Our latest meeting of 2017 was a very lively occasion.
First we were all warmly greeted at the door by our hospitality person, Dave Henson, who welcomed guests and members alike and handed out name badges to everyone.
The meeting was opened by our acting Sergeant at Arms, Richard Green, who then handed over to our President, Paul Andreas. Paul announced the creation of a new committee, the Nominations Committee and encouraged members to join it. Its role will be to oversee the election of the new committee, which is likely to happen in May. Richard M is looking for two people to join him on this Committee, so please see him, if you’re interested.
Our VPE, Susan, then encouraged us to stand for the main committee and especially to stand for her role of VPE, which she then went on to describe.
Our Toastmaster for the evening was John Cross, doing the role for the first time. He introduced his team to us comprised of Timekeeper – Susan Rayner – Timekeeper, Richard G – Ah Counter and Grammarian, Warm up – Martin, Hot Tip – Karen.
Martin led the Warmup by asking members to share things they were passionate about, which was appropriate, as we had just celebrated Valentine’s Day.
Our first speech was by Paul A, with Speech # 4 from the CC Manual titled “Was it or wasn’t it (a conspiracy)”. He gave us several reasons why he thought the assassination of JFK was a conspiracy, including the fact that the “House Committee on Assassinations” had said it was.
Our second speech was by Margot with a speech called “A Postcard from America”, which was Speech # 2 from the CC Manual. Margot gave an amusing account of her four-day holiday in New York, which coincided with a hurricane so that everything was shut down during her stay.
The third speech was by Riya with Speech # 5 from the CC Manual called, “What goes around comes around”. This was a story with a moral about someone who helped an old lady whose car had broken down and in turn was rewarded, in a wonderful way.
After the break Annelise led the Table Topics with some very interesting questions one of which led Tony to share an amusing story about how he got his first kiss.
Then onto the Awards. Christine won the Table Topics award, Richard M won the Best Evaluation Award for his evaluation of Riya’s speech and Margot won the Best Speaker Award for her American holiday speech.
Richard M was then presented with another award – his CL Award that he has achieved for the second time!
Paul A then reminded everyone about our extra meeting on 23rd February and then drew the meeting to a close.
A big thank you to all those who took on roles and gave speeches and helped to make the evening a great success. A special thanks and kudos (our word of the day) to John, who did a great job of being the Toastmaster for the first time.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 23 February, which will be a special Speakathon. We have six speakers and we still need one more Evaluator.
Paul Andreas, President, Bromley Speakers