Deck the halls with boughs of holly,’tis the season to be jolly indeed…and the last meeting of 2017.
The room was decorated in festive spirit, Santa’s hats and reindeer horns adorned many a head, and a table of seasonal fayre set for the social interlude. It all looked rather pretty.
The meeting was opened promptly by Sergeant at Arms Richard, moved swiftly through the President’s (Magda) greeting, to Liz our Chair for the evening. Chocolate fish were the reward for all those members who responded speedily to Liz’s request for role holders, many of whom were members new to the club and taking on roles for the first time…way to go folks!
Kevin introduced our guests for the evening. Role holders were then invited to described their respective roles to our guests. Jim, who as Grammarian, gave us the rather delicious word of the evening in scrumptious. Victor, Ah Counter, was to monitor our filler words and faltering sounds, and Raj would keep everyone to time. All role holders explained that they would give a report of their observations at the end of the evening.
In preparation for the prepared speeches Kuldeep gave us a wonderful Smile Story in which the dog got the cookie, the audience’s smile turned to laughter, and our gift to take away…never make assumptions.
Liz introduced the Toastmaster for the evening, the lovely Celia. When introducing each of the speakers Celia asked for their favourite seasonal song or film (…movie…for the younger members…)
Do you listen for the gems, pearls of wisdom to be found in each speech? They each have one. Some are immediately apparent while others are a little more subtle…but they are there nonetheless. So what were the gifts offered by the speakers today?
Steve (Pathways Icebreaker) in Strengths gave us insight in to his passion for high quality evaluation, having recognised it as one of his strengths. He encouraged the audience to move away from the more commonly held focus on personal weaknesses and learn to recognise, focus on, and develop their own strengths.
Rik (Adv. Storytelling) introduced us to the tale Fionn MacCumhall. An Irish folktale of a young man’s hero’s journey in which he grows in knowledge and wisdom, develops the heart of a poet and the ability to lead of one of Ireland’s greatest band of warriors.
Linda (CC9) spoke of Memories and showed us a small plaque,an aide-mémoire, from which she could draw a rich store personal stories. Her gift to us was “never let your memories be greater than 
your dreams.”
Supriya (Adv) took us into a role-play in which she navigated the challenges of criticism in the workplace in ‘It’s all about me?’ Calm demeanour, the ability to listen and to respond with a recommended plan of action spoke clearly to me!
Julia (CC4), a visiting Toastmaster from Florida, spoke about the merits of quitting in ‘Cool and Confident’. Her extensive personal experiences of endings had led her to the see the value of letting go and embracing change, encouraging all to look at quitting a little differently.
The final speaker for the evening was Martin (Adv1) who demonstrated true comedic style in ‘All Families Are Dysfunctional.’ We were royally entertained with words and images (physical and imaginary) of brothers who shared rather curious behaviour in and around underwear!
After sharing food and conversation the evening resumed with prepared speech evaluations presented by Raymond, Chris, Ted, Hazel, Kevin and Richard. Recommendations and commendations were offered with a few helpful demonstrations along the way. Peer support at its best…
In the Business Section Magda (President) and Kevin (VP Membership) presented awards to Jim, Spirit of Success certificate for completing 5 speeches, and to Faqir the Competent Communicator certificate for completing 10 speeches of the CC Manual. Well done gentlemen.
Kevin again reminded members of the benefits of booking early for the Waipuna Convention to be held in May 2018.
Formal speeches over, business completed… it was time for the fun part of the evening…Table Topics hosted by Michael. Questions were seasonally focused and both members and guests were invited to share their thoughts. Those rising to the Table Topics challenge were Christian, Ivy, Ivy (yes, two young ladies, one guest and one Toastmaster), Annie, Erick, Heather and Lucy. Grant and Faqir stepped up to offer helpful suggestions in their roles as evaluators.
The evening began to draw to a close with the role holder’s reports followed by the General Evaluator’s report, presented by Lakshman, who gave enthusiastic commentary on the evening. The festivities were drawn to a close by the Club President who wished everyone the best of the season. A fitting end to both the meeting and to 2017.
We reassemble @ 7pm on Thursday January 18th 2018…see you there!
