Enthusiasm bums bright, warm

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 57, 18 July 1974, Page 7

Enthusiasm bums bright, warm

Winter weather has not cooled the enthusiasm of the Lake Taupo Toastmistress Club, and members have been kept busy — and warm — with a number of outside assignments recerttly. On June 27, a minimeeting was presented by five members to the. Taupo Plunket Mothers' Club; another is to be staged for the Broadlands WDFF this week. On July 4, despite highly prejudiced vocal support by club members, the debating team was narrowly defeated by Rotorua Toastmasters in the quarter-final - of the Waikato area contest. Now, final preparations are being made for the

club's annual general meeting, to be held on July 24. Officers elected at this meeting will be formally installed at a dinner on August 3. But minds are far from dulled by this extra work, as was evident at the July 10 meeting. In the capable hands of Dorothy Fisher as toastmistress, the programme kept everyone alert and involved. An imaginative session of "table topics" was presented by Isa Gaffney, who took the theme "Love, Hate and Fear" and gave participants one-and-a-half ~ minutes to relate each of these emotions to a specific subject. Topics were varied and ranged from Lake Taupo

through family holidays to platform-sole shoes. Durelle Attwood and Doreen Gordon evaluated the replies and presented Jill Mclsaac with the "table topics" award for her heartfelt speech on male drivers. A dramatic excerpt from Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" was chosen by Bridget Woodrow as her oral reading, for which she won the toastmistress of the evening award. She was evaluated by Anna Bonke. "Time is Life" was the title of Erin McGeough's third assignment, a thought — and action — provoking speech in which she exhorted members to start work on achieving those life-long plans and ambitions now.

Her evaluator was Cath Biggar. A lively open evaluation discussion of the previous meeting was chaired by Leonie Morine, and members had many ideas for changes and improvements to future meetings. In her kindly and constructive general evaluation, Peggy Geddes commented on the success of the exercise and suggested it should be included regularly. The best evaluator of the evening was Durelle Attwood. Gretchen Kivell held the stop-watch, and the "ah" and "um" counter was Anne Young, whose honesty in including her own hesitations is unprecedented in the club's short history.