Gary chaired the 16 May Spinnaker Toastmasters meeting with the theme HAPPY.  And Grammarian Dieter’s word of the day was “prodigious” which means remarkable, impressive, great.

Sarah (pictured left) was officially welcomed into the club by our President Katina with a vote and presented with her certificate.  Welcome Sarah, we are sure you will be a very entertaining and enthusiastic member of our club and we look forward to hearing your future speeches.

Megan ran table topics with the theme “how to have fun at work” or a secret topic.  Most speakers chose the fun at work angle and gave Megan some prodigious ideas on how to create fun such as wearing something colourful, doing wasgij puzzles, and playing golf.

Our first speaker was Katina with “It’s the people”, a Pathways Level 5 project reflecting on her year as President of our club.  She said that three things stood out for her: (1) the mechanics of how the committee works and you don’t have to organise everything yourself because you have capable people around you; (2) an appreciation of how everything in Toastmasters is interconnected; and (3) the companionship from club meetings whether by Zoom or in person.  Evaluator Dave thought Katina had set the scene nicely using a Te Reo introduction and ending.

Speaker 2 was Kathy with “What if…”.  Kathy opened by stating, “What if you had a disability?  How different would your life be?”  She then went on to tell her story of a previous illness and how it affected her financially, and what it’s like employing people who are disabled.   She mentioned the implications of Covid and working from home if you are disabled.  She ended by saying the was proud that Spinnaker Toastmasters Club was a hybrid club with online attendance which means she has been able to continue being a member and contributing on the committee and at meetings.  Evaluator Darrell commended Kathy for using herself as an example for such a serious topic.

Speaker 3 was Ron introduced by our Area Director Roger, with the title “Gold”.  Ron opened by wondering about the properties of hold and how it behaves, about several gold rushes in the Wellington area and how gold is still mined around New Zealand today.  He explained how gold forms over time as alluvial or quartz, and told a story of his great ancestor who had found a huge gold nugget.  Ron ended by outlining the costs of mining gold in New Zealand today.  Evaluator Roger thought that this was actually three speeches in one, but he liked how Ron put himself into the story.