Christmas presents or presence

With 6 online and 8 present, Kathy chaired the meeting with the theme of “Presents” as in Christmas Presents.

Grammarian Dirk’s word of the day was “peculiar” meaning something difficult to what is usually expected. He reported that several speakers managed to use the word in their speeches.

Table Topics by Gary had the theme .”… and why?” where speakers had to answer the question and state why! We heard about a person Paul admires, Darrell’s perfect day, where Megan would go if money was no object, who Angela wanted to have dinner with, who Ian would like to meet from back in time, and Dave’s favourite food or drink, and why? Now I’m not going to tell you what the speakers actually said, because you needed to be at the meeting to hear this! Best table topics speaker was Angela!

Speaker 1 was Paul with his final speech in the Innovative Planning pathway titled “Farewell Innovative Planning”. Paul said that speaking in public has always been a major fear for him, but something he always wanted to do, so coming to Toastmasters had two goals – (1) to simply enjoy public speaking, and (2) to not allow emotions to get the better of him while on stage.

Evaluator Ron commended Paul on a really interesting speech who took us on a journey where his confidence level was on show, using powerpoint to show us the steps in how he had built his skill while working through the Path.

Speaker 2 was Jacqui with “Two tramping trips”, where Jacqui used figurative and literal descriptive language to compare the two tramping trips she had embarked upon as a young 17 year old student, in the Nelson Lakes National Park, and the Appalachian mountains in Pennsylvania.

Evaluator Dale said this was one of the best speeches she had heard Jacqui give in a long time and she loved the descriptive contrast between the two locations.

Speaker 3 was Angela, with “The Grinches” where Angela told us it was 39 days until Christmas, and she described the three – no – four grinches in her household, eventually revealing three of them were her husband. Evaluator Darrell loved the comparisons and thought Angela added impact to her controversial and inspiring speech.

Well, that’s a wrap for 2022 as this was our last official meeting for the year, and what a way to end. We’ll be starting up again on the 7th of February 2023. If you’re reading this and are interested in coming along to find out if Toastmasters is for you, then contact us by email and we’ll include you in our invitations to our first meeting in 2023. We look forward to hearing from you.

Merry Christmas everyone!