Chicken McNuggets and Bootstraps

Spinnaker’s 7 September meeting was held online due to COVID Alert Level 3 in New Zealand. Despite that, 14 members attended.

Christo was Grammarian and chose “Bootstrap” for the word of the day. He explained what it meant and gave examples of how it could be used. Of course we have all heard of the saying “you need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps!” In his report Christo said the word had been used six times during the meeting.

Speech 1 by Angela, introduced and evaluated by Albertus and titled “The next Chicken McNugget” was the life and times of her dog Jake, who is now world famous in Tawa, who is always looking for his next Chicken McNugget. Albertus was impressed how Angela even showed us the exact creature she was talking about who was sitting at her feet.

Speaker 2 was Kathy, introduced by Dale, with her speech titled “I knew this day would come!” Dale thought Kathy hadn’t lost her touch, and by giving an online speech she had pulled herself up by her bootstraps to find a suitable topic, which was all about how to find a suitable topic. Dale recommended that Kathy just look at the lighting when giving an online presentation so we can all see her properly.

Zelda ran table topics with the Toastmasters Marketplace theme, and gave each speaker something to sell, such as a vintage car, a futuristic car, a typewriter, a fountain pen, bow ties, cowgirl boots, and a sailing ship. The speech which struck me the most was from Ron talking about the s.s. Pamir (pictured below) and because he was at home, he was able to pull off the wall a painting of the Pamir done by his father – that was impressive impromptu stuff. Gary evaluated Table Topics and he gave each speaker some valuable feedback without reciting the content of their speech. Best speaker was Dale who tried to sell her vintage typewriter for $1000.

General Evaluator Darrell thought the timekeeper Katina was cruel and mean with some harsh words for the speakers and their timing.