Myths meeting 29/9/17
Boaters meeting 29/9/17: the theme was “Myths” (symbolic story telling)
Sergeant at Arms Rebecca Clements made a fine start to the meeting.
Area Director Brian Preddy and 2 visitors were present and 24 members.
Toastmaster – Alana Bogart ran the meeting with her theme of myths; only cats figured, go figure!
Grammarian was Caleb Vercoe – Grammar myth “Can I start a sentence with a conjunction? “ He was bought up saying ‘no’, but in fact it can – it’s just a matter of preference – e.g. we can start with a ‘but’ or ‘because’ (which was the Word of the Day).
Greg McGeorge humorously introduced Mark Glanville whose speech, “Thrown in the Deep End” was about how one reacts when asked to be a celebrant at a funeral. It’s an honourable humbling experience but needs to be done well with respect. Think about the Eulogy, use of music, audio visual presentation, who wishes to speak (avoiding repetition), use of haka, a guard of Honour, as well as your own words. Script the funeral, check it out with the family and liaise with the funeral director. If you are in doubt about your ability to do it then get a professional celebrant in to take your place.
Sabine Parry introduced Brett Snow with his advanced manual speech “Enjoy the Journey”. He started with a “bang!” Happiness in life is about enjoying the journey. Hence choice of a family vehicle is most important. It’s got to be dilapidated (to avoid theft) but utilitarian enough in his case to ensure a family of 10 was catered for. It was a van ‘with an open door policy’ – you never know when it will open. The solution to this was ingenious – a high tech rope solution. The ground visibility (through the floor) was another feature that added to the family’s experience.
Alan Calder introduced David Pottinger speech “Tasman Series Memoirs 1968-1971”. He covered his father, Bill’s, participation in photographing the motor racing series. It was a pictorial presentation starting with his grandmother’s Austin 10. There were great shots of the races reflecting a simpler time before health & safety interfered. His was a photography hobby saw his photographs go worldwide, especially photographs of the racing and its celebrities, eg. Jacky Stewart and Graham Hill. Those photos ended up in a book that Bill had published, a lasting memento of this time.
Brent’s Presidents notices covered Sandra Chatterton’s experience at the recent leaders meeting and some house-keeping matters. Competent Communicator award certificates were given to Sabine Parry and Mark Glanville to mark their first major achievement in Toastmasters.
Table Topics were lead by Rodney Ford. Negotiating to keep NZ Great again, what’s your bottom line for the negotiation? Alannah Vickery – said ban plastic bags. Clare Ruru – bring back honesty and no back biting in Parliament. Courtney Tibbots – make politics fun by having compulsory comedy sessions once a month. Brian Preddy immigration – shut the door for 2 years because it’s a fragile country. Mo Yakubu – incentives to bring in electric cars to avoid pollution. David Clarkson would legislate for a smile to be compulsory nationwide first thing every morning.
Evaluators were Sandra Chatterton, Vijay Vellaisamy, Brent Ruru and Grant Beattie; the time keeper was Helen McLeod; and the meeting was evaluated overall by General Evaluator, Natalie Perzylo.
The Toastie Award for the meeting went Rebecca Clements and Clare Ruru for organizing the Sgt at Arms role so effectively.
A great fun filled, entertaining and informative meeting well lead by Alana Bogart.
Read MoreMeeting 881
Vijay opened the meeting at 7am, his first time in this role, Sergeant of Arms. He grabbed the bull by the horns and wrestled his way through, achieving all the necessary requirements of the role then tossed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Day, Alan Calder.
Alan introduced the theme for the day as “Marathon” giving us amazing stats on people who had run the most marathons. One being 280 marathons run in one year by one person. Alan tied this theme to the fact that todays meeting was a “Speech Marathon” of 5 speeches instead of the usual 3 speeches for a typical meeting.
Speaker 1 Courtney Tibbotts, – Speech Titled “Castle Street to Crumpets” This was Courtney’s first 5-7min speech at Toastmasters, we call it an icebreaker speech. She took us from her conception in Castle Street to her current position marketing Crumpets for the Button family business. The neat thing about Courtney’s presentation was she had crumpet packages for everyone at the end.
Speaker 2 Dion Ebraham – Speech Titled “Fate, Chance, Destiny” Dion also was giving an icebreaker speech. He told us of his origins in Zimbabwe, born in the year of independence. Dion had 2 memorable statements worth quoting. 1. “In Zimbabwe you always had to have a plan B.” 2. “since marrying a kiwi girl he is now fully kiwi owned and operated” . He described throughout his talk how sports had been his Fate, his chance and his destiny now working for Canterbury Cricket.
Speaker 3 Natalie Perzylo – Speech Titled “What is Old?” Natalie challenged our preconceptions about being old, by explaining her experience, being entrusted with an “Old dog” called Jack, with various aliments including cataracts. How she at first, she treated him with kid gloves, because he was considered old and frail. But then discovered, that he was fine with the other dogs, doing all the things the other dogs did. We were challenged to review our perception, that because people are old, that they can’t do stuff. In the middle of this she added stories of old people she had met that had defied expectations of what old people where capable of. Highly amazing stories.
Speaker 4 Danny De Hek – Speech Titled – “The truth about business networking” This 10min presentation can be viewed in full on Elite 6 Business Networking Facebook page. Danny gave us 5 tips about Networking that he has found by experience. This speech was followed by a question and answer time with questions from the audience.
Speaker 5 Brett Snow – Speech Titled – “There is no failure, only Feedback” This was a12-14min educational talk on how to be an effective speech evaluator. Brent gave us 4 secrets to making our evaluations more powerful in our public and our private life. His example How to respond to your spouse saying “how do I look?” This was the most interesting educational speech I have heard in toastmasters.
Great Evaluations were then given to all speakers by Mark Granville, Brent Ruru, Rodney Ford, Anton McMulkin and Helen McCloud. Time keeping report by Denise Ford.
“The Toastie Award” was split between our 2 icebreaker speeches, Courtney receiving the Toastie, and Dion being awarded a packet of Buttons Crumpets.
Next week we are looking forward to an amazing speech from Roydon Gibbs on how to be a good mentor. Come and join us!
David Cooper
Read MoreMeeting #868 – Speech Marathon – Theme Contentment
CAUTION: This blog has been composed by a dyslexic person using voice recognition, over bluetooth, with predictive texting enabled. So, who knows if it is 100% accurate. If in doubt phone me on 021 961 652
Sergeant at Arms: Sabine Parry (SA) – Time: 1:33
Talked about were you needed to go if you had a personal emergency and told us all to turn OF our cellphones (I didn’t)
Toastmaster: (Theme Contentment) Roydon Gibbs (TM) – Time 3:45
Timer: Brett Snow
Blogger: Danny de Hek
Speaker #1 Anton McMulkin – Time: 6:46
Title: Habits
Talked about habits did you know it takes 21-66 days to create new habits!
Speaker #2 Alannah Vickery – Time: 5:25
Title: Save the world!!!
Alannah is trying to eat less meat, and has 5kg of honey, Alannah can not ride her bike everywhere.
Talked about peeing in the shower to save water! I stopped taking notes after this point, however I couldn’t help it after she asked us to join her and also pee in the shower to save water.
Speaker #3 Louise Green – Time 6:43
Title: Becoming a Bullfighter
Great speaker is Louise! she commands your ears and attention when speaking, you would think Louise has been a toastmaster for years.
Did you know there is a book titled why business people speak like idiots see www.goodreads.com/book/show/33200.Why_Business_People_Speak_Like_Idiots
Speaker #4 Caleb Vercoe – Time 5:50
Title: Nailed
Caleb was wearing shorts just saying, talked about how he got two nail in his foot, talked to health line, next he told us about how he got two nails out of his foot – Caleb nailed it
Speaker #5 Kevin Cusack – Time 4:52
Title: Loud cellphone talking syndrome
He said it gives him the woollies, great wording like; all sunshine and kitchens, cellphone Sam dirty old man, got the switch listening,
Speaker #6 Alan Calder – Time 6:17
Title: Epic
Alan talked about how is managed to complete the ride!! Bits inside his short wear complaining near the end. TOTALLY EPIC SPEECH and way to go
The Epic is the full monty and test piece of this event.
The course has over 2400 metres of vertical ascent and descent. Its not a turn your brain off track, its varied, narrow in places, rocky and undulating. It is relatively unmarked getting from the Hunter Valley to the start of the river crossing. There are also lots of fast open sections of 4×4 track, so something for everyone.
Yep just another walk in the park!
Evaluator #1 Steve Kennelly Evaluating Anton McMulkin – Time 2:42
Good, Good and Good
Evaluator #2 Vivien Cowey Evaluating Alannah Vickery – Time 3:10
More talk about peeing in the shower! Said Alannah could have a stronger opening or pee? (Good, Good and Good)
Evaluator #3 Deb McAlpine Evaluating Louise Green – Time 3:12
Bal Bal Bal Debs is so good at doing evaluations to busy listening to blog about it
Evaluator #4 Natalie Perzylo Evaluating Caleb Vercoe – Time 3:59
Good, Good and Good, talked about how is we good and speaking Caleb did give recommendation to bringing a Nail and Hamner as a visual aid.
Evaluator #5 Mark Smith Evaluating Kevin Cusack – Time 3:27
Summed up the talk nicely, talked about the goals Kevin next Mark did a CRC sandwich left a good question for Kevin what do you sound like when on a phone!
Evaluator #6 Garry Musson Evaluating Alan Calder – Time 3:13
Garry was hard to hear at the start, great examples of how he could have made the speech more Epic
THE END
Read MoreMeeting 850
Alannah Vickery was the Toastmaster of the day and introduced the theme, “Health is the real wealth, not pieces of gold.” Throughout the meeting Alannah shared health tips to go along with the theme. One tip was that we should floss, because not doing so might result in the loss of a jaw!
Mo Yakubu was the Grammarian, and his word of the day was “salubrious”. Several speakers dropped the word into their speeches, indicating that they had listened well to Mo.
The first speaker was Mark Smith who delivered his Icebreaker speech, “This is Your Life.” Mark spoke about his early life growing up on a sheep farm before moving to Christchurch. In the big city he bounced from school to school, always mixing with the wrong crowd. He was thrown out of a Catholic boys’ school in first term for drinking and using drugs. From there he went to a co-ed school where he lasted only two terms before being forced to leave again. Landing at Burnside in term four, he found himself among the same type of crowd, headed down the same path. A teacher asked him if he’d like to go along on a wilderness adventure with the school, and he responded with very little thought about it. “Ah, yep!” That response changed the course of his life. After his adventure, academics and sports became more important to him. He stopped using drugs and adopted a more salubrious lifestyle. He finished school successfully, and has continued to do well for himself since then. He was salesman of the year last year! For Mark, an “Ah, yep!” moment changed his life. Congratulations Mark!
The second speaker was Rachel Walton, whose speech, “It’s Not Okay,” was project four from the Storyteller Manual. Rachel told a story of an older couple who have become entangled in her life. The woman is a career government employee while the fellow is a businessman. He’s losing his hair and not attractive. Rachel finds the relationship with them uncomfortable. There are rumours that the woman is a dirty dealer, and her partner is publicly critical of her. A week ago he even beat her up in front of a crowd! Rachel feels powerless to do anything in the situation; she’s stuck with it for four years. The couple is Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton! Rachel tells us things are not always what they seem, and it’s not okay.
The third speaker was Rodney Ford, who revisited a speech he had originally given in 2002. His speech was from the Competent Communicator manual, and it was called “Everything is Going My Way.” Rodney opened his speech by singing the song of the same name, which was from the musical “Oklahoma”. He delivered the sad statistic that 500 New Zealanders commit suicide every year. Happiness is fleeting and disappointment is inevitable. Having just been rained out during a trip to Abel Tasman, it certainly would have been easy to sustain that point of view. Rodney reflected on an experience that demonstrated how a person’s point of view can change over time. He shared the story of a family trip he had taken years earlier to Vienna when his daughters were quite young. He had a plan of how he would like to spend his day in Vienna, but when his daughter saw a poster advertising the Spanish dancing horses, nothing would dissuade her from insisting they go. Rodney resented his daughter’s disruption of his plan and sulked all day. The sulking ruined his time in Vienna! Rodney regretted his reaction. More recently, Rodney made another trip to Vienna with his second wife. What a coincidence; she also wanted to see the dancing horses! This time, Rodney went along and enjoyed the experience. He had a much better time by not giving in to the sulk. So when he was in Abel Tasman and it was too wet for the tramp he had planned, he decided to enjoy drinking wine and coffee instead. And when the earthquake happened, trapping him in Nelson for an extra couple of days, he focused on enjoying the extra time with his family rather than bemoaning the disruption of his plan. At the end of his story, he led the meeting once again in the song, “Everything’s Going My Way.” Thanks Rodney!
Terrelle Hegarty presented an entertaining and interactive session of Table Topics. To help speakers to be mindful of fillers such as “Um” and “Ah”, she had the audience respond with a sound whenever they heard one of these. Topics were simple. Caleb was given “Trump”. Danny de Hek got “First Love.” “Christmas Shopping” was Kevin Cusack’s topic. David Cooper used “Childhood Mishaps” as a jumping off point. I was given “Outdoor Adventures.” Terrelle had given me the topic in advance, and I was so nervous about it that I barely heard any of the other speakers. I heard plenty of laughter and sounds of enjoyment, though, so I’m sure everyone was great.
It was another salubrious Friday morning at Toastmasters!
Read MoreToastmaster Mo Yakubu
Toastmaster was Mo Yakubu. It was his first time as Toastmaster. He led the meeting extremely well and professionally.
Mark Smith was the grammarian and his word of the day was “Science” – eggs would great with corned beef and rice – experimentation is science is the essence of expansion of knowledge.
First speaker was Brent Chatterton and he spoke on “Building with Timber” – introduced us his to his building firm and the regeneration benefits of using timber as a building product. Its characteristics, versatility and thermal qualities were covered. His examples and visuals were a compelling endorsement of timber use in building.
Vivien Cowey was the second speaker. This was her 10th speech in the Competent Communicator manual to motivate her audience. Her topic was “Who is Maddie Collins?” Maddie was 12 years old and is loved by her extended family and loves life and others. She has a special challenge – kidney disease. – with its invasive interventions since age 4. Vivien took us through Maddie’s amazing medical journey but it was her desire to have a normal teenage life. Vivien has now achieved her Competent Communicator Award, well done.
The 3rd speaker was John Macvicar who did his speech as a “Radio Interview”, interviewed by Garry Musson. John is a pain physician with a particular interest in overcoming lumber pain and procedures. Spine Intervention Society of which he is the current president. He described the procedure – like an epidural injection but these injections are into the spinal nerve to cover of shooting pain relief in the legs. Avoids the need for surgery and its complications. John also covered the role the Society. This was in instructive and informative speech.
Terelle Hegarty ran a great impromptu session – socially scientifically savy topics!!
Rodney Ford as General Evaluator and did a superb review of the meeting.
Read More