Open Meeting Report

By VP Public Relations 2022-23 Dale

Blog Post #9

Open Meeting Report – how did it go?

We were delighted to welcome two guests Karl and Teegan who came along to our Open Meeting following their visit to our Love Local Porirua Expo booth.  The theme for the meeting was “Showcase Toastmasters”, chaired by VP Public Relations Dale.

After introductions, Angela delivered an Icebreaker speech entitled “Why my daughter is always right!” and evaluator Jacqui thought it was very enjoyable and humorous.  She recommended that Angela just look at her transitions between her three stories to tie them all together well.

Following that, we had five 2-minute educationals on a range of topics by club members for the benefit of our guests: How will Toastmasters benefit me?  What is Toastmasters and Pathways? All about Spinnaker Toastmasters;  How to join Spinnaker Toastmasters; And, what will I learn at Toastmasters?

Two-minute educationals are a great way to get across a lot of information in a short space of time, and a few questions flowed from them, along with enthusiastic comments from club members.

Darrell ran a fabulous table topics session, inviting our online guests District Public Relations Manager Kath and Division J Director Murray to speak, along with all club members and our guests, including Dirk and Githara who have been coming along as guests for a few meetings now.

It was great to see Karl and Teegan get up and give table topics a go as it is very daunting to stand up in front of a group of strangers and just talk about yourself – so congratulations for being so brave.  We hope you found the experience challenging, because that’s what it’s all about, but also you have now faced your fear and conquered it!  From now on your table topics will be a breeze.

What’s next?

We will encourage our guests to join our Spinnaker Club and set up a mentoring system to help guide them through their first Pathways level of projects.  From there, they will be well on their way to becoming accomplished Toastmasters.

See previous blog posts:

Blog post #1 – The Proposal

Blog post #2 – Approval and Funding

Blog post #3 – Research and Planning

Blog post #4 – Warm-up Activity

Blog post #5 – Resources roundup

Blog post #6 – Setup and testing

Blog post #7 – Expo Day

Blog Post #8 – Debrief and Feedback

About Toastmasters

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, the organisation’s membership exceeds 300,000 in more than 15,800 clubs in 149 countries. Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people from diverse backgrounds become more confident speakers, communicators, and leaders.

About Spinnaker Toastmasters Club

Spinnaker Toastmasters Club chartered on 18 September 1990, and originally met in Whitby.  Now the club meets in Plimmerton on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.  The club has 12 active members and is looking to increase that to at least 20, the desired size for an active and dynamic Toastmasters club.

About the author

Dale is a Distinguished Toastmaster and a member of Spinnaker Toastmasters Club since 1998.   She has received a Presidential Citation for her work as District 72 New Zealand Webmaster, and helped charter three other clubs.  She has completed the Presentation Mastery educational Pathway and is currently working on the Motivational Strategies Pathway.  Dale is the VP Public Relations for 2022-23.

About this blog series

The purpose of this blog series is to fulfil the requirements of the Level 4 Elective “Write a Compelling Blog” in the Motivational Strategies Pathway.  She has chosen to document the process of organising and presenting a booth at the Love Local Porirua 2022 Expo being held in Porirua on 30 July.  The target audience is her fellow Toastmasters who may have an opportunity to run a similar activity at a future event.  To do this, a minimum of 8 blog posts must be created and published.  Club members will be asked for feedback, and when done, Dale will deliver a short speech on her blogging experiences.