusual for a teacher?) and gave us a whole new twist on Table Topics. She explained she couldn’t find anywhere to buy Fortune Cookies, so she made up her own! Participants had to choose a coloured sweet & show the colour to the "fortune teller". The fortune teller had the option of choosing from a number of written suggestions depending on the colour of the sweet and tell the "sweet sucker" their fortune. Stretched our imaginations and a lots of laughs. Congratulations to first time guest Hannah who was brave enough to participate.
 |
| Ashley - Explaining his vision to Sarah |
 |
| Hannah - Telling Rob her prophecy |
 |
| Jane - Telling Delan what she saw in him |
Table Topics was ably evaluated by Peter and Kate (her first time evaluating Table Topics). Thorough evaluations by both with excellent commendations and recommendations for Amy and all participants.
James gave a excellent speech on Speech 9 in the Competent Communicator Manual (Persuade with Power) on the principals of the Pareto Principle (to most of us the 80/20 rule. 80% of the business/profits/results comes from 20% of customers/sales/participants).
 |
| James - Explaining the Pareto Principle |
Good evaluation from Graeme who I felt had a challenging job.
Our Area Director Ian presented us with opportunities and benefits of taking on the Area Directors role. He used an interesting analogy and story relating to his time as a child watching his father repeatedly fixing his punctured bike tyre and then one day trying unsuccessfully to fix it himself and his Dad had to come to the rescue. His message was that you learn by doing and if it doesn’t work out quite right there is always someone in Toastmasters to help you out.
 |
| Ian - Giving a sincere take on the benefits of Toastmasters |
President Craig gave an excellent overview of the role of the club committee and implored us with the view that a club is only as good as its committee (or backroom powerhouse!) Each of the current committee members were invited to tell the audience what a “doddle” the job was and how much you learn personally from taking on a leadership role within the club. We look forward to plenty of nominations at our next meeting.
Steve and his team “wrapped up” the meeting with final evaluations and reports from the Timekeepers (surprising how busy the job is) and the Grammarians word of the night. Christine also picked up on some wonderful word pictures used during the evening as well as who used Twitteratii.
Ashley kept the meeting flowing smoothly throughout with his saying and comments linking each section of the meeting and offering guests the opportunity to give their feedback. Well done Ashley.
- Best Table Topic award went to Jane
- Best Evaluator went to Table Topics pairing of Peter and Kate
- Best Contribution to the evening - our guest Hannah
Excellent report Steve on another great 'first' meeting.
ReplyDelete