Vim, vigour and zest!

Katina hosted our Toastmasters meeting on 5 July with the theme “Vim and Vigour”.

Grammarian Darrell added his word of the day: zest! meaning to be energised, or you could have lemon zest!

Table Topics by Dale challenged speakers to elevator pitches to a total stranger about Toastmasters as a warmup to the forthcoming Expo, where people asked common questions and the speaker had to answer in the time of an elevator ride.

Speech 1 by Jacqui, introduced by Angela, using powerpoint to enhance speech and message “W.E.R.T.” meaning Wellington Emergency Response Team. Their core value is everything they do is safe and effective when they respond to emergencies. Evaluator Angela thought Jacqui brought zest and vigour to her speech, complimenting Jacqui on her hand gestures. Jacqui gave clear examples of the process the team uses in a real emergency situation, and used simple and effective slides to enhance her message.

Speech 2 by Kathy, introduced by Paul was Engaging Humour Level 2 entitled “A Cup of Tea”. Kathy started off “Imagine Hamilton in the early 1970s, a small house, with plenty of garden space.” She then told a story of one particular trip the family took to Auckland and a car breakdown. Evaluator Paul thought Kathy had great pace and was in control, adding humour wonderfully which was logical and well thought out.

Speech 3 by Dale, introduced by Katina was a Level 3 Motivational Pathways project entitled “Shrimps and Squid”. In this speech Dale likened Pathways to shrimps and giant squid, and then outlined her Level 4 Project to “Write a Compelling Blog”. Katina thought Dale used great descriptive language, and loved the call action at the end by asking for feedback on each blog post.

Memory Master Ian managed to find some items he could ask the audience to remember.

General Evaluator Dave made a few comments on his impressions on the meeting and the evaluators. Dave thought all the evaluators gave good introductions but specifically asked them to consider stating the title of the speech at the end of the introduction.

Timekeeper Dirk in his first role, gave a wrap-up of everyone’s time indicating who went over time and who complied with the timing requirements of the speech.

All in all, it was an interesting and innovative meeting full of vim, vigour and zest!

If you like the sound of this and want to be involved with Spinnaker Toastmasters, contact us and come along to our next meeting on 19 July. We’d love to welcome you.