Meeting Snippets (for 2007)

See also meeting snippets for 2009 and later, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 or 2002.

18th September

R-U-G-B-Y was the name of the game today compliments of the Chair (Sanjiv). He provided entertaining bridging between speeches using the history of rugby and a competition to keep us entertained and wanting more!!! Murray (the Table topics master) continued the sporting theme into Tabletopics. Stephen had to comment (as SpongeBob Square Pants) on the rugby world cup, Colin (as Kim Possible) paid tribute to that famous netballer Irene van Dyke and Ben multi-tasked by giving a commentary on the weekend cricket score as Homer Simpson and Abdul. Mark had us swinging from laughter to horror with his speech entitled “The Nuns, the Girls and the worst musical experience of my life!!!” Brendan followed this up with a thought provoking speech “Death and Taxes”. Then Henry really stirred things up with a VERY controversial Advanced speech entitled “My friend Ramesh”. This was a speech from the Public Relations Manual which involved getting the audience worked up to a point they were asking emotionally based questions of the speaker. Henry had to demonstrate speaking skills in front of a hostile audience.

11th September

Another great meeting run by Sebastian. Excellent table topics from Stephen wanting to become a train driver – a superb effort for a first table topic, Tim on meeting Carlos Santana, and John wishing he’d studied more. And we had our usual array of fantastic speeches. Amanda’s climb up the 750 steps of Mount Sinai, Sanjiv’s entertaining advanced about slippers on the mantelpiece, and Glen’s call to action for the upcoming “Think Fast, Laugh Loud” conference. Let’s rally round and give Glen a hand to ensure it’s a great success. Please let us know, and more specifically Glen, if you can make it

4th September

Striving for Excellence was the objective of today’s meeting. This was reinforced by the Chair (Miranda) who asked the General Evaluator (Sebastian) to do a FILLER-KILLER session. This involves counting the number of ums/errs/fillers during the meeting. Happily we improved from 193 (last filler-killer session) to only 43 today!!! Our next goal is 0. We also had a motivational speech from our Area Governor (Diane) and managed to get three fabulous speeches in. Loren’s Project 6 entitled “Bright side of Life”, John’s Project 8 entitled “The Beat goes on” and Hirata’s Advanced speech called “The Pig”.

28th August

F-U-N. That’s what our Chair (Chris P) dished out to us this week!!!! He kicked the session off by announcing an impromptu debate. The topic was “Is global warming a conspiracy”. He then assembled two teams and while they were preparing, got Tim to run a very entertaining Table-topics session followed by an Advanced speech from Henry. Then the two teams (PROS and CONS) went head-to-head and battled it out. The PRO conspiracy team (of Leanne, John and Chris) fronted with a strongly structured and factual case but in the end were defeated by the CONS (Sanjiv, Miranda and Julie) with their strongly humorous stance!!!

21st August

Hello – Hello – Hello (yes…today’s theme was the POLICE, courtesy of John, the Chair). In keeping with the theme, John treated us to a variety of police jokes in between speeches. Then Chris (as Table-topics Master) hosted “NZ’s got Talent” which resulted in Glen explaining what his special talent was, Henry as a judge making favorable comments on Glen’s talent and Leanne as the “bad” judge also commenting on Glen’s performance. But wait...there’s more. We had 3 talented speakers. Sanjiv with an Advanced speech on Humorous speaking tips, Dianne with a Project 6 entitled “The Toastmaster Experience” and Ben’s Project 3 about Sustainability.

2nd August

The winner of our Club Humorous Speech contest for 2007 is Julie with her speech "What’s the Difference?" She will go on to represent Business Breakfast at the Area Contest in September. Runner up was Sanjiv with his speech called CEMENT. A fantastic evening was had by all at the Parade Café with great food, great company and more great speeches from Mark, Miranda and John. Everyone enjoyed the Tabletopics session which was “Super Hero Accessories” – and who can forget Gus as REMOTE CONTROL man?

17th July

AND THE WINNER OF THE 2006 BBC Club Table Topics contest is………Henry Lee. Henry took out the title by telling us about his contribution to keeping NZ clean’n’green. Mark Jones was placed second and Brendan Jarvis (with his first table topic ever!!!) got placed third. This means Henry and Mark progress to the E2 Area competition to be held in September. Hirata (as a first time Contest Chair) ran a model meeting today. Also a big thanks to the 10 contestants today who made this competition so special. The audience really enjoyed listening to the variety of speeches you delivered. I hope you all enjoyed the adrenalin thrill that only a contest can give.

3rd July

CHILLY – FREEZING – COLD – ICY …..get the picture? Winter was the theme of today’s session, thanks to our very experienced Chairperson (Sebastian). And to that end, Murray, Ben and LiLing all had to face the challenge of wintry table-topics (crafted by Cecily our Table-topics mistress). They thawed the audience brilliantly for our next three speakers. Ben delivered his P2 speech on environmental planning, Julie served up her P9 about Australia vs NZ and Hirata wrapped it up with an Advanced Humorous speech on using color as the best mechanism to pick a new car!!!

26th June

Hi everyone - Please join me in welcoming Peter Ng to the BBC Hall of Fame. Pete completed his Project 10 speech today (entitled Who am I?) to acquire his Competent Communicator award. This was a truly awesome achievement given that he has only been with the club since July last year. It is very unusual to have a member finish their CC award within 12 months!!!! Well done Pete and we also owe you another debt. Because you obtained your CC before the end of June 2007, you have helped the BBC club acquire the 9 points it needs to be a President Distinguished Club for the 4th year in a row!!!! This is another awesome achievement for our club.

19th June

Congratulations to Ben, who as a first time chair ran a fantastic meeting this week. Miranda (the Tabletopics Mistress) had: - Chris explained what language he would like to speak, - Sebastian share his Matarika with us - John expounded on the virtue of everyone in the world speaking the same language. Then Sanjiv educated us on the various roles/responsibilities of being in our club. And Glen achieved a personal milestone: he delivered his last two speeches to gain his Advanced Communicator Bronze award. Please join with me in congratulating Glen on this major achievement

12th June

Leanne was the Chair this week and had a very full agenda to manage. Loren as Tabletopics Mistress provided club members with strange & interesting pictures to “spin-a-yarn” about. Sebastian gave an awesome educational about mentoring. Pete got 1 step closer to his CC award, with his Project 9 speech about the Guthrie test and for John’s Project 6 speech – he shared his favourite UK comedy programme with us.

22nd May

Hi Toasties - The theme of the day was ATTITUDE (skillfully arranged by our first time Chair Dianne). Miranda (the Table Topics Mistress) arranged some great topics around attitude: - Li Ling discussed her negative attitude to the Oxford dictionary - Sebastian discussed his neutral attitude to going into outer space with Richard Branson - John G told us about his positive attitude to a celebratory meal he had for his daughter's graduation We then had three fabulous prepared speeches: Pete's P7, Research a topic - Why build on Lammermoor Range? The biggest wind farm in NZ Glen's Advanced speech about a special occasion - his father Martin H's birthday Henry's Advanced speech - accepting an award for his achievements operating the Rich Dad franchise

8th May

Murray (the Chair) cleverly wove thought provoking quotes through the meeting today. And it was a thought provoking meeting!!! Gus gave us a very informative P3 speech on GIGS. Sanjiv presented an educational on Leadership and service. And Mark set some great tabletopics which had: - Sebastian sharing his culinary talents - Miranda promoting her favourite book - Loren re-enacting her favourite Karoke moment. Chris (the President) then ran the club’s AGM and took us through the successes and goals achieved by the club in the 2006/2007 year. The new committee was elected and they are: President: Sanjiv VP Education: Leanne VP Membership: Loren VP Publicity: To be advised Treasurer: Murray Secretary: John Colonel at Arms: To be advised Past President: Chris Lee

25th April

Gus as a first time chair ran a model meeting this week. His theme of Fast Food allowed him to create excellent bridging between speeches by providing the club with horrific facts on the fast food industry. Pete as Table topics Master brought out the best in people. Miranda told us of her BEST holiday destination, Hirata told us of the BEST place to go in Wellington and Mark gave us a valuable tip on the BEST restaurant in town. Sebastian gave us the first educational of the year – Evaluate to Motivate and we also had a beautifully touching speech from Amanda entitled Season, Reason, Lifetime. (see this link for the poem that inspired Amanda’s speech http://www.yuni.com/library/docs/631.html )

17th April

Achievements were the theme of the session run by Li Ling and we certainly had a few to celebrate today. Sanjiv shared his learnings with us about his experience at the Division E conference. Then Ben (our Tabletopics Master) got club members to focus on achievements. This resulted in Pete telling us which famous person he found inspirational, Leanne outlined her aspirations for the future and Miranda shared a personal achievement. We finished up with a thought provoking Project 2 from Dianne called Greed and the Great God Money and a very humorous Project 2 about Koosh tennis by Chris.

3rd April

We had a fascinating meeting chaired by Pete and packed full of energy saving tips. Our Table topics session by Dianne was about body parts with Cecily choosing to give up her nose, Glen relying most on his hips (for dancing) and Henry advising Toastmasters helps us to learn and train our mind. Li Ling presented her Project 3 with an interesting history of maternity wear. We all met Ben with his icebreaker and learnt he was a tree-hugging, sports playing boy with leadership qualities. Murray then presented his Project 5 leading us with him on his ride safe trip from Johannesburg to St Lucia. Congratulations to Henry and Chris P for killing fillers, however the club has a long way to go here and Sebastian will continue to monitor and advise on our progress.

22nd March

What do you call a girl who cooks in your backyard? BARBIE (of course!!) Today's meeting was seasoned with children’s jokes (compliments of Leanne the Chair) which had members begging her to stop!!! We had an s2 from Cecily, entitled CHRIS IS A SCAFOLDER which involved recognising Chris’ achievements. This was followed by a S3 from Amanda called CALENDER IDOL which showed how a simple idea became a major project. Tabletopics were fast and furious this week. Henry (as Tabletopics master): got Dianne to describe what she would do with unlimited funds, had Li Ling outline her personal Utopia, inspired Murray to share his dream car (Knight Rider) prompted Tiri to advocate who her local hero was (in this case Sanjiv) and finished up with Chris elucidating on his dream food

14th March

Today's meeting went well with the BBC Toastmasters pulling together to make everything run smoothly, despite the chair being late due to unforeseen circumstances. We had an icebreaker from Dianne, enlightening us a bit about her life. This was followed by an educational by Tiri in how to sell using cold call techniques, including a roleplay with Chris Lee and question and comment section with the audience. We then had a Toast to Sebastian given by Glen and supported with a glass of Orange Juice. We had three brief, but fun tabletopics as we posed for our website photo. Chris Lee explained why his house is painted Lime Green with Purple window borders, Henry Lee told us about his yellow sporty Hummer and Loren gave us the rundown on Barney the dinosaur.

6th March

John the Chair ran a F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C meeting today packed with Tabletopics, 2 prepared speeches and a BULLRUSH. Murray (as Tabletopics master) dished out some famous song lines today resulting in: Tiri explaining "I bet you tell all the boys that" (Meat Loaf) Mike described Sydney as "This Mean Old Town" (Dire Straits) Loren shared her "Daddy’s going to take you to school" story (literally) Then we had two excellent speeches. Marks Icebreaker which gave us a very humorous insight into his middle name and Li Ling’s Project 2 about how her dog taught her some lessons on life. And on top of that we had a BULLRUSH focused on DAYLIGHT SAVING.

27th February

The winner of our Club International Speech contest for 2007 is Sanjiv Jetley with his speech "Dream Snatchers". Runner up was Miranda with her speech "Backwards Jigsaw". Sanjiv will go on to represent Business Breakfast at the Area E2 Contest in March. Please join me in congratulating Sanjiv and Miranda on their achievements.

A BIG THANK YOU to the Contest Chair, Glen, who ran a professional competition. Li Ling also treated us to a Table-Topics session focused on interesting quotes

13th February

Today Leanne (our speaker in our Club Evaluation contest) - gave an interesting speech called "Amazon Warrior Woman". We had four contestants in the contest today - Amanda, Henry, Miranda and Sanjiv. The winner of our Club Evaluation Speech contest for 2007 is Sanjiv Jetley. Sanjiv will go on to represent Business Breakfast at the Area E2 Contest in March.

30th January

What a FANTASTIC start to the New Year - a GREAT meeting, Sanjiv and Sebastian gained their Competent Communicator awards, EXCELLENT tabletopics and loads of new guests.