Mid Winter Xmas

Megan chaired our Mid Winter Xmas themed meeting on 6 July with three speeches, table topics and evaluations.

First up was our Grammarian Paul with his word of the day “colour” and invited speakers to use all variants of the word in their speeches. Eventually we had used the word 17 times.

Table Topics run by Dale asked speakers to decide on one of two topics, or argue between the two, such as “playing in the snow or playing in the surf”, “to decorate or not to decorate”, “gift cards or gifts”, “BBQ and cheesecake or roast and pavlova”. Most speakers took one side or the other, but some did argue between them with one side coming out on top.

Speech 1 by Ann called “My Happy Place” was part two of the Evaluation and Feedback combo where she said she despises waking up and having to leave her happy place, and she was not a morning person. Evaluator Johanna said Ann had developed real clarity with her voice, becoming more natural, along with her humour.

Speech 2 by Andrew entitled “A day in the life of a — IT project manager” focussed on communication styles of himself and his team. He concluded his style was Supportive and Direct. He told us about the communication styles of his teams and how he acts as a bridge between them.

Evaluator Ian liked the visual aid used by Andrew (see photo above) and challenged Andrew to adopt more stage presence and to embellish the funny bits with more humour.

Speech 3 by Gary on “A trip to Paris” was about planning, and he opened with “Lean in and listen – you have homework to do!” That had us all sitting up and listening intently. In the conclusion, Gary said we had to think of one thing that will change our lives and to do it. Evaluator Jacqui said Gary had met his objectives and she liked his challenge.

Best speaker – Gary
best Table Topics – Christo
Best Evaluator – Johanna