On Monday 28th August Napier Toastmasters held their Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests - what a great evening it turned out to be! A good number of members attended and we also entertained guests from Pania & Bay City Club plus other guests who came along to see what Toastmasters is all about. Great to have Lisa back for a second look, Mia (who has been a Toastmasters in Slovenia/Slovakia) and Jen, Marc and Kerry from Pania Club to assist with the running of the contests.
The evening was well organised by our V/P Education Steve and the two contests were ably chaired by Area Director Christine.
The evening commenced with a warm welcome from President Craig. Our V/P membership Jane inducted the latest member Carol into the Club. We are sure that Carol, who has already proven to be a capable speaker during the Table Topic sessions, will learn and enjoy her time with us.
The first Contest was Table Topics. Nine members took the opportunity to answer the question "What Does it Mean to Have a Good Life?". For the uninitiated, speakers drew for speaking order and all but the first speaker left the room. The subsequent speakers came in one by one to present their Table Topic in a time span of one to two minutes. Those who took up the challenge were Ian, Craig, Peter, Amy, Daniel, Jane, Carol, Layeeq and Brenda. Excellent answers by all and it was an interesting Topic for the speakers.
The placing's were 1st: Amy; 2nd: Daniel; 3rd: Brenda. Special congratulations go to the first timers and fairly new members to the Club, namely Jane, Daniel, Layeeq and particularly Carol, who only joined this night!
After a break we had the Humorous Speech Contest, this is probably one of the hardest speeches to write and deliver, and it was marvellous that we had six members prepared to "have a go". Speeches must be basically members' own material and must have an opening, body and conclusion (i.e. not be a series of one-liners) within a timing of five to seven minutes. This was a very "funny" contest with all contestants having excellent response from the audience (some were in tears from laughing so much!). Prior to the first speaker (once again they drew for speaking order, but may remain in the room during the contest) we had a "warm-up speech" from Steve to get members "laughing gear" going and it worked!!
Speakers and their Titles were, Ian "Bits & Bites from the IT Industry"; Jane "Move It"; Layeeq "Sweet As"; Peter "The Stick Man Wins"; Amy "I Need A Hero"; and Daniel "The CCC Method".
Excellent presentations by all and they all deserve a huge congratulations for their efforts. As in all contests there has to be winners (they were all winners!) but placing's anyway!
The placing's were 1st; Jane; 2nd Amy; 3rd Daniel. Again special mention must be made of Jane, Daniel & Layeeq - all recent members and first time contestants.
The standard of the speakers certainly demonstrated that the Club is in great heart and going from strength to strength!
The winners Amy & Jane now go on to represent Napier Club at the Area D2 Contests on 15th September in our usual meeting place, Greenmeadows Community Rooms, PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY NOW!!!!!
Special thanks to all those involved in running the Contests and the audience, without whom it would have been a worthless exercise!!
President Craig.
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