Speech-a-thon (including Daniel's flipping scene)

1st April Speech-a-thon

Due to there being too many Mondays in March we decided to have a speech-a-thon which for those who have never been to one is lots of speeches without all the other hoopla.

We had 8 club members put up their hands to deliver speeches. They were introduced by our Toastmaster Layeeq – except for when he spoke, and he was introduced by Brenda.

Jan was the first speaker and she shared her passion for bread especially sour dough. She talked about the process of keeping a starter and how lovingly the breadmaker has to commit to the long slow process of allowing the natural yeasts do their magic. She bought along a basket of sourdough bread for us all to sample.

The good news she shared was that sometimes even those who are gluten intolerant or celiac can eat sour dough as the fermentation process breaks down the gluten strands into smaller chain amino acids.

Alywn delivered his icebreaker confidently and with a lovely clear voice. We learned about how he was born in windy whole – Wellington and raised in Hawkes Bay. He returned to Welly for university but after two years returned to HB to continue study at EIT. During a dinner with a group of people from the church he was given a card by the lovely Jane. That card was the promotional card about TM. Alwyn as any young educated man would considered whether Toastmasters had anything to offer him and decided that it did hence he has joined. From what we saw he starts from a good place and will only grow and get better. Great work Alwyn.

Third up was Ian. Ian had left his notes at home but pulled himself together to deliver his speech. Crouch, touch and Engage and the 7P's. Ian told about his direct style and his skills as a rugby player, sailor and coach. He warned his protégé's that he will continue to use his direct style as your mentor.

Our fourth speaker before the break was Karen. As a girl she suffered terribly form car sickness and so her parents begun to take her and her sister overseas for holidays. Karen is going on holiday and told us about how she tries to be super organised. She referred to the Netflix's favourite Marie Kondo, the tidying lady and how she has influenced her. Karen cleverly used props to create movement and interest into her speech and we were all left wondering at the end how on earth she fitted everything into that small suitcase.

Break time and an opportunity to chat to others including the three guests who had chosen to come along on a rainy old evening.

Back into it with Peter who gave us a well-researched speech with fabulous posters as props. I was personally impressed with his referencing of facts. The title of his speech was how to remember stuff and that pretty much explains what he did. He listed 3 tips which is great structure to have in a 5 – 7 minute speech. I took notes so that you can have the tips too but I didn't need to because Peter had bought a handout so that members didn't need to remember.

Tip 1 – for those who weren't there and didn't get the handout – Engage your senses, all of them when learning. It will help
Tip 2 – Take a brief rest or quiet time after learning to allow the brain to absorb the content
Tip 3 – Hook the information to an image as this works well for our brains. He did a great demo of this technique for us using a picture of his brother Jon, a loo and a key.

Our sixth speaker was Layeeq who was also our Toastmaster.

Carrying on from his recent topics Layeeq chose to share with us the benefits and pleasures of meditation. His technique of repeating his leading line of "To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders" was very effective. He told us of the many successful people who practice meditation to persuade us that it would be good for us too. He gave us a long list of benefits and as a nurse I hook on to the increase in immune function, makes you more compassionate and less stressed.

Layeeq then lead the whole audience through a short meditation with the focus being on our breath. Unfortunately, while we were all being still, the clock was not and his speech went over time.

Jane delivered her presentation as a very cleverly written poem, rhyming and all. Her title was it's all about me and it was. This was an icebreaker speech and we all got to find out a little more about what makes Jane tick. Fitness is important to this woman and she spend time in her week swimming, mountain biking and running – no wonder she looks so good. Some of her not favourite things are broad beans, doggy poo and spelunking. Her parting comment to us was about stopping to smell the flowers.

Our final presenter was Daniel and we had it all. Audience participation, ageism, amateur acrobatics humour, and a call to action. The title of this speech was "I'm flippin' tired" and it was about Daniel's latest hobby of trampolining at Flipout in Hastings. He bought along his mattress and demonstrated how, if we elderly with our incontinence diapers on, might like to attempt a backward flip. Graeme was sporting in coming up to share the speaking area with Daniel and limber up with him before he flipped. I don't think I will be trying it anytime soon.

We had a business meeting and Jane inducted Afrin to the club. Jan reminded us of the Division contest on 13th April in Dannevirke. If you are going to attend you must register to assist with numbers for catering. https://toastmasters-d112-division-r-conference.lilregie.com

We also celebrated Karen achieving her Level 1 on Pathways and Jane her CC.

Meeting closed early after comments from the three guests.