Much comings and goings over the last month, as Europe, the US and Invercargill beckon.
Tom said his goodbyes today before heading off to Rotterdam to live. We all wish him the very best of adventures, career opportunities and love.
General Evaluator Victor began his presentation in the latter part of this week’s meeting mentioning that Gemma’s inspiration was an inspiration.
With inherent skills, Gemma clearly and confidently had inspired with ‘The Power Of Failure,’ before Johanna stepped up to lead us through the meeting with ease and good humour.
While ‘What Really Happens When You Die,’ was a serious subject, Paul drew us in with gentle humour, dispensing good advice from research and his and Kate’s experiences. The link to Peter Fenwick he mentioned is <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78SkTuk8Zd4&t=3s>
Along with the many informal commendations of Pauls speech, Carol’s evaluation was very positive with an added point that she enjoyed listening to Paul’s ‘mellifluous’ voice.
GE Victor commended Carol for her choice of words, though he felt that her evaluation could have had more ‘punch’.
Jesse shared her story and association with Sue Bagshaw, passionately calling for reason and compassion from surrounding residents of the proposed Youth Health Hub in Salisbury Street. The purpose of her speech was to generate suggestions from Sunrise members that would help make her proposed presentation at the next round of resource hearings a show-stopper.
We were unanimous in believing she has a strong base to her presentation and valuable recommendations were suggested, including those from her evaluator Kathy who commended Jesse’s use of humour and suggested she drop her reference to Nimbyism as a phrase that may alienate some of those she is attempting to win over.
Victor considered Kathy’s evaluation to be full, with needed recommendations to help Jesse achieve impact.
Sean spoke of Toastmasters International President Lark Doley, (who attended our last week meeting) with insights from his role as interviewer at the District meeting, her time with us, the following breakfast and a stroll down to her hotel.
Evaluator Gerard believed Sean succeeded in fleshing out our knowledge of Lark in a ‘successful presentation.’
Victor remarked on Gerard’s relaxed and noteless introduction, liking the evaluation with its insights of Sean’s spread of styles across different times of that presentation.
George spent the meeting counting ‘ums' ‘aahs’ & idiosyncrasies, valuable information for those who don’t have the benefit of ever seeing themselves in action.
Victor finished his General Evaluation role with brief comments on all the Table Topics presenters from ‘…needed more story’ ‘…confident… could have padded out…’ ‘seized the opportunity…’
Toastmasters is more than simply a club where people get up to speak. Evaluation has a major role, even to the place where Evaluators are evaluated.
Such skills are useful across many jobs and professions. As International President Lark Doley reiterated at the previous weeks meeting, the skills and programmes Toastmasters provides give a solid base for leadership.
For more information contact Victor 021 225 8217.
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