A positively superlative meeting

Spinnaker’s meeting on 20 June chaired by Megan was full of “the subtle art of positivity” and began with a karakia by Katina welcoming everyone to the meeting.

Table topics by Angela asked each speaker to choose one or other of the following topics:

Kathy – Chips and dip or crackers and cheese

Dieter – Rugby or football

Jacqui – Backpack thru Asia or cruise the Carribean

Sarah – Dinner and a movie or a band at a bar

Lin – Working in the office or working from home

Guest Mike – Transmission Gully or old highway

Evaluator Ron thought there was lots of humour, vocal variety and excellent gestures and all speakers had tackled their topic well.

SPEECH 1 by Darrell called “Aunty Ethel” told a lovely story about his aunty and the toys she used when visiting Darrell in hospital and the special term of endearment she used. Evaluator Kathy thought “Darrelly warrelly” gave us a superlative speech tonight. Kathy’s recommendation is to have a much stronger conclusion with a punchy ending. She absolutely loved the speech, and thought it was wonderful.

SPEECH 2 by Dave was a proposal “The Elevator Pitch”. Dave began with “What is an elevator pitch – a really short speech of 20 secs, and it must be well practised”. He said that an elevator pitch must be precise, tells a story that we want to deliver, with a hook at the end. In other words it must be short, targeted, exciting, and memorable. Jacqui’s evaluation opened with “What a good proposal, a task we can all achieve”. She recommended not to use acronyms but to explain them, and she finished by wanting to hear his own personal elevator pitch just for us.

SPEECH 3 by Paul was an icebreaker called “The island of Paul”. He described this island as having buildings with a library, a church, a gym, family friendly parks, but there was a forgotten corner of the island. Paul finished by saying: “If you were an island, what would it look like?” Evaluator Katina said Paul imagined himself as an island and invited us to imagine him as an island. She recommended Paul kept it tight and not too repetitious, but we could picture the wife with the pitchfork whipping the island into shape!

General Evaluator Dale complimented Megan on running a positive friendly meeting. She loved the official vote to admit Dieter to the club and presentation of his certificate by Katina. We need to remember to advise that new members are agreeing to abide by the Toastmasters Promise. Welcome Dieter.

Dale also mentioned that this was Katina’s last meeting as President, and the handover to incoming President Angela was under way for the 2023-24 Toastmasters year.