Three Kings CLub

I believe everyone enjoyed the night in Fickling Centre, with fantastic speeches, excellent evaluations. Meeting was held in a room next to Lynfield Room due to the voting arrangement.

The meeting started with a encouraging welcome from President Magda and chairman Rik. This is the first time for Rik to take the chairman role and he chose the theme to be “ teamwork”,  as the national election is going to the end and a new team will lead the country, but also for the club, we are running as a team and we need every member to be an active member to make the club better. Then Kevin welcomed 5 guests and Rik introduced Jeet, Richard, Priya as grammarian, Ah counter and time keeper respectively. Jeet chose “ Pragmatic” as today’s word and then Stephanie shared her happiness during her volunteering work, gardening, singing, dancing with residents. Such a special smile story.

Ivo took the role of the Toastmaster and introduced the prepared speeches.

The first speaker was Faqir, doing CC manual project 10. The speech title is “Malala Yousafzai: A symbol of courage and determination”. He told us the stories that Malala, from 11 years old , flighted against Taliban Militants, with one pen and one book. He said with a gun , we could only finish terrorists, but with a pen ,we could finish terrorism. In the end, Faqir called on everyone to support Malala for the campaign of free education for poor children with our courage and determination.

Right after Faqir, Linda walked up with backpack and hiking poles, leading us to her world: New Zealand. Linda shared her hiking experience to Tongariro Alpine Crossing , with musical slide and wonderful photos as well as a 3-day tramp in Routeburn Track this year near Queenstown. There was so much beauties in New Zealand and Linda finished her CC 8 speech with a big warm welcome to all of us to New Zealand.

The third speaker was Supriya, doing her Advanced Communication Series- Interpersonal Communication – Project 2. The objectives were to employ win/win negotiating strategies and to enjoy the benefits of win/win negotiating. The speech title was The Car Salesman. Supriya used vivid sentences to describe the job of a car salesman : to make every customer walks in and drives away. As a salesman, Supriya did a good job, best salesman for months, resolve problems, set up data base.  Now , she would like to talk with her boss(Steve, role play) to ask for raising salary. Without any rehearse, Supriya and Steve presented a perfect negotiation between boss and employee, absolutely a win/win negotiating.

The last speaker was Hazel. She did her 6^th project on Public Relations from Advanced Communication Manual. Her speech title was: I Can’t Hear You. What a fantastic opening ! Hazel opened her speech by asking audients say AI if we can hear her voice, immediately get all of us involved. Then Haley shared her frustrating after she was frequently recommended for her low voice .She explained the reason of low voice as hypertension and her actions to solve the problem: asking fellow toastmasters to show her signal once he could not hear her voice during the speech. We all enjoyed her speech.

After the prepared speeches, our guests and members enjoyed the delicious food prepared by Kevin.

After refreshments, Grant , Ted, Brett and Liz evaluated the prepared speeches. Then in the business session, President Magda called on everyone to respond the coming emails to list what we have done to promote Toastmaster and to support Toastmaster community. Also there is Division A Conference to be held in Mt Albert Bridge Club on Saturday 30^th September with free lunch and workshops. She encouraged everyone to take part. Then Treasurer Brett gave a financial report and Kevin talked about the Humour Galore on Saturday 29^th July.

Following the business session, Bles took the role of table topic master and invited some experienced member first and then the guests to make impromptu speeches on questions about teamwork. Audey and Phil evaluated each speakers.

After that, the chairman Rik asked the Grammarian, Ah counter,Time keeper to give their report and Steve gave a finally review of the meeting as the General Evaluator.

In the end, Magda, as the Area Director, closed the meeting and gave her thanks to everyone.

We had a wonderful, fun evening full of captivating stories and intriguing information.  It was a night of new members trying something new, taking the plunge!

 

The meeting started with a warm welcome from President Magda and Liz (Chairman).  The theme was “Trying Something New”, which Liz had aptly chosen as it was our club’s first meeting in Spring 2017.  Kevin introduced our guests.  Liz set an exciting mood for the meeting and introduced Brett (Grammarian), Linda (Ah Counter) and Bles (Time Keeper).  Brett presented the Word of the Night – “atrocious”.  Then Hazel entertained us with a Smile Story about chickens, and in the process made us laugh by imitating a chicken.

 

Jeet took the role of the Toastmaster for the first time.  She warmly welcomed and introduced our six speakers for the prepared speeches, including three new members who presented their Icebreakers.

 

Stephanie presented her second speech titled “Tennis Marathon”, detailing her three hours long tennis match against a strong opponent.  She offered a lively demonstration of some of her tennis moves, and at the end of her speech she affirmed that she will never stop trying.

 

The next speaker was Lakshmi who did her Icebreaker speech.  She told us interesting stories from her childhood – including her experience of picking mangoes and killing a snake.  Lakshmi also explained how she was like “A Fish Out of Water” when she started working and when she first came to New Zealand.

 

Sean also presented his Icebreaker, speaking about his “Three Car Crashes in New Zealand”.  He demonstrated a great sense of humour with his anecdotes, his use of words and the use of his voice.  Sean humorously explained that he was horrified at his first two crashes, but was happy when the third incident occurred because it was not him but somebody else who ripped off his car’s bumper.

 

Priya eloquently presented the next Icebreaker “On a Boxing Day”.  She told a captivating story about how she narrowly escaped the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami by taking a different route when visiting her native land Sri Lanka.  Priya also shared her vivid pictures of the devastation of the disaster.  She concluded her speech by saying that she had no answer as to why she escaped.

 

Celia also did her second speech.  She began by sharing her memories of holidaying with her family near Goat Island Marine Reserve.  Celia shared her knowledge as a Marine Science graduate, explaining the importance of Marine Reserves.  She provided a case of the establishment of Goat Island Marine Reserve that restored the population of snappers, resulting in the reduction of their prey kinas, and consequently restoring the sea flora previously overeaten by kinas.

 

Jim spoke about the drinking (alcohol, not tea) culture in his native China.  He informed us about the differences among drinking with people from your workplace, with people from another company, and with friends and family.  Jim also entertained his audience with his personal stories of increasing his drinking capacity and of drinking with his father-in-law.  Further, he taught us that in some parts of China getting guests drunk means good hospitality.

 

After the prepared speeches, our guest and members enjoyed excellent hospitality and food arranged by Kevin.

 

Our Table Topics Master Kuldeep came prepared with topics regarding trying new things like a new restaurant, a new sport, a new mode of transport to get to work, and cooking something new.  He also asked Zainab to speak about playing a new musical instrument.  She hadn’t played one, so she sang a song.  She told us that it was her last meeting at our club due to new work commitment on Thursday nights.  Zainab expressed her appreciation of how Toastmasters helped her get her new job.  We were sad to see her go, but delighted to hear her success story.  Then Ted and Grant offered a light-hearted Table Topics Evaluation.

 

Next, Magda hosted the Business Session.  Kevin presented to Magda the Triple Pin, which is given to any member who has achieved three of more Awards in a year.  Magda achieved four in a year!  Kevin then spoke about District 72’s proposal to put our club in a new Division H in a mix with clubs South and East of Auckland.  He explained that it would imply Division events being held further away from our club meeting place.

 

In our Grammarian’s Report, Brett remarked the frequency our meeting attendees using the Word of the Night.  It was well used.  Not atrocious at all!

 

Finally, Supriya conducted the General Evaluation for the meeting, and Magda gave her Closing Comments.