Timing was precise tonight
President Gail used the buzzer to good effect, so that the formal part of the meeting finished sharp on 7.25 and the notices took exactly 5 minutes. The meeting finished on time at 7.30 but there were still a dozen people on site at 8pm, finishing off the excellent supper, discussing outstanding presentations in the meeting and generally socialising.
The new supper committee did a great job
President Gail has organised a supper committee with Margaret and Karyn. We had a range of different foods as well as tea and coffee. It’s a great idea.
Amanda was Toastmaster.
She kept the meeting moving and gave polished introductions.
Margaret inspired us with her journey in public speaking, demonstrating her new capacity to move purposively.
Tony and Table Topics! Macabre as always, he launched accusations of socially unacceptable and murderous behaviour. Highlights in the answers came from Alan dealing with his cross dressing proclivities, visitor Meechan’s new take on Cupid’s arrows, new member Suvidh’s first answer and Pascale’s launch of a new Toastmaster Club based on Cluedo murders.
Alan’s Tonic dealt with sunshine flooding in after his neighbours removed trees.
Hermine handled 9 answers!! in her 5 minute Table Topics Evaluation and only came in just over a minute over time. Every speaker received a brief but valuable CRC – the Commend, Recommend, Commend.
David presented a workshop on our Outstanding Member Awards. Where other clubs usually have one Toastmaster of the Year, we had 6 Outstanding Members and 3 High Performing Members in the year just completed. He gave a handout on the criteria and referred to the website at Current Awards for progress in our new year. There was some discussion about possibly adding service as a District Officer to the range of activities delivering points.
3 excellent Project Speeches
Ben presented his CC2, his second Competent Communicator speech, on “Insulin”. He was enthusiastic and energetic and the speech was full of fascinating information. A highlight was the demonstration of an on the spot diagnosis of Diabetes by dipping a finger in a patient’s urine and sucking it!! Gail evaluated Ben.
Craig gave a polished CC8 on “Death by Powerpoint”. It was a polished Powerpoint presentation about how to use Powerpoint effectively, as opposed to the usual boring versions most people experience. Karyn evaluated Craig.
Cathy delivered her 5th and final Speechcraft presentation. Her “Dealing with Difficult People” speech was all about her experiences as a soccer referee handing male matches. It was an extraordinarily talented presentation dealing with Vocal Variety. Her concept was to demonstrate her problems as umpire and her failed solutions, contrasted with how she could have done it better. The concept gave excellent opportunities for demonstrating vocal variety and her execution was outstanding. Glenis evaluated Cathy.
The final section
Diane presented Highlights and gave an interesting review of the meeting.
Mark evaluated the evaluators.
Gail gave the Timing Report.
Judith evaluated the meeting.
President Gail closed the meeting. Visitor Padmini enjoyed the meeting very much and particularly appreciated the way Toastmaster Amanda gave brief explanations for each meeting role. Visitor Meechan enjoyed the meeting and queried why Table Topics Master Tony moved to the side after asking each question. Mark gave a clear explanation of our practice in this regard and Pascale promised an article for the website.
Overall the meeting was energetic, with skilful presentations that were often highly humorous. One of our best.
