Simon, our Sergeant at Arms, cheerfully started the meeting and handed over to the President, Paul Andreas, who welcomed everyone and then made a presentation to Susan Rayner our VPE.
It was a “Thank You” card to thank her for inviting us all to her Birthday Party in December, when she hired a pub,
laid on some music and provided lashings of food. Thank you Susan.
Our Toastmaster was Jenny Andreas, who joined us only a few months ago and was being the Toastmaster for the first time.
Then Tony provided the Warmup and asked the question, “What chores do you like to do and which do you dislike?”. This got some very interesting replies as some members revealed that they loved ironing, as they found it
Relaxing, whilst other members revealed that they did not like ironing and that they had just discovered someone who could do their ironing for them!
This was followed by three speakers, Riya, Georgina and Jenny T. First Riya gave an excellent talk about the power of using a story in a speech.
This was followed by Georgina who gave an entertaining speech about her beagle and proved to us what lovely pets they made. This was followed by a call to action to buy your own puppy as she new a beagle breeder who had some puppies for sale!
Then Jenny T tried out a speech on us that she wants to give when she goes into prison – as a visitor. We found it entertaining and Jenny found it useful as she prepares for prison.
The speeches were then evaluated by Richard Murray, Paul Lynch and Karen Mefflin who all gave some very useful feedback to the speakers.
After the break we returned, ready for Table Topics. Martin was our TTM and had compiled some interesting questions around the theme of love and passion – things you enjoy doing. We learnt some interesting things such as Carrie likes to holiday in Thailand and Neil enjoys watching dragons!
Unfortunately, our General Evaluator, Cheryn, had been taken ill in the afternoon and was unable to attend our meeting. That gave us more time for Table Topics and Martin had prepared plenty. This gave a lot of work for our TT Evaluator, Alex, who provided some great feedback for the TT Speakers.
Paul A brought the meeting to a close by presenting the awards including best Evaluator Award to Paul Lynch, best Speaker Award to Georgina and the best Table Topic Award was a tie, won jointly by Christine and Simon.
Thanks go to all the members who took on roles, including Timekeeper: Carrie, Grammarian: Jenny T, Ah Counter: Luke and Royston with the Hot Tip.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday 2 February at 7.15 pm.
News
Extra Meeting
We have had several new members join us recently – 12 in the last six months. There are now 44 of us. This is great because it means vibrant meetings but it also means that there are more people to give speeches.
Therefore, we have organised an extra Speakathon meeting for Thursday 23 February. There should be time for at least six speeches and the priority will go to New Members who want to do a speech from # 1 -5 in the CC Manual.
This should reduce the waiting time for giving speeches, which has recently grown to three months.
Meanwhile, the Committee is considering other options for reducing the waiting time. For example, we may need to put a cap on our numbers soon and create a Waiting List to join.
Contest
Don’t forget our club contest on Thursday 16 March. If you have completed speeches 1 – 6 from the CC Manual then you are eligible to take part. The winner of our club contest will go through to the Area, Division and District Contests and from there will get a paid ticket to the International Finals in Vancouver.