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.
