Winter Surprises
The meeting started out with Brent Ruru wearing a Santa’s Hat. That was very appropriate because it almost feels close to a North American’s Christmas. Caleb Vercoe, our Toastmaster, tied it together with the theme of Winter Surprises. Has it really been 5 years since the last great snow in Christchurch? Caleb reminded us why we should look forward to winter- snow, new lambs, and cold frosty crispy mornings… Can I push the FAST forward button, and stop at summer?
Sustainable was the word of the meeting- best practice for/ in the environment. Alannah Vickery, our grammarian, told us about the 3 pillars of being sustainable 1) environmental, 2) economical, 3) social well being. She wondered though, shouldn’t sustainable also include ‘giving back to the land’. I think it should. Do you?
Speech 1
Helen McLeod introduced Sandra Chatterton’s Winter Garden’s Speech. Helen cleverly got our attention by mentionning George Clooney in the same sentence as garden.
What does George Clooney have to do with gardening? George is the name of Sandra’s dog, and Clooney’s wife is into gardening.Hope I got that right…
Hope I got that right…
Sandra gave a brief introduction into her garden. She divided her garden into rooms. I thought this very clever but later learned that it is a gardening term. Sandra gave a vivid picture of her many ‘rooms’. In her rose garden, she has Dog Wood. No it’s not a wooden dog. That’s how much I know about flowers and garden. It’s a name of a tree that has brilliant red leaves. Her middle room has cherry trees and a BBQ and the back room is where her vege garden does all the work to feed her family.
Sandra left us with some reminders for us:
- Sharpen your tools
- Start planting your winter garden
- Dig over the crops, keep your garden sustainable
- Plant roses, perennials and don’t forget to prune your roses.
David Cooper evaluated Sandra’s speech and commended her on great use of visual words, using the rooms to help us guide our mind, and giving us a ‘job tip’. Some suggestions for her — make as if you are talking to someone in the back room to raise the volume of your voice, and bring some photos of your garden!
Speech 2
Louise Green introduced Brent Snow and told the audience that he’s been travelling up north visiting family in Keri Keri. They have a farm and snuck in the word of the day… are they farming sustainably?
Brent’s non manual speech was titled Power Listening. He went through the 4 types of listening:
- Cosmetic– blah, blah blah, and not really paying attention to the speaker. (We don’t do that at Toastmasters!) He got a chuckle from the audience when he said that he put the phone down while his sister was talking, thinking he had enough time to make a coffee. He got caught!
- Conversational—general talking with general interruption. Listen-talk-think
- Active- more effort in put into listening & the process. You want clarification, and you summarise what the speaker has said. This blog made me listen actively this morning, that’s for sure!
- Deep- those conversations that you have that are rare in your life (well, mine at least) – where you feel a connection with the other person, and you almost finish their sentence. You are quite clearly on the same wavelength. Super natural…
Brent challenged us to ask open-ended questions, to listen and response and to ask yourself if the speaker is using visual, auditory or kinaesthetic when they talk. Reflect this in your own speaking.
Alan Calder evaluated Brent’s speech and wondered if Brent could have use ‘the challenge’ throughout his speech. Alan liked his delivery, and commented that the opening and the closing reflected each other. Well done.
Speech 3
Rodney introduced Alana Bogart and was looking forward to her speech. He told us that it was a humourist speech and it just fitted nicely between 5 to 7 minutes!Alana certainly brought humour to our morning. She talked about supermarket shopping which we can all relate to. More than that, she made herself to
Alana certainly brought humour to our morning. She talked about supermarket shopping which we can all relate to. More than that, she made herself to topic of humour. You certainly can’t offend anyone then!
“I am one of those” she repeated throughout her speech—from the person who bangs into person with the trolley, “I am one of those” , to the person that makes the mountain of fruit fall on the floor, “I am one of those”, to fondling soap and doing the sniffer test with laundry soap. And of course, who doesn’t know the experience of waiting in a queue to finalise your shopping (“I am one of those” ) ONLY for the person behind the trolley to run out to get the last minute items- like… the diarrhoea tablets.
Royden Gibbs had the hard task of evaluating her speech because she did such a great, entertaining speech. One thing that he did suggest was to watch for rhythm & pace. Use the Pause Effect. The difference between the gap (like gasping) vs the deliberate action (stop and hold)
Table Topics
Claire Ruru used the Winter Surprises theme to create a murdered Santa Scene… Who, what and how did Santa get knocked over? Six people had to convince us why they were innocent of the crime while at the same time pointing the finger at someone else. That was a great table topic. I loved participating as did Veeja, Courtney, Greg and one of 4 of our guest (sorry, didn’t catch your name).
The Toasty Award went to Alana Bogart with her supermarket speech “I am one of those”
Congrats Alana !! ending this tale of our morning of June 9 2017 on a high note!
#872 Overcoming Challenges
Greeted by our Sergeant at Arms Mo, there is always a reflective grin when you see the whites of a beaming smile. Thank you to our visitors Courtney, Gillian, Brooke and David.
Denise was our Toastmaster. It’s always exciting to see a person step up to the plate, take a swing with the role and smash it out of the ballpark! To regenerate is to rejuvenate and the passion for our still broken city was woven to connect all the speakers that followed. The meeting had fantastic flow, great job Denise.
Another first time for a newbie Toastmaster at getting up in front of the crowd was Hayden who amplified the word of the day ‘rejuvenate.’ To make something young or restore to a former state had many in the audience discussing face potions later during the break. For some of us it was what putty!
Natalie launched into her speech ‘Nothing is What It Seems’ using a stick for a prop. One must see the big picture whereby a stick defined is two ends separated by a bit in the middle and the reference to rehabilitating a woofie after it ate a meowie. Or two. That bit was less ca’s -chy!
Danny the computer door salesman and ‘What is an Ultra Panel?’ Simple, watch the trends, push the limits, be a leader versus a follower and have a sense of humour to name a few. Most importantly, beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission.
Roydon’s camp fire story about his role model Charlie had the guest make comment at how engaging it was to be lost in translation. Or captured by the skill and prowess that Roydon used to captivate us with, “Growing up is not about expecting you to conform to what other people expect of you.” Roydon took away the ‘toastie’ award of the day.
Table topics lead by David C had robbers; recreating yourself; what old music would you like to see revived; and how would you revive either a pet budgie, dog or horse. Guest participation was exemplary and the demonstration of doing mouth to mouth on a pet dog certainly had been practiced before.
All the evaluators – Anton; Alannah; Steve; Terrelle and Alanna (GE) shared things that worked and things that could be worked on for the speakers and fellow members doing the introductions. Add Louise who rattled out the overs and under’s times amplified one of the quotes of the day.
Quotes of the day by Alanna were: “Stop being a hog” referring to those who steal time from others by going overtime; and her “Mark dresses himself at the front a lot” referring to Mark dressing himself a lot at the front.
“Please come back” was echoed in the meeting somewhere. Just come to a meeting. It just might
Read MoreAwsome 80’s Meeting #872
Kristy Lawler rocked us into action and set the scene for our toe tapping, seat dancing meeting this morning.
Sabine Parry’s Awsome 80’s theme linked our speech marathon meeting with the speakers favourite 80’s song – a very creative way of getting to know our members – and delivered in true 80’s dress style – loved it, thanks Sabine.
Walking on Sunshine Terrelle Hegarty’s “Thesis in 3” gave eye opening stats about the basis of her thesis on the theories of Women in Construction, admitting one of her biggest challenges will be solving her time hog traits when delivering the thesis in real life.
Welcome to the Jungle Mark Glanville’s “Grief is a Serious Business” encouraging us to be aware of the different forms of grief so we can be more prepared when faced with it ourselves or others around us, giving us some serious business stats.
Fairytale in New York Steve Kennelly’s “Power of Attorney” another very informative and valuable need to know topic delivered with humour using a personal experience with his in-laws to get across some cautions & tips about the need to consider having a Power of Attorney.
Leading in with Working Hard for her Money, not sure we were expecting Vivien Cowey’s topic to be “We don’t want to be compared to Accountants” … but another very informative and useful topic explaining the differences between a Bookkeeper and an Accountant, with a clever analogy between doctors and nurses …
Living on a Prayer David Cooper’s “Signs of Life” helping us ensure we get what we want out of life using atleast 1 if not all 3 of the key ingredients LOVE, ACCEPTANCE & FORGIVENESS and the warning signs if these are missing from your life.
Living Doll Rodney Ford’s “Misfits” about how digging through some brain junk which in reality is the valuable talents we’ve pushed aside from our youth, has led him to joining a musical band “Misfits”. Another gem from Rodney’s hidden talent collection surfaced this morning within his 1980’s pride and joy guitar – bring your amp next time!
See you all on Friday 😊
Read MoreMeeting 870: Winter Blues
Brent Snow called the meeting to order in a timely fashion and we all settled in to enjoy what promised to be a great way to finish up the week, the xxx meeting of the Boaters Toastmasters Club.
Winter Blues was the theme of this meeting, as decided upon by our toastmaster, Claire Ruru. While the technical definition of Winter Blues relates to depression and a general winter funkiness, Claire determined this meeting would be upbeat and positive, as it soon turned out to be. Throughout the meeting she encouraged us to beat the winter blues by heading to the mountains with both family and toboggin in tow, or up to the Port Hills to enjoy the wonderful walks and incredible views.
Vivien Cowey clearly thought about how to beat the winter blues in her role as grammarian, namely through the giving and receiving of compliments. She encouraged the club to graciously accept a compliment with eye contact and a genuine “thank you”, rather, than as so many of us do, dismiss the compliment through the finding of a fault about their person. She also handed out a sheet containing a multitude of positive and uplifting words, including ‘fantastic’, ‘dynamite’, ‘phenomenal’ and ‘remarkable’.
Brent Ruru introduced our first speaker of the day, Mark Smith, with a barrage of compliments, and a brief story about Mark’s time in Antarctica and the gift of a crystal, which, due to a last-minute bout of cold feet, luckily stayed on the frozen continent, and not with Mark, which therefore avoided him a possible $10,000 fine when he returned to Christchurch.
“Mother’s Day out of Control” by Mark Smith, speech 3 from the Competent Communicators manual. Mark opened his speech with a brief history of Mother’s Day, including its beginnings in the U.S. by Anna Jarvis in 1908. He had obviously done his research as he was able to support the commercialisation of this holiday with statistics such as $1.53 billion annually spent on gifts, $2.6 billion on flowers, $68 million on gift cards and in NZ along, over $50 million on restaurants. Mark told us that after 9 years, and official support of this holiday by Congress, Anna Jarvis began to react against her celebration of mothers due to its blatant commercialization, her response against Mother’s Day was so zealous that she was even arrested in 1948. Mark closed his speech with a recommendation of his own regarding Mother’s Day; namely make Mum a card, celebrate her with words and deeds, give her your time and perhaps most importantly, give her the day off.
Caleb Vercoe introduced speaker number 2, Mark Glanville, very cleverly using sign language, to acknowledge New Zealand sign language week, he even showed us the sign for Donald Trump, which elicited a good laugh from the audience.
“Driving Change” by Mark Glanville, project 8 from the Competent Communicators manual. Mark’s objectives for this speech included the use of effective story-telling and not using notes. The basis of this speech were the highlights of a course he recently participated in through his work; he could share the details of this workshop with us but wasn’t allowed to provide any written material. He used both a Power Point presentation and a whiteboard to support his findings and share this knowledge with us. From this workshop, Mark’s company introduced a “Prompt card for phone enquiry”, thus ensuring key points would be discussed with each potential client, including the use of empathy for each caller and an invitation to come in for a personal discussion about the client’s needs. The initial need for this new initiative came about as there was no single ‘voice’ in regards to telephone inquiries and after the workshop, the “upshot of this change is everyone is now on board.”
Kevin Cusack introduced Helen McLeod with a thorough overview of Helen’s professional qualifications and accomplishments. Kevin then stayed on to play the role of radio interviewer for Helen’s project 2 speech from the Public Relations Manual: Radio Talk Show.
Helen started off with the statistic that one in six people in New Zealand are diagnosed with a mental illness, ranging from moderate to extreme. She then gave a detailed overview of what the Supporting Families program does and how they support New Zealander’s with mental illness and their families; 7 field officers work directly to help, advocate and support. During the Q and A session, Helen responded thoughtfully to Kevin’s questions and answered all three questions easily.
Mark Glanville announced the week’s bulletin notices, including an acknowledgement of Brent Ruru as the president elect, a Toastmasters convention that day and presented Vivian Cowey with her Competent Communicators Manual certificate.
Alan Calder, the table topics master for the day, created two word topics for the day, including Winter Fitness, Winter Driving, Winter Escape and Man Flu. These topics were skilfully spoken about by Deb McAlpine, Alanah Vickery and guests Flavio and David.
John MacVicar evaluated Mark Smith’s speech. He commended Mark on achieving his objectives and his only recommendation with to reduce the use of notes.
Mo Yakubu evaluated Mark Glanville and commended him on his use of props and for achieving his objectives. The only recommendation was for Mark to start to one side rather than directly in front of the power point presentation.
Alana Bogart evaluated Helen McLeod and highlighted that this speech wasn’t about body language but rather about the quality of the delivering and speech content, as on the radio, body language is not a factor. Alana recommended Helen be aware of her use of ‘um’s’, as a number were used throughout the talk show. She congratulated Helen on achieving her speech objectives.
Sandra Chatterton, the table topics evaluator, gave a good synopsis of each speech and also acknowledged the difficulty of the TT speech.
Terrelle Hegarty gave a very speedy breakdown of the mornings time and Danny de Hek as general evaluator, had some recommendations such as ensuring the introduction was present at every speech, nerves and body language and reading from notes. However, overall, his general evaluation was very positive.
Flavio, one of our guests, won the Toastie Award for his table topic speech on Winter Driving.
Claire wrapped up the meeting with a call to cheer away the Winter Blues by spending time with family and friends over delicious home-cooked meals and baking.
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 #864
This morning was another fun, energetic, upbeat Boaters Toastmasters meeting. Deb, our Sgt@arms opened this morning’s meeting with much happiness. Playing her favourite “happy song” to open the meeting she explained that this was music that made her happy. It was a great start and played to the toastmasters theme. Deb even inadvertently added humour by struggling to switch the music off. Brent as Toastmaster was very organised, checking on availability at the prior meeting and publishing his agenda early in the week. A great meeting theme and when Brent got an absent speaker, he quickly added in some table topics and got on seamlessly with the meeting. Well done. Mark as Grammarian came up with not just a word of the day – he had three words, all linked and enthusiastically presented. First introduction of the day was kevin, whom was well organised though did also inadvertently added humour when struggling to find the exact page he had his notes on. Good recovery and good intro. Grant, our first speaker, impressed his audience with his dedication to training and subsequent Coast to coast run. Not for the faint hearted this run and what an achievement. Well done Grant. Sandra introduced Vivien very capably with a thorough introduction and Vivien then gave us all the good oil on property investment – made easy, with literature and graphics to help illustrate points. More to come on this from Vivien. Greg had a complimentary happiness theme for his table topics session, which all spoke easily too. Mo did however have some issues deciding his favourite colour- before getting into his stride. Rodney was the evaluator of Vivien’s speech and gave a good evaluation, even expressing his delight about more of the same to come from Vivien. Watch this space. Steve did the evaluation of Grant’s speech very thoroughly, with good recommendations. Helen and Danny evaluated the large amount of table topics, followed by David’s timers report. Claire was a very happy and positive end to the meeting with her general evaluators role. Our president Mark brought the meeting to a close. Another boaters Toastmasters meeting well worth attending. Have a happy day!
Read MoreMeeting #860 Speech Marathon – Theme Fluid
Sandra Chatterton, Sergeant of Arms summoned us to our seat with the ring of a bell. She thanked everyone for coming and reminded us to turn off our cellphones. Sandra introduced the first Toastmaster of the day, Rodney Ford; telling us he loved sailing boats and has a goal this year to build himself a yacht.
This meeting was a Speech Marathon with six fantastic speeches.
Rodney welcomed the boaters and guest Christine. The theme for the morning is Fluid; an interesting word which can represent liquid and movement.
The first speech of the marathon was Anton McMulkin, this speak is Anton’s Ice Breaker titled “My morning routine”.
Anton shared his morning routine S.A.V.E.R.S and why it is important to him and which part was non-negotiable. The acronym stands for six habits or rituals that can improve our morning routines. S = silence, A = affirmations, V=visualization, E = exercise, R = reading and S = scribing. Anton starts his routine a 5 pm and spends six minutes on each routine, except for exercise which can vary depending on what exercise he does. The non-negotiable ritual is scribing which he finds gives him focus and clarity. Anton gave us all a challenge to give this routine a go for 30 days.
The second speech of the marathon was Louise Green with “What’s in a Name?”. Louise’s speech is from the Competent Communication Manual, Project 3 Get to the Point. The very interesting speech telling the audience about the naming conventions of ancient Rome. The names of Ancient Romans showed their owners importance and status; much could be told from a person’s name. Women took the female form of the family name which reflected public status as property. Men of note had a three-part name for example the Roman statesman, scholar and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero. The first part of the name was much like our christian name but only 15-20 were in common use, the middle name is the family name and the third distinguishes between the different family branches meaning they were passed down through generations; Cicero means chickpea!
The third speech by Steven Mydlowshi “Made in New Zealand” was about the Canterbury legend John Britten. Steven speech is from the Competent Communication Manual, Project 8 Get Comfortable with Visual Aids. Steven used a powerpoint presentation as his visual aid along with books and media display. John Britten was born on the 1st of August 1950 he suffered from dyslexia but did well in maths and art. He had an aptitude for mechanics and gained the NZ Certificate in Engineering. John Britten is best known for the motorbike he built from the wheels up (he studied birds in flight to get an understanding of aerodynamics). Critics raved about the bike, it was light years ahead of anything else breaking 4 world speed records. Only 10 bikes were built one is on display at Te Papa. John Britten died on the 9th of September 1995 from cancer, he is still one of our lesser recognized heroes.
The fourth speech of the marathon was by Alannah Vickery and was titled “Yes I am”. Alannah’s goal was to entertain and have fun. Her speech started with her stating yes she was short and she was blonde and was reminded of this every day! She was used to being called shorty or midget but big surprises can come in small packages. Alannah gave us some advantages and disadvantages of being blond and short. On a plane advantages are having plenty of leg room, disadvantage having to stand on the seat to put luggage in overhead lockers! Shopping, only problem there was getting shoes to fit. Concerts, advantages lower than security guards so can sneak past without them seeing; disadvantages everyone carrying alcohol high and tipping it on her! Alannah had the whole group laughing with her story about being stuck in a wetsuit. She gave us a few tips on what not to say to blondes; try not to say that they are having a blonde moment and don’t hassle short people! Alannah truly meet her goals for the speech it was both entertaining and very funny.
Our fifth speech was Kevin Cusack with “The Mirror”. Kevin’s goals where to entertain and use pause and voice to make his speech powerful. He had a great start to his speech when he asked “How do you feel about the sight that greets you in the morning?” Most of us rate a perfect 10! He wondered why we are so concerned about our image and that we were brainwashed to believe how you looked was everything. Of concern to Kevin was the fact that men were also getting into the act. He gave a couple of examples of our rugby players having dreadlocks and wearing eyeliner. All our time is devoted to us; $60 haircuts are a must, having to dress the part when going to the gym. Our humiliation is not complete; we are convinced to change our diets to celery stalks, pumpkin seeds and stewed prunes with junket for pudding. Kevin speech was entertaining and funny but also very thoughtful as he made point that we are become so self-absorbed with our own image we are not noticing what is going on around us.
The last speech of the marathon was Royden Gibbs with “Just one more time”. Royden held up a light bulb which he said was a symbol of success. Thomas Edison turned the lightbulb into an everyday object. Edison’s advice was that failing relies on giving up, the road to success is to always try just that one more time. Is this always true? Royden gave us another example, this time he held up a paintbrush representing great artists. What advice would they give? All great artists stop five minutes before they are finished. Great art requires restraint. For Edison stopping was the greatest weakness for Monet stopping was the greatest strength. Who do we believe? It has to be both; maybe to be truly successful is knowing when to keep on trying or knowing when to stop.
All in all it was a fantastic morning of speeches.
After refreshments we were returned to our seats by the bell. Toastmaster 2, Dave Clarkson had the role of introducing the speech evaluators. The Timer was Alan Calder and Manual Evaluator Deb McApline.
Issac Tanner-Dempsey presented the Toastie award to Royden Gibbs for his competition winning speech.
Read More