Report for 15th June 2010
REPORT FOR THUESDAY 15TH JUNE
Once again, we were depleted of numbers. The meeting started on time with a, disappointing, 11 members, 2 guests and a visitor in the form of Philip Landergan of Lewisham Club (new area governor).
The meeting was got underway by Joan Jardine, Sergeant at Arms, who spoke about Vocal Variety and how to use your voice to effect whilst speaking. Joan recommended a book by Judy Apse, “Influence of Voice”. Link for book on Amazon, below:-
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voice-Influence-Judy-Apps/dp/1845902882/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276693985&sr=1-5)
Abbi, among her many other roles for the evening, was (stand in) President. She began by speaking about the history of Toastmasters International. Toastmasters was founded in 1924 and now boasts 250,000 members, worldwide.
In her second role as Toastmaster for the evening, Abii’s warm-up asked the audience to name their favourite colour. The, as ever, witty Don Grant humoured us by saying that his favourite was, blue, because he’s cool!
First speech of the night was performed by Moneik Gardeneers. Moneik only recently joined the club but is already on her CC3; this was entitled, “Winning, success and how to use your body to achieve this”. She began by quoting the inimitable Winston Churchill, “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam”. A very interesting and useful quote; well worth considering for Toastmasters who feel that a previous speech was left wanting.
Moneik spoke about the Chakra system.( Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel, the chakras are energy vortices allowing energy to pass freely through the subtle bodies) and how we can use this in everyday life to improve our success. The link below is where you can find out more- (http://www.mindworks.uk.com/website/chakra.htm)
Moneik has, once again, improved her technique and confidence, giving an interesting speech. Ahs and umms, non- existent! Well done.
Don Grant was next to perform. His number 6 speech was from the ACB book, the objective of which was, “Make them laugh” . Entitled, “The Pleasure”, it did just that. Telling us about a new car which had, somehow, gained a dent in the paintwork, his feelings about it and how coping with this can be related to Toastmasters; Don was entertaining and witty.
Joan Jardine, last prepared speaker of the night, is a seasoned speaker with well over 30 speeches under her belt. This, her ACG2 speech was entitled, “Just in time”. The true story of her granddaughter almost coming to a sticky end due to a misunderstanding was humorous, poignant and semi- tragic in content and delivery. Joan can entertain with any type of story. This gained her the award of “Best Speaker” on the night. Well done, Joan.
After a (precise), 12 minute break, the meeting recommenced with evaluations. Pauline Hardy evaluated Moneik, Abbi (awarded most brilliant multi-tasker of the night!), evaluated Don and Philip Langardan evaluated Joan. With this critical, witty and praising evaluation Philip gained the vote of the audience for Best Evaluator.
Following evaluations was the Table Topics part of the programme. This was hosted by Don who had stepped into the breach; he used a book, brought in by Abbi and entitled, “Rules of Life” by Richard Templar, as his inspiration.
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rules-Life-Personal-Happier-Successful/dp/027370625X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276702608&sr=1-1)This book has some very interesting philosophies.
First “ victim”, was Joan, who had to speak for one and a half to two minutes on the subject of “Stepping outside your comfort zone”. Joan spoke about still being nervous, even after 36 speeches; about going belly dancing and yoga. All very entertaining, as expected.
Second to speak was Tajdeen. His speech, entitled, “Look after yourself”, got him in a flap and he only spoke for a short while; managing to tell us that he did not do as the title suggests and had a lot to learn. Maybe another of Winston Churchill’s great quotes would have been handy here, “I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks”! If only we could!
Fathiah, a guest, was given the title, “Be nice”. She told us that it was good to be nice and said that she had started by being nice to herself; leaving her children in the care of her husband to come to Speakers of Croydon to be happy with herself. Well done; this earned her joint “Best Table topics speaker”, along with another newcomer, Gordon Thompson. His title was, “Contentment is a High Aim”. Gordon told us that it is within our grasp, using a great analogy, “Nettles on the Palm”, to describe trying to grasp contentment. Virtues of this were aiming for compassion, determination, intelligence and self-fulfilment. Truly philosophical! Gordon was one of only two attendees to use the word of the night, “Penchant”! Well done to the newcomers! Hopefully, this will encourage you and give you the confidence to continue with the club and join our ranks.
Vanessa Buck was appointed Timekeeper on the night, explaining the importance of keeping with the time constraints applied to each speech and role. She was very efficient , being sure to concentrate when speeches could well have distracted her from her task.
Frank Thatcher was Grammarian and, since he had only just been informed, did not have a “word for the evening”. A word was picked from the Toastmasters’ collection; this word was “comity”. However, since we were unable to fathom what this word really meant, even with the help of “google”, we opted for an alternative, “penchant”. Ah, much better! This word was used by only two people, however, one being Vanessa. Frank told us to try to learn 3 new words everyday to increase our vocabulary; a slightly, tall order but, the idea of learning new words is commendable.
Ah Counter was Tajdeen Khader, a fairly new member to the club, he admitted that it was difficult to concentrate on noting the “umms and ahs” when the speeches were so distracting! Don and Joan were noted as being the worst culprits; though Tajdeen did berate himself by telling us that he had counted six during his own appearances “on stage”!He added that others probably got off due to his lapse, lucky us!
General Evaluator was Philip Langerdan who had many positive things to say about the meeting and its participants. He, also, had suggestions as to how we could improve, many of which were felt to be useful.
The meeting ended on time with mentions of the next meeting on the 29th June when we will have a “party” (yippee!) to celebrate the change- over of Club Officers. Pauline will be e mailing everyone for offers of refreshments for the evening. Watch this space!
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