Today’s meeting had a specific theme tied to the date on the calendar. This week marks the 100th Anniversary of the start of Toastmasters International in the back of the founder’s garage. Ian Thornton was our Toastmaster of the Day leading the meeting and injecting pieces of historical information on Toastmasters in New Zealand’s development and unique characters. Dan Vann as Grammarian chose the very appropriate word for the day being “Legacy” challenging our role takers to use this word in all their speech giving during the meeting.
Helen McLeod introduced our special guest visitor Lynette Harris-Hogan who is the Area Director overseeing five local Toastmasters clubs. Lyn began her Toastmasters journey many years ago on the North Shore of Auckland. At that time she was so fearful of public speaking that she for many months would offer to do any practical role in the club to avoid speaking but eventually she got started with the help of a mentor. She was also dyslexic. She said that Toastmasters was a significant reason why this shy young lady has graduated at 53 years of age with a degree in social work which is now her passion. Apart from these pluses she remembers Toastmasters for its fun, its catalyst to personal growth, and its long lasting friendships. Throughout her speech she wore a hat with multiple badges that she had received from Toastmasters recognising various achievements and milestone reached.
Thomas Bernard introduced Ian Thornton. Ian surprised us all in that he had his original briefcase in which he had kept every speech evaluation and hard copy manual he had ever received in Toastmasters since June 1995. He stated that he is always nervous before a speaking role but once he gets there and gets started he is fine. Other goodies he pulled out of his briefcase were many certificates for first place in competitions he had entered. He shared an evaluator’s recommendation to him it read “Open your mouth wider” He kept us entertained with his Pandora’s box approach to telling us of his experiences in Toastmasters. Ian followed his speech with a question and answer session on Toastmasters.
Alana Bogart ran our impromptu speaking segment called Table Topics giving Dan, Alannah, Hannah, Rachel and David a crack at the topics she had chosen for 1min 30 secs each. Filipe, and Tom as two of our newer members had the task of evaluating two seasoned and experienced Toastmasters speeches and gave recommendations which was a big challenge for them both. Louise was our General Evaluator providing her perspective of the meeting with recommendations.
Felipe ended the meeting by awarding the Toastie award to Ian Thornton for his research and presentation of Toastmaster 100 yrs Anniversary.
Member blog by David Cooper