Perseverance

Perseverance” was the theme of today’s meeting. It’s an important character of oneself to continue in a course of action in spite of difficulty. We must persevere and never give up to reach our goal in life even though there’s little or no indication of success initially. “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” – St. Paul Christine, our Toastmaster of the Day kicked start the meeting with this noble theme. And coincidently, Denise had chosen the word “Persist” as the Word of the Day. It means “to continue firmly or obstinately”. Hmm…both ladies read each other’s mind…this is how we work together in CWC Toastmasters! Our speaker today was none other than our very own President, Penny. Penny was doing her Entertaining Speech in the Advance Communication Series. She told us in a very hilarious way what she wanted to do to stay healthy physically, mentally and emotionally. Her body language was excellent and she had a very good sense of humour. Everyone was really enjoying as Penny delivered the 7-minute entertaining speech which was full of amusement. Excellent, Penny, we want more! We talked about “special days” on Table Topics. It was very informative as we learned from each other how we celebrated different holidays from different cultural backgrounds. We had 2 lovely guests with us, Helen, who had won the best language used in Table Topics last week, and Ofelia. And both of them had decided to sign up as members of CWC Toastmasters! Welcome, Helen and Ofelia, we are very glad you join us and be part of the team. And welcome back Marilyn. It’s wonderful to see you again.

Togetherness

autumnIt’s officially Autumn today and we had with us in the meeting Mike Forrest, our Area Governor and also Chris, a guest from Sunrise Toastmasters.

Penny, our Toastmaster of the Day started the meeting with the theme “Togetherness”. She urged all of us to stand unity in strength, work together as a team and together we can achieve great things!

Candid” was the Word of the Day chosen by our grammarian, Helen. It means truthful, straightforward and frank. We were encouraged to use this word in our speech.

Shelby the main speaker told us the importance of knowing how settling in work while migrating in a new country. There were 6 emotional stages one would go through in the first 2 years settling in a new country. She quoted her own experience in settling in New Zealand and how she overcame some challenges over the first year. Her speech highlighted the problems and challenges faced by new migrants and how these new comers could get help and eventually fit in the new country.

fruitsOur Table Topics today were mysterious objects in a bag! What a refreshing way to present the table topics! Each of us picked an object from a bag and talked about it. We had orange, tomato, apple, plum, ginger and garlic! Amazing we could talk about each of these for a minute or two! Thanks Penny for this wonderful Table Topics.

Point to note:

When we use visual aid to present our speech, point at the visual aid and turn to the audience when explaining. Don’t look at the visual aid while speaking.

Have a great day, all of you!

Remembrance

This day 4 years ago at 12:51pm, Christchurch experienced its second powerful earthquake after the first one in September 2010. The quake shook the world and also the hearts of many in this beautiful Garden City. 185 precious lives perished.

heart
At about 12:50pm, we observed a minute of silence in remembrance of those who lost their lives, their families and all those who experienced and braved through this deadly disaster. We thank God for keeping us and being with us in this difficult time. We believe all the people in Christchurch will stand back up and Christchurch will be rebuilt and be a charming Garden City again.

We continued our meeting with the main speaker Helen spoke about her passion in teaching, her love for the children and the fulfilment of supporting and helping her students to turn around. She also told us the embarrassing, challenging and happy moments being a teacher and then principal in her school. Being “ruled by the bell” was her calling!

We had a wonderful guest, Linda with us today. And we were all impressed by her impromptu speech about which gender she would choose to be if she had a choice! Her argument was that it was not about sex but the heart that determined who we really were. Brilliant Linda. Thanks for coming and we hope you’ll join CWC Toastmasters.