Entertaining first meeting for 2025

Chaired by Gary, with the theme “Holidays in Retrospect”, our first meeting of 2025 had four speeches, table topics, evaluations, and two guests: Kim zooming in from London, and Helen our Division Director.

Table Topics run by Dale followed the theme of “holidays in retrospect” where each speaker was asked about an aspect of their recent holidays. Evaluator Jocelyn thought Helen was the best speaker talking about her 3 disasters during the holidays! Pictured above is the Huka Falls Jet under the falls near Taupo – taken by Dale from the river cruise boat.

Speech 1 by Kathy was called “I’ve been thinking …”. She opened with “I’ve been thinking, should I be more passionate?” While she enjoys her job, she wonders if she should have more passion for it! Evaluator Jacqui thanked Kathy for doing some deep thinking for us.

Speaker 2 from Angela titled “What to expect from me this year” outlined the two major projects she is taking on this year: Project 1 is a DIY project on her mother-in-law’s house – like on HGTV; project 2 is medical related with a potential hip replacement. She promised to keep us informed about how both projects progress and the results. Evaluator Ron loved Angela’s storytelling style and her big picture thinking.

Speech 3 from Katina talked about “The 3 generations of mentoring” she has encountered. While mentoring has been around for a long time, everybody mentors differently, and everybody receives mentoring differently. Katina described her grandmother, mother and daughter as being her mentors while she was their mentee. She also hopes to be a great mentor for her baby granddaughter.

Dieter delivered Speech 4, focussing on a story about “The day my wife left me – almost!” Dieter related the story about his mother who told him – never buy a motorcycle. Then one day his wife wanted a scooter, and went for a trial ride. He was worried sick when she didn’t arrive home on time and searched the neighbourhood for her. Eventually she finally arrived home after doing a few laps of the neighbourhood enjoying herself. Dieter decided to take it back and the moral of the story is – don’t ride a scooter – his mother was right all along! Evaluator Mike loved how Dieter focussed on building up the tension about what was going to happen – did she leave!

General evaluator Kim from London said she had thoroughly enjoyed her time visiting the club online and complimented chairperson Gary as a “multitasker extraordinaire who ran an exceptional meeting!

If you want to enjoy a Spinnaker Toastmasters meeting and find out how it works, then come along to our next meeting, you might just find it interesting! Contact us on spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz for more information.