The WOW Toastmasters Club is a club with a difference, having meetings with a difference, at venues with a difference!

WOW Toastmasters Club meets on the 3rd Sunday of each month (but may vary) at a different venue in the Wairarapa, indoors in the winter and outdoors in the summer. Every second meeting is held at Cobblestones Museum, Greytown.

WOW Toastmasters Club is a community club with members from all over the Wellington and Wairarapa regions. Some of the meeting venues have included a winery, a brewery, a hotel, restaurants, cafes, gardens and museums, and a dairy farm.

Next meeting

Sunday 15 August 2010, at Royal Hotel, Featherson at 11 am, followed by lunch. All welcome! Look out for the Toastmasters flag outside the venue.

For more information email wow@toastmasters.org.nz or phone Anna on (06) 370 8307 evenings.

Download and print 2010 Meeting Calendar and Venues List.

2010 Meeting Diary

Here's a diary and photos of our WOW meetings in 2010:

Sunday 18 July 2010, at Cobblestones,

It was a packed house for WOW's July meeting chaired by Rita Stirling with a theme of "blue". Just about everyone was wearing something blue, and the grammarian Glynis was looking out for the use of the word in our speeches.

Speech 1 was by Jenny entitled "The 3P's of Management", with her opening line "Managing a newspaper is like herding feral cats...". Evaluator Val said she was hoping to gain some wisdom from Jenny.

Speech 2 was by Anna. This was a visual aid speech entitled "Harakeke and pasta", and her opening line was "Is everything as it seems?" Anna gave us a background on how she came to learn abut flax and its relationship with pasta. She displayed various items of flax and how a simple flax leaf can be made into a beautiful cloak.

Speech 3 by Justin was an advanced manual "Presenting an Award", and his opening line was "You're awesome as a club". He explained that WOW had achieved 10 goals on the Distinguished Club Program, and listed the award recipients and major achievements of the year, saying that WOW "punches well above its weight".

Speech 4 by Maureen was an entertaining speech called "Holidays with the kids". Maureen described her school holidays with the grandchildren. Evaluator Trish said Maureen had used a mixture of humour and drama, with lots of twists and turns, keeping the momentum going.

The last speech was by our new Area Governor Keith Morris. Keith's opening line was "A leader knows the way, shows the way and goes the way". In this speech, Keith introduced himself and his role as Area Governor, and the District 72 Theme.

Table Topics run by John followed the meeting's "blue" theme with 5 speakers.

Following the meeting and lunch, club officer training was held by the Division Governor, covering leadership skills and administrative updates and other important information for the coming year.

Sunday 20 June 2010

A small group gathered for our mid-winter meeting chaired by Donna, with the word of the day from Grammarian Rita being "solstice". Table Topics Master Maureen's theme was "rubbish", with each speaker having to talk about some aspect of the topic.

Speech 1 by Dale entitled "Keeping the Barrier Reef Great" was a persuasive speech about the need to preserve and protect the reef. Evaluator Lynn said Dale needed to be a little more powerful, but the message was clear.

Speech 2 by Anna was an icebreaker called "Who am I". In this speech Anna talked about her discovery of and use of Reiki. There was a lot of discussion over lunch about this topic.

In Speech 3, Rita (pictured above) told us about her new found love - and no, it wasn't her new husband Justin - it was an Italian chef called Antonio Carluccio, and the recipes she has tried in his Simple Cooking book. Although we should have felt sorry for Justin, he is actually the recipient of Rita's newfound cooking skills, so that makes it alright! Rita even handed out a treat at the beginning of the speech which we all got to try, and boy was it yummy.

Jenny gave a very humorous evaluation of all the table topic speakers, sprinkled with recommendations. The other evaluators all gave solid commendations and recommendations for their speakers on their speeches.

In General Business, Justin advised that the club will make President's Distinguished Club for the first time ever, which is a marvellous achievement. Timekeeper Eric reported on all the speakers, and Grammarian Rita reported on who had used her word of the day, and she posed some listening post questions, which everyone was finally able to answer.

Following the meeting, we all enjoyed a hot meal at the Main St Deli in Greytown.

Sunday 16 May 2010

May's meeting started off with the Grammarian Rita announcing the word of the day "nurture". Then Table Topics got under way with Table Topics Master Anna giving each speaker a picture from an advertisement, and inviting us to talk about the image. Most speakers managed two minute humorous stories.

First speaker Caroline was completing her number 10 speech for the Competent Communicator Award. She gave an inspirational speech which had us all enthralled. Next was Maureen with a story about her grandfather, who was a sawmiller in the early days in the Wairarapa. Then Gary also completed his number 10 speech with a description of this journey through Toastmasters from his speechcraft beginnings. Finally Dale gave a tribute to her great uncle Denis Healy, a World War I hero.

Next was the annual business meeting for the club where we elected a new committee, approved the club's accounts and heard the president's report about the status of the club and its achievements. Special mention was made of Lynn Bushell's participation in the District International Speech Contest - a first for a WOW club member to achieve such high recognition.

Following the meeting, we all enjoyed a sumptuous Top Pub Sunday Roast, as you can see from the photo below.

Sunday 18 April 2010, Cobblestones

It was a warm autumn day at Cobblestones for WOW's April meeting. With a "harvest" theme, four speeches and table topics, the small group had a most enjoyable time.

First speaker Glynis talked about "My friend John", a heartfelt description of her friend and his personal life. Second speaker Anna talked about the word "bucket", its uses, colours, shapes, where you find it, movies and origins. Third speaker Justin talked about his "Journey to Enlightenment", revealing some of the lessons he has learnt throughout life, and finally Gary's speech entitled "Bold is beautiful" gave us some business tips for surviving the recession.

Table Topics run by Trish followed the meeting's "harvest" theme with interesting questions and responses.

Grammarian Maureen reported that the word "harvest" had been used 24 times during the meeting, and the General Evaluator Glynis said she loved the "harvest" display on the table (see photo above). Dale managed to nab a few of the exhibits from Rita's garden for her Sunday dinner!

Sunday 20 March 2010, Lake Ferry

First time chairman Gary Coley opened the meeting by giving us a description of the history of the Lake Ferry area and the hotel. Trish introduced the word of the day "curious" and in her report at the end of the meeting, said it had been used 14 times.

Table Topics run by Donna used the theme of "numbers", where all speakers had to talk about a number and how it related to them. The topics were a winning raffle number, a 21st birthday, the power of 3s, starting school and 88 double my luck. Evaluator Justin thought that all the speakers had got straight into the topic and he enjoyed how everyone used the number given in a humorous or interesting manner.

Maureen (pictured below left) was the first speaker with "A Touching Story" about her mother and how she had suffered from Alheimers in her later years, finishing with a poem written by Maurren from her funeral service. Evaluator Trish said to just slow down a bit to let the audience feel the emotions.

The second speech by Anna (pictured above right) talked about the labels used by people when discussing mental health problems. Evaluator Glynis complimented Anna on her wonderful quotes and picturesque language and images.

The third speaker Dale described the February 23 Titahi Bay fire, how it started, the damage it caused, and how the audience can prepare themselves for something like that in their own neighbourhood. Evaluator Maureen complimented Dale on a first class speech, which completed Dale's 10th Competent Communicator Award.

The last speaker Donna talked about the history of polio, the Rotary Polio Plus immunisation programme, and how her mother had suffered from polio since she was three years old. Evaluator Justin complimented Donna for the sense of humour included in the speech, and he loved the ending: "Thanks floppy". This speech completed Donna's first Competent Communicator award.

Following the meeting, some Toastmasters had Lake Ferry's famous fish and chips for lunch.

Sunday 21 February 2010

WOW Toastmasters meet on Historic Floating Crane

In a world first, the WOW (Wairarapa on Weekends) Toastmasters Club 9964 met on a working self-propelled floating steam crane, the "Hikitia", berthed at Wellington, New Zealand's capital city. The meeting venue was actually the crew cabin, just below the waterline, and we could hear the sea slapping and sloshing against the side of the ship, as we rocked and swayed with the tide. We sat amongst the bolts and bulkheads, with the smell of oil and engines in the air, surrounded by lifejackets and fire extinguishers, ships clocks and portholes. On the walls were stories, newspaper clippings and historic photos of the "Hikitia" in action.

Our theme for the meeting was "ocean, nautical, maritime" and our Table Topics master came up with some wonderful topics for the speakers, which resulted in some hilarious stories about pottering in rock pools as a child, rescuing a fisherman from rocks, being seasick on the Interislander Ferry, and yachting in Wellington Harbour. Speakers also talked about their love of jetskiing, catching and cooking fresh blue cod, and fossicking on a stony beach at Haast.

Following the meeting, the club members were given a tour of the ship, and then lined up on the bridge for a photo with our club banner (see photo below).

Past years Meeting Diaries

View our 2009 Meeting Diary and our 2008 Meeting Diary to find out what the club achieved, where we visited, and the range of speeches delivered by our members.