Romance is in the air

Mike chaired Spinnaker’s 18 February meeting with a Valentines theme. He peppered the meeting with lots of quotes and snippets of information about the history and use of Valentine’s Day.

Table Topics by Ron also followed the Valentine’s theme where speakers were asked to talk about their most unusual Valentine’s gift received or given. Evaluator Gary said all speakers displayed confidence but they needed a little more structure and gestures to enhance their delivery.

Speech 1 by Mike entitled “Would you send your kid to a boarding school?” described his own experiences of going to boarding school in the deep south from his fifth form year, but he concluded he would not send his own daughter to a boarding school and gave us two really good reasons. Evaluator Gary thought it was excellent that Mike didn’t use any notes, he gave a comfortable delivery using word pictures, but he needed a slightly stronger conclusion to finish his speech.

Speech 2 by Megan called “Make it Better” was a practice run for the Division International Speech Contest shortly. Evaluator Katina asked the audience to fill out the judging form for Megan and offer feedback, while she also gave her evaluation.

Speech 3 by Jacqui called “My HPL Journey” told us of how she became a Division Governor and really learning all about Toastmasters during her term. It involved people management, event management, meeting deadlines, good communication and repetition, project management skills, celebrating successes and sending 1400 emails! Evaluator Dieter said he was now scared of the role and didn’t realise how much work was involved in an official capacity beyond the club. He did enjoy Jacqui’s speech and her delivery method.

Grammarian Dale’s word of the day was “choice”, and in her report she noted that most speakers had used it at least once. Other memorable quips were “watching a rose die slowly in a vase”, “vintage wheelbarrow”, “dog eat dog politics”, and “my mother’s bright red mini clubman”.

General Evaluator Angela said she had loved how chairman Mike had peppered the meeting with Valentine snippets, loved the table topics session following the theme, and enjoyed the extra feedback on Megan’s speech to help her in her Division Speech preparation.

Angela awarded the best speaker to Megan, and best table topics to Dieter.

If you are keen to be involved in a Toastmasters meeting to find out what public speaking is all about, then contact us on email spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz and arrange to our next meeting. You’ll be most welcome.