It was a full house for Jocelyn who chaired our 18 November report with the theme “An appetite for life”. Table Topics Mistress Megan followed up with topics designed to follow the theme. Best Table Topics speaker of the night was our guest Sandie with her speech about having dinner with Freddie Mercury.

The first speech by Ash was a trial run of his humorous speech for the Area J1 Humorous speech contest later this week. Evaluator Katina invited the audience to contribute their feedback which included separating the movement from the words, adding more vocal variety, and to watch his pacing and noisy movements. Good luck Ash for your contest.

Speech 2 by Ron, introduced by Dirk, on “Mentoring” outlined his mentoring activities and how mentoring works in the club, and the difference between a mentor and a coach. He talked about the 4 C’s: compassion, clarity, commitment and connection. Dirk thought Ron used relatable examples relevant to the audience and complimented Ron on the use of cards for notes.

Our third speaker was Priyanka on “The power of small wins”. Priyanka said “those small wins are sometimes better than those big audacious goals”, and regarding new year’s resolutions, she said research showed that 80% fail by February because they are usually too big and progress is invisible. Priyanka said we have “small wins hiding in plain sight, we just need to find and celebrate them!” Evaluator Jacqui said that while Priyanka opened with a question, you need to choose your opening question carefully to get the reaction you are looking for. She thought Priyanka used the power of 3 masterfully, and she should keep up the momentum right to the very end. Best speaker of the night was Priyanka!

Jinny was our fourth speaker, introduced by Vicki, called “My honest review of toastmasters 1 year’s experience”. Jinny presented her speech as a letter from her future self to her present self. Vicki thought it was inspirational, a creative structure delivered with enthusiasm and was very relatable.

Our next meeting is our last meeting of the year, on Tuesday 2 December. This will be a combined Area J1 Table Topics Contest, and a mini reverse meeting. Guests are welcome, just let us know you are coming on spinnaker@toastmasters.org.nz.