Chairman Paul ran a well organised and enjoyable meeting which had lots of friendly banter with everyone enjoying themselves and having fun.
He peppered the meeting with facts that happened “on this day”. One of those facts was that 18 October is Persons Day in Canada. It marks the day in 1929 when Canada included women in the legal definition of “persons”. Henrietta Muir Edwards (above) was one of the activists who fought for the change which recognized women as “persons” and gave woman the right to vote in elections.
Such is the variety of things that Toastmasters learn, history included!
Grammarian Darrell chose a word created by Shakespeare – “laughable” – and reported he heard it mentioned by at least three speakers.
Table Topics by Megan was an inspiration from a weekend in Martinborough with a theme of food.
Dave was asked – its only 68 days until Christmas; Christmas is not Christmas without eating what? He answered that trifle in a glass bowl is a family tradition , one with port and sherry, and one without. Best at breakfast the next day.
Angela was asked that travelling is about food, trying new foods, what is your most memorable travel related meal? She said that she and her husband travelled around Europe with a petrol burning stove, making powdered potato, with fried veges, with really cheap French wine. They didn’t even go into many restaurants to sample the local food.
Dale was asked what was her birthday meal of choice and she replied a nice juicy steak with roast vegies and salad.
Speaker 1 was Ron with “Blue Cod Survey” who talked about how you apply different leadership and management styles in any situation. He described how to work together when stuck on a small boat for several weeks at a time with a team of scientists. Using PowerPoint, Ron showed us text and images of his project and told us how each phase of the project required different management styles. Evaluator Darrell started by saying he loves it when his speaker carries out his prediction.
Speaker 2 was Dave who gave the background to a GIS project he is working on, and outlined the two issues he believed were problems that needed to be solved. The proposal was to restructure the current systems with a better solution which is sized appropriately and costs are relevant. Dirk’s first evaluation for Dave was well done and covered all the elements of a helpful evaluation.
Jacqui opened her speech titled “It’s only me” by saying “I get paid to sit in a sandpit with my proteges”. Then she told us how she works with young children and the way they think when it comes to sandpit games. Relating this to Toastmasters mentoring, Jacqui explained how aspects of her job have informed her on aspects of her mentoring journey. Angela thought Jacqui weaved two themes together beautifully between her work and Toastmasters. Angela also thought Jacqui could have moved the lectern to enable more enhanced hand movements.
Ian opened his speech “Attention crisis” by outlining his use of his mobile phone in one week and he quoted lots of statistics to support his assertion that mobile phones are a distraction and that there is an attention crisis. He gave us some tips: (1) check your emails once a day; (2) kill social media and turn off notifications; (3) get more sleep; (4) have more play. Take control of your lives, he said! Evaluator Gary liked the fact that there were a lot of facts in Ian’s speech and that they supported his theme.
General Evaluator Dale made the following awards:
- Best speaker – Ian – great statistics and quite shocking really
- Best evaluator – Angela – very informative and sympathetic
- Best table topics – Dave – I love trifle too especially with sherry
Spinnaker Toastmasters Club, Plimmerton, Porirua, New Zealand 