“Friends”

Spinnaker’s 7 May meeting was chaired by President Angela with the theme “More favourite movie quotes”. It was also the night of the club’s annual business meeting.

There were two guests, Joy and Maree.

Apologies from Darrell and Gary, and Jocelyn.

Grammarian Mike’s word of the day was “Friends”, as it was 20 years ago that the last episode aired on television.

Table Topics Master Dieter explained the purpose of table topics, and announced his theme as movie music themes.

Angela recalled a backpacker memory song, then a pregnancy song, and her wedding song.

Katina loved the Ponderosa theme music and all the characters in the programme which was ‘appointment viewing’ when she was a child.

Janine talked about a song which really stuck in her mind back in 1999 which was the music to the animated Tarzan movie, and also a new song “Cages”.

Mike said “just the good old boys” was his favourite line in an 80’s song, on the Dukes of Hazzard.

Ron thought the music from a Fleetwood Mac concert brought back many memories for him.

Jacqui said “da dum, da dum” from Jaws was her favourite memory of her youth in Nelson at the beach. This put her off swimming in the sea for a year!

Visitor Maree said there were eagles who seek out music which means something to them, and there’s magpies who cherrypick their music. She then announced she was a magpie.

Visitor Joy is from the Philippines who loves background music.

Lin said back in China they learn English from TV programmes and music in her happy times.

Table Topics Evaluator Dirk said he enjoyed hearing everyone’s speeches and offered a few points for improvement for next time. He also admitted he is a magpie!

Speech 1 “Lost” by Megan, introduced by Katina was a story about a time when she got L.O.S.T. in Amsterdam when driving from the airport to her flat after living there for just 4 days, with no map. She finally got home!

Evaluator Katina said Megan’s speech had great drama and sinking feeling of being lost in a strange city. The relief of getting safely home was palpable amongst the audience.

Speech 2 by Dale, introduced by Janine was the story of her visit to Ballarat Toastmasters Club in Victoria, Australia in April as an international guest. She gave a speech on the shipwreck of her great great aunt and uncle from Castlemaine.

Evaluator Janine said it was a great speech and a good idea to connect the place and time of her “Shipwreck” speech with the local area.

General Evaluator Kathy said the meeting was well run by Angela and proceeded to time. She liked the way the table topics master asked the table topics evaluator to look out especially for each speaker’s conclusion.

Election of Officers for 2024-25 Toastmasters Year:

• President – Ron
• VP Education – Dale
• VP Public Relations – Gary
• VP Membership – Angela
• Treasurer – Megan
• Secretary – Kathy
• Sergeant-at-Arms – Dieter