Churton Park Toastmasters

07/09/2026

🌱 Thursday Meeting Recap: Season of New Beginnings
Our Thursday evening meeting was organised by Rhys, with the meeting theme being "Season of New Beginnings." We kicked off with a warm-up exercise focused on what spring meant to club members 🌸. Responses ranged from finally getting on with DIY jobs to getting out for walks around the neighbourhood.

🎤 Our first prepared speech was an icebreaker from Sanduni, entitled "The Journey That Brought Me Here." In her speech, Sanduni charted her journey to New Zealand, describing starting a new life as "exciting but brutal at times." She noted her speech was "not just my icebreaker speech, but the beginning of my journey" at Toastmasters.

📚 Our second speech was from Thelma as part of the Successful Club Series. Thelma gave an education-oriented speech on strategies to find and retain members for our club.
Our speakers were supported by Toby and Graeme, who provided actionable feedback tailored to each speaker. 🙌

For impromptu speaking, Craig tested our ability to deliver a 2-minute structured speech on a series of rather tricky topics, with Aymaan providing useful feedback. ⏱️ Jonathan kept the meeting running to time as our timer, and Kerry provided feedback on our language and use of the word of the day.

🏆 Winners and Trophies for the evening:
Most Memorable Contribution – Sanduni
Best Speaker – Sanduni and Thelma
Best Table Topics – Tony
Best Evaluator – Toby

📅 We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on 17 September. Never attended a Toastmasters meeting before? Why not start at Churton Park? 😊

21/08/2026

🎤 Thursday Meeting Recap! 🎤

Our Thursday meeting was chaired by Toby 👋, who kicked things off with a warm-up exercise asking members what they were grateful for. Answers ranged from family ❤️ and health 🩺 to a surprisingly low water bill! 😄💧

We were treated to two incredibly diverse and awesome speeches. 🌟🎙️

🏉 Our first prepared speaker was Jonathan, with a speech titled "More Than a Game." He reflected on the benefits he's gained from joining a sports team: life skills like teamwork 🤝, perseverance 🔥 and communication 💬, plus real improvements to his mental and physical health. As Jonathan put it, joining a sports team "enriches your life with a broad sense of belonging and tests your life skills in such a different environment." 💪✨

🤖 Our second speaker was Ying Kai, who explored the risks of AI becoming too intelligent, using visuals from The Terminator 🎬. He challenged us to consider: "What if the real Terminator is our own failure to control what we create?" 😳⚠️

Our prepared speakers were supported by evaluators Rhys and Aymaan, who both delivered informative, practical feedback. 🙌📝 Peter tested our impromptu speaking skills as Table Topics Master 🎲, with Tripti assessing each mini-speech. As Grammarian, Craig gave us our word of the day: serenity 🕊️🍃, and challenged us to work it into our speaking. Kerry rounded things out as our General Evaluator ✅.

🏆 Awards of the evening:
🎯 Best Evaluator – Aymaan
🗣️ Best Table Topic – Kerry
✨ Most Memorable Contribution – Jonathan
🎖️ Best Speaker – Ying Kai

📅 Our next meeting is Thursday 3rd September. Rather than just read about our meetings... why not come join us in person? 😊🚪

08/08/2026

Our recent Thursday evening was full of thoughtful and personal speeches! 🌟

First off, Blake set the tone by chairing the meeting and kicking things off with our warm-up topic: "What do you enjoy or hate about winter?" ❄️

We then had Tripti deliver a speech entitled "The Calm that Scares People" 🧘. Tripti made effective use of intentional body language to reinforce her delivery, and spoke about the impact of her meditation and yoga journey. A transformative experience which scared her family members!

This was followed by Craig, who recounted his experience of growing up in apartheid-era South Africa. With the help of some great visual aids, Craig gave an unfiltered, raw, and personal account of the restrictions imposed by apartheid and South Africa's transition to the "rainbow nation." He poignantly reminded the audience that "when freedom is working properly, you can't feel it." Our prepared speakers were supported by Peter and Kerry respectively, who gave useful and informative feedback.

Our impromptu speaking skills were put to the test by Aymaan 🎲, who served up a fantastic range of quirky topics for our participants Ying Kai, Aaron, and Sanduni! Some real head-scratchers. these impromptu speakers were evaluated by Usama, who gave feedback on their delivery and ability to think on their feet.

The meeting was supported by a fantastic team of evaluators 👏. Toby provided the grammarian's report, Meghana (aptly mentored and supported by Rhys) reported on the timeliness of our meeting, and Thelma gave a fantastic overall evaluation and wrap-up of our performance.

🏆 Awards and evaluations:
🥇 Best Speaker: Craig
✨ Most Memorable Contribution: Craig and Tripti
🎯 Best Evaluator: Peter
💬 Best Table Topic: Blake

Join us for our next meeting on Thursday 20th August for another exciting instalment! 🚀

27/07/2026

Demystifying Toastmasters #9: ISN'T THIS JUST FOR SALESPEOPLE AND CEOS? 💼🤔

Are you picturing a room full of high-flying corporate types talking about "synergy" and "leveraging strategic customer relationships"?

CORPORATE LADDER MYTHS, DEBUNKED: ❌
• NO, you don't need a LinkedIn profile full of buzzwords 🚫💬
• NO, this isn't just for people chasing their next promotion 🚫📈

WHO'S ACTUALLY IN THE ROOM: 👀
• Students, retirees, public servants, and small business owners🎓👵👶🔧
• Skills that easily transfer from wedding speeches to job interviews to plain old small talk.

📅 When: First and third Thursday of the month
📍 Where: Johnsonville Bowling Club
👕 Dress code: Jeans and hoodies (appropriately non-business like!)

TOASTMASTERS: NOT JUST FOR PEOPLE WHO SAY "LET’S CIRCLE BACK"!

18/07/2026

Our recent Thursday evening meeting hosted our mid-winter club dinner. 🍽️❄️ While Toastmasters is about the pursuit of oratory excellence, the club also hosts social events throughout the year which provide an opportunity for members to get to know one another and connect. 🤝

In addition to stuffing our faces, the evening agenda also included our annual prizegiving 🏆 which celebrates and acknowledges member achievements for the 2025/26 Toastmasters year. Special congratulations to Toby 👏 who took out the most awards for the year and was awarded the "Two Brown's" trophy 🥇 What a fantastic way to celebrate the end of the Toastmasters year in a relaxing and warm atmosphere with great food and company! ☕✨

Thank you to our VP Education Rhys for organising certificates 📜 and engraving of the trophy. 🙏

07/07/2026

🎙️ Another meeting filled with oratory excellence! ✨

A big thank you to Aaron for keeping the evening running smoothly as our Chair, and to Ying Kai for keeping us all grammatically honest as our Grammarian! 📝

We had two fantastic speeches on the night. First up, Aymaan delivered a speech on the topic of "Together Against Family Violence" 💙. A powerful and important subject, drawing on skills from Presentation Mastery with a focus on effective body language and nonverbal communication.

Our second speaker was the wonderful Thelma 👏, who presented "You Are the Product: The Art of Personal Branding". Thelma's speech was a topic-and-answer session format that's always a crowd favourite! 🌟

Usama put members on the spot as our Table Topics Master 🎯, with Kerry overseeing proceedings as General Evaluator. Blake and Steve provided evaluations for our speakers, with Jacqueline evaluating our table topics speakers. Anne kept us all on time ⏱️ and Ying Kai pulled double duty as Ah Counter too!

🏆 Awards for the evening:
🥇 Best Speaker - Thelma
🥇 Best Evaluator - Jacqueline
🎖️ Most Memorable Contribution - Aymaan
🥇 Best Table Topics - Phoebe

Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone who participated! Come along and join us sometime! 😊🎙️✨

07/07/2026

🎙️ Another fantastic night at Churton Park Toastmasters! ⚽
Our previous meeting had a brilliant theme "The Football World Cup: Love it, Hate it, How it Changes Your Life" Our warm-up had everyone sharing what the World Cup means to them: the drama, the excitement, and yes, the antics. 😄🌍 A huge thank you to Kerry for chairing the evening! 👏

We were treated to two outstanding speeches. First up, Peter delivered a compelling talk on accelerating New Zealand's electric vehicle future ⚡🚗. Covering everything from our renewable energy advantage to imported oil dependence and the latest geopolitical developments.

Then Graeme took the stage with "G's Gym" 💪🏋️. A fascinating account of designing his own fitness and exercise app. With a twist! Audience members were assigned disruptive roles - the talker, the interruptor, the arguer, the chatterer. Graeme handled every challenge with ease and good humour. Special mention to Aymaan whose enthusiastic pen clicking provided some extra atmosphere! 😂🖊️ A brilliant demonstration of the variety and creativity in the Toastmasters curriculum.

Craig then put us all on the spot with a superb set of football-themed Table Topics ⚽🎯, testing our ability to think on our feet. Our speakers were supported by a fantastic team: evaluators Thelma and Tripti 👍, table topics feedback from Toby, a general evaluation from Rhys, timekeeping from Aymaan ⏱️, and a grammarian's report from Anne 📝.

🏆 And the awards for the evening went to:
🥇 Best Speaker - Peter
🥇 Best Evaluator - Thelma
🥇 Best Table Topics - Rhys
🥇 Most Memorable Contribution - Graeme

What a wonderful evening of learning, laughter, and growth. Come join us and see what Toastmasters is all about! 😊🎙️✨

05/06/2026

🎤 What a fantastic Thursday night at Toastmasters! 🌟✨

Our meeting was brilliantly chaired by Tripti with the theme 'Technology: the good, the bad, the unmet expectations' 📱💻 She set the tone perfectly with a warm-up question that had everyone reflecting: "How many times do we have our phone in our hands when we should have our partner's hand?" 💭❤️

The prepared speeches were awesome!😄 First up, Thelma delivered 'Fitness 101' - fresh from her impressive second place finish at the District 72 conference 🏆🥈 Her hilarious take on her fitness journey had the room roaring - when her husband promised a gift that goes from zero to a hundred in seconds, she was dreaming of a Ferrari... he meant bathroom scales! 😂🏋️ Rhys followed with a compelling and thought-provoking 'Opinions abound: Making up your own mind' 🧠💡 challenging us all to form our own judgements and put our first impressions to the test rather than relying on the views of others.

Maria then put our impromptu speaking skills to the test with Table Topics, tackling big questions like "If the world lost the internet, what would you miss the most?" 🌐❓ No preparation, no excuses, just impromptu speaking at its best!⚡🎙️

Huge thanks to evaluators Toby, Aymaan and Peter for their sharp and supportive feedback 👏 to Usama for keeping us on track ⏱️ Jonathan for keeping those filler words in check 👂🚨 and Blake for tying it all together as our General Evaluator! 🎯

It was wonderful to welcome back returning guests and especially a former club member who paid us a visit - great to see you! 🎉🙌😊

🏅 And the awards go to....
Best Table Topics: Anne 🗣️
Most Memorable Contribution: Rhys 💬
Best Speaker: Thelma 🎤
Best Evaluator: Aymaan ⭐

📅 Next meeting: Thursday 18th June - we'd love to see you there! 👋😊

22/05/2026

🎙️ Chalk up another incredible meeting!

Our meeting was chaired by the Thelma 🏆🌟, fresh off an impressive second-place finish in the Humorous Speech at the Division Contest!

Jonathan took us on a moving journey through Ireland 🍀, reconnecting with his family roots and the power of travel. He left us with this beautiful reflection: "It changed the way I see myself. It's about community, connection and understanding others." ✈️❤️🌍

Usama delivered a thought-provoking speech on New Zealand's retirement income policy 📊, challenging us with a vital question - is New Zealand truly prepared for an ageing population?
Aymaan showed incredible growth 🌱 by re-delivering his speech on depression, incorporating feedback from his previous attempt. A true demonstration of the Toastmasters journey. 💪💙

Our Table Topics Master, Tripti, put our impromptu speaking skills to the test 🎯 with thought-provoking prompts. Peter provided feedback on speech structure. 🧠🗣️

A huge thank you to our evaluators Aaron, Craig and Graeme for their detailed feedback on content, delivery, vocal variety and audience engagement 👂. Our meeting was supported by others including Ying Kai (General Evaluator), Anne (Timer) ⏱️ and Maria (Grammarian) 📝👏.

And the awards go to....
🥇Best Evaluator - Graeme
🥇 Best Speaker - Jonathan
🥇 Most Memorable Contribution - Aymaan
🥇 Best Table Topics - Katina

📅 Join us at our next meeting on Thursday, 4 June at 7:30pm. New faces always welcome, come along and see what Toastmasters is all about! 😊🎤✨

20/05/2026