Tuesday 6th July Report
REPORT FOR TUESDAY 6TH JULY
Was it the fact that a World Cup quarter finals match was on TV; ( Moniek, the only native of the Netherlands who belongs to the club was actually present; mainly because she was too nervous to watch it live. We had to keep “googling” the score!) or was it the warm weather? Whatever it was, we had the grand sum of 9 persons at this meeting. One of whom was a guest on his second appearance at the club; hopefully, he has seen enough, enjoyed himself and would like to join. (Gordon).
Abbi Greene is now our new President. “Welcome”! She started her inaugural meeting with a few facts about Toastmasters International; there are 12,500 clubs worldwide, in 106 countries. There are two tracks which we can follow; Communication and Leadership... so, let’s get on with it (my words, not hers!)
Joan, who retains her role of Sergeant at Arms was, also, Toastmaster for the night (being assessed within her Leadership quest). She had a book of quotations which was used in the warm up. Each member and guest read out a quotation which they had picked by opening the book at random; except for Moniek who decided that, either the words were too complicated, or it was boring.....We got there in the end! Mind you, some of the quotations in the book were, well, weird; but it was fun.
Joan asked us to switch off our mobile phones before the meeting started, referring to them as WMDs (Weapons of Mass Distraction!). We were informed where the fire exits and toilets were. Funnily enough, this is quite important, particularly for guests. Well done, Joan.
Moniek was Grammarian and chose the word “VOCIFEROUS” (vehement, loud, noisy, make feelings known) for the word of the night. Due to lack of numbers, Moniek was, also, Ah counter.
Abbi was Timekeeper; she was concerned that she was not sure how to use the stopwatch. I’m not surprised, most of us seem to struggle with this complicated watch!
There was a slight problem this evening in that many of us, including Abbi, had forgotten that, although June had five Tuesdays, meaning that we had a meeting on the 29th, the regular meetings are on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Consequently, there were only two speakers. First to speak was Camilla. This was her CC4, entitled, “Fictitious, Fraudulent Farce”. Camilla, introduced by Joan as “Tall, bright, eloquent and vociferous”, treated us to speech about her experiences as a Marriage Registrar. It seems that a large number of marriages taking place in Registry Offices are “sham” marriages to enable the entry of illegal immigrants to the UK. It was an eye opener, interesting and humorous. We always look forward to Camilla’s speeches; guaranteed to be entertaining.
Pauline was the second and final speaker. Her CC7 speech was entitled, “Three Blind Mice”. Pauline’s poem and opinions on the World Cup and who was to blame for England’s demise were stated by many (of the other 8!) to be hilarious. This earned Pauline the accolade of “Best Speaker”. For the absent many here is her poem:-
“We woz robbed”, I hear you cry,
And I’m sure you wonder why
This fanatical footballing nation
With grandiose ideas above their station
Could only manage the last 16
At the world cup, no longer to be seen.
We’ve literally been kicked out
By Germany, it was an absolute rout;
Even with that disallowed goal,
Surely not a single soul
Would disagree that we were bad?
Never mind, don’t be sad,
There are four years for the FA to weave
Another tangled web to deceive
Us into believing that our team is great;
I bet for the next World cup you can’t wait!
Maybe it’s time to end the dream,
Stop “bigging” up our football team;
To admit that we are... Well, crap,
And though some have talent there isn’t a scrap
Of team spirit amongst those men,
A goalkeeper and players, numbered 10......
Hey ho!
Table Topics Master was Jack ( multi tasking; I take it all back, men can “Walk and chew gum”!!!)
Jack’s choice of topics was fun; he had a paper version of a boat. This boat was Noah’s Ark. Victims were asked to pick a piece of paper; each sheet had the picture or name of an animal. The speaker had to tell us in one to one and a half minutes why they should be allowed into the ark. There were some very inventive reasons. The winner was Neil who had been a wily old fox! Well done, Neil. (Joan called him “The silver fox”! I wonder why!)
Evaluators for the night were, Jack, for Camilla and Neil for Pauline. Sudanta was evaluating Joan for her Toastmaster role.
Jack’s first question was, “Is it true”? If it was, it was even more interesting and a disturbing account of what should be a romantic occasion. Jack praised Camilla for her speech and had no recommendations.
Neil was torn with regards to Pauline’s speech. He said that it was hilarious; however, it may have been better as a humorous speech as she did not fulfil the objectives in the Competent Communicator. This should have been to disclose the sources for her research which should be included in the speech and show them to the audience. Pauline took this on the chin and agreed that this was the case. She said that she would make sure that the objectives in her next speech would be fulfilled.
Sudanta, whilst praising Joan for her performance as Toastmaster, also recommended that Joan should give a little background for each speaker when introducing them. This led me to think that these details should be given when a new member joins the club; it would be good to have a little précis of what each Toastmaster does as a job and their reasons for coming to Toastmasters.
Joan did a brief resume of the Table Topics speeches which had included a hedgehog, rattlesnake, hippopotamus, squirrel, kangaroo, fly and rat; along with Neil’s fox, of course.
Moniek gave us her Grammarian report and, in doing so, told us that most attendees had mentioned the word, Vociferous, some of them 2,3 or even 4 times! Well done, everyone. Our grammar, it appears was acceptable, though there was a query about Pauline’s use of the phrase “We woz robbed”. Moniek was assured that this was acceptable as a cliché. Phew!
Jack told a very funny joke about a monk. See him if you would like it repeated.
The evening had, despite the limited numbers, been fun. As proceedings ended early there was time for everyone to have an informal chat, which was good.
See you all on the 20th!
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