In review, tonight’s meeting
was a real crowd pleaser - full of humour, fun and friendship.
This week’s theme was “Expand your Horizons” and from the
Chairman, Neville Cohen’s opening comments to the final gavel,
one really got the feeling that everyone made a special effort
to stretch their boundaries. Neville combined a combination of
relaxed ease and well organized presence at the helm to keep
everything moving smoothly.
Stuart Manning warmly welcomed back our guest Jennifer
Reed-Lewis (she must have been impressed with her visits to the
club as she filled out a membership application and cheque and
left them with our Treasurer).
The word of the evening, visualization, aptly selected to
challenge our speakers, was an obvious hit. As a Toastmasters
new to the role of Wordsmith, Anne Marie DeLuise not only
enhanced our vocabulary but also proved she has excellent
listening skills by chronicling a long list of picturesque words
and phrases.
Omar Hung’s inspirational message for the evening was a formula
for expanding our horizons. He suggested it could be
accomplished most easily by anticipating change and adapting to
it quickly by being flexible, objective and positive.
Dave Stewart can always be counted on to bring a wealth of
excellent advice tempered with large measures of humour to any
role he tackles and his treating the Wizard role tonight was no
exception. As the Um and Ah counter, he pointed out how these
filler words detract from our speeches. As to his suggestions
for avoiding them? If you find yourself at a loss for words,
don’t fill the space with um’s and ah’s, just be quiet until the
word you are looking for comes to you – good advice for all of
us, Dave.
In the humour department, Jim Sinclair kept us riveted with a
wonderful rendition of an old man on a moped racing with a
Ferrari. With his genius for comedic timing, the story was, once
again, a real winner but it was the animated gestures that set
it above and beyond his previous successes.
Gerhard Rentsch surprised us all tonight by expanding our
tabletopics speeches to 2 minutes in length. It might have been
a challenge for the club as we have been in that 1 ½ minute
groove for a long time but everyone made a special effort to
conform to the new time boundaries. This not only added a new
twist for the speakers but is especially good practice for
Tabletopics Contests (which are 2 minutes in length). Kudos to
Gerhard for making us stretch ourselves and to Jim and Li, who
tied for tabletopics honours.
Taking us into the second half of the meeting was our
Toastmaster Li-Ying Kao. Li warned of the dangers of being too
content with the status quo and never challenging ourselves. Her
toast “Action, action and more action” was her own personal
recipe for guaranteeing personal growth. In her role as master
of ceremonies, Li had her work cut out for her tonight as she
oversaw three speeches.
In the first, Don Ekroth, who makes even the mundane,
interesting, involved his audience in his Educational Moment on
“Lectern Etiquette”. His tongue-in-cheek reminders of common
infractions regarding the lectern (but we’re not naming names,
right?) provided the audience with some sound advice and a few
laughs, as well.
In her Icebreaker, Dawne Goch showed us this is one young lady
who is not going to be left behind. Ever! She may have missed
her first trip but she’s sure made up for it ever since – such
tales of adventure and places she has been!! Dawne showed a
confidence and maturity that is uncommon in a beginning
Toastmaster (but which has been the norm for our club, of late).
If this kind of poise comes as a result of extensive traveling
we should all get the travel bug.
Gil Hardman’s evaluation of Dawne’s speech was impromtu, in
nature, and filled with the warmth that only a seasoned veteran
of the lectern might serve up. While encouraging his speaker,
Gil provided a couple of good suggestions for Dawne to work on.
Giving her second speech, Veronica Marshall brought history to
life by having us look closely at the keepers of history – the
Archivists. Veronica made it sound like a relaxed and pleasant
chat but her speech overflowed with information that I’m sure
has given this group a new-found respect for the keepers of
historical events and their ability to “change history”.
Joyce Soti’s evaluation of Veronica’s speech was the “cream of
the crop” as she ended the evening with the best Evaluator
ribbon. Well balanced with encouragement tempered with
perceptive suggestions for improvement, Joyce proved she can
rise to the task even when she’s impaired with a cold.
Jill McCormick did a yeoman’s job as she summarized the meeting
in her role as General Evaluator (it is her meticulous notes
that make up the majority of these highlights). To her
detriment, the notes were so extensive she eventually ran into
an intractable Timer in the form of Jan Khubyar, who, with great
strength of character, rang the bell in order to keep the
meeting on time.
Thanks to all who made the evening a memorable one. A reminder
that next week is North Shore Toastmasters election night (as
well as a regular meeting). Come out and help shape your club.
Also please remember there will be no meeting on May 23rd due to
the Victoria Day holiday.
Club 1085
