Three Kings CLub

Meeting Report

 

Kevin, Richard, Ivo, Ratul and Kasanita came early to set up the room before everyone arrived!

Ivo opened the meeting energetically, it was 2 mins late though!

Kevin gave everyone a warm welcome and introduced all four guests clearly

The chairman has done a good job given it was her first time: She started the meeting enthusiastically! Her big smiled made everyone feel welcome. She even warmed up everyone with a small exercise which made everyone feel comfortable and relaxed!

 

The toastmasters Jeffery has shown his thorough preparation; very clear introduction of each speaker with clear details on the pathway, objective, title, timeframe.

Smooth transition between speakers

 

All evaluator has given speakers a lot of positive feedback, encouragement and also recommendations!

Steve And Chris, in particular, have given very insightful feedbacks with great confidence using CRC methods.

For table topic evaluator

As usual, Liz gave very interesting feedbacks and at time humorous!

Victor gave very insightful feedback with lots of details and he always gave recommendations!

The Grammarian Theresa did a good introduction! She chose an appropriate word for the night.

The Ah counter Yaona and Timer Ratul both have fulfilled their duty wonderfully!

The first meeting of the Three Kings Toastmasters Club year got off to a flying start with the Chairman, Mohamed, arriving fresh off the plane from Australia at 7.01 pm. Mohamed had successfully organised the meeting from Sydney and with admirable assurance went straight in to the programme for the evening. He introduced grammarian, Ratul, who challenged us to use the word “Stentorian”, the Ah Counter, Sherry, who was looking for the Winner for the evening and the Timekeeper , Emily.

The informal theme of flight was continued by Smile Storyteller, Kasanita, who told us a wonderful story about not uttering a word during a helicopter ride. Then later in Table Topics by Jeffrey and Yash (a guest) promoting a time machine and by Ted about a trip to the moon.

Yaona, enjoying herself in the role of Toastmaster for the first time, introduced the three prepared speeches to take the audience on a flight of imagination and inspiration. First was Heather recounting a “Lesson from a Bus Ride” where she skilfully juxtaposed the conversation that was occurring on a seat behind her with her own internal dialogue about whether she should intervene and say something or not. Second was new member, Jess, giving a powerful speech about how to change one’s life. Third was Raymond gently encouraging us to consider disability with different eyes.

Experienced Toastmaster from Mt Albert Toastmasters Club, Sandy Hu, who does not own a computer, treated us to a  20+ minute educational on the intricacies of Pathways. She was skilfully able to demonstrate and to persuade those of us doubters that there is much on offer in the new system.

After plentiful food and drink the meeting resumed with  perceptive and helpful evaluations of the prepared speeches by Sherry, Steve and Jessica.

General business, including presentation of the year’s financial report for the club by Treasurer, Richard, preceded Table Topics. Jeffrey, the Table Topics master, conjured up an auction and asked speakers to “sell” various items including a pen, shampoo, a year’s supply of KFC, a trip to the moon, and canister of southern Alps air and a time machine to the audience. The results were hilarious although not necessarily successful. Table topic evaluators, Chris and Ivo maintained the humorous and positive atmosphere with their comments.

President Kevin concluded the evening by asking for feedback from guests and by praising those who were taking on their particular role for the first time including Mohamed, Yaona, Ratul, Emily, Kasanita, Jessica, and Jeffrey. They had all contributed to an enjoyable evening that flew by.

The meeting sprang into action on time when Ivo called to order and Kevin welcomed guests esp the Area Director Saane Tuakalau.

Chris, the Chairman, introduced each duty holder with a mention  of their favourate things in spring such as the young lamb grazing on grass for Ivo and the beautiful cherry blossoms for Bao.

Jie‘s Smile Story about Chinese former president DENG XiaoPing’s well-rehearsed two line response to a curious US policeman’s questions was hilarious.

Jessica Fitzgerald, first-time Toastmaster, introduced each speaker with warmth, speech details and a brief comment between speakers.

We were engrossed in Liz‘s vivid story telling about a ship mutiny and she engaged us with her vocal variety and imagination. Jeffery spoke with ease about his valuable lessons as a gym member: self-discipline, perseverance and curiosity. Lakshman gave us a PEBBLE as path to presentation mastery: Pause, excited, body language, beauty and listen. Proper practice prevents poor presentation. Yaona talked about mental nutrition using chicken soup as a metaphor and encouraged us to balance our soup with more positive ingredients. Ivo demonstrated us 5 steps to a successful negotiation with a real case: do your research, negotiate towards a win-win outcome, listen, know the best alternative and closure on a high note.

Ratul provided theme related table topics and allowed impromptu speakers to talk about spring to their hearts’ content.  Theresa talked about the University of  Auckland  Open Day as a festival in spring with enthusiasm. Steve, instead of creating a new season, wished to have four seasons distinct so that we don’t have to live with four seasons in a day. Francisco, graciously talked about German spring where she’s originally from.

Speech evaluators gave encouraging feedback to speakers to acknowledge their efforts and to improve in future. Tony, former member, gave quality comments to table topics speakers. Steve Peters, General Evaluator, commended on Kasanita and Healther‘s excellent prepared speech evaluations as well as giving individual feedback to all other duty holders, including the supportive evaluators Ted, Victor, Rchard  and Emily.

The meeting ended in an auspicious tone as the Grammarian Ivo hoped, with a high member attendance rate. On a side note, thanks to Jillian who set up this meeting reporting tool and the whole user-friendly website which I repetitively referred to for member names and role responsibilities during my report writing.  Look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting.