A “super…” meeting

Jacqui chaired our 7 July 2026 meeting with her theme “New Toastmasters Year” and “Matariki”.

Jinny came up with an awesome word of the day: “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and every time someone went to use it, the audience had to chime in to help complete it. Jinny reported that it was used eight times during the meeting.

Speech 1 by Chetna, evaluated by Dieter, was titled “The price of options”. Chetna opened by asking us to take a deep breath and imagine ourselves in five years, then add another five years. (Well I was busy imagining this and the thought of getting up from a chair without thinking about it was a struggle!) She talked about the options of health, wealth and relationships. Quotable quotes: Time is always moving; Success is about having options. Evaluator Dieter noted that everyone had their eyes closed imagining, and he praised Chetna’s structure, use of voice and hand gestures and eye contact.

Speech 2 by Jacqui, evaluated by Ron, focussed on the Club Success Plan. Using a powerpoint presentation, she talked about club and personal goals, the rules for achieving Distinguished Club status, and how the whole club should have input into the plan. She handed out a Member Interest Survey for everyone to fill in. Jinny will analyse this and report back to the Committee. Evaluator Ron thought that it was a confident presentation, Jacqui obviously knew her subject well, and she personalised it with pauses and a relaxed delivery.

Speech 3 by Roman, evaluated by Rachel, was called “Setting my sights”. Roman began with “I wandered in on a cold evening … and was met with warmth in what was to be the perfect club”. He described his three goals, but actually was focussing on the intentions behind his goals which were to “assert myself, look after myself, and make more room for fun”. Evaluator Rachel said, “Wow, what a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious speech, very thoughtful, and of course Spinnaker is the best club ever!”

Finally Dale gave a short first speech in a two speech Team Building project, outlining the plans for the Love Local Porirua 2026 expo which Spinnaker will be attending on Saturday 11 July. This was followed by paired Table Topics where one person was manning the expo booth and the other person was the visitor enquiring about Toastmasters. Angela gave instant quick fire feedback for each pair where she said Megan was friendly and used the power of 3, Jinny engaged in small talk, Ash was all logistics, Chetna did not give up and closed the sale, and Roman was gentle but assertive and listened well. All good practice for those manning the expo booth on Saturday.

To close the meeting, Memory Mistress Kamilla had a box of Cadbury’s Favourites to hand out to anyone who managed to answer her memory questions correctly. This is always a favourite part of every Spinnaker meeting.

If you would like to find out how Toastmasters work, and get a choccie for your efforts, come along to our next meeting on Tuesday 21 July at 7.30 pm. Email us at spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz to let us know you’re coming.