Ian Thornton started the ball rolling as Grammarian, quoting (without notes) an anonymous poem about an Oyster who didn’t give up against the relentless tide of sand but worked on improving. And, wouldn’t you know it, the sand turned into a pearl; a reminder that the Grammarian can read a poem, famous speech, article etc.

Harry Brar delivered an emotional speech about her parents’ insistence on her getting a good education to the point of encouraging local leaders to build a high school and then a university in their area.  They have been so supportive of all her ventures and are even accompanying her to learn Te Reo.

Gerald Hartley ran us through his journey to reach his level 5 Pathway and left us with plenty of helpful tips and tricks. Who knew that you needed about 700-800 words for a 5-7 minute speech?

Gerald outlined each of the projects he chose (where choosing was an option) and gave good examples of how the projects had helped in his work – eg. Going for a new job after doing the job interview project, and so much more. This really was an educational on how to use Pathways to your best advantage. The only downside to the speech was Gerald’s advance warning that he will be leaving Boaters at the end of the TM year. Such a huge loss for Boaters as Gerald has been a hard working and inspirational member both at meetings and in his many roles across the Leadership Team and Speechcraft courses. We can keep our fingers crossed that his work situation may enable him to rejoin us in the future. Go well and THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.

Amazing Grace delivered her Ice Breaker this morning and what a treat to be taken from hiking in Sri Lanka to motorbiking in Vietnam (only briefly as these are probably all subjects for Grace to expand on in future speeches. Grace is about to embark on a new career venture, instead of the hillsides of Asia, Grace will be “wandering the mountains of the mind” as she starts her journey as a professional life coach. Great start to your Toastmasters Pathway.

The Introducers and Evaluators were all on the mark today – Alana rightly anticipated a shortage of time and adjusted her Timer report accordingly.

Our guest, Sheila Hailstone, encouraged us to attend the Toastmasters Do Comedy event on 27^th April.

Thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and made it worth getting up at 5:30am.

Meeting No. 1133, 31 March

Our Toastmaster Helen McLeod warmed us all into her meeting with the theme “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. A very fitting theme for everyone who attends Toastmasters. She kicked it off with some humour talking about how no one wants to public speak, especially at funerals – “Most people would rather be in the casket than do a eulogy”.

We had two great speeches, firstly from David Cooper who explained some philosophy that he had been thinking about and researching for a number of years. Next, we had an enlightening speech from Deb McAlpine who spoke about her time at her current job and how/why she is leaving it.

Speaking on Zoom is a completely different art from speaking in person so it has made for some good experience over the last weeks. It’s safe to say that we are all far better a knowing where to put our notes, how to still have “eye contact”, smoothly handing over the speaking to others and of course mastering the dreaded mute button.

Back to hybrid meetings this week…

With our move this week from Level Four to Level Three Craig Mason brought us ‘freedom’ as the Word of the Day.  Then our first speaker Max Delaney took us on a journey from the east coast of the North Island to the Stewart Island. Inspiring our interest in future destinations for backyard kiwi travel once we return to Level One.

Jacqui Anderson then took us on a journey through the DISC profile. Exploring the different dimension of our communication styles and how we can use our awareness of them as we learn and develop our abilities.

Aaron Gale then took us to the world of superpowers for Table Topics. What superpowers would you like to have? The bionics of the $6 million dollar man? Maybe the climbing ability of Spiderman? Or would you rather be the Invisible Man?

Several of our speakers also took on the challenge of using technology with slides and screen sharing. It didn’t always go to plan. But that’s the value Toastmasters offers us, a safe, supportive environment where we can take on challenges, have a go, gain experience, develop our competence, and gain confidence. Thank you and well done everyone.

Just like last year, the Boaters club has pushed through Level 4 lockdown and is now pushing through Level 3 lockdown. We have been hosting our regular Toastmasters meetings on Zoom and they have been immensely fruitful.

We all know the world is changing and becoming far more digital, especially in professional environments. So it makes sense that a club devoted to improving public speaking masters speaking in all mediums. Whatever the future holds for communication we will be ready…

And finally, practice, practice, practice.

It was fantastic of Laura to come along and share insights to help us learn, plus motivate us to compete. As she said, it’s the best way to improve your presentations and motivation to be the best for your audience.

Esmail was our Table Topics Master and made sure to ask up our – experienced – guests who’d taken the opportunity to come for a visit and listen to Laura. Both are members of Sunrise Toastmasters, another morning club and fellow D1 Toasties.

Sean Joyce took us back 100 years to the village he grew up in and then revealed his main reason for attending today was espionage!!
Gemma Woods then told us about her home and what home means to her, and how she needs a bit of a nudge from her husband to help her leave home bright and early for Toastmasters!

Stephen McConnachie entertained us with a great example of an impromptu speech and all with a fluffy brain that was in need of coffee!Gerald evaluated Cam’s speech, giving lots of pointers that we could all learn from when it comes to slide presentations.

Roydon evaluated Laura’s speech, thanking her for coming and reminding us of what a great presentation it was. He did manage to provide a couple of useful recommendations too, before acknowledging how much we learned from her presentation.

Alannah then evaluated the table topics speeches and Louise Green then evaluated everyone else who hadn’t already been evaluated! With energy and enthusiasm they gave us all some great pointers in how to present a more polished speech next time.