Stealth or Plan your Work, Work your Plan

Our Toastmaster of the evening, Steve, arrive on his bike just in time to distribute the agenda and then open the meeting – what great timing. Apologies were received, then the Mission Statement read.

With no guests, the GE role was quickly explained by Ian, who then introduced Joyleen with the word of the evening; “promotion”.  And he was so quick in getting the programme underway, Ian forgot to introduce the all important timekeeper, Graeme.

First up, we had Grego introducing Table Topics along with a bag full of items / trinkets. While this was a novel idea, even more interesting was the call for volunteers….and there was no shortage of them.  Tony, Steve, Joyleen, Jan and Poppy all  picked up their item and weaved in a promotional aspect, as well as speaking confidently about the item. Great thinking Greg.

Tonight was “marathon” speeches; where both of our speakers had to deliver 15 – 20 minute speeches; one with questions being raised during the speech (under fire), with the second speech having a more orderly Q&A session at the end.

With a speech titled “Stealth”, Craig introduced his challenging and controversial topic relating to Te Reo Māori creeping into various aspects of our day to day english language. It is now common place to hear substitute words; like the weather up in Tāmaki Makaurau or Kirikiriroa. While the objectives were to handle ‘under fire questions’ there was certainly no lack of them coming Craig’s way.  Most noteworthy was the way Craig handled these both with thoughtful off the cuff answers, and the manner in how they were professionally handled.  The years at TM really shone through!

In contrast, Roslynn talked about her role as Display Manager at Wellington’s Kirkcaldie & Stains (known as Kirks) Department store.  With picture in hand, we learnt how the many 20 odd window displays were managed over a year, culminating with the ‘big one’ at Xmas. This wasn’t without the help from a team under Ros’s control, and a senior Manager who instilled a work ethic of Plan your Work; then Work you Plan.  Work was carried out using the 4D’s – Do, Defer, Delegate or Delete! More orderly questions were asked at the end of the speech, which were competently answered, as we have come to expect from Ros.

All of our evaluators; Jan & Poppy for Table Topics, Andy for Craig, and Tony for Ros, all provided great commendations, with thoughtful recommendations. An excellent display of the CRC method.

A summation of the evening was provided by Ian, who noted how well Steve, our TM, kept elements on track, and the natural flow between items. Joyleen ran out of ink, as all speakers used the word promotion or a form of it, with some speakers using it 3 and 4 times.  Another great Napier meeting.

Best Table Topic : Steve            Best Evaluation :   Tony
Best Speaker : Roslynn             Best Contribution : Craig