A big congratulations to two of our club members who took first place honours at the Area M3 contests last Saturday.
Table Topic Contest: First place – Lakshman Sockalingham
Humorous Speech: First Place – Andre Marquis
A big round of applause to you both and well done. Both members will now represent our club and the Area M3 at the Division contests on November the 20th.
The biggest Table Topic event of the year took place on Thursday evening the 10th September at Three Kings Toastmasters club with 7 members competing to become the Club Champion for speaking of the cuff.
Liz D had contacted helpers, Chairmen, Judges, Tally Counters, Timers and Sgts at Arms, and Contestants and they were ready and in deed they were for what became a Mastery Event of the night.
Helpers were shuffled into designated online breakout rooms for the relevant briefings.
Then everyone came together for the opening of the meeting with a minute of silence and a powerpoint slide show in memory of our dear friend Raymond Mok who passed away two weeks ago in hospital.
A wonderful tribute to a wonderful man.
Then Contest Chairman Kevin P gave the background for information for the contest and the speaking slots.
Speakers were then ushered to a break out room so that they could not hear those speaking before them as they would be speaking on the same topic.
The topic being: “We must change Guy Fawks to Matariki Celebrations”
First up to speak was Andre M who opened with Ï don’t know anything about Matariki”and then gave a good account of himself telling us about his growing up playing with crackers celebrating Guy Fawks attempt to blow up the British Parliament.
Next came Ratul B who opened with “let’s not have another holiday” following on with the value of Matariki and its relevance to New Zealand. He ended affirming his support for a Matariki holiday.
Next we had Raymond K who told us he would give us his conclusion first and he did. He felt it made perfect sense to have a holiday representing Matariki as it was a very important event in the Maori/New Zealand calendar and his argument was very good.
Next came Sarah W who started telling us that Guy Fawks fireworks upset dogs, cats, horses and her enjoyment of TV and that it was not relevant in our country as it was a celebration imported from abroad. She supported a holiday for Matariki however.
Next we had Bhoopali D who said “If I want to change something I would hold meetings, arrange programmes, and reach out to other interested people”. She cut her speech a bit short as ideas ran out.
Next there was Lakshman S who Opened with ”Matariki is our celebration and we must embrace it, it bring us together and one. People from all around the world have made this place their home and we must embrace each other and Matariki celebrates that.
Between each speaker there was 1 minute of silence as the judges marked their score cards and after the last speaker they tabulated their scores. Tally counters then collected the judges forms and a winner was announced.
1st place: Lakshman S 2nd place: Sarah W 3rd place: Ratul B
The winner will represent our club at the Area M3 contest on October the 3rd.
Congratulations to all the participants and especially to the winner.
This contest this evening was followed by a round robin continuous talk about Dracula where all speakers online would speak following on from the last speaker and this was a lot of fun.
The Business session was conducted with Richard W informing us about the upcoming Tall Tales Event to be held in November and also some training for the upcoming Humour contest..
Liz D mentioned out next meeting being the Humorous Speech contest and asked for members to put up their hands to help out.
Saane T asked members to help judge other clubs contests and thanked all those who made the effort this evening.
Our Area M3 Director Anji A commented about the number of competitors that we had this evening and said she was really impressed. Then she reminded us of the second round of the upcoming club officer training to be held online inviting all officers and others to attend.
Kevin P mentioned a Special Event to be held in May next year and invited members to register for it as spaces will be limited. Also he reminded us about our 35 year luncheon or dinner coming up.
The night was a brilliant success and even though we were not in our club rooms the online Zoom meeting went really well. See you all again on the 24th of this month.
Meeting report for 13th August 2020
Meeting theme was: Safety First.
Sometimes we attend a business or community meeting and wonder why we bothered as it may have turned out boring, one sided nonsense, but at Toastmasters I have never experienced this phenomenom. I am usually informed persuaded or inspired and always entertained as was the case this week at Three Kings club.
Ivo D’– the Chairman pulled together a wonder meeting with exciting talented speakers and duty holders while Emily T – as Toastmaster introduced those same speakers with enthusiasm and encouragement. Before we get to those speeches however let me say a few words about some duty holders.
This meeting was held via a Zoom link as we had once again gone into level 3 lockdown due to Corona 19 Virus.
Saane T – presented the night before an educational session on Zoom meetings to those who needed a refresher and for those who had never experienced such a meeting before and this was so invaluable to the success of our online meeting.
Members and guest were well prepared as 7pm came around some 24 people were now online for the meeting, one was a member in Australia and it was so good to see Franziska G – again as she is visiting family over there.
Apologies were read, seconded and approved.
Duty holders explained their roles with assurance and knowledge even those doing roles for the first time.
The word of the night was CAUTION and Les J – explained the origins, the meaning and how to use it in a sentence.
Um/Ah counter Ratul B – told us that he would be looking out for the use of such words and other filler words that detract from our speeches.
Timer John D – explained the use of the timing lights and kept the meeting to time even when some went past their allotted time.
Chris W – gave us two humorous smile stories to make us laugh and smile setting the scene for the evening.
Emily T– then introduced the prepared speaking segment.
Sarah W – who is doing the Pathways Innovative Planning, level 3 project 3 (third elective) Know your sense of humour. objectives: to develop a collection of humorous stories to present a speech that includes humour. The title of her speech “Children should not have holidays”. Sarah did entertain us with three short stories about the frustrations of minding children and not wanting to be the Taxi driver running them around everywhere when they wanted to friends places or the mall etc, nor to be the Fairy Godmother for cheeky children ,and to not be a toilet assistant when the little ones wanted to stop all the time for toilet breaks. She entertained us with hilarious situations that many of us could relate to and her use of gestures and vocal variety added to our pleasure.
I was nodding and smiling often through this wonderful speech.
Lakshman S – Has chosen the Pathway Motivational Strategies Level 3: Increasing knowledge, Understanding Emotional Intelligence. The purpose of this project is to cultivate an understanding of how his emotions impact his relationships, It is also designed to help him identify how other’s emotions impact his emotional state. His speech title was “I am getting there”.
He set the scene by telling us a personal insight into what he has been experiencing lately with anger frustration and a lack of understanding why others may say things about him.
This was a powerful and informative speech which I felt was by far his best performance I have seen him deliver. His message is don’t’ take things personally. We won’t always know what is happening in the lives of those who say things that may hurt us. Ask for help when you need it and never be afraid to show your weaknesses.
He told us about being in meetings and not being heard or understood and how this upset him or when he spoke to friends or family and was misunderstood and how he sometimes got angry about it. He kept a diary of all those times his frustrations turned to anger and there were a lot. Separate sanity from insanity, be self-aware. A lesson here is when someone says something that upsets us or offends us it is not them at fault, but it is our reactions to what is said.
We must foster our own deep listening abilities and be aware of others. We need to understand the difference to reaction and responding plus we must accept that we might not always be right. Lakshman spoke in a calm manner using vocal variation to connect with us through our hearts and minds in this very though provoking topic.
I was mesmerised by the change in Lakshman from his usual speeches.
Bhoopali D – One of our newest members was giving her Icebreaker speech after joining us at our last meeting.
The title of her speech was “Fresh of the Boat” and she is doing the Presentation Mastery pathway and the objectives of this first speech was to speak before and audience and to tell us something about herself.
Bhoopali told us her speech title is a synonym for outlander of immigrant. She is from overseas and she and her partner decided to come to NZ and upon arriving at Auckland airport was astounded by the cleanliness of the air and how fresh it is. She was struck by the colours of green grasses bushes and trees. Her speech was also about how she often felt inadequate when she was not understood due to her accent. She wanted to learn as much as possible and to speak better so to be understood. She did show nerves but it was so refreshing to hear her story and we know that Toastmasters will help her to improve her confidence and speaking ability which is why she joined Three Kings club.
I was impressed with this icebreaker.
Jacquie L- Our second Icebreaker speech, Jacquie has chosen the Motivational Pathway and the objectives for this speech are the same as Bhoopali. Jacquie was inspired to join Toastmasters after a friend had done so and has become a speaker on the USA speaking circuit.
Jacquie felt that most people like a love story and as she revealed hers. We did enjoy it very much.
Our eyes met across, a crowded dance floor falling in love at a young age to them man of her dreams, the relationship lasted until she was around 35 years old. Single and feeling that she would never marry again like her mother and grandmother she wandered along believing she did not need a man in her life until she joined a dating site. The first meet up wasn’t so successful, she liked the chap, but he never called her back, was she supposed to call him.
A second time she met a nice chap named Craig and they clicked but again no follow up until they met once more.
He told her he was interested in her when she asked why he did not call her last time and he explained that they Meet group would not pass her number onto him. He started going to all their functions hoping to meet her again and finally he did. This was a true love story and Craig was with her this evening as guest.
This was a delightful story that had all of us smiling throughout and I felt that Jacquie gave a masterful performance for her first speech. It was very entertaining, and we smiled a lot.
Heather R – is doing the Presentation Master Pathway and her level 3 speech was to use vocal variety to enhance her speech. Heather started by telling us that this is not the speech she had initially prepared for us and shared a little of that one, then went on to say it is not the second speech she prepared for us either as situations changed over the last few days due to Covid 19 and the lockdown. She instead told us about sharing a large house with lots of other people and that she suddenly noticed that Mark had not been seen for a few days. Upon asking the landlady she was told that Mark had passed away. He was just 61 and was always the smiling happy chap and a professional chef who made fantastic meals loved by all. Her use of vocal variety showed her concern for Mark and we empathised with her. We felt her loss and when she told us to appreciate others and to be kind to our-selves we understood. Well done Heather on this timely speech.
The following evaluators gave helpful thoughtful and constructive feedback to the speakers which will assist them with their next speeches.
Jeffrey L – evaluated Sarah W, reminding her to look at her speech structure and pace while commenting on the interesting stories.
Raymond K – evaluated Lakshman S and asked for a clearer structure and to explain the acronyms he used as not everyone might understand them, while also commenting on how well Lakshman created interested in revealing himself and his journey.
Saane T – evaluated Bhoopali and said that it would help to use more pauses throughout the speech and commended her on her first speech which was very-interesting and one she related to as well.
Richard W – evaluated Jacquie opened with “it is a privilege to evaluate this speech” for Jacquie which I felt would have her smiling. He liked the emotions and humour in this icebreaker speech recommending that he felt it was a little brief.
Saphiya Z – evaluated Heather R speech saying that Heather gave us a warming speech about Mark and that she could use pause a little more and to let your voice assume emotion from the beginning of a line where your express that emotion in it so as to draw the audience to feel it as well.
The business session saw Andre M being inducted and he has chosen Richard W to be his Mentor. Liz D explained the two meetings where we will hold our Table topic contest on the 10th September and then the Humorous speech contest on the 24th September with the Area contests being held on the 3rd October in our meeting room.
We ask that those who wish to compete in the contests let her know ASAP and all other members will be allotted duty roles for the contests.
Richard W – mentioned more about the Smile story segment in our meeting becoming Humorous tales instead.
Kevin P – congratulated Saane T + Ivo D and Raymond K for volunteering and speaking at Avery Rest home entertaining the staff and guests mentioning that they would like more Toastmasters to pop along and do something similar again.
He also congratulated Rizwangul N for receiving the Fulbright Scholarship and for speaking on TVs Sunday programme.
The Table Topic session was introduced as an opportunity to tell larger than life exaggerated tall tales in situations presented to the unsuspecting audience.
Liz D – had us laughing straight away telling us about her extraordinary attempt on Everest where she had Ghurkas instead or Sherpas climbing with her on a journey that was exhausting and satisfying.
Franziska G – had us smiling and l giggling as she relayed her experience as to what it was like being caught up in a bank holdup. Fun stuff.
Riz N – was a little confused as to why she was picked for the topic why was she in a Police patrol car. As she struggled and strangled this topic we all could see ourselves in the same situation. Lost for what to say.
Craig H – our guest told us about an actual event that did happen when given the topic about how did you run over a cow. This was not only funny it was quite dramatic.
Andre M – our newest inductee and member had us smiling and laughing as he shared his topic: who was it that jumped out of a plane with you. Tom cruise was his jumping partner in his wonderfully funny imaginary talk.
Raymond K – was given Where did things go wrong in your car race and said it was at the start line in the Drag race and immediately had us guffawing and smiling with his tale of woe.
Tony T – another new member was stunned to be given, When did it hit you that you won Lotto. Yet he quickly had us laughing when he said it was this Saturday coming when he wins the $50m million draw and then quickly stopped. We wanted more.
John D – was given. Standing on stage singing must have been fun tell us why and he quickly got into stride by going off topic somewhat.
The Evaluators Chris W and Jie D – both gave succinct and helpful evaluations.
The duty holders then gave their reports and the meeting came to an end after the General evaluators report and the club President Saane reminded us all to be kind and safe.
Twenty six people enjoyed a fun and inspiring night together via the Zoom link. Well done everyone.
I am busting to be at our next meeting on the 27th of this month and ivite many guests and members to join us.
30th July 2020 Meeting report:
Learnings from Covid 19 was the theme for Three Kings club meeting on the 16th July and the colourful agenda invited members and guests to sit back and enjoy an evening of interest and fun.
Members and guests were warmly welcomed to the club by Chris W – Saane T & Kevin P.
Liz D: prepared a fabulous array of speakers and duty holders whilst Chris C: and Jeffrey L: pulled it all together, keeping in touch with presenters and getting helpful information from them as to what they are speaking on and a little background about them.
The smile story was delivered by our newest member Bhoopali D: who had us guessing what was coming next and we smiled and laughed as she spilled her story about two men on a hill and betting each other to answer questions from the other. We were held captive as the story unwound. Her first time speaking to the club and it was special.
Jeffrey L: introduced each prepared speaker with interesting facts about them and told us what they speech objectives were. He was so professional and demonstrated to us how it can be done.
Speakers:
Jie D: Enthralled us with her speech titled: making masks. Her slide show was brilliant demonstrating how we can make our own protective masks to combat Covid 19. She was matter of fact and informative while the slides supported the presentation. We laughed with amazement at some of the styles and materials used. Her informative speech was timely for all of us.
Riz NM: with her speech motivational strategies titled Challenges not Difficulties” enlightened us with an informative presentation about how we need to look at challenges not difficulties but as obstacles that we can overcome.
We need to recognise the challenge (obstacle) look ahead to what the outcome is that we want and to create a path towards that outcome. A good lesson for all of us surely.
Ivo D’S: told us about “Understanding his Leadership style” You can see he put a lot of effort into this speech with lots of slides and information. He covered his time in various management roles and volunteering roles.
Raymond M: Inspired us once again with his story about contemplating suicide and finding that his true friends were there to help him past that. His speech was to have us think long and hard about the upcoming referendum on assisted suicide. He did not tell us what way to vote but to consider how we do. Get informed information check it out for ourselves and then make a decision that are happy to live with.
Break Time: Everyone mixed and mingled around the complimentary buffet of absolutely delicious food, Yummy yummy yummy in a big mans’, world wooo hooo. It all went fantastic. This 20-minute break saw members and guests sharing stories and getting to know each other better.
Anji A: Entertained us with a masterful humorous tale titled “Scottish Mothers” We were laughing lots through this speech as we could not only see what Anji was telling us because she used very good exaggerated gestures and vocal variety to engage us and have us right there in each scene as it unfolded.
The Evaluators then stepped up to give their observations about how the speakers had presented their speeches and if they met the objectives of their assignments.
Lakshman S: Gave a warm enthusiastic evaluation of the speech by Jie: which had her smiling broadly. He has a way with words that encapsulates the audience and we all grinned widely.
Ratul B: In evaluating Riz NM repeated some of the wonderful words used by Riz and gave helpful and constructive feedback that we could all appreciate. A very good evaluation.
Kevin P: In his evaluation of Ivo D’S covered the amount or preparation done plus the number of slides and shred with us all that we need to limit the amount of words on our slides and used a bigger font when we do.
He also said that a picture speaks a thousand words therefore it is far better to use pictures as the audience then understands the information better and quicker. He liked the eye contact Ivo used but did also mention that this could have been better as Ivo did read from the slide show looking away from the audience. A good lesson for all of us.
Richard W: Delivered a textbook evaluation to Raymond M encouraging him to come to speak more often.
He was very empathetic and understanding of how Raymond’s journey must be. Well done Richard.
Rin NM: Took on a second role for the night delivering her very first evaluation of another speaker and in sharing her observations about Anji’s Speech she felt that she was right there beside Anji in many of the scenes and felt it was a wonderful professionally delivered speech And very very funny.
Saane T: Presented the Table Topics leading with Chris C and many guests stood and delivered humorous responses to the topics they were given. Speaking off the cuff can be very daunting or it can be entertaining. It certainly was Entertaining.
The Topic evaluations again were textbook and helpful by Heather R and Sarah with encouraging and helpful hints.
The Business session run by our president Saane saw 3 new members inducted into the club and they were all allocated Mentors. Welcome to the club Bhoopani D – Jacquie L and Tony T. We look forward to hearing their first speeches to the club soon. Kevin P had completed tonight 25 years with the club and he never missed a meeting and Saane shared more about him to us. He got a standing ovation.
The duty holders gave their succinct sometimes humorous reports and we could see that they had listened well and prepared well.
Liz D as Grammarian: had given us “Dire” as the word of the night and it was used often in the first half of the meeting, she noted but it tended to drift way later. She also commented on who used it and other interesting words or phrases that caught her attention.
John D: As the um Ah counter had us smiling and laughing as he read his report saying that he found very few um or ahs or other fillers words and that for his role was a bit dire indeed.
Timer Keeper Les J: Delivered a witty quick short timers report that had us all smiling some more. Les is not short it was his report that was short.
Ted L: The longest serving member in our club was the General Evaluator giving his observations about the duty holders and he kept this brief, witty and pleasantly helpful. His years in Toastmasters shone through tonight.
A fun night came to an end with Kevin P inviting the guests to share a few words about their being in our company and all spoke glowingly about their experience with three saying that they will become members.
The meeting came to an end and many of us stayed to chat after all was cleared away.
See you again on the 13th August. Keep well and stay safe.
Kevin Prohl DTM
30th January 2020 – Chinese New Year – Year of the Rat
Kevin Prohl – The President and Chairman for the evening opened the meeting welcomed the guests. He especially recognized the Club Growth Director – Stephen Budai, and Past Division Directors Marlene Krone and Christine Alcott. Kevin also recognized first time guests, and participants of a Speech Craft the club is running and participants at his Speech Works Course. Kevin also recognized two past members Gavin Logan who left the club about 20years ago and Supriya.
The theme of the meeting was “Celebrating the Chinese New Year.” The meeting room was decorated well to reflect the theme of the meeting. There was a small band of willing helpers including one or two guests to assist Kevin.
The Grammarian – Jeffrey Liang gave a challenging word of the night “Serendipitous.” He was going to allow variants serendipity and serendipitously. Did not quite catch the meaning of serenditious from the Grammarian but according to Vocabulary.Com the meaning is “ Serendipitous is an adjective that describes accidentally being in the right place at the right time, like bumping into a good friend in some unusual location, or finding a hundred dollar bill on the ground.”
How one could use the word of the night in a sentence – We are really excited about this totally unexpected and serendipitous discovery.
Um-Ah Counter – Les Johns and Time Keeper- Heather Robertson explained their roles and what they were looking out for.
The meeting moved quickly on to a Smile Story – delivered by Jessica Fitzgerald – tips on being a Flight Attendant on how remember a customer’s name in business class.
Tips were:
1. Repeat a person’s name at three times
2. Remember some characteristic about the person
3. If all fails remember that they have a big suitcase of money under their seat for you.
However, these tips can backfire when one day a sexy Irish Flight Attendant called a couple Mr and Mrs Small instead Mr and Mrs Little.
However, this tip was a handy tip for all of us to assist us to remember fellow Toastmasters names.
Liz Day – did a proficient job as Toastmaster welcoming up the five speakers and five speech evaluators and handled the changes.
The first speaker up was Saane Tuakalau working on Pathways Leadership Development Level 2 – Introduction to Mentoring. Her title of speech was “Work in Progress.” She mentioned we are all protégé at one time or other. We all need to be mentored by someone with more experienced.
If you have a choice in your mentor – ensure that they have the skills that you want and they walk the talk. To be a great mentor one needs to be a great protégé. Another tip Saane gave is enjoy learning from your mistakes: Always laugh and enjoy and move on.
Never graduate from learning – everyone is always learning. Probably why there are still people still in Toastmasters 20+ years (My opinion).
Second Speaker up was Ramesh Sethuraman delivering his Ice Breaker titled “The Coffee Club.” He described his life as if we were having a coffee. It was very entertaining that I forgot to take notes.
Ratul Bhattarcharjee – was Speaking from Team Collaboration Level 3 the Compulsory Project for this level. He told us the importance of:
1. Law of Significance (Need a purpose and share the purpose)
2. Law of Catalyst (How it would operate)
3. Law of Accountability
Communication – is highly important to build trust and share a goal. To get the buy in.
Raymond Mok was the fourth speaker up. Working on Innovative Planning level Two also delivered a speech on Introduction to Mentoring – titled “A New Beginning.”
Raymond spoke highly of his mentor Reena (Sp) who assisted him over a two year a period 2014 – 2015 for him to achieve his goal to live more independently and go flatting.
He described Reena was very:
· Experienced and knowledgeable,
· Positive and Supportive
· Respectful and Empathetic
· Committed and Trustworthy
Who assisted Raymond in achieving his three goals:
1. More Independence
2. Go Flatting
3. Manage his own Support workers.
The final speaker was Richard Watting working on his path “Effective Coaching” – Level 4 – the Compulsory Project. Told us something what was coaching about and how he serendipitously found someone to coach he called Felicity.
He asked Felicity what she felt she was competent at – and that he benefitted just as much as she did.
Next up were the five evaluators. Steve Peeters an accomplished evaluator evaluated Saane. He felt Saane came across confident in her delivery and had a whole lot of energy. He felt the only thing that was missing was a personal story. He thought the speech was well structured and informative.
Next up was a guest Marlene Krone who gave an effective and encouraging evaluation. She found it a great opportunity evaluating an Icebeaker and stated that Ramesh Sethuraman met his objectives. She also liked how he injected humour throughout his speech. She gave 4 recommendations:
1. Throw away the notes – personal story don’t need notes
2. Stood too far to the audience’s right – stand nearer to the middle so able to connect with the audience.
3. Use more pause – especially when the audience is laughing at a joke
4. Get a mentor if he does not have one.
However, Marlene praised Ramesh for having the courage to take up the challenge in speaking in front of a large audience
Supriya a guest evaluated Rahul. She gave a succinct evaluation for Rahul of his speech. She felt Rakul spoke confidently and from the head. However, she would like to have heard a summary to recap what e were told. She found Rahul’s speech was very inciteful and the take away message was the importance in building trust in the team.
Jessica evaluating Raymond loved the personal story from Raymond – and the story talked from his heart. Raymond came across confident and the speech flowered. Her only recommendation was that she would love to hear a Sequel What happened to Reena? Came across warm and encouraging.
Gavin Logan evaluating Richard. Said that the speaker had a logical structure. He had three recommendations:
1. Would love to have seen more gestures
2. Hear more vocal variety – gave examples where Richard was good and where he could have improved
3. Challenged him to inject more humour.
Overall said he learnt from the speaker.
Table Topics sessions was short and sweet to time constraints. There were 5 topics giving guests opportunity to speak. These were evaluated by Laksman and Kevin.
Reports followed by the Grammarian who claimed that the word “Serendipity” was used throughout the speech and there were wonderful word pictures. Jeffrey especially like the word pictures used throughout Ramesh’s speech.
Les Johns – gave a thorough report on the ums and ahs and there were a couple of “you – knows” thrown in the mix.
Heather Robertson gave another thorough report giving all the timings of our speakers etc.
Steve Budai – claimed it was a “top class” meeting. Reminded the timer could clap off speakers and evaluators who go over time. As timing was running out he reminded the evaluators it was a moment of sharing and a moment of learning – and reminded one to evaluate in the third person as everyone is learning from the evaluation.
Steve ended his evaluation with “Everyone can do it!” “Even a Newbie Can Do it!”
Over all the meeting was actioned packed, well catered for in the refreshment break. Everyone was warmly welcomed and majority of the guests received a name tag. After the refreshment break all guests and members received a Red Envelope in relation to the theme Chinese New Year – The Year of the Metal Rat 2020. All those with the number 8, 18 and 28 etc received a lucky prize.
Well done Kevin Prohl and the Three Kings Executive for putting together an actioned packed meeting.
A chilly cold night and a fun meeting with laughing and sharing…
The meeting started on time, Chairman Chris introduced our Grammarian Heather to the stage, who set the word of the day “refresh”; Ah counter Katharina and Time Keeper Jacky both explained their roles and duties respectively. Two important roles let all speakers can realize the filler words they used in their speeches and also kept the meeting on time then everyone can go home and have a good night…
Pravinesh gave his smile story, letting every audience know that if someone wants to go to the heaven, he/she should die first(can’t deny that, haha). Really a good one to light up the whole meeting’s atmosphere.
Followed by smile, Gretel, meeting toastmaster, introduced our prepared speech speakers, Linda, Faqir, Ivo and Grant, who presented their fantastic speeches. Linda shared her experience about a topic related to Nurture or Nature; Faqir told us his mentoring journey in Toastmaster; Ivo demonstrated his management skills and mindset; and Grant entertained us with his humour, laugh-triggering speech!!
After the short break and great food, the evaluators, Bles, Steve, Lakshman and Martin gave their evaluation speeches and offered positive feedbacks and some challenges to the speakers, which is so important that speakers can improve and apply the feedback in next speech.
Then the most exciting part of the meeting, Table Topics! Table topic masters Clement randomly chose some members and guests to give a one-to-two minute impromptu speeches on the topic related to the theme, winter. After that, Ted and Anji evaluated the table topics and also gave recommendations to speakers.
Later, Heather, Katharina and Jacky got back to the stage again to give their reports. Hazel, the general evaluator tonight, commented on the whole meeting, both the good and need-to-improve parts.
Finally, Kevin invited the guests to share their experience with us tonight and closed the meeting. Winter is coming and the spring is not far away~
By Victor Li
“HONEY BEE” Yellow and black dresscode
Meeting Report by Gretel Sequeira – Honey Bees Thursday 16th November
BUUUUZZZzzzzzzzzzz there was a hive of activity before the meeting started with the room being decked out in yellow and black, busy bees were buzzing around working together creating delicious honey for us to taste. The food table looked amazing with treasured delights spread out for all to consume.
The theme for this meeting was Honey Bees and people were encouraged to dress in yellow and black which some people did. Others were wearing bee ties or clips to add to the atmosphere, Lots of tiny bumble bees were buzzing around as members roamed around meeting and greeting guests, some returning for second visits and we had a past member Sam Lapere visiting us once again as he is to leave New Zealand for Sweden and a new adventure awaits him.
Following Magda, the Presidents welcome and Audrey giving the Chairman’s greeting, Kevin entertained us with the smile story, regaling some colourful characters he met when he was in the United States which did indeed get us smiling.
Martin introduced us to the Word of the night which was absquatulate – to leave abruptly.
After the meeting some did just that while others stayed, helped and chatted with old and new found friends.
Back to the start.
Richard, the Toastmaster, then donned his bee keeping glove his face cover and Bee
Keepers hat and told us how he used to be a beekeeper and how we need to be nice to bees. He said that there were 28 species of native bees and that they didn’t all make honey.
He then introduced Devi Subramaniam – Jackson who did a 30-min educational presentation on Pathways, complete with background music from the Orchestra next door and challenges with the computer and video technology.
We saw that Pathways is a new concept to be embraced and we are looking forward to doing that at our very next meeting on the 30th November.
This was followed by the afore mentioned delicious food prepared by Kevin including Christmas pudding and mince pies to get us into the festive mood.
Richard then introduced our 3 speakers for the night.
The first was Priya who gave us a bit of a history of cash, credit and bitcoins. People used to barter commodities and coins and notes were introduced as it was so much easier to use them than dividing up a cow for something such as bananas.
Priya was followed by Jim who gave us an entertaining speech on blind dating in China as a way of finding a potential spouse which is popular in China. At one stage he felt as if her was the last guy of all his friends to get married but was too busy working to have time to find a wife. He demonstrated how he prefers to meet people by going up and sharing Liz’s hand and asking her a question.
Chris’s speech was entitled crossroads and he talked about wanting to find another job and having to evaluate what he wanted to do next. He talked about what was important, what was negotiable and what wasn’t for another position.
Great textbook evaluations by Brett, Magda and Anji. Magda used the new pathways format for her evaluation instead of the CRC method.
Table topics were introduced by Phil Jackson and covered a wide variety of areas taking on more of a quiz format showing us a new way of doing things. The evaluators Steve and Supriya did a great job with some good suggestions. Then for the grammarians, ah counters and time keeper’s reports followed by Faqir as the general evaluator.
A new member was inducted, Saranraj was confirmed as a member and Lisa Morris received the Leadership Excellence Certificate to a standing ovation.
Our wonderful guests were invited to share their experience of their evening with us and the meeting was adjourned with closing comments from Magda van Rooyen our club president.
We are all looking forward to our next meeting on the 30th and invite you all to come again.
8 Champions will share the same stage for the first time together for another night of hilarity, fun and side splitting laughter on Saturday evening the 29th July.
An event not to be missed, this is a wonderful opportunity to see the very best as they entertain you and your partner/family/work colleagues in another Humour Galore Extravanganza.
This event is to raise funs to assist District 72s International Speech Champion on his journey to compete at the World Championships in the USA in August this year.
We have held 5 previous Humour Galore events and all have sold out early so get in quick for this very special night.
Seating is limited and bookings are a must.
Contact Kevin Prohl DTM Event organizer to secure your tickets and seat/s.
For a fun inexpensive evening that will inspire and make you laugh just contribute $35 per head for your seats.
Ph: 0274-933-186 or email kevin@speechworks.co.nz
A brilliant evening at the club last night,
A different night in that the speeches were on a varying mix of topics and assignments.
Those who were away missed some very interesting presentations that were informative, thought provoking, interesting and entertaining.
We enjoyed Ted’s smile story with a humorous twist that had us not only smiling but laughing raucously out loud. Good on Ted you are a gem.
Faqir informed us about home testing gold jewellery and it was very very interesting and a cost effective [cheap] way of seeing if your gold items are real gold. Lots of slides to support his method kept us interested and he really knows his stuff. I liked this very much. Faqir gave his No8 speech from the CC manual.
Magda had us look at ourselves and our work places. Are we in the right company or are we being used by others for their own ends? This thought provoking interactive talk titled “corporate culture” was supported by her wonderful slides on creatures out of Africa. Magda spent many weeks researching and creating this speech and achieved her Advanced Communicator Bronze award in the process. Well done Magda!
Clare gave a third speech in her series on Lymphedema Management which I found not only interesting but I learned a great deal from it. This was her number 8 speech also from the CC manual.
Jillian shared [acted] a play titled “I Work From Home” – this was a very funny, sad play brilliantly delivered and it had us smiling, laughing, wondering and just entertained in what was one of the best performances many of us have seen of this type in a long time. Steve could not get enough of it as he mentioned in his evaluation. I loved it. This play was from the Interpretive Reading manual.
Wow! The evaluators stepped up last night as well.
Sam is relatively new to evaluations and he covered evaluating Faqir with honesty and helpful tips.
Kevin B showed us a text book evaluation and those who were not here missed an opportunity to see how it can be done.
Supriya, another who is recently new to evaluating, encouraged Clare with her thoughtful evaluation which was well received.
Steve in his usual excited manner was besotted by Jillian and her acting and he wanted more and more.
Wonderful stuff everyone.
Table Topics was a hoot with the topics by Liz being on cloning. Keeping with the theme of the night which was replicant.
This was a really fun and humorous session enjoyed by all of us. Thank you Liz and those who spoke on their interesting topics.
We are the first club in New Zealand again to achieve President’s Distinguished award. WELL DONE to all our members and committee. YOU ARE FANTASTIC.
Have a question? Email us at: threekings@d112tm.org.nz
Fortnightly on Thursday, 7:00 – 9:30pm
Fickling Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Auckland.
