We had one speech that night from Will who talked about one of his recent activities: yoga and how it is beneficial physically, mentally and emotionally. Everyone was interested in Will’s well-organised speech that his Q&A lasted as long as his speech, if not longer! Neelam also prepared a few games for the members, in which she asked us to turn a bad situation into a good one, and also made us complain about a few things.

After the break, Table Topics Master, Jon, further tested our optimism by giving us more theoretical situations and asking us to make the best out of it. We think this is an appropriate theme as our members have been on lockdown in Auckland for too many weeks now and we need more positivity in our lives. Nevertheless, our meetings continue to run online and we look forward to seeing everyone next fortnight!

Lulu gave a speech on the benefits of being lonely with some well researched facts. The Toastmaster of the Night had organized an impromptu career fair section in the meeting, and we saw some interesting ways people promoted the career they were asked to speak about.

Then it was Cindy’s turn to be the table topics master. She came up with questions that prompted deep thinking and were relevant. Hani talked about the challenges faced by women, Neelam mentioned her favorite mantra ‘’Everything happens for a reason’’. We also had two guests in the meeting Yingying and Yee Wen.

Thanks to everyone who joined tonight’s meeting, we hope to see you next fortnight!

The Humorous Speech Contest was ran by Contest Chair, Claire. The first speaker, Jafar, delivered his speech, where he aired some of his complaints. (The joke is that Jafar rarely ever complains.) Hani followed with a speech in which he gave advice on how to breakup with your partner. While judges convened to decide the winners, the contest sergeant-at-arms, Michael, entertained the club members and guests with a short and casual Table Topics segment.

After a short break, the Table Topics Contest commenced with Jafar as Contest Chair. Six contestants: Keith, Neelam, Claire, Cindy, Helen and Lulu were asked the question, “Home is where the heart is. Is this true?” Claire won the judges’ favour as she talked about how her heart is split in two places: the Philippines (her hometown where her family lives) and Auckland (where she and her partner lives). Again, as the judges deliberated about the winners, the contest sergeant-at-arms, Clarence, filled the time with some more casual Table Topics.

Congratulations to all our contestants for putting themselves out there and competing in the club contests! Congratulations also to our winners:

Humorous Speech Contest Winners

1st place: Hani
2nd place: Jafar 

Table Topics Contest Winners

1st place: Claire 
2nd place: Cindy 
3rd place: Neelam 

Thank you to very much to our Vice-President Education, Jon, for organising the contest, to our contest chairs, timers, ballot counters and sergeants-at-arms, to our guests, and especially to our judges. We hope to see everyone at the next club meeting on the 4th of October!

We had two speeches– Clarence delivered a speech reflecting on his Toastmasters path, while Danielle talked about personal grievances in the workplace, drawing on her expertise as an employee relations adviser. 

Tonight’s Table Topics theme was memes. Table Topics Master, Claire, made the most of the online meeting and used presentation slides to show different memes for each speaker to talk about. 

Great job to to our Timer, Michael, whose resourcefulness ensured that our meeting ran on time, and to our Grammarian, Neelam, who introduced us to our Word of the Day, ABSTAIN (verb: to choose not to do something).

Excellent meeting tonight, thanks to our members and to our guest who attended. Our next meeting is on the 20th of September, which happens to be our Humorous and Table Topics contests! We look forward to seeing everyone then!

Amazing job, Michael, for running such an enjoyable informal evening. Thank you to Claire for introducing the word of the day: WINNOW (verb), which means to separate, or to get rid of something undesirable)

Thank you to all our members and our guest, Erica for attending the meeting. The next meeting on 6th September is going to be our Humorous and Table Topics contests. Hope to see everyone then!