Nau mai, Haere Mai

An excellent turnout of membership greeted Toastmaster Steve as he took the floor promptly at 7:00 pm calling the meeting to order, offering only a few apologies (Sarah, Paul, Peter, Emma) and warmly greeting all in attendance with in Maori to commemorate Te Reo week. There was one change to the programme, with Speaker 1 - Emma having to put in a late apology due to illness.

General Evaluator Jan then took the floor to introduce her crack team of Grammarian Craig (who introduced his word of the night "Attitude") and Timekeepers Amy and Coral before briefly outlining the duties of GE.

The speeches then kicked off with Carolyn introducing Bill  and his final Pathways Level 1 speech "Hope to see you at Christmas", followed by Kerry introducing Kate (Elizabeth) and her penultimate Competent Communicator (CC) speech entitled "You're No Better Than Us", and finally Ashley introducing Jane with her CC#8 project entitled "Avoid the Ambush".

Bill - Speaking about treasuring life

Elizabeth - Speaking about "Baby Boomers", "Generation X" and "The Lost Generation"

Jane - Introducing her makeup set

Jane - after applying her makeup

Campbell (relishing his first time as Master of the Table Topics segment) then set about challenging the group with his 'controversial topics' and preset positions to which we had to speak - whether we agreed with them or not! This proved to be quite illuminating for all involved... :)

Daniel - Speaking about Big Bang Theory / God

Layeeq - Speaking about gay rights legalisation

Peter - Speaking about Cannabis legalisation

Following our revitalising refreshment break - which reverie was only broken by the undeniable siren's song of the timer's bell - we gathered back to enjoy a scintillating and encouraging educational by Brenda regarding the upcoming Table Topics Club competition.

Evaluations were then presented with several first-time evaluators stepping up and proving that they have been paying close attention during previous meetings!  Congratulations to Carolyn, Karen and Kelly for jobs well done. Also a shout-out to Ashley who got caught on the hop by being asked to evaluate first instead of last and rose most admirably and ably to the occasion.

A General Business meeting was then held with President Jan opening inviting several of the Executive Committee to come forward to make announcements and VP Membership Jane to induct newest member Coral into our ranks.

Items of note from the Business Session: upcoming Table Topics and Humorous Speech competitions being held on 8 October with a "Festival of Fun" on 29 September from 10:00 am - 12:00 noon for those interested in bringing along their preliminary competition speeches to workshop; our next meeting on 24 September will have a Moments of Truth presentation hosted by Jan and Jane; and almost all members bar a couple have paid their semi-annual subs - making Treasurer Christine very happy.

Rounding out the meeting GE Jan called upon Grammarian Craig and Timekeepers Amy and Coral to present their reports after which she finished up the evaluating and returned the programme to Toastmaster Steve who sent us on our way with a timely and heartfelt Maori sentiment.

Best table topics: Dan
Best evaluator: Carolyn
Best speaker: Jane
Beat contribution to the meeting: Layeeq