Fame or Fortune?

Which would YOU choose?!  Many thanks to the numerous attendees who braved the winter cold and came to our wonderful meeting on 23 July.  It was fabulous to have guests Claire, Carmen, Natasha, Sarah and Coral there.  It was a really fun and informative night and it is always a privilege to hear such a variety of speech topics and some very worthwhile evaluation/education sessions.  What a wonderful club we have!

Paul was our esteemed Toastmaster for the evening and he led a great meeting.  I particularly enjoyed Paul's thoughtful segues between speeches and his encouraging comments.

Sarah was the General Evaluator and was ably accompanied in her team by Grammarian Graeme and Timekeepers Campbell and Layeeq.  Graeme's word for the night was 'charisma' and this proved an excellent word choice as almost everyone utilised the word during the course of the evening.  The timekeepers worked hard at keeping the meeting running to time with some rather enthusiastic bell ringing at times and they gave a comprehensive report at the end of the evening.  Well done to all.

The table topics session was led for the first time by a newer member Carolyn, and didn't she do an impressive job.  Carolyn gave the speakers a choice of words and asked us to say which word we prefer and why.  Fame or fortune, you decide!  All participants responded admirably with great humour and gusto.

Ashley - Table Topics

Craig - Table Topics

'Steve and Peter delivered a fantastic table topics evaluation which stuck to the recommended formula of C-R-C, great job team.'

The first formal speech of the night was delivered by Kelly, and introduced/evaluated by Brenda.  Kelly delighted us all with only his second speech, 'Oh the places you'll go!'.  He recounted some significant travel experiences over the course of his life and there were some fascinating stories told.  I was particularly impressed at Kelly's confidence and no use of notes!

Kelly - Talking about his travel experiences

Brenda delivered a considered and detailed evaluation which I believe all members would have found useful.

Our second formal speech of the night was by Elizabeth, introduced/evaluated by Jane.  'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' commenced with a lovely fictional tale of how the stars came to be followed a scientific analysis of the formation of stars - a wonderful contrasting speech style and ably accompanied by some impressive slides.  Humour woven throughout this speech captured our attention.  Jane ably evaluated Elizabeth's speech in clever astronomical language.  Jane seems to enjoy doing things 'outside the square' and this creative and colourful approach to Toastmasters is a real asset to the club.

Elizabeth - Talking about stars

Our third speaker was Jan, 'It's never too late to dream a new dream'.  Jan delivered a polished and inspirational story of her Toastmaster journey, and recounted how intrigued she was when she discovered that the new TM Pathways educational route incorporated the answer to 2 specific dreams Jan wanted to see achieved in her own life - Go Jan and we are thrilled you have joined us again.  We look forward to seeing more presentations from the Visionary Communication Pathway in the near future.

Jan - Dream a new dream

Christine delivered a very well presented Educational about Evaluations, a core component to the Toastmaster Programme and an aspect that we can all develop our skills in.  Jan ran a great business session and I closed with the General Evaluation for the night, giving feedback to all speakers who had yet to receive this.

Members sharing a light evening tea

Awards for the night:

Best TT: Craig (having recently retired from the President's role we suspect Craig is spending hours and hours each week practising his table topics skills at home)
Best Speech: Elizabeth
Best Evaluator: Ian
Best Contribution: Carolyn

A thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Napier TM Club and look forward to seeing you at our annual awards dinner next Monday.