Revitalised club

Dave chaired our Spring-themed meeting, with 11 club members present, 1 online and two guests.

Grammarian Dirk had the word “revitalise” as his word of the day.

Chocolate

We quite often have chocolate for supper!

Table Topics Master Paul had the brilliant idea for table topics – speakers had to turn a 5 year old’s story heading into a speech. Jacqui had a spider story, Gary had a man in a white car, Dirk had “my undies went to space”, and Angela got to talk about her nana. Evaluator Dave thought it was innovative and commended speakers who regressed into 5 year olds giving their speech.

Speech 1 by Megan titled “Where have I been?” related the story of a recent car accident she was involved in and her road to recovery. Megan began by stating “Accidents never happen at a convenient time!” Evaluator Jacqui said Megan used the timeline structure in her heartfeld and brave speech, ending with “I’m back!”

Speech 2 by Katina was a level 4 Presentation Mastery Question and Answer project called “Strong opinions”. Katina began with “150,000 teachers in New Zealand – but we have a crisis!” She then outlined the history of education in New Zealand leading up to why we have a crisis, and answered the audience’s questions. Evaluator Angela thought the background material was interesting and well researched, and commended Katina for using the word “behemoth”.

Dale gave the third speech on “Blogging the Expo”, talking about the process of creating and maintaining a website blog, and the impact it had on the club and the success of the Love Local Porirua Expo held recently. Evaluator Kathy thought Dale could have spent more time on the impact of her blogging experience, but overall she enjoyed hearing about how successful the project was.

Darrell’s educational called “Eulogies 101 – Speaking well of the dead” was very timely, as he had recently given a euology, as well as 8 previous ones over the years. He said “Have you ever contemplated how your funeral will go?” He then said his top three tips were (1) Time – find out how much time you have to speak; (2) Practice a lot before the big day, and (3) if you are using anecdotes and stories, make sure they appeal to a wide audience. Evaluator Ron commended Darrell for personalising his own anecdotes with sincerity.

General Evaluator Albertus wrapped up the meeting by stating that it was run like a well-oiled machine. He awarded the best speaker to Katina, and best evaluator to Ron.

If you like what you have read in this meeting report and wonder how you can get involved in Spinnaker Toastmasters Club, just send us an introductory email to spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz and come along to our next meeting – we’d love to see you.