This evening was quite educational, in fact education seemed to be the theme running through the first part of the evening.

Robert Wong our outgoing – in every sense of the word – Sgt at Arms desperately tried to get our attention with a multitudinous rapping of the gavel.  Once the sound had sunk into the herd brain we slowly drifted to our seats.  Robert then proceeded to introduce us to a Booker T Washington, an African American who had worked his way up from school cleaner to university professor.  I never realised that this was a legitimate career path. Either there is hope for us all in the lesson or the post of university professor in America is greatly over rated.

Robert then handed over to the President, moi, who bemoaned the fact that it was her last day of sitting at high table.  (Note: an educational reference again).  She then proceeded to introduce our chairman for the evening, Helen Korte.   

Helen quoted the bard “Winter tames man, woman and beast” from the Taming of the Shrew and told us that we could ‘take what we liked from that’ and we did.  She called on Anne Malcolm to introduce our guests.

 

Anne was extremely industrious and managed to pry out a great deal of information from our unsuspecting guests.  She introduced Jim Harknett, an ex Maungakiekie member who obviously is a sucker for punishment.  At the end of the evening he asked for a Form 400, will he never learn.  Stacey Alister came to see what we were all about and also Barbara Paulus another ex toastmaster, who may make her way back to the fold.

 

Apologies were given for Finda Hope, Joan Hook, Cheryl Pivac and Judy Gillett.  Their acceptance was moved by Helen and seconded by Mike Diggins.

Our Grammarian for the evening was a last minute replacement for Finda, the ever enthusiastic Stephan Resch.  Stephan introduced us to the Word of the Night - Loquacious and promptly waxed lyrical over it.

On calling for Officer’s Reports Helen was told that there would only be one and that would be given at the end of the evening.

Pippa Mitchell gave us some wonderful news for General Business.  She has finally succeeded in handing in her PhD Thesis.  Well done Pippa.  (Note:  another educational reference!).

 

Our Toastmaster for the evening, Sarah Scott made a fantastic job of introducing the speakers.  She showed the guests the toastmasters’ manual and explained how members progressed from the 10 speech Competent Communicator manual on to the advanced manuals.

 

Our first speaker was John Marks who gave the Ice Breaker or first speech from the CC manual entitled Casting False Pearls Before Real Swine.  An intriguing title.

John took us through his early years as a teacher and compared and contrasted teaching and students from the 70’s to the present day.  His opening quote from George Bernard Shaw that ‘everyone is an expert when it comes to teaching, after all we’ve all been to school or know someone who did’ was very apropos.  He took us to a typical boys’ school of the 70’s with lashings of corporal punishment (pun intended).  When he started teaching he said that “the hours may be good but the minutes can be terrible”.  It was homogenous, sexist (they talked about sex a lot), homophobic and strict.  By comparison today’s school were very different.  For a start most are mixed gender and multinational.  Equipment is state of the art with “photocopiers that can do just about anything except dance”.  Schools have gone from being amazingly authoritarian to liberal, from strong to what now can be perceived as weak.  Despite all the angst and fear he declared that throughout his teaching career 95% of the young men and women he has taught were nice.

 

Our second speaker was Andrew Reynolds who gave the Number 4 speech from the CC manual – How to say it – entitled The Job Application.

After waking up the time keeper Andrew told us that one of the easier jobs he has received is that of club webmaster.  Andrew’s approach was to explain why he was particularly suited for the role by giving us an insight into how the internet has developed and become more user friendly over the years.  He explained that it was now very interactive with YouTube, Face Book, Bebo and that users had grown from a few elitist academics to every man and his dog.  Owing to competition newspapers such as the New York Times and even the NZ Herald have jumped on the band wagon by publishing their papers on line.  He called it putting their journalists directly in touch with their readership.  Technical gurus were no longer required to communicate between man and the machine.  New-generation cheap software has come in enabling any group with any size budget to communicate.  He likened it as moving up to the next level of functionality – as in toastmasters - from just speaking to good speaking practices.  In applying for the role he wanted to bring the website back to the members by making it more interactive.

 

Our third speaker was Paul Aked with his Number 7 speech from the CC manual – Research your topic – entitled The Cost of Fuel.

Paul hit us where it hurt by asking us what we thought about paying over $2 per litre for petrol.  He then rubbed salt in the wound by telling us that the days of cheap fuel were over and what it would mean for us.  Using overheads he showed a graph detailing the previous oil shocks and that now, for the first time, demand actually exceeded supply.  He blamed most of it on the USA’s gas guzzling SUV’s and the increasingly capitalist direction of nations such as China and Russia.  Oil has risen from $25 to $133 a barrel in only 5 years and the only response from politicians was to build more motorways!  It never occurred to any of them that the oil could run out.  9 out of the 21 oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Russia are now in decline and the production of coal will peak in 2015.  Cheap oil he told us is a thing of the past and we better get used to it and start changing our way of living.  He explained that the world runs on diesel, farms, fishing boats and most of all trucking companies.  The cost of travel will increase which will effect tourism, food production, everything.  The world is already facing food shortages, which could lead to rationing or mass starvation which could lead to war.  A very gloomy picture indeed.  He encouraged us all to do something to avert this disaster.  We could start by using our vehicles less and use public transport especially trains.  He certainly gave us something to think about.

 

Our final speaker for the evening was Andrew Pass who gave us the Number 4 speech from the Advanced Manual, Storytelling – The touching story – entitled Billy.

Andrew took us to Moss Side in Manchester (UK), to Woodlands School in fact where any slight difference could drive a wedge between children.  Moss Side is one of the tougher parts of that industrialized city and everyday Billy walked 1km to school – on his own.  Voices called out ‘Billy!’ but when he turned round no one was there.  Andrew took us into Billy’s narrow little world.  Despite being a loyal Manchester City supporter and wearing the colours the other boys never chose him to join in their game.  He was always alone, he wasn’t one of the team.   In class he sat on his own.  All the others sat two by two at their desks, especially Jennifer and Tim who had a special desk all of their own.  There would be whispers and sniggers about those two which showed a woeful lack of knowledge as far as biology was concerned.  Discrimination was the norm but Billy was used to it.  Despite all this he liked going to school because they never called him Billy to his face, they called him Sir!

Sarah thanked Andrew for leaving his comfort zone by doing this speech.  She also congratulated all the speakers for their contribution and then handed back to Helen. 

 

See what I mean about the educational bent this evening with two speeches set in schools and two speeches being very informative.

 

We then broke early – 8.20pm – for tea and biscuits set up and supplied by Judit Nikolic.

 

At 8.30pm sharp Robert again proceeded to dismantle the table with the gavel in an attempt to attract our attention.  Helen then called Sarah back to introduce the speech evaluators.  Sarah requested that the evaluators not be too loquacious!  She asked each evaluator what they thought the role should involve.

Alison Powell who evaluated John’s speech wanted to motivate and inspire the speaker.

She congratulated John for meeting his objectives which were to begin speaking before an audience and to discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention.  Timing 4-6 minutes.

She particularly liked his alliterations “loquacious louts” and the insight into his personal perspectives.  He used pause to good effect with the humour.

Alison had 3 recommendations:

§         To start with a stronger opening and to bring in the title

§         Not to rush into speaking but to take a breath before starting the speech.  This will signal the audience that you are about to speak

§         Not to drop the chin whilst reading as the voice drops with it.  Look up more.

She really enjoyed the speech and felt that he had a strong conclusion drawing all the threads together at the end and that she looked forward to hearing his next speech.

 

Stephan Resch in his second role of the evening evaluating Andrew Reynolds’ speech wanted to give a balanced feedback to the speaker.

He recapped the objectives which were to select the right words and sentence structure to communicate your ideas clearly, accurately and vividly, to use the rhetorical devices to enhance and emphasize ideas and to eliminate jargon and unnecessary words.  Timing 5-7 minutes.

Stephan agreed that Andrew met his objectives.  He said the introduction was nice and that Andrew new his subject well.  He had a composed and confident manner. 

Stephan had 3 recommendations:

§         He felt that Andrew could have done without the script altogether

§         That the transitions needed to be smoother especially the jump from the job application to describing what the net was about – what was he about?

§         He found the conclusion unexpected.  Andrew needed either a call to action or a description of what the club website would look like in future.

He congratulated Andrew for avoiding jargon, not easy to do given the subject matter and felt that the speech was clear and easy to follow.

 

At this point Sarah explained to the visitors a little about the methodology of evaluating.  She detailed the CRC method and how it worked.

 

The third evaluator for the evening was Robert Wong evaluating Paul’s speech.  Robert wanted to help the speaker progress their speaking skills, and his own speaking skills.

Robert read the objectives of the Paul’s speech which were to collect information about your topic from numerous sources and to carefully support your points and opinions with specific facts, examples and illustrations gathered through research. Timing 5–7 minutes.  Robert felt that Paul more than met his objectives by choosing a current topic, the audience’ frustration with the constant rise in fuel prices.  He liked Paul’s opening and the whole speech was supported with simplified facts, points and opinions.

Robert had 3 recommendations:

§         The first overhead was quite ‘busy’ and needed more explanation

§         To put the lectern closer to the overhead display unit

§         This would mean that pause could be used for effect and not just to change the overheads.

On the whole the overheads were effective and Robert particularly liked that Paul had personalized the speech so well.

 

Our final evaluator of the evening was Mike Diggins evaluating Andrew Pass’ speech.  Mike wanted the speaker to find at least one main recommendation in the evaluation that according to the objectives could be improved upon.  The objectives were to understand the techniques available to arouse emotion and to become skilled in arousing emotions while telling a story. 6–8 minutes.

Mike remembered a message given to the club by New Zealand’s only professional story teller that “A story is a heart touching a heart”  a rather apt quote.

Mike agreed that Andrew met the objectives well.  The story had all the right elements, Character, plot, conflict and climax.  Andrew set up the story well when describing Moss Side school, an area Mike knew well.  There were excellent set pieces with lovely images – the desks, the chewing gum etc.

Mike had 3 recommendations for Andrew:

§         Some of Andrew’s movements were a little purposeless, e.g. twosome, threesome, foursome – they should match.

§         Andrew was quite animated at the start and needed to change down a gear when it came to the part where “No one was passing the ball to Billy”

§         Mike suggested he emphasized the ostracism towards the end for the release and final twist.

Mike felt that we had witnessed the emergence of someone who in the future would really enjoy the world of story telling to its fullest.

Sarah again handed back to the Chairman.

 

We then had Judit Nikolic entertain us with an assortment of Table Topic questions.  Judit explained her role and that the theme for the evening was travel and adventure with a twist.

Her first unsuspecting victim was Grant Hamill who had to bungee jump off the Eiffel Tower.  Grant, although scared of heights called on his Scottish ancestry for inspiration.  He had paid for it therefore he was going to do it.

Next Pippa Mitchell found herself swimming in a bikini in a Venetian Canal whilst on her honeymoon.  Her excuse was that she didn’t trust the gondoliers and that she was trying to save fuel.

Jim Harknett found himself in Toledo, Spain waving a red rag at a bull in a desperate attempt at trying to rescue his wife.

Anne Malcolm whilst Tiki Touring around Europe knocked off a chip of the Berlin wall with her stilettos after staggering from a beer cellar at some ungodly hour of the morning.  (More about that later?)

Alison Powell found herself hanging upside down getting wet on Space Mountain in Disneyland from which she had to be rescued in a dignified manner.

Stephan Resch¸ in his third incarnation of the evening endeavoured to avoid skate boarding across the great wall of China owing to the number of people in the way at a David Copperfield magic event.  He was sick on a roller coaster instead.

Finally Robert Wong tried to convince us that he had been to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro but because his camera jammed at the top we have no proof that he ever got there.

The Table Topics evaluators were Stephen Thorpe, a very experienced toastmaster and Roger Mingers in his first time as an evaluator. Both used excellent CRC and complimented each other nicely with Roger really taking charge of his role.

 

Stephan as grammarian duly gave his report, commending John and Andrew Pass for incorporating the WOTN in their speeches.  He picked up Sarah on her phrase “All the speakers did good” and said it was quirky.  He asked advice on the term ‘Madam Chair’ and was told it was incorrect.  Chairman means chair manager and is not gender specific.  He awarded the Um Boot to John for his word pictures.

Timekeeper Pippa Mitchell after struggling to get the lectern to a suitable height gave a very clear and concise breakdown of the evening’s timing.  With the exception of Paul all the speakers were within time and only 50% of the evaluators remembered not to be too loquacious.

The entire evening was carefully scrutinized by Grant Hamill in his role as General Evaluator.  He started by praising the previous week’s reporter (Mike Diggins) for the nice personal touches i.e., photo etc.

Helen was congratulated on having nice links between all the presenters and took on the changes to the agenda well.  He had no recommendations for Helen.  He praised Anne for prizing information out of the guests.  He said that Stephan’s WOTN was pretty easy compared to Stephan’s usual choices and that he used humour well.  Sarah as toastmaster was commended for her introductions.  He particularly liked it when Sarah showed great insight into speech preparation times e.g., 1 week, 1 hour, 1 day before!

On evaluating the evaluators he felt that they all made an excellent job with good recommendations and recommended the following:

§         Alison     - should have picked John up more on his eye contact.

§         Stephan – used the word suggestion instead of recommendation and he felt that Stephan appeared a little hesitant at first.

§         Robert – found the summary a little muddled, used too many ‘ands’.  Suggested the use of pause instead to break up the long sentences.

§         Mike – No recommendations.

§         Judit as Table Topics Master had great energy and set the speakers up well.  Recommendation “Don’t pick on me (Grant) as first speaker next time”.

Table Topics Evaluators Stephen and Roger.  Both appeared very relaxed and that Roger appeared to ‘warm up’ as he got into the role more.  Well done.

Pippa as time keeper did an amazing job as always.

He then handed out the awards for the evening.
Best Table Topics            Pippa Mitchell
Best Evaluator                 Mike Diggins
Best Toastmaster             Stephan Resch
Best Speaker                   Andrew Pass

Finally at the end of the evening the chair called upon the President to enact a final ceremony, the handing over of the President’s Pin to the incoming Club President Judit Nikolic.  A sad and happy duty all in one.

This is your reporter and retiring (retiring? more like outgoing, IMHO! – Ed) President Cynthia Mitchell signing off.