This was the theme of Spinnaker’s 6th October meeting, as it was also Dale’s birthday. First-time chairman Roman did a superb job of organising and running the meeting, and also performed the role of Grammarian. Roman peppered the meeting with a range of birthday traditions from around the world, and General Evaluator Ash thought it was interesting to hear how other countries and cultures celebrate one’s birthday.
In General Business, Dale led the club in voting for and welcoming Kane, and VP Membership Jinny presented Kane with his certificate and new members pack. Congratulations Kane for joining our lively club, we hope you enjoy your time with us.
Speech 1 from Dirk introduced by Ron was called “Realities of AI”, a level 3 persuasive speech. Dirk said “AI is not going to take your job, I work with AI all day so I’ve got a pretty good idea what it’s all about.” He also reminded us that kids today are born in the AI era, so it will be interesting how they cope with and use AI in the future. Evaluator Ron thought it was a very interesting topic, delivered with humour.
Speech 2 by Rach evaluated by Dieter, entitled “Kissing Cousins” was a humorous speech and a practice run for the upcoming Area humorous contest. Rach began with “Who in this room is married?” A few hands went up. Dieter said it was an excellent contest speech, he loved the opening question to get everyone involved, and Rach used powerful animated gestures to emphasise her points.
Speech 3 by Jacqui was a level 2 visionary communication body language speech called “Move or die”. Introducer and evaluator Quentin loved the challenge of using and managing a video within the speech, and that Jacqui did some masterful audience involvement by asking us to do some of the tai chi moves she was demonstrating. However my hips were aching at the thought of getting up off the floor in one movement without help!
Table Topics Mistress Chetna followed the meeting theme of birthday traditions, and posed very thoughtful questions to each of the 8 table topics speakers, from birthday gifts, to dream birthday parties, birthday cakes and birthday adventures. Evaluator Jinny reminded speakers to move the lectern out of the way so they had the whole stage to work with, and praised the audience for interjecting with comments or questions when a speaker got stuck.
Memory Master Greg had the packet of Whittaker’s chocolates to hand out to anyone who managed to remember and answer his memory questions correctly.
Timekeeper Dale reported that only two speakers went over time, and she forgot to ring the bell for one of them.
General Evaluator Ash praised Roman for putting together an excellent enjoyable meeting. Although we finished a few minutes over time, no-one noticed!
If you are interested in attending a Toastmasters meeting to find out what it is all about, please contact us on spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz and we’ll invite you to our next meeting. We look forward to meeting you.
