An astronomical meeting

Dieter chaired Spinnaker Toastmasters 21 July meeting, with two online, four guests as well as most club members in attendance.

The word of the day from Rory was “eclipse” and he reported who had used the word at the end of the meeting. This followed Dieter’s theme of International Moon Day on 20th July.

Roman also successfully completed the Memory Master role and managed to empty his box of Favourites (see photos).

Speech 1 by Megan, evaluated by Ash, was titled “One foot in front of the other”. Megan related her discovery of the joys of walking, and said “walking is one of the simplest ways to support your health”. She showed us all her props, explained the health benefits, and outlined her goals of bush walks using the app AllTrails. Ash in his evaluation said Megan painted the picture of where she was, and her energy levels raised and lowered appropriately.

Speech 2 by Kamilla, evaluated by Sandie, titled “My worst haircut” was a humorous take as she opened with “I needed to find a new hairdresser, but it turned out to be my biggest disaster!” When the hairdresser asked “Isn’t it great?” she replied “No, it’s awful!” She now has a new hairdresser. Sandie said Kamilla had a way to make people laugh with her descriptive language and she really enjoyed her speech.

Speech 3 by Dale was a report back on the team building event she organised for a Level 5 Motivational Strategies Project. Dale said that the LoveLocal Expo 2026 event on Saturday 11 July had gone very well, with the booth team manning the stand for their hour and talking to many members of the public about Toastmasters. The goal of the event was to raise awareness of Toastmasters, and to encourage participation in a team event. Team members had reported back to Dale on their experiences, and Jinny, our VP Membership, is now actively following up with those who expressed an interest in Toastmasters, to invite them to a meeting to see if public speaking is what they are looking for. Angela’s evaluation covered the goals of the project and the speech, Dale’s concern over privacy for photos taken, and that she had future-proofed the concept of setup/packdown with simple instructions and resources.

Jacqui ran table topics with a series of statements that speakers had to either Agree with or Refute. Probably the most popular topic was whether “pineapple belonged on pizza” by Jinny. Katina’s evaluation was thorough and effective giving each speaker valuable feedback.

Greg was our timekeeper for this meeting, his first time in this role, and he even managed to ring the bell a few times, which he felt awkward about, but it was taken in good grace. He reported back on how the speakers and evaluators managed their time, as well as the table topics speakers. Good work Greg for having a go at this very important meeting task.

General Evaluator Jinny reminded evaluators to point out the key things they are looking for with their comments.

If you are interested in finding out how Toastmasters works, then come along to our next meeting on Tuesday 4 August at 7.30 pm. Let us know you’re coming by emailing us on spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz.