You would have loved Rookie
Night! Our newest members met the challenge and superceded it
when they took on the major Agenda roles. Leading them all was
our effervescent, energetic Chairman Marlene Finlayson. With a
mischievous
thread running through her introductions and bridging, Marlene
made sure that every Fresh Perspective was thoroughly
‘rejuvenating’
We were very pleased to Induct Simon Russell as a member of our
club tonight. If Don had given his educational at the beginning
of the meeting Simon would have had an even heartier rousing
welcome. Read on and you will see what we mean…
“Fresh Perspectives” was the theme and Stuart Manning chose
“Rejuvenate” as the Word for the evening. He gave us numerous
variations on this word which eventually gave us great mirth as
our Chairman did her best to use every one of them!
Dawne Goch entertained us with a thorough and thoroughly
humorous explanation of her role as Wizard of Ahs. After all …
who likes to be affronted having to listen to the jarring sounds
of ums and ahs; sounds which can affront the senses as
horrifically as seeing “mud splatters all over your brand new
Corvette”!!! She was impressed with the way some members were
able to ‘rejuvenate their accounts’ by liberally using the Word
of the evening (Marlene earned a credit!!), but the jingle of
the piggy bank being passed was evidence that she nevertheless
caught a number of us in spite of this reward.
“Inspirations by Li Ying”: Li came away from Eat Vancouver
thoroughly inspired by a positive thinking man who looked at his
misfortune through a fresh perspective. In her story of a chef
whose beautiful ice sculpture had split in half, she inspired us
to never more ‘give up or stress out’; instead just carry on.
She encouraged us to be like the chef: to shrug off unfortunate
situations by never giving up. Instead, we should be taking
pride and having fun in everything we do
This inspired Neville to share his joke with us about an
unfortunate man in a theater whose perspective certainly was a
fresh one, when he viewed the upper balcony from below after a
tumble!!
Yet another fresh perspective came from Joyce Soti’s description
of the Timer’s role: “A Timer should be someone we never notice
– like a referee or policeman. While this person keeps an eye on
us, they stay quiet and innocuous as long as everyone is obeying
the rules
”
One of the Rookies to be admired was Veronica Marshall, as she
picked up on the Fresh Perspective theme and played with its
variations by using an eclectic variety of topics. Her well
planned bridging between Speakers happened through her ‘topic
connections’ – a technique sometimes used by more experienced
Toastmasters. Well done
Confident Rookie, Hamish Marshall, evaluated the Table Topics
with suggestions that were especially directed to each
individual Speaker personally. Through his manner and well
chosen words he showed he is well on his way to becoming a good
evaluator
Our Chairman said it all when she exclaimed, “Omar’s Rookie
experience rocked!!” He was so well rehearsed with his role as
Toastmaster that he comfortably performed it well from the Toast
to the end. Particularly notable were the lead-ins that he gave
to the Speakers. We really were curious (the perfect audience
set-up!).
Jim Sinclair has a controversial hobby – guns. In his
passionately delivered speech, (“I believe … But I do not
believe…”) he gave us his perspective on fire arms. It was very
well structured, with strong supporting research. This was a
confidently delivered speech for a Rookie’s second speech
project!
In evaluating Jim’s speech, Jill McCormick made sure we never
had even a glimpse of her own personal views of his topic. That,
of course, is because we evaluate How the Speaker did, not What
he said. This is not always easy to do, especially if the person
evaluating happens to strongly disagree with what was said.
However as an experienced evaluator, Jill never gave us a clue
what she was personally thinking.
She concentrated on what she perceived Jim’s strengths to be,
and gave him good feedback for improvement. She fit a lot into a
limited time and didn’t miss a point.
Well folks, we did it again … We gave Don Ekroth a standing
ovation!! Only this time he actually requested it! “Making
Noise”, his educational on The Etiquette of Clapping, was
delightfully delivered and included lots of audience
participation. He showed us the difference between ‘polite’
clapping (which you do when you clap your flat hands together in
prayer mode), and wonderfully noisy clapping (which all Speakers
like to hear…and which you achieve when you clap your cupped
hands together in ‘hand shaking’ mode). It was a jolly good time
Dave Stewart is a very quotable person, especially when he is in
his General Evaluation mode. For instance, on Stuart’s role as
Wordsmith: “You don’t want to mess around with grammar when
Stuart’s around because you know he’s going to get you!!!” or on
Don’s Induction: “A nice balance of protocol and friendliness”.
Verifying everyone’s thoughts, he was very impressed with the
Rookies’ performances in their leading roles: “I know the more
experienced Toastmasters here will be hearing the sound of
Rookie footsteps in the near future
”
Hear Hear!! We are all looking forward to that sound.
Table Topics had a triple award tie tonight among: Simon Russell
(newest member), Neville Cohen, and Li Ying Kao. The Evaluation
award went to the man we love to quote, Dave Stewart.
Congratulations to you all!
This evening ended on a particularly high note when Don Ekroth
urged us all to stand for a ‘cupped clapping ovation’ for our
amazing Rookies.
Club 1085
