2012 Meeting Diary
16th December - Circus Cinema, Martinborough
WOWers met at the Circus Cinema in Martinborough for the Christmas meeting and instead of secret Santa, donations totalling $74.00 were collected for Life Flight Trust. The theme of the meeting was helicopters, with everyone participating in table topics.
Our first speaker was Selena with “What happened to Manners?”, followed by Mike with “The Elephant in the Room”, encouraging us to think about global warming and what we as individuals could do about it.
Val gave the next speech “Aspects of Ageing” displaying her lovely red high heeled shoes that she still likes to wear.
Our final speaker was Aneta with “Curious Facts about Bulgaria” which with an incredible slide show, gave us a real insight into her home country.
A magnificent lunch followed out on the deck in the sunshine.
(Photos not available – deleted by accident)
18th November - The White Swan
WOW’s November meeting was held in a studio room at the White Swan in Greytown, when the library proved to be a little too noisy for us. The theme was “A Day at the Races”, so there were plenty of fancy hats and posh outfits, apart from Val, who wore a lovely pair of gumboots. The word of the day was “jockey” and a rather distracting photo of Dan Carter in his jockeys took pride of place where all speakers could see him.
Our first speaker was Anna with “Roses Rule”, introducing us to various roses that she grows, their history and uses.
Second speaker was Justin with a fascinating talk called “Over the Hump with Willie the Whip”, describing how General William Tunner managed to increase the flow of vital supplies into China during the second world war by flying them over the Himalayas from India into northern China to help the Chinese beat the Japanese army.
Jill was our third speaker with “Traditions” where she outlined the various traditions that have related to marriages over the ages. This was inspired by a recent visit to Gretna Green in Scotland.
Trish’s timekeepers report was delivered in terms of wins and losses with the general evaluation covering such things as the stewards, track conditions, scratchings and form guide.
Lunch then followed in the bar, on a rather hectic Greytown Sunday. With Toast Martinborough also on that day.
(Pics deleted by accident sorry)
14 October 2012 - Masterton Motor Lodge
The October meeting was brought forward a week so as not to clash with Labour weekend and for the first time we tried a new venue - the conference venue at Masterton Motor Lodge. This proved to be a lovely little gem, tucked in behind the Lodge's units, and where lunch was also served.
The theme of the day was "Shapes"which Val entered into with much creativity. Word of the day was "form" from first time grammarian, Ginny.
First speaker of the day was Rita, giving a demonstration talk, and with a great number of props, detailed the process of making both quark and cream cheese in her speech "Cheesemaking 101".
Second speaker was Selena with "Ode to the Humble Hottie" pointing out some little known facts about the humble rubber hottie.
Third speaker was Val, delivering an interpretive reading from "Man in the Dark" by Paul Auster, one of her vavourite authors.
Finally, Trish had us spellbound with "Alice in Wonderland", from the storytelling manual.
Lunch included generous portions of very tasty food and was enjoyed by all.
Next meeting is in the boardroom at 124 Main Street Greytown (Markhams) on 18 November followed by lunch at the White Swan. The theme is A Day at the Races.
The December meeting has been booked at Circus Cinema, Jellicoe Street Martinborough on Sunday 16th with lunch to follow in the cafe.
16 September 2012 - Crafters Heaven, Greytown
The table at Crafters Heaven was a feast of yellow with lemons, gourds, daffodils, daisies and dandelions, when WOW met for their September meeting. Yellow was the theme of the day and most managed to wear something yellow.
Chairman Mike (only yellow clothing he had was a tie) called the meeting to order and the speakers were Phillippa with "My Career", detailing how she had managed to pursue her passion for jewellery making, both overseas and back here in NZ.
Anna spoke of the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia where she had recently visited with her son, and showed a number of photos of Cambodian life. The only drawback was getting very ill as she was about to leave.
Ginny gave a passionate and emotional speech about fighting the demons that come in the night in her speech called "Silenced". This speech was voted the best contribution of the day.
As there was a space in the programme, Aneta delivered her entry for the humorous speech contest called "First Days in New Zealand" and had us all entertained with her observations of life in both NZ and Bulgaria from where she came.
Lunch was at Turkey Red. Next meeting 14th October at Masterton Motor Lodge conference venue with lunch there to follow.
19 August 2012 - REAP House, Masterton
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There were several 'bonjours', a couple of tricoleurs and a beret present for the August meeting of WOW where the theme of the day was France and the word of the day was 'friendship'. |
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Table topics ranged over a number of things French such as technology, food, wines, colonies, favourite places to visit etc. The trophy was won by Aneta with a terrific description of a flaming "Bombe Alaska" dessert. |
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First speaker was Phillippa, giving her Icebreaker speech of childhood memories growing up in Greytown. She had us all nodding in agreement with the nasty tricks older siblings played on us and we felt the shame of being ordered from the swimming pool. |
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Second speaker was Rita with "A Man of Ambition", outlining Louis XIV's early life, culminating in the building of Versailles and the politics involved in creating a centralised form of government there. This was Rita’s first use of power point and her evaluator commended her on her usage. She was also awarded the speech of the day trophy. |
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Third speaker was Carol who had to tell a folk tale. She chose 'Puss In Boots' and had us all entranced with the clever, speaking cat who helped his master marry a princess. |
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Our last speaker of the day was Greg, our Area Governor, also using power point to show how easy it is to use Easyspeak to schedule club meetings, something that we decided needed to be investigated. |
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It was great to have Val back after a period of illness and we hope her recovery continues quickly. In the absence of our President, Glynis as chair presented Val and Carol with their Competent Communicator awards. Congratulations and very well done! |
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17 July 2012 - Greytown
It was a cosy squeeze in Crafter Heaven's workroom, when WOWers met for the July meeting. Rita was chair, the theme was "Olympics" and the word of the day "excellence". We were pleased to welcome Greg, our area governor and two Masterton members, Ineta and Mike and towards the end of the meeting, Timothy from area E2 also joined us.
A lively table topics session was conducted by Jenny around the Olympic theme involving drug cheats, security breakdowns and possible medal contenders. Once again, Justin (pictured below stretching for his award) won the trophy for best table topic (I must be doing something wrong!!).
Other images from the meeting below show from left: Trish, Sharon and Glynis.
The Olympic Theme on display.
First speaker was Glynis with "Olympics or Not" where she described attending the Montreal Olympic Games, then compared it with now attending netball World Championships when they are in the southern hemisphere.
Rita kept everyone on their toes with Olympic trivial questions, most of which no-one knew the answers.
Second speaker was Sharon with "Rugby World Cups in New Zealand". Sharon is a devoted rugby fan, especially of the All Blacks and has NZ rugby almanacs dating back to 1973.
Our third speaker was Greg, who pleaded "I Need Your Help" as WOW club had a fine reputation for achieving goals although only meeting once a month.
As there wasn't a planned fourth speaker, Mike was asked to give some details about the Wairarapa Toastmasters website plans and the radio show. It seems this site is to be revamped in the near future. An initiative taken by Mike and Ineta is to have a mini Toastmasters meeting on Access Radio 92.7 FM each Wednesday at 8pm called "A Slice of Toast" consisting of a bard, one speaker and some table topics. We were invited to join them or even conduct our own session.
Lunch consisted of some excellent Cuckoo pizzas before heading to Cobblestones for an afternoon of club leadership training.
17 June 2012 - Featherston
It was a fine, frosty Featherston morning when the members of WOW assembled for their June meeting in the Royal Hotel dining room. Apologies almost outweighed the members present, but numbers were boosted by the welcome arrival of some guests.
Trish, taking the role of chair and grammarian offered the word "frost" as the word of the day. Our theme for the meeting was "solstice".
After an entertaining table topics session led by Anna and relating to various weather conditions, our first speaker was Carol, delivering her tenth speech "An Extraordinary Life". Carol outlined the life of Graeme Sinclair, who, despite being wheelchair bound has had an adventurous life and hosts a television fishing programme. The completion of this speech means that Carol has now earned her Competent Communicator award. Well done.
Our second speaker was Justin with "Safety on Country Roads" where once again, we met Daisy the inflatable cow. Justin pointed out that the countryside may seem peaceful, but is actually a workplace where animals and heavy machinery will be using the roads at all times of the day.
Our third speaker was Glynis with "Matariki" detailing what it meant, with both the rising of Pleiades or the seven sisters star cluster and the Maori definition of the start of a new year.
Our fourth speaker was Gregory Graham, our incoming Area Governor and he was accompanied by Carolyn Lankow, our outgoing Area Governor.
The meeting was followed by a superb Royal lunch.
20 May 2012 - Cobblestones
May's meeting was small but lively, with a guest appearance by previous club member Dale Hartle DTM.
The word of the day from Grammarian Justin was "inspire" and it proved to be an inspirational choice which worked in well with the meeting theme of "Inspirational speeches of the 20th centurey".
Table Topics run by Glynis used inspirational quotes of famous politicians and everyone managed to have some thought-provoking comments.
Dale presented her promised Toastmaster of the Year trophy to the club, and outlined the suggested criteria for awarding the trophy at the Xmas meeting of the club. She then formally handed over the trophy to president Glynis for safekeeping.
Dale Hartle (left) presenting Glynis with the Toastmaster of the Year trophy
Trish gave a humorous story about her experiences in joining the fun with the recent Rugby World Cup, and evaluator Glynis said her speech had all the elements of a good story - a plot, plenty of action, conflict and key characters. She loved the twist at the end.
Following the club's annual business meeting and election of officers, lunch was held at the White Swan.
15 April 2012
As chair, Justin welcomed everyone including our area governor, Carolyn and a guest, Debra. The theme of the meeting had been changed to "Titanic" a week earlier, as 15th April was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Titanic also became the word of the day.
Rita conducted Table topics with Titanic themed questions, with Val receiving a trophy for "always being prepared", (see photo below), while Jenny "had a feeling in 'er bones, that it wasn't going to be alright" and that's why she didn't board the Titanic for that voyage.
First speaker was Val, with "Welcome to Hospitality", treating us as new students on the best hospitality course available. This speech completed Val's Competent Communicator award. Congratulations Val!
Second speaker was Glynis with "Red Letter Day" outlining changes that the government is introducing which involve DPB beneficiaries and schools and the need for people to be fully informed.
Speaker 3 was Rita, asking people to cast themselves back to April 1911, when the White Star Line was announcing the commissioning of three huge new liners. Rita was speaking to the members of the "Begonia Club", asking them to consider an investment in this wonderful company. Dressed in fox fur and kid gloves, she certainly looked the part, as you can see from the photo below.
Speaker 4 was Anna with "Flammable Flatulence", explaining how everything farts, (termites are the worst offenders apparently) why they smell, why they are flammable and how we should just accept nature.
Area Governor Carolyn Lankow.
Jenny awarding a trophy to Lynne.
The meeting concluded an al fresco lunch at Strada cafe in Masterton.
18 March 2012
It was a fine sunny morning when WOW met at Cobblestones Museum, Greytown for our March meeting. The theme was "You're a Star" and Chair Lynn Bushell provided a prop for those bereft of inspiration - a fox fur (the real deal!). We were lucky to be joined by Paris Hilton and Dolly Parton as well as a "dude in black".
Table topics covered various aspects of celebrity with everyone having a quite definite opinion and forceful/persuasive arguments for their point of view.
First speaker was Carol, who introduced us to a friend of her younger days called Jason. Sometimes she looked after Jason for his Mum. He had wavy red hair, big brown eyes, a sweet disposition, but never spoke. Carol finally revealed Jason to be a gorgeous Red Setter, setting us all up for a literal twist in the tale.
Next speaker was Val with "Every Little Counts" using some lovely quotes to emphasis her point that we all can make a difference for the planet by shopping smarter, recycling and going green. This was a passionate presentation, delivered without notes or nerves. Well done Val!
Our final speaker was Jill, working from the Storytelling advanced manual. She drew us into a semi circle, sat down and told us the story of Pania of the reef of Napier, and her doomed love affair with a mortal since she was of the sea. Jill had us totally engrossed in the tale, right to the end.
The meeting concluded with lunch at Main Street Deli.
February 2012
Sorry, no meeting report.
Sunday 15 January 2012
WOW's first meeting of 2012 was held in the lovely grounds of Cobblestones Museum in Greytown, with the theme of "school" under the chairmanship of Trish Gray. The word of the day was "education" from Jenifer Brannigan, our grammarian, who also gave the chair a detention for spelling the theme as "scholl days".
Trish also conducted table topics, using a "mood calendar" that she'd found on a recent trip away. Everyone was given a mood to interpret such as astonished, grumpy, chipper, rushed and fabulous, however, the winner of the table topics trophy for the day was Val Richardson, with a wonderful interpretation of "listless", telling a great story and using the word of the day.
Our first speaker was Anne Guyan, a new member doing her second assignment and this was called "An Unsung Hero" and related to the Trade Aid organisation with which she is involved. Facts we didn't realise are that Trade Aid is a 100% New Zealand company that buys items at a fair price, then gives it's profits back to the communities it trades with by helping to build wells, schools and maternity clinics. As consumers we can all vote with our wallets and Anne's challenge to us is to change our attitudes and "be the mosquito in the bedroom". This will allow emerging countries to have living wages for their people.
As we'd had a late cancellation by a speaker, Trish introduced a small play she'd written called "New Zealand Calling", about a couple trying to get in touch with their daughter in England (before the advent of internet, skype, etc.) as they had "heard a rumour". Rita Stirling Vincent took the role of Dave and Jean was played by Anna Simms.
The second speaker was Justin Vincent with "My School Hero" where Justin outlined for us in a very amusing manner why Wile E. Coyote was his hero. Mr Coyote had a business card, (Wile E. Coyote, Genius, have brain, will travel), he had a goal (to kill Roadrunner), he had plans, he used technology (usually from the Acme Company) and he was not afraid to innovate, such as lashing himself to a rocket to catch the pesky bird. All of these lessons have stood Justin in good stead for later in life.
The meeting closed just before 1pm when everyone adjourned to Salute for a wonderful lunch.