On a balmy Monday evening 4th November, Napier Toastmasters held their delayed meeting from Labour day Monday and it was certainly worth waiting for.
Our Toastmaster of the night was Carol (doing the role for the first time) and what an excellent job she made of it, even with a couple of last minute adjustments to the program, things still ran well and she was, as usual, an enthusiastic and bubbly host!
While there were a number of apologies we also entertained three guests for the evening, Louis (Carol’s partner), Liz (Patrick’s wife) and Jess who came along to see what Toastmasters was all about, we certainly hope they will return!
The first prepared speech of the evening was by Remil, and was his Ice Breaker (first speech a member presents to the Club). This was a fantastic example of an Ice Breaker speech with Remil explaining where his name came from, much about his homeland of the Philippines and much about himself with the use of many visuals aids, much gesturing and any amount of humour, all in his very first speech!! We certainly learnt a great deal during this presentation and Remil is to be hugely congratulated for the way he put the information across.
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| Remil's fantastic use of gestures |
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| Remil's use of visual aids to support his ice breaker |
Karen, a last minute replacement, made a amazing fist of introducing Remil and then in her Evaluation started with the words ‘didn’t he smash it?” and he certainly did! A very positive and supportive evaluation which was well structured and delivered, which Remil would have gained much benefit from (although what could have been improved about this speech was difficult to locate!)
Speech Two was presented by James D. entitled “Prime Minister for a Week”, James brought back an idea that he was presented with at High School in what would he do if he was PM for a week. James in his laid back style gave us three things that he would change (nothing to drastic he felt!) 1. Replace the National Anthem with something more uplifting and memorable, we finished up with keeping the existing Anthem but singing only the Maori version. 2. Every young adult when they finish school should travel for a year, do community work or voluntary work or Military service for 12 months before commencing their employment of choice. and 3. It’s a long time between Q/B weekend and Labour Weekend so the 20th August should be a National Holiday to break that period (20th August way back was apparently the first time we were known as Kiwis!). Some great ideas , James and presented well.
Brenda evaluated James’ presentation and had some suggestions for improvement for him around the structure, body language and vocal variety that he could work on for his next presentation. An excellent well structured evaluation that gave not only areas of suggestions for improvement, but importantly how they could be implemented.
Table Topics (our impromptu speaking session) was presented by Peter B who utilised an extremely interesting method of coming up with the topics, all the members who were not involved with the program and a few that had other roles had the opportunity to speak and everyone spoke well to their respective topic making a very interesting and entertaining session, which was well evaluated by Roz and Tony, giving well merited commendations to the speakers and some suggestions for improvement to some of them. Overall their evaluation of Peter and the speakers was supportive and encouraging.
The next prepared speech was presented by Patrick and what an interesting speech this was, entitled “Money till You Drop”. This was a Pathways assignment where Patrick was to present a speech ‘under fire’ where members of the audience would get the opportunity to ask him leading questions on his presentation, which he had to have answers ready for. This was a well prepared and thought out presentation, which was of interest (I believe) to everyone of the audience and covered retirement savings about things like Superannuation, Kiwi Saver, Compounding Interest etc. Much to cover in the time available, but Patrick spurred people’s interest in the subject and had some ‘curly’ questions to answer that he handled well.
Alwyn, who had given him a very full and detailed introduction (as was required with a presentation like this!) completed the assignment with an excellent evaluation, which showed that even though he has not been a member for long he has all that attributes of a great Toastmaster and an excellent evaluator. He had commendations and suggestions for Patrick which will help him next time, a suggestion for Alwyn is just to watch the use of the word ‘we’ when summarising the speech as it is your opinion, not that of the audience (you cannot assume that the audience feels the same as you) but excellent material utilised in your evaluation.
Finally down to Jane with her speech entitled “Accidental Leader”. Jane is our President (not by accident but definitely by design!) and was presenting a Pathways assignment regarding leadership styles. She explained a couple of occasions where she had been a leader and the style she utilised, which is obviously very effective and I felt that this was an excellent presentation for members looking to take leadership roles both within Toastmasters and in their private lives. Everyone is different and has their own style of leadership, but knowing what is effective and what is not can certainly dictate your success in any leadership role.
Ian evaluated Jane and praised her for her presentation, which while it included humour also had a serious message, which Jane was putting across and therefore did not necessarily involve Jane’s usual vibrant and exuberant style. Ian concluded by saying that Jane certainly completed the objectives of this assignment.
During the business session Brenda presented Jane with a Competent Leader certificate (this was not relevant to Jane’s speech but was from the ‘old’ education programs used by TM, which concludes on 30th June 2020) and the winners of the Area Contests held last Friday night were announced. In the Humorous Contest our Peter B was placed 2nd, the winner was Lou from Pania Club, and in the Table Topics Contest our Jane was first, with the 2nd place getter being Marc from Pania, both 1st and 2nd now go on to Division Contest in Dannevirke on 21st March (a clean sweep for Pania & Napier Clubs!)
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| President Jane accepting her Competent Leader certificate |
Our Timekeepers for the night kept us pretty well to time and Jenny and Ren did a great job there with their report at the end. The Grammarian, Joyleen reported on the use of her word for the night ‘procedure’ that was used frequently throughout the night, due to time constraints Joyleen did not have time to comment further on grammar used during the night.
The General Evaluator, Craig, gave a very brief summary of the evening concentrating on a couple of suggestions for improvements but overall it was another enlightening, entertaining and very enjoyable evening with Napier Toastmasters Club well controlled by our Toastmaster Carol.
We meet again next week (11th November-normal service of 2nd & 4th Mondays is resumed) with our Toastmaster Karen.
Best Speaker; Remil
Best Evaluator; Brenda
Best Table Topic; Graeme
Best Contribution; Karen
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