Dale chaired Spinnaker’s 15 July meeting via Zoom. We welcomed a guest Rachel too!

The theme of the meeting was “happiness” with Grammarian Junior using the word “content” as his word of the day. Dale gave three quotes to enhance the theme:

– ‘Happiness depends upon ourselves.’ – Aristotle
– ‘Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.’ – Eleanor Roosevelt
– ‘Happiness is an inside job.’ – William Arthur Ward

Table Topics by Megan also followed the theme where speakers had to choose from the jar either “happy” or “unhappy” and then had to speak to the topic from Megan using what they had chosen. Lin talked about what food makes her happy (chocolate), Ash told us what he would do if he had a day to be happy about (go on holiday to Rarotonga with his family), Gary described his favourite pink sweatshirt made him happy, Rachel told us about her most unhappy birthday, Vicky told us that pizza makes her happy but she can’t eat too much of it, and Katina let us know what car makes her happy (basically it doesn’t need to be flash or a status symbol).

Evaluator Jocelyn thought that it was an interesting take on the meeting theme and word of the day. Best Table Topics award went to Katina.

Speech 1 by Zi was his final Speechcraft speech called “Tararua Adventures”. He told us about the time he went for a walk in the Tararuas, and got horribly lost, but finally made it back to the carpark, content he had survived. Evaluator Vicki thought the speech was well structured, and described the different challenges encountered, getting lost and getting back home again.

Speech 2 by Dieter, introduced by Lin was a follow-on from a table topics contest speech “Why do you matter?”. He said we don’t think about the big questions in life much these days, so he challenged us to think about them to find happiness and contentment. Evaluator Lin thought Dieter’s speech was very clear with a good structure highlighting his 3 main points, with excellent body language, eye contact and pauses.

General Evaluator Katina loved the ‘happy’ meeting theme, and enjoyed the explanation of the word of the day ‘content’ from Junior. She thought the introducers could have used a bit more time to set up their speaker ready for the audience to enjoy their speech.

Best Speaker Award goes to Zi.

Best Contribution of the night was for Ash for having the room all set up ready to go when she arrived.

If you are interested in trying your hand at public speaking, then come along to our next meeting on 5 August. Let us know by email on spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz and we’ll send you the agenda. We’d love to welcome you to our meeting.