With four speakers and the last minute apology with the withdrawal of the General Evaluator, she had plenty to do.
The programme commenced with the speakers instead of our usual Table Topics. It was all taken in our stride as Toastmasters learn to do.
First up was Jane with her very funny speech "Two Pieces of Advice". "Aimed" at her teenage son about to go to his first ball, an "interesting" perspective from a mothers point of view about how he should behave.
Our second speaker Paul gave an Ice Breaker [First Speech] from the new Pathways programme. Titled "Speaking Conventionally" it was a call to attend Toastmasters Conventions - the camaraderie and educational benefits of attending. Paul obviously gained a lot from his attendance at many conventions over time.
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| Paul - A call to us |
Third Speaker Ian 'Think Big, Start Small Fail Fast Learn Rapidly". Clever choice of two well known NZ'ers, Bill Hamilton & Bill Gallagher. His theme was around innovation rather than invention and how his chosen NZ'ers had seen the potential of inventions and gone onto develop them into world beating innovations. Quoting Einstein " I have not failed, merely found 10,000 ways it won't work", and how many inventors had come so close to achieving their goal but failed at the last hurdle as they had not realised how close they were to their goal, it was an inspirational message to us all to not give up. A clever speech title backed up by his speech content.
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| Ian - Talking about persistence |
Our last speaker Brenda - "A different lens" was a "shaggy dog" story about the life and times of a well loved dog. It didn't become apparent the subject was a dog until well into the story. Well done.
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| Brenda - Weaving her story |
After listening to four very different speeches, all entertaining in their own right and a credit to the time the speakers put into their preparation, it was time for supper with some lovely cakes bought along by two members. Unfortunately, it was only then we discovered the continuous hot water was not longer continuous, so supper break was condensed and Toastmaster Kerry moved the programme onto Table Topics. [The cakes were delicious].
Our Table Topics Master Daniel, provided the selected members with a photograph of their choice [although the photos were hidden so they couldn't see their selection until too late]. An eclectic choice of photos had members using their imagination and thinking outside the square to come up with a description of what the photo contained or meant to them.
Excellent speech evaluations from our experienced evaluators James, Craig, Steve and Graeme gave positive feedback and areas for our prepared speech speakers to consider for improving their next speech.
A very quick business session from President Craig updated us on current news for the club, then onto Table Topics evaluations from Sarah & Peter. Well done with encouragement for each speaker in what was a challenging subject for some of them.
After attending as a guest for a number of months, Kelly has signed up as a member and was inducted into the club by Jane.
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| Kerry - Now part of the Napier Toastmasters family! |
Ashley was also presented with his Spirit of Success certificate for having completed the first five assignments from the Competent Communications manual.
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| Ashley - Halfway through his CC manual |
At the end our time keeper Peter reported to us he and assistant Kate kept the meeting running to time and Grammarian Ashley reported on the use of English and his chosen word of the night "Prudent", concluded the meeting.
Best Table Topics was presented to Karen, Best Speaker Ian. As our Toastmaster Kerry elected not to have a General Evaluator she cleverly missed out on receiving any feedback on her handling of the meeting. Next time Kerry!
Great report particularly in view of the absence of the usual author(General Evaluator). Well done for another excellent, if a little different!, meeting.
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