These were the two intriguing titles of the speeches we had at Napier's meeting on 12th September which was well run by our Toastmaster Ros, with an excellent varied program and great 'royal NZ visit titbits' interspersed during the night. With one or two late withdrawals we still finished with a full program exactly on time at 9.00pm.
We had two guests who were warmly welcomed and appeared to enjoy the evening, with comments that they would be back! Our grammarian, Poppy, started the program with her word of the night, "humble", and this was well used through the evening by the humble toastmasters present!
Table Topics followed, which was led by Jan. This impromptu speaking session is great to build confidence in taking part in conversations in business or social gatherings. Jan had an excellent introduction to her session by explaining for the benefit of the guests what Table Topics is all about and then in an extended session had seven members answer her questions such as 'impromptu speaking should be taught in schools?' or 'go sky diving why or why not?' or 'why do some lottery winners end up going broke?' or 'what came first the chicken or the egg?'. Great answers were forthcoming by all who were lucky enough to be asked and we are still not sure about the chicken or the egg!!!
The first of the prepared speeches was presented by Tony, introduced by Andy. Tony's speech was entitled "Toastmaster" and of course everyone thought he was going to talk about being a Toastmaster! and he did, but it was the toast that you have for breakfast (or any other meal) that Tony apprised us of, as he considers himself a 'master' in the art of toast making. In his usual laid back humorous style he entertained us with the art of Toast making, in his opinion one of the great culinary skills ever! A well put together presentation for a simple process which he made the maximum use of in twitching the taste buds of the audience. (my two bits of toast for breakfast each day will never be the same again!)
After a break for supper, our second prepared speech was presented by Steve, entitled "Making it Happen". Steve was introduced by Song with an enthusiastic and interesting introduction. Steve was again on the culinary line with an opening about food trucks etc, a common sight these days at market days and sport occasions. This led onto thoughts about being your own boss, working when you feel like it etc and then by coming up with an idea, and marketing it for a food truck. A well thought out speech which came to an excellent conclusion in very useful information about setting up and marketing a business. Well done Steve.
During the business session our President Ros, informed us of the results of the Area R3 Contests held last Friday evening where Jan was placed third in the Humorous Speech Contest and Ros was placed second in the Table Topics Contest. As the first two place getters now go onto the Division final in Palmerston North on 1st October, Ros will be there, so give her your support. The Contests will be Hybrid (in person or online) so there is no excuse not to support her! It was also announced at The Area Contest night that the Area R3 Toastmaster of the Year for 2021/22 was none other than our very own Ros. Well deserved and hearty congratulations to Ros for her award.
This was followed by the evaluation section of the evening and Craig and Joyleen joined together to give a full and useful evaluation of the Table Topics.
The speech evaluators were Andy and Song and both gave excellent feedback to their respective speakers with many well deserved commendations and a recommendation or two as to how they felt the speaker could have improved their presentation. Evaluations are for the benefit of all the members and it was excellent to hear Song in particular use the third person process by quoting things like "I really liked the way Steve utilised his visual aids", rather than "you utilised your visual aids very well". Both evaluations were very well structured with the Commend, Recommend, Commend, Summary formula.
The General Evaluator, Craig, summarised the evening with comments for the Evaluators and Poppy, as Grammarian, commented on the regular use of 'humble' while Timekeeper Mondie, gave us the Timekeeper's report which kept us on time for the night.
All round an excellent meeting, while the next meeting is planned for 26th September (now to be a Public Holiday) it was decided by majority vote that we would go ahead on that date. Come along and enjoy it! Toastmaster is to be Craig.
Best Evaluator, Song; Best Contribution, Craig
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