Three Kings CLub

Lashings of hot chocolate welcomes all as Santa Roger opened the meeting wearing an elf apron and Santa hat!! We were all given Santa hats and mine was firmly on my head… Woohoo…

Christmas trees, lights, and reindeers were all present in the room. The food was in abundance and all I can say is Kevin outdid himself!

Roger had a great way of filling roles at the last minute – “whose here, no how about you then.” Ingenious.

Guests on the night were, Keri, Gretel, Rachel and Angus – who I’m convinced really only comes for the food… I reckon Kevin needs to get that membership form sign pronto for Angus.

Word of the night “Introspection” – meaning Contemplation of one’s own thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Well used by numerous members throughout the night.

Sam was the first speaker for the night encouraging us to get out of our comfort zone using humour taking us from the learning zone to the panic zone, explore, dream, discover.

Jillian’s award winning website – We want to stand out. Jillian explained how this has come about and took us through the steps on how to use this effectively. She wants you all to send her photos, share information, get involved; this is OUR site so get in there…

Andrew gave us a great insight into how to make a circuit board using our mobile as an example. He assured us we didn’t need any expertise to understand what happens with the thingy’s. Join the red track to the blue, bake stuff in the oven, voila a circuit board. I’ll never look at my mobile the same again.

Michael wants us all to be hopeful about the future, by asking us what could be the worst thing that could happen in life and told us a story about Naresh who lost his legs and who rose above this to become a successful man working for Google. Plenty of food for thought.

Selina – being alone together, highlighted how the social network and the technology we use has changed how we relate to each other. Sending txt instead of calling. Great humour sleeping with our mobiles and checking Facebook, tweets before we even get out of bed.

Raymond – Ending misery. He explained that his topic was inspired by the latest movie out about disability and wanting to die. Raymond’s topic on Euthanasia was thought provoking, controversial and highlighted how other countries deal with the legalities of this.

Kevin reminded us about the Humour Galore and encouraged us all to come along and be inspired by some outstanding speakers. Get in early $20 for a great night 30th July.

In place of Table Topics Chris had An Evening Debate. Should the Government invest in upgrading motorways or public transport? Grant, Kevin and Janice were pro, while Anji, Supriya and Liz were con. A spirited humorous debate that found us looking for potential terrorists on the buses and trains, motorways at a standstill and can we get free transport! The pro’s won this round, looking forward to another of these at a later date.

A great themed meeting, I certainly enjoyed myself. Don’t forget our Mid Winter Lunch being held at Kitchen Fusion, 2 Stanley Street Parnell 12pm 25th June. Very popular place, get in quick or you will miss out.

See you all there or at our next meeting on 30th June…
Your Scottish Haggis Hunting reporter

(Graphics by www.garcya.us)

On 2 June, for the first time in many years, Three Kings club held a Tall Tales contest. And you’ve never heard tales quite so tall before! Some of our members were revealed to be quite accomplished at twisting the truth and pulling the wool over our eyes.

The rules were simple – each member had 3-5 minutes to weave a tangled tale of deceit and improbability – and the results were hilarious, and often more than a little bit silly. Jillian got the ball rolling with the suggestion that plants may have domesticated humans, rather than the other way around. Hazel showed us that you can never judge a situation without knowing all the facts, and Phil made a convincing case that Hitler lived to a ripe old age in South America.

Anji educated us as to the true nature of haggis, and what bagpipes are REALLY made from, and Ted cooked up a scenario wherein a whole bunch of All Black greats escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. Roger recounted a chance meeting with some rather peculiar woodland creatures, and Ivo persuaded us that he’d lost his mind somewhere in the Bermuda triangle. Grant would have us believe that he was quite a star athlete in his misspent youth, and Raymond had us all intrigued with his speech titled “I kissed a girl, and I didn’t like it.”

We were very fortunate to have some of NZ’s senior Toastmasters as our guests and contest judges. It was an honour to host a Past District Governor and three other very experienced Distinguished Toastmasters in our meeting. Thanks Kingsley, Stephen, Marlene and Helen for your contribution to a successful evening.

The contest winners were:
1st place: Grant
2nd place: Anji
3rd place: Roger

After the contest we were entertained still further by national Evaluation Contest winner Helen, who shared some of her thoughts on what makes a good evaluator, and our newest member Maria G, who delivered her icebreaker speech in style.

What an enjoyable evening, very smoothly organised and run by chairman Teddy and contest chair Debbie. Hopefully the Tall Tales contest will become a regular fixture on the club calendar!

(Photo thanks to Theresa G.)

On 25 May 2016 Three Kings Toastmasters seriously set out to have fun!

So with seven guests, and in excess of 30 people present, fun was on the agenda. In fact anything else was taboo.

We were lead off with some cheesy humour by our club president Chris, “Put it on the bill” indeed!

Clare had us on the couch in readiness for our prepared speakers.

But who told Ted? He was straight into his dramatic talk “When time stood still” about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. With the words of JFK dripping with fear and Kruschev’s rattling of his sabre, and a sense of Ted’s own personal sense of involvement we transported to another time and place. Was it fun? Just as Francis Powers was shot down so was fun as the gripping drama unfolded.

It was left to Maria P to rescue us form drowning, in all seriousness, as she persuaded us with power “Can you swim?” With the drama of drownings in NZ and the use of engaging questions she persuaded us that drowing is no fun.

Then on came Andrew – who broke the ice with smiles all the way from China. Even though, in his own words he may have been “as dumb as a brick”, not the best or brightest. Naughty in fact. He lead us through the journey of growing up, discovering his interests and passions always looking for next big challenge. Welcome Andrew. Great to see you use so many of your talents.

Zainab keenly moved on to her #2 assignment, structure, and spoke with increased confidence boldy taking us men where no man has gone before – the challenges of women in leadership roles. She certainly is following her own advice – not trying to change who she is to fit in to a man’s world. It will be fun to watch her make a difference.

Vikram delivered one of his finest. A motivational informative speech titled “Champ is a Plesiosaur” – which delighted guest and members alike as he described the various theories and his belief that the animal seen in Lake Champlain on the USA – Canada border in Vermont, in 1609, is not Nessie but a Plesiosaur.

Then it was on to a very technical presentation by Mr Roger G on The Speed of Business as he explained the next big thing is “in-memory computing”. He whizzed us through the history, then sliced and diced the data, and sold us on the REAL benefit – “imagination is everything” as per Einstein. With a granular piece of data he disrupted the status quo. Wow! Who would have guessed computing could be such fun??

(This is the first of our new format meeting reports! Each meeting a different club member will be rostered to write a short recap of the meeting for those who couldn’t make it.)