Tuesday 29th June 2010
So, here we were, at the aftermath of the 2010 World Cup! England have been, unceremoniously, “dumped” out of the cup after seriously, dire performances throughout; culminating in their thrashing by Germany. How embarrassing, and how mind-numbingly boring.............. but, hey, there’s still the, amazingly entertaining, Croydon Speakers summer meeting to attend.
It was a truly International affair. We had a guest, Ted, who hails from Poland, (hope you decide to join, Ted), our new member, Moniek, from the Netherlands (and, yes, they are still in the World Cup; but we’ll let her off!), Zanna, from Ukraine and Romana, another guest (who joined last night).
There were 18 people in attendance; however, actual CSC members were in short supply. We had 3 guests, one of whom was a lapsed member, Sudanta’s wife, Ramona and Ted. There were also 5 members from Lewisham; this meant that we had a paltry 10 members present. COME ON CSC MEMBERS, WHERE’S YOUR STAMINA??
The evening was started by Sergeant at Arms, Joan; she always has a “Tip of the Day”. This evening’s tip was, to LISTEN. Particularly relevant for evaluators to ensure that they do not miss anything pertinent to their evaluation of the speaker. However, listening skills are very important to any Toastmaster; just as important as the actual speaking.
Sudanta, outgoing club president, spoke briefly about the,.... dare I say it again, football; he spoke of modesty and doing one’s best. Modesty is a trait that Andy Murray possesses but the England football team do not seem to. He reminded us of the, “5 Ps” – Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance!
Toastmaster for the night was Deirdre; and, so elegantly dressed was she that Sudanta pointed her out as an example to fellow Speakers of Croydon!
Lewisham guest, Vathani , as Timekeeper, told us that, “Time and Tide wait for no man (or woman)”!. It is ever more so true at Toastmasters ; to use more time than is allocated is to ‘steal’ it from other speakers.
Grammarian was Moniek; she told us that she would be very diligent and try to stay awake in this warm weather. Her word for the night was, “ AUGUST”, meaning, venerable. We were requested to clap whenever a speaker used this word; CSC members love clapping!
Camilla, in her role as “Ah counter” , told us that the translation of this in French was, literally, a Counter of Hesitations! Along with Ahs and Umms, Camilla was going to count those, “filler” words, such as, ‘Kinda’ and, ‘You know’!
As a warm up, Deirdre asked us to give a word of advice. Among the offerings were, “Check your bread” (Neil had found what looked decidedly like a piece of a rat in his)! “Smile” and “Challenge everything that you don’t understand”. Deirdre’s own advice was the website, “Say no to 0870”!
First Speaker of the night was, Tajdeen; this was his CC2 speech, entitled, “Enjoy your life”. Taj spoke about enjoying life now with 4 pointers; these being, 1) Tune into Beauty 2) Enjoy the necessary 3) Say,’no’ to the negative 4) Develop your potential . Inspirational stuff!
Pauline was next up with her CC6, calling it, “The DD Phenomenon”. She related the problem that existed with her younger daughter who cannot distinguish left from right, with interesting results. Her latest poetic offering being:-
My daughter has a problem, sometimes it gives a fright,
For my daughter’s problem is that she can’t tell left from right!
When directing someone who is driving in their car
She will shout, “I said, go left”, they will shout, “We are”!
“Whoops” she says, “I meant, go right”, what causes this confusion
Is it her left-handedness or a brain contusion?
Was she born an idiot, is she not so bright?
I’m at a loss as to why she can’t tell left from right.
Third speaker was a guest from the Lewisham club, Zhanna; she is trying to get to her CC10, 9 at the Croydon Club and 10 at her own club on Wednesday. Her speech was entitled, “The fittest survive, from Charles Darwin’s own words, “Survival of the fittest” . A very, “tongue in cheek” warning to those of us who are unfit and overweight. James Bond was named as the perfect man. Hilarious, Zhanna. Good Luck on Wednesday with your 10.
Penultimate speaker was Frank with another speech from the Advanced Speaker book, “Make them laugh”. Entitled, “Travelling Speaker”, it told of Frank’s travels round the Toastmasters Clubs circuit, visiting clubs as far afield as Northern Ireland; he invited us to his 100th birthday party. Sorry Frank, I may be a little busy that day pushing up daisies!
Sudanta, in the final throes of being President, spoke about “The win-win movement”. Referring to Toastmasters, Sudanta asked what one could get for £3 that was good value for money. Obviously, a night at Croydon Speakers, or any Toastmaster club, for that matter. This speech, full of interesting statistics, earned Sudanta the Best Speaker award, once again. Well done.
Evaluators were, Abbi, for Taj; Jenny Taggart, another guest from Lewisham was roped in and evaluated Frank. Joan was given the task of evaluating Sudanta.
Philip Landergan evaluated Zanna and Neil evaluated Pauline. Neil managed a poem to counter Pauline’s. Unfortunately, I was too slow, with my writing, to get it on paper. Sorry, Neil. Good effort, though, on the spur of the moment! These two tied for best Evaluator for the night; well done, you two.
Moniek told us that her word “August” was only mentioned by a disappointing 2 persons. Deirdre used it twice and Sudanta once; shame on us! She said that she was impressed with the general use of grammar by everyone.
Camilla, in her report, used THE word! Yeah! She told us that Philip, Joan, Pauline and Sudanta were innocent of any “Ah and um” crimes, whilst, the other speakers had a selection of between 2 and 6 each. Camilla said that she had noticed the use of raised eyes to give people more thinking time and suspected that Philip’s inspection of his thumb had the same purpose! We’ll be watching very closely when the new area governor attends another of our evenings!
This brought us to the end of another fun-packed, entertaining evening at Speakers of Croydon. This is the end of the year. The new committee now takes over and..... it was party time!!!
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