Theme - Back to School
Word of the Day - Agog
Welcome Guests Hadassa, Emil, Shirley
Sgt@ Arms Tony H opened the meeting with his usual impeccable witty remarks, inbetween telling us about earthquake drill and ablution blocks. Very professional Tony.
VP-Membership - Gail welcomed new member Judy Ng and asked Judy to read the Toastmaster Promise. Welcome to Riccarton Toastmasters Judy.
President (Obama) Schwass threw himself into the Theme of the Day - Back to School - by immediately putting two Toastmasters on detention for talking in class and passing notes to each other.
Headmaster Mr.Schwass carried on this theme all through the meeting and his sense of humour and jokes made it a whole evening of fun and lighthearted amusement for the entire audience.
His use of the W.O.D. Agog was (school)masterly and the neologisms he invented eg, agogness and agognicity were an amazing indication of Mr Schwass's ability to think on his feet. All in all an educated performance by the Head.
1st speaker - Nicole with "Modern Romance" was all about how modern technology and social media has had an enormous "impact on romance and finding a mate." Certain apps like Tinder "broaden the dating pool". About 1/3 of Americans since 2005 have met their spouse on social media and about 1/2 of divorcing couples use social media, mainly texting to dump their exes. Perhaps Nicole should write a new app. called TextUrEx and make a fortune. Great speech Nicole, and despite the serious subject, full of humour.Well done .
2nd speaker - Ryan Jay-using visual aids, introduced us to "A Muggles Guide to the Wizardry World" from the Ministry of Magic, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ryan Jay opened a whole new world of Harry Potterism to his older audience and was clearly excited by the whole subject of wizardry. Ryan Jay left us with an interesting thought for the day - "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if only one remembers to turn on the light". Mmmmm.
Professional presentation Ryan Jay. Great speech.
3rd speaker Sherini with "When Life's Funny" told us all about looking for a new dog and getting her new dog Buster Brown chosen for his eye-contact appeal (Perhaps, Sherini was actually looking for a Seeing-Eye Dog do you think?) and now Buster exhibits skills as a "Quake barometer"..Being bitten by ravening poodles in her previous job of Meter Reader, did not endear Sherini to other breeds.
Very funny speech Sherini, well done.
Tabletopicsmaster Carolina took up the school theme with:
Gail - Fondest memory of school
Jo - Friendships at school
Glenn-What would I do differently at school now
Ladi - Memories of school - "chatterbox and noisemaker"
Shirley- spoke briefly about hersef
Emile aka TRev- also spoke briefly about school
Great little off-the-cuff speeches everyone.
Timer Judy did a sterling first time as Timer. Well done.
President Richard advised that:
-Ricc. TM has gone from 5 to 35 members in two years
-Praised Treasurer Owen for all the hard work he does
on the club's finances
- Richard reminded us that our subs are actually payable annually but we allow members to pay monthly to help them. This does not mean that if you go on holiday or do not come to TM"s for a few weeks that you can stop paying. Please note.
- It would be helpful to Owen's work load if everybody paid their monthly fees by automatic payment, Hand payments cause a lot more work for him.
- The club celebrates its 1000th meeting on May 26 this year. Please put this date in your diary because we will be having a party that night and all members please come.
A really fun night this week. Everybody went home with a smile on their face. Well done everybody.