Kickstart Toastmasters Club

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Kickstart Toastmasters Club

Kickstart Toastmasters is the fun place where you can improve your public speaking skills and confidence.

08/10/2026

Were we on "autopilot" today? - that was the question with Donna in charge. Stand-in Grammarian Dani was quick to pair it with our word of the day: "spontaneous" to encourage us to break out. We were down to two main speakers: Avril, who posed the question "what else is possible?" as a recurring opportunity for herself - and also for us to ponder. Urmas delivered a engaging tale about finding love in Formosa - in the face of a budding mother-in-law who threatened to sabotage all. To fill the empty slot, Donna invited anyone with a tip to share to come forward - which also gave TTM Stephen more targets for table topics. Sam did the honours to round-up as GE and it was nice to hear his voice again after several weeks of being away.

30/09/2026

What a fantastic vibe at Kickstart this morning!
Our Toastmaster Renee set the perfect tone with her theme of rituals, and the Word of the Day—comfort—wrapped around the whole morning like a warm blanket.
The speeches today were amazing:
Ande got us all thinking with "Whose voice are you listening to?" She shared the sweet story of meeting her husband and navigating the fact that she’s a little older. She had us laughing about her initial fears of being labeled a "cougar," "cradle snatcher," or "sugar mama," before deeply questioning whether society has just conditioned us to think that way.
Michelle brought us back to reality with a highly entertaining but necessary reality check on internet scams. She had the entire room chanting: "Do not click on the link!" and "Think before you click!"
Kathy took us on a visual journey along the Camino, sharing images of walking, singing, and listening to music along the trail.
Table Topics
Irmas turned his topic into a religious experience after spotting a massive huntsman spider in his bedroom!
Vince shared a beautiful family ritual centered around food, connection, and deep conversations around the dinner table.
Lawrence was handed a topic about serial killers, but in true Lawrence fashion, he completely subverted it to talk about his beloved guitar-playing ritual instead!
It was truly a fabulous morning packed with love stories, scam warnings, and epic travel tales. A great morning was had by all.

24/09/2026

Wow, what an incredible morning at Kickstart. The standard at our contests today was absolutely amazing. The Humorous Speeches were fantastic, while the Table Topics responses were incredibly well-rounded, and considered. A massive congratulations to all the brave contestants who stepped up to the lectern, especially the winners:
Table Topics Contest
1st Place: Kathy
2nd Place: Lawrence
3rd Place: Anna
Humorous Speech Contest
1st Place: Lawrence (double winner)
2nd Place: Angela
3rd Place: Avril
Huge thanks to our judges, Timekeepers, Tally Counters, and everyone who came out early this morning to support and make the event such a fantastic success.

17/09/2026

The Master of the Banquet, Stephen, served up a delicious repast that left everyone nourished and ready for their next meal.
The Appetisers:
Umus took the stage for the opening, and within minutes, had the room salivating with vivid descriptions of food.
Grammarian Anna perfectly captured the mood of the morning by choosing "passion" as the Word of the Day. In a fitting twist, Anna revealed her own passion is feeding people and cooking. She gave the club a double reason to celebrate by officially completing Level 1 of her Presentation Mastery pathway. Congratulations Anna.
The Main Course:
Ollie served up a sobering dish with his speech, "The Retirement Conversation Nobody Is Having." Delivering a heavy dose of reality, Ollie challenged the room to stop ignoring their financial futures. He urged everyone to take personal responsibility for their money and to start visualising what life will actually look like once they hit the age of 65.

Lynette delivered a fantastic speech titled "Check Out." Using brilliant vocal variety and dramatic body language, she recounted the absolute panic of waking up in a hotel room four hours early for a meeting, entirely convinced she was late.

The Side Dishes: Table Topics with Avril:
Tracy found herself mentally stranded on a desert island

Ingrid described the food that best represents her personality: salty, nutty, and distinctly full-bodied.

Vince entertained the room with his strangest culinary adventure, reminiscing about enjoying anchovies fish at a Turkish restaurant in Greece.

Tatia tackled overrated food and drink by declaring her undying love for red chilli gravy—an ingredient she boldly puts on absolutely everything.

Josh made a triumphant return after a long absence, proving he hasn't lost his touch—or his breath. In an absolute masterclass of linguistic gymnastics, he managed to stuff the Word of the Day, "passion", into a one-minute slot a staggering 10 times.

Vicky shared a story of personal growth, admitting she despised cucumber as a child but absolutely loves it now.

The Bitter-Sweet Dessert:
Raphael has booked a one-way ticket to Europe to spend quality time with his family. With no definitive plans to return. He will be missed. Thanks for choosing to spend time with Kickstart.

L'addition:
This culinary meeting was beautifully tied together and evaluated by the wonderful Marie, who summed up the morning's magic perfectly.

10/09/2026

"A good deed is like throwing a pebble into the lake and it ripples out." Toastmaster Marie "generously" sprinkled more pebbles of wisdom into our meeting today, all the while keeping us on track to the finish line. We were one speaker down but we still filled the space nicely. Vince delivered a spellbinding tale about "Ned" - his Australian sheepdog, who met an untimely end. Just wait for the movie. Stan followed with an update about a big thing happening in his life right now. We had time for a few more table topics than usual from TTM Vicki - where 'vomit 'seemed to feature in more than one story. Our GE Ande gave the thumbs up for another fantastic Kickstart meeting.

02/09/2026

We had a sneak peak into the world of "saunas" - which Toastmaster Ollie was keen to recommend as the perfect tonic, supplemented by a steamy quiz from opener Vicki to get us going, and a "bubbling" challenge from grammarian Rapael. Our first speaker Will gave a tale of the perils of dehydration (combined with a hangover) during a long-distance flight with the fasten-seatbelt sign on; and then Anna followed with a story of how her communication style was challenged when she recently sat on a jury of "12 strangers"; and finally, Marie put herself on the line by brilliantly responding to 5 questions thrown at her from the audience - all the while keeping her emotions in check. Our resident Finn Urmas has the perfect opening for table topics today - and managed to make a special target of our front-row audience. GE Tatia rounded off by annoucing she was back, and getting us to the finish line - and out of the steamy sauna - bang on time. Nice to see 3 guests with us this morning.

27/08/2026

It was all about the gestures if these pics are anything to go by.
With the theme for the week being World Championships of Public Speaking, Toastmaster Vince sprinkled anecdotes about some of the winners he’s met.
Eli was animated with his love of Transformers, Dani gave us her tips on setting up an Airbnb, and Renee took us to 22 February 2011 and her poignant experience at the centre of the Christchurch earthquake.
GE Anna suggested some concerted clapping effort might keep the stage warmer Thanks Ingrid for this week's contribution.

20/08/2026

Our creativity was put to the test as Toastmaster Lynette unveiled her theme, and grammarian Anna challenged us to "innovate". Only two speeches this week: first up Sam, who was very much on theme with his favourite topic of how to combine work with play (he told us he's even written a thesis on it); and then Stephen with an heart-warming tale of "How he met his mother" - who saw that one coming? Avril was our stand-in TTM while GM Michelle summed up by observing the great atmosphere she feels when she walks into the room on a Thursday morning - and how this week delivered again for her. Keep it up Kickstarters!

12/08/2026

How could we go wrong with a theme of "Best Holidays" for today's Kickstart session? Despite multiple substitutions, Toastmaster Greg showed he had it all under control, and we were encouraged to "explore" our memories and story resevoirs by Grammarian Ingrid. Our three speakers were all surprisingly on-theme today: an Icebreaker from Ben, who we learned has identical twin crises from time to time, and has been on some hairy travel adventures in his time; Jesse, the farm girl who has been trying out the hunting & shootin' experience; and Paul, who took a colourful trip around Central/South America complete with more than a few challenges. Stephen did a superb job multi-tasking as Greeter/TTM today; and for the first time in a while we managed to coast to an on-time finish. Great to see Jay back as a guest.

05/08/2026

"Clouds" were aloft in our meeting this morning after Toastmaster Anna was inspired by her move to new vistas in the country, while grammarian Ollie cast an "ominous' spell to get us in the mood. Three gripping speeches this morning, including an Icebreaker from Urmas which touched on his hunting passion from Europe; then Donna regaled with a tale of delayed concussion from a horse-riding incident; and finally Lawrence, who changed the setting to his discovery of a new-found passion with surfing. Eli grabbed the nettle of table topics this morning - and with what seemed like a very full programme, we still managed to finish on time - which Toastmaster Anna applauded and commended as a goal for every meeting.

Address

148 Durham Street
Tauranga
3110

Opening Hours

6:45am - 8:15am

Telephone

+64223902216

Website

https://www.kickstarttoastmasters.co.nz/

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