2008 Meeting Diary
Here's a diary and photos of our WOW meetings in 2008:
Sunday 14 December
Unfortunately your reporter was not able to attend WOW's Christmas meeting as she was Santa's little helper at her work children's Christmas Party.
Sunday 9 November, Masterton
WOW Toastmasters gathered at the Hood Aerodrome for their November meeting on Sunday 9th.
Table Topics had an aeronautical theme, and the word of the day was "destinesia", which most Toastmasters agreed they suffered from occasionally.
The first speech by Dale Hartle entitled "The Black Prince" told the story of her great uncle Sqn Ldr Denis Sharp who was a WWII fighter pilot. He flew one of the planes in the Vintage Aviators Museum display at the aerodrome, and Dale was keen to get a first-hand look at the Corsair fighter. (see photos below).
Top: Dale and Andre at the Vintage Air Museum; Bottom: Dale inspecting the Corsair
The second speech by Jenny compared life between her teenage years, life today and life in the year 2040.
The final speech of the day was very special - Mastering the Toast. Glynis delivered a practice run for her nephew's upcoming 21st birthday party. She handed out grape juice for everyone to sample as part of the toast (see photo below)
Following the meeting, we enjoyed a picnic lunch, then a personal tour through the museum. The photo below shows Glynis inspecting one of the exhibits - the Curtiss Helldiver used in the movie King Kong.
Sunday 19 October at Cobblestones
The WOW Toastmasters meeting was held on Sunday 19 October at Cobblestones. The meeting opened with a tribute to Colin Perfect by Joy Ackrill. Joy outlined Colin's contribution to Toastmasters and the WOW club in particular and said he will be missed as he often travelled to WOW with her from Wellington.
Table topics followed the meeting theme of "purple", pictured below, with topics including flying purple eaters, 50s purple, purple music, purple frogs, purple prose, and balancing the purple budget. All speakers managed at least a minute on their topic with some hilarious stories - can you imagine the Queen in a McDonald's uniform? Evaluator Maureen said the mind-boggling stories were very funny and imaginative.
The first speaker Joy presented a 5 minute speech with 10 minutes for questions. Her topic was an adversorial relationship, where the audience were expected to be hostile to the proposition. Well if you can imagine being told you were to wear purple uniforms with fishnet stockings, what would be your reaction? The audience evaluation decided that it was actually a cunning ploy on the part of management to get all the dissenters to leave the company so they could avoid redundancies.
The second speaker Dale's speech entitled Get Blogging, persuaded the members of WOW to start their own blog. Dale outlined what a blog was, how to set one up, and recommended some popular blogs for people to blogwatch before having a go themselves. For those who want to learn how to set up a blog, visit this tutorial for beginners and wiki, and also have a look at two popular blogs:
- Random Ramblings of a Self-Opinionated Redhead by Angie Flynn (http://blog.angieflinn.com/),
- Life, Looney Verse and Everything by John Ansell (http://johnansell.wordpress.com/)
The third speaker Pip (pictured above) gave us a stomach-churning speech on seasickness, what it was, how it affected her, and some tips to avoid or manage seasickness. By the end we were all feeling a little queasy!
Lynn our grammarian reported on the use of the word illustrate, and also some of the other words she had heard during the meeting - like nanobrain, blogwatchers, redeployed, drooling, putrid, and frogless.
The timekeeper's report from Anne noted that most speakers had kept within their time, and in the general evaluation, Justin said he had loved the theme of purple and that it had been a most enjoyable meeting.
Following the meeting, we all assembled at Trends Cafe for a delicious lunch.
Sunday 21 September 2008, Martinborough
September's Spring Theme meeting was chaired by Rita, with four speakers and table topics.
Speaker 1 by Anne (first photo below) had us all licking our lips as she demonstrated how to make an apple pie. In Speech 2, Jenny (2nd photo below) had us enthralled with her humorous story about a Country Constable and what the bank manager had shot. Colin and Justin enjoying Jenny's punchline! (3rd photo below)
Joy, our third speaker, talked about her recent trip to the Toastmasters International Convention in Calgary, showing us her Presidential Citation plaque. Finally Lynn thoroughly entertained us with a humorous speech about Longevity. I am still trying to work out how many weeks I have left before the government reckons I will cark it according to Lynn.
Pip's Table Topics theme was Spring with Pictures, and all the speakers gave us a fascinating, funny or interesting 2 minute talk - we are still trying to imagine Colin snowboarding down a mountain with the wind whistling through his hair! What hair?
Justin's Grammarian's challenge was the word "fine" and every speaker managed to use the word at least once in their speeches with the correct meaning.
Dale's general evaluation complimented all the evaluators on the quality of their evaluations, and especially thanked Anne for arranging the venue, a historic church hall for the meeting.
Following the meeting we enjoyed lunch at Toppy's cafe in the Square.
Sunday 17 August 2008, Cobblestones
Mandy (pictured below left) very effectively chaired the meeting with the theme of 'Inspirational People'. She was completely attired as her inspirational person; Mother Teresa!
The 'inspiration' theme emerged in various ways as the meeting progressed. Rita, the Grammarian, had chosen 'heroic' as the word she wanted club members to use; if they could. Mandy inserted quotes from Mother Teresa into the various interludes between the agenda items and; the Table Topics session, that was chaired by Colin, used topics associated with inspirational New Zealand events or people. This latter session resulted in some very illuminating views on the treatment of 'tall poppies', the place and regard New Zealanders have of some famous criminals such as George Wilder and Joseph Pawelka, and the place of heroes in our country's past.
Pip gave a gripping Icebreaker speech on a favourite relative, Maureen (pictured left above) on an enthralling visit to Ireland, Glynis on the recent invasion of Georgia and the background as to why that intrusion may have occurred, and finally Jenny spoke on 'Voices from the Other Side'; this was a chiller!
Many of those present later went onto Wakelin House, a restaurant in central Greytown, for lunch and further discussions on the meeting items and 'upcoming' social activities.
This meeting's report by Colin Perfect. Photos by Glynis de Castro.
Sunday 20 July, Cobblestones
Your intrepid WOW reporter was recovering from surgery so was unable to attend the July meeting.
Sunday 15 June 2008, Cobblestones
On a glorious mid-winter's day, the WOWsters gathered at Cobblestones for their monthly meeting with the theme "World Environment Day". Our Grammarian Ben chose the word "schmaltz" as the challenge for speakers, and many did manage to use the word or a derivative of it during their speaking. This pleased Ben immensely, and in his Grammarian's report at the end of the meeting he said he was unsure how the word would be received.
The first speech by Maria was "A Russian Folk Tale", which evaluator Trish described as delightful, with fantastic gestures. It was a serious story with a moral at the end, and everyone enjoyed Maria's delivery.
Joy was the second speaker with a speech entitled "An Immigrant Ship" (pictured above left). She told the story of an immigrant ship which came to New Zealand in the 1870s with some of her ancestors. She used photos of the ship, a map to show where it ran aground on the Wairarapa Coast on its final voyage, and photos of parts of the ship which were salvaged and are now in museums - the wheel, bell and name plate. Evaluator Colin said he was enraptured by Joy's speech which was full of facts, and she was obviously passionate about her family history, having visited the site of the wreck, and the museums where the artefacts are located.
Lynn was our third speaker (pictured above centre). She started with a quote "Great speeches are delivered, they are not recited!" This set the scene for Lynn's message about the three components of a speech - body language 55%, vocal variety 38% and content 7%. Evaluator Jenny said she was impressed with Lynn's own body language and enjoyed the topic of "Interactive Speaking" from Lynn.
Finally Maureen presented a humorous speech called "Nights of Passion", (pictured above right) which was evaluated by Joy. As always, Maureen entertained us with her two stories about the eagle and the kiwi, and she used a Kiwi hand puppet to support her actions. Joy said she liked the transitions Maureen used between the two themes and the clever use of the word "slump" in the speech.
Pip ran Table Topics, using the theme of the day "World Environment Day", where each speaker had to compare two opposing topics, such as home grown versus store purchased fruit and veges, or train travel versus car pooling. Table Topics Evaluator Carol said she liked the personalised approach to all the topics each speaker had used, with personal experiences adding to the impact of the speaker's messages.
As the meeting was running slightly ahead of time, various members of the audience were invited to say why they liked coming to WOW Toastmasters, and what their goals were for the coming year. Pip said she had learnt a lot at Speechcraft, and had joined the committee to take on a leadership role as Secretary. Carol had a desire to improve her speaking and had also taken on a leadership role in the coming year as President. Anne had completed the Speechcraft course and had made a personal commitment to continue in Toastmasters, while Jenny had joined to help her speaking skills in her work. Trish enjoys her WOW day out, loves the friendship of the club, and has made a commitment to register an award in the coming year. Lynn said Toastmasters had given her a new lease of life, and she was considering moving into training in performing arts in the near future. Susan had learnt a lot from the evaluations she had received at Speechcraft, while Colin said he enjoys the variety of WOW meetings and the fun we all have.
Timekeeper Susan did a great job of keeping track of everyone's speaking time, and read out the times, with most speakers keeping within their allotted times.
General Evaluator Glynis commented on the diversity of the club members, and the variety of topics chosen for speeches. She reminded speakers to beware of ums and ahs, and to ensure speakers have a speech title for their evaluator's introduction.
Following the meeting, we had lunch at Salute in Greytown (their pizzas are the best!)
Sunday 11 May 2008, Featherston
WOW's May meeting was chaired by Distinguished Toastmaster Colin Perfect, and was held at St Theresa's School in Featherston, thanks to organiser Carol Pilcher. Fourteen members attended.
Being Mother's Day, Table Topics Master Justin introduced the theme of "Some Mothers Do Have 'em" by using quotes from famous people, such as "Oh Betty, I think we've got a problem", "It'll be gone by lunchtime", "The internet will never take off", "It's unsinkable", "The War in Iraq is over", "We'll be cheaper, faster and better", and "Everything has been invented". This resulted in some hilarious speeches by participants as they tried to explain the quote, or dispel the myths surrounding it. See first three photos below.
There were four prepared speeches today, the first being a public relations speech by Rita, who took the role of a large bank's public relations representative attempting to explain an internet fraud issue. Rita handled questions from the audience afterwards. Evaluator Dale said she handled the situation very well, and managed not to smile in such a serious occasion, but leaving the press kit handout at home was a major blunder!
Carol's speech outlined the history of St Theresa's school, how it was established back in the 1950s by the Brigidine Sisters, and how it has grown over the years. Carol used powerpoint to great effect to show photos of the old school and some of the Sisters who came from Ireland. Evaluator Joy said she enjoyed listening to a local history story and the characters involved, and gave Carol some pointers about coping with technology and its unpredictable behaviour at times.
Next Lynn brought in the Mother's Day theme by outlining the history and making of chocolate, and gave us all samples to try (See photo above). Evaluator Glynis complimented Lynn on the fabulous pictures on the powerpoint slide show and said she found it hard to concentrate on the speaker and the slides at the same time.
Finally Ben gave us an entertaining speech entitled "Who wants my cat?" He described the night-time antics of his cat - rabbits heads in the dining room, eels in the hallway, mouse in the lounge, needing food, occupying plum position in the bed, and cat loyalty behaviour. Finally Ben finished with the question, "So, who wants my cat?" No-one did! Evaluator Trish said she could relate to the nature of the speech and the topic, and said that even though Ben relaxed on the back of a chair, this was most appropriate for an entertaining speech.
Following the main part of the meeting, the club held its annual business meeting, with the election of new club officers for the 2008-09 Toastmasters year beginning on 1 July.
General Evaluator Mandy complimented the cheerful chairman Colin, and the helpful positive and enthusiastic suggestions made by all the evaluators. She said she had enjoyed the meeting immensely.
The club enjoyed lunch at the Rapa Cafe in Featherston.
Download and print Minutes of AGM Meeting.
Sunday 19 April 2008, Cobblestones
WOW's April meeting at Cobblestones was fun-filled and interactive, with three speeches and an educational. We also welcomed two Speechcrafters and two guests.
Table Topics had an ANZAC theme, with Table Topics Master Maureen posing some interesting topics for the speakers, including Hope, Adventure, Coping with Adversity, Hardship and Making Do. In the first three photos below, Colin, Glinis and Andre talk about their ANZAC topics.
In the first speech by Jenny Russell entitled "Rubbish", props were used to show us some of the rubbish that ends up in our landfills - plastic bags, bottles and polystyrene containers and trays. Jenny gave us plenty of tips for recycling and eliminating rubbish, and ended with a strong message: "Be clean, live green!" The last photo above shows Jenny with a plastic bottle.
The second speech by Trish Gray was a fact finding report which Trish used to great advantage by telling us 4 love stories, and invited us to work out the ending of the third story about AnaKali. Trish had us riveted to our seats as she gave us various options as to how the tragic love story ended. We still don't know!
The highlight of the meeting was the Division E representative at the District's International Speech Contest Sanjiv Jetly, who delivered his speech "Wheelies in the Rain". It was wonderful to have a speaker of such high calibre visit the club, and most of us were able to offer some feedback to Sanjiv to consider as he prepares for the District Convention in May. See photos below of Sanjiv in action. We wish him luck in the District contests.
Justin's educational on "How to Be a Distinguished Club" outlined the Distinguished Club goals and how the WOW club can achieve them. Justin used the resources provided by Toastmasters with Rita acting as his datashow projector complete with "zoom" functionality.
Following the meeting, WOW members had lunch at the White Swan in Greytown.
Sunday 16 March 2008, Burnside Church
The venue for the March meeting was transferred from the planned Pirinoa Marae to the quaint historic Burnside Church at Pirinoa because of sudden illness of our Marae host.
However, this turned out to be a fortuitious change, as the ten members of WOW who attended thoroughly enjoyed holding the meeting in the church, which was still decorated from a wedding the day before.
The Grammarian's challenge for the day was the word "language" and table topics followed the theme by using newspaper headlines such as "Firebird flogged", "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Less is More" as topics.
Chairperson Carol gave an interesting speech outlining the history of the 102 year old church, and the surrounding Palliser area. Lynn's "Warning" speech explained the Red Hat Society, and warned us to look out for the Red Hat girls in the area. Pictured left is Lynn in her red hat.
The final speech from Dale entitled "Virtual Cemetery" outlined the Porirua Cemetery Headstone Photography Project which she is currently completing in her role as Website Manager.
Grammarian Glynis gave her report, and acknowledged the 3 different languages used during the meeting: English, Maori and French, and how some speakers had used Maori greetings. Timekeeper Rita gave a comprehensive report of everyone's time, and General Evaluator Colin complimented Carol for an enthusiastic well-run meeting.
Following the meeting, WOW members enjoyed a BBQ lunch at Rita and Justin's house.
Sunday 17 February 2008 Cobblestones
The WOW Toastmasters Club meeting held on 17 February at Cobblestones was attended by 15 people, including 4 guests. The theme was Gone with the Wind, and this was used by the Table Topics Master Trish, who gave each speaker a topic related to "wind". All speakers gave humorous and thoughtful 2 minute speeches, and the photos below show Colin, Maria and Joy in action.
Speaker 1 was Lynn who gave a very personal story about an event in her childhood, using emotion, gestures, and descriptive language to relay her feelings about the fire which nearly devastated the family home when she was small. Her call to action was "to learn how to sing in the lifeboats".
Glynis was our second speaker, talking about the use of psychodrama with teenagers. The speech was followed a few minutes later by a question and answer session which thoroughly engaged the audience who wanted to know more about psychodrama and how it helps teenagers in their lives.
Maureen's humorous speech had everyone laughing as she told a story and described some water experiments she enjoyed with her grandchildren.
Finally Toni described how she overcame a phobia. Toni's evaluator Colin congratulated her for the understated delivery which sold the message, and that she had delivered the speech without notes.
Visiting Grammarian Rob Julian (pictured left) used the Southern theme with his word of the day "antibellum" ("Anti-" means against or opposed to, and "Bellum" means war, or conflict. Therefore "Antibellum" means to be against war), his "yee-hah" rebel yell, and led us all in a rousing rendition of Dixie.
Following the meeting, club officer training was conducted by the Division Governor Peter Scholtens, and Area Governor Mandy Grainger.
Sunday 13 January 2008, Riverleigh Park, Norfolk Road, Masterton.
The club was treated to a very warm day on a secluded lawn as well as a lovely meeting venue under a covered awning.
Maureen chaired the meeting well and added extra pizzazz to the gathering in doing so!
The image on the left above depicts Trish "holding the floor" when elaborating on her selection for "Word of the Day". She chose the word "Movement". The word provoked keen interest in those speaking and it was used many times during the meeting.
After a lively Table Topics session Justin gave a prepared speech on a sustainability issue related to farming, particularly the disposal on land of dairy cow's urine!!!! As can be seen in the second image above, Justin was able to use his inflatable cow to good effect and this resulted in generating much humour from the audience.
The meeting concluded and the majority of those present repaired to the Park's cafe for magnificent lamb and beef open sandwiches.