Area Council Meeting

Friday 15th September Area D2 (the five Clubs in the Hawkes Bay) held their Council meeting, Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests at Greenmeadows Community Hall. Approximately 30 Toastmasters attended and I believe all enjoyed an entertaining and enthusiastic evening.

Following a brief Council meeting ably run by the Area Director, Christine, during which the Club Presidents gave brief reports on their Club activities recently. From those reports it seems that generally Clubs in the Area are doing well and if not currently at Charter strength (20 members) and are positive about achieving that status over the next 12 months. Three Clubs are currently sitting comfortably over Charter strength.

Next up we had the Area D2 Table Topics Contest, chaired by Paul (President of Havelock North Club).The five Club winners Marc (Pania, Iain (Havelock North), Jenny (Bay City), Amy (Napier), and Te Whiti (Hastings) were required to answer the question "How Do You Define Success" in a time of between 1-2 minutes. All spoke well and confidently to the topic, with some different ideas about success. Placings were 3rd - Jenny; 2nd - Amy; and 1st - Te Whiti, who utilised a prop in the form of a Toko Toko (walking stick) to good advantage, but also spoke extremely fluently to the topic.

After a refreshment break we had the Humorous Speech Contest, Chaired very capably by Sarah (Napier Club). In this contest speakers are required to present a Humorous Speech, basically of their own creation for a time of 5-7 minutes. In order to "warm up" the audience, we had Ian (Napier) presented a very funny speech about the early days of IT, which was extremely well received by the audience and set the scene for a great contest. The five contestants were Jenny (Bay City), Marc (Pania), Sarah (Havelock North), Jane (Napier) and a representative from Hastings Club. Most spoke about a personal experience (probably enhanced a little for the occasion!) but all were well presented and extremely humorous. I felt that overall the standard in this contest was very high, and they certainly made me laugh on numerous occasions. Congratulations to them all, for this is probably the hardest speech to write and present. The placings were 3rd - (Hastings); 2nd - Marc (Pania) and 1st - Jane (Napier). Jane presented a very well structured speech about the need to keep moving (the only people she knows that do not move are dead!!) and gave us hilarious insights into preparing for a run. The humour used was in some cases extremely subtle and went over with much laughter and smiles from the audience. You could say it was a speech "fit" for the occasion!

Jane & Te Whiti will now represent the Area at the Division D Conference in Rotorua on Saturday 7th October commencing at 1.00pm at the Princess Gate Hotel, when they will compete against the other six area winners in the the Division.

Prior to closing the meeting the Immediate Past Area Director, Ian (Napier) presented the Area Toastmaster of the Year Award and Trophy to Peter from Hastings Club. Peter was the Division Director last year and has done a great deal for Toastmasters over that period; an award well deserved.

For the uninitiated, Clubs put forward their Toastmaster of the year and based on a formula the winner is selected by the outgoing Area Director.