By Jenny Andreas
Paul Goodhill arrived early and was very helpful in taking on the hospitality role for which no one had signed up for. Our meeting was opened by our Sergeant at Arms, Paul Lynch, who did a great job of introducing the meeting and reconvening it on time.
Paul then handed over to our President, Paul Andreas.
Paul welcomed the guests and reminded us all about the upcoming Division Contest on Saturday 22 April and the District Conference in Southampton on 6-7 May and encouraged members to come along to them.
He then reminded us about our Club Committee elections, to be held on Thursday 4 May, which are a great opportunity to learn more leadership skills and to perform one of the tasks necessary for the ALB Award.
Our Toastmaster for the evening was Jenny Andreas, who told us that the theme of the evening was going to be “Goals”. (Dreams with deadlines.) She encouraged us all to remember to get evaluated for roles and to have it dated at the back of the Competent Leader Manual. She introduced her team. Paul Goodhill, returning from an unusually cold holiday in Turkey, was Timekeeper. Alain did a meticulous job as Ah Counter. Alexanderz, stepping into the breach at the last moment, did a great job as Grammarian encouraging everyone to use the word “Achieve”.
In her Warm Up, Margot got members talking and singing about music that made them happy.
Our first speech was titled “TEAM” by Annelise, which was all about Team Building. As an ex-president of “Experience French” this is a subject that Annelise has some experience of and her speech was very timely, as we are in the process of nominating a new leadership team to the Club Committee.
Christine then followed with Speech # 3 from the CC Manual, titled “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em”. This was a very entertaining speech about how Christine suffers from dyspraxia which affects her co-ordination. This makes for an eventful time when her family are all at home, bumping into each other.
Our third speech was by Alex C, presenting Speech # 2 from the Entertaining Speaker Manual called, “Philip Larkin Was Wrong”.
Alex gave us some entertaining reflections about one of Philip Larkin’s poems and was able to move away from the lectern and use hand gestures!
The three speeches were then evaluated by David Hampton, Richard M and Paul A.
After the break Simon led the Table Topics with some interesting questions about setting goals.
Recognition was given to Adam who won the Table Topics award for telling us how his goal to set up his own business led to a prestigious job in the video making industry. David Hampton won the Best Evaluation Award with his useful tips on dealing with stress when evaluating Annelise’s speech. Christine won the Best Speaker Award for her moving, personal story that engaged us with her sincerity and humour.
Well done, Adam. He only joined us a few weeks ago and he’s winning awards already.
Our General Evaluator for the evening was Neil Pettigrew, who gave us some insightful feedback. Neil gave a speech a few weeks ago about the importance of learning leadership skills at the club and completing the “Competent Leader” Manual. This evening Neil attained the CL Award by completing the GE Role, Congratulations Neil!
Paul A then drew the meeting to a close with another reminder about the District Conference. This will be an opportunity to hear some of the best speakers in the South East and attend some great workshops and the Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening.
A big thank you to all those who took on roles and gave speeches and helped to make the evening a great success.
News
Welcome to new member, Fran, who has just joined us.
The winner of the Division Contest Evaluations on 22 April was Samir Malak, our previous Area Director, and now a member of Clapham Connectors. He will be representing our Division at the District Conference at Southampton on Sunday 7 May.
Dates for Your Diary
Our next club meeting will be held on Thursday 27 April in the Whyte Room at Ripley Arts Centre. There are still roles available, which you can book up through Easyspeak.
Club Elections on Thursday 4 May.
Division Contest at Southampton on 6-7 May.