We were blown away tonight by
a trio of “Ice Breaker” speeches from our newest members. All
three of them delivered powerfully descriptive speeches with
vivid imagery honesty, passion, and humour:
In “Veronica Translated”, Veronica Marshall demonstrated her
fascination with languages by opening (and closing) with
greetings in French, Latin, Italian, and Swahili! She then went
on to analyze for us how these languages have shaped her life.
Her evaluator, Gerhard Rentsch, told us how he felt that two
parallel pillars actually made up the fabric of this speech, and
further describing it as: “rather than a ‘speech’ it was a
painting”.
“Don’t Read!” Hamish Marshall admonished, as he regaled us with
a series of humorous &/or suspenseful anecdotes illustrating how
reading had led him into a myriad of unexpected situations. His
evaluator, Dave Stewart, commented on the “understated, sardonic
humour” that wove through these stories and their theme,
interpreting the tongue in cheek message to more accurately
read: “Don’t Dream!”
“How many of you know anyone who was born in a car?” That
definitely got our attention! In “Life And Labour Pains”,
Marlene Finlayson has learned that “life, change and growth
require labour pains, both real and symbolic”. Marlene embraces
life as she embraced delivering her speech to us: She “does not
give up and does not give in”. And it is already apparent to us
that she joyfully embraces everything she does with commitment
and passion. Her evaluator, Li Ying Kao, commented on Marlene’s
natural wide range of vocal variety, and also delighted in the
way she was able to make fun of herself.
This meeting was fantastic from beginning to end. The Chairman,
Neville Cohen, opened with a lighthearted description of ‘Moods’
– the theme for the evening. Wilma Atchison, as General
Evaluator, admired “the synergy that flowed between Neville and
the others he was working with on the agenda”. Everything came
together very well.
There were many interpretations of ‘mood’ throughout the
meeting, especially during Ruth Sol’s enlightening Table Topic
session, but one of the most interesting was introduced in the
Toast delivered by Don Ekroth: “In this age of equal
opportunity, gender equality and political correctness, I think
it’s high time we have a mood colour that represents happiness.”
His Toast was “To Golden Moods”!
Gerhard’s ‘golden mood’ this night was apparent in his
enthusiastic and humorous impromptu Inspirational series of
anecdotes on the importance of investing and saving our money
wisely.
Jan Khubyar did an excellent job of evaluating the Table Topic
mini speeches. It was a pleasure to have had all three guests
participate in this session, too
Kudos to Ruth for her interesting choice of easy to speak to
topics.
Omar Hung, dubbed “The Watch Dog” by Wilma, takes his roles
seriously and does them well; especially the role of Wizard of
Ahs. Once again Omar apologetically brought to our attention
every single ‘um or ah’ that was unknowingly uttered throughout
the meeting
Jill McCormick, Jokemaster, really ‘got us’ tonight as she
deftly guided us through a cute story, and then reveled in the
applause she received for the completely unexpected twist at the
end.
The general mood of this meeting was ‘up’ and light; all in all
a very good night!
NOTE: Monday, April 25th, is a very special meeting - Rookie
Night - when our newer members have an opportunity to try out
and practice the more major roles on the Agenda. Guests are most
welcome, we always have fun.
Club 1085
