Boom! there we go again with another level 4 lockdown…and although we were not looking forward to another Zoom screen meeting but as we always do in the face of chaos Three Kings Toastmasters forged its way ahead and accomplished another amazing Zoom meeting on Thursday, 26 August 2021.
Kevin Prohl was the chair extraordinaire setting the fun tone for the night by wearing his signature hat. One only a Godfather would wear lol!…a few other hat enthusiasts turned up early to chit chat…We had a bit of humorous confusion of indentities as we had to Kevins and two Saanes show up on Zoom (not sure how that happened).
To be honest Richard Watling did look like me a bit with his very long black hair – which Kevin Prohl was a little envious of.
Les in his usual manner started the night on time, Kevin gave inspiring thoughts and quotes throughout and Daniel kept us all timed, while Yetzabel watched our grammar and use of the word of the night “Amused”.
The Zoom room was filled with 16 hatted happy mad members, who braved the flat screen view to make merry and tell marvelous stories. We had two esteemed Toastmaster guests among us and a newly inducted member, Ram Raj Oli who gave his first ice breaker from the Mastering Presentation Pathway. It was great to hear about Ram’s life and how far he has come. Now we look forward to more speeches Ram, keep it up.
The two guests were Kevin Warwood (past Division Director) and Nathan Piahana (Area director O2). Kevin was a guest speaker and he presented a speech titled, “The beginning is the end” in which he spoke about how he began his journey in Toastmasters, and why he would like to continue after a few years break from being a member. He encouraged everyone to just say “yes” to everything even if we didn’t know what or how as this is how leaders learn to excel in Toastmasters – I could see all the knowing grins and head nods, as everyone understood this well. Also Nathan, gave us a brief introduction of his role as Area Director. Nathan has kindly offered to be our Zoom master for our upcoming contest.
We also got to hear Jacquie and Walaa present wonderfully prepared speeches. I believe that both have a great future in public speaking.
All the evaluators, Les, Karolina, Heather, Richard and Lisa had no recommendations from the GE and each gave very positive feedback that speakers including everyone else got to learn from.
Although, we did not have the luxury to partake in our normal buffet of colorful food, it was a small cost in comparison to the extra time we all got to participate in Table topics which our marvelous colorfully – hatted Ade mastered with a variety of great questions. The answers were equally different in how each question was approached by the members, ranging from Chris Wearing receiving a call from a dead Elvis during his response, to another member visualising Sir Winston Peters in a cowboy hat. At the end we were all laughing and that’s what mattered the most.
I have to personally say that Lisa Xue probably had the most dangerous hat of the night 🙂
There were many role holders absent so some of our newer members, Lisa, Yetzabel and Daniel had to take on roles that they had never done before and/or an extra new role as well. Well done to you all!
We all enjoyed our Zoom meeting last night and look forward to our next one in a fortnight, when we hold our Humorous and Table topics contests.
We hope to see you all on Thursday, 9 September 2021, whether it be in Zoom or face to face, to support our contestants.
By Ilaisaane Tuakalau (VPE)
