We are blessed with club members who have come from countries
all over the world. With this in mind, while we were wishing our
Chinese friends a Happy New Year, we chose this evening to also
wish the same to all of our members from various ethnic
backgrounds, being fully aware that some of their New Years
celebrations do not officially take place until later.
Being a night of celebration, it actually took a friendly loud
rap of the gavel by Ruth Morse to turn our chattering attention
from each other to the meeting at hand. Neville Cohen was
fortunate to have Ruth as his Introducer. Her smiling presence,
and personal introduction were just the touch needed to welcome
us all, and to set the stage for Neville.
Opening with a dazzling myriad of “Happy New Year” in different
languages, Neville set the stage. Dave Stewart observed that
Neville “was very comfortable in his role, and had a great deal
of energy this night”. Energy! We in turn caught this energy and
it continued to pick up momentum as the evening progressed.
Freshly returned from an inspiring Officers Training Workshop,
our Vice President of Education (Neville) took the liberty of
playing with the Agenda to give the meeting a little out of the
ordinary variety and spice. Consequently the order was turned
upside down – with speeches in the first half and Table Topics
after the Break. His hope was that “the turnabout of the agenda
will have loosened your tongues for the Table Topics that will
follow”. We all appreciated his foresight in setting out water
and glasses on the tables so that we would be sure to have
something to drink for the early Toast.
Parvaneh Bahrami’s warm personality immediately put our guests
at ease and helped make them feel welcome as she introduced them
to the group. So much so that one of our former members has once
again applied to join us
Kudos to our Wordsmith, Wendy Trusler! She is right up there
with Simon Russell (salubrious) and Dave Stewart (antediluvian),
actually choosing a word for us with which the majority of
members are not already familiar. A challenge. We can add
“peripatetic” to our vocabulary list and practice until it just
slides off our tongues. Wendy did a good job of writing quickly
to catch the most visual imagery and interesting words Speakers
used. She caught most, if not all, to play back to us so we have
a chance to remember, and sometimes laugh at again, some of the
memorable moments of the meeting.
During his role as Timer, Stuart Manning used his experience to
appropriately ask for latitude during unusual situations. A
diligent Timer, Stuart concluded with “an accurate sequential
report”, something we’ve come to count on from him.
It isn’t every day that a Jokemaster provides the Chairman with
an introduction to that leads right into her joke, and on top of
that, a Jokemaster who can come up with a joke that ties in well
with the theme. Joanne Renfer may be a new Toastmaster, but she
does her homework like a pro! We all enjoyed her jokes about
”New Years Resolutions from the Perspective of a Dog” (can you
picture this?).
Jim Sinclair volunteered on the spot to fill in the role of
Wizard of Ahs, and wasted no time making sure we knew that he
would be “diligently recording and callously fining” us when we
slipped. Jim often has a colourful way of expressing himself,
but we weren’t shivering in our shoes because we all know that
his bark is loud and his bite is gentle
Jim’s ‘real role’ for the evening was to inspire us. He opened
with even more Happy New Year languages and than Neville! These
appropriately led into an inspiration which encouraged us to
build on positive attitudes and optimism to help us achieve our
new resolutions and to confidently carry us through this new
year.
“Kung Hei Fat Choy”. In the spirit of the theme, Jill McCormick
focused on the current Chinese New Year for her Toast: “To Good
Health and Good Fortune”. In her friendly, casual style, she
hosted a session of excellent speeches.
Humorously Speaking, Ruth Sol gave us great laughs and chuckles
with her “So You’re Canadian, Eh?” In a speech that was peppered
with perfect-to-make-her-point jokes and anecdotes, she
effectively illustrated how no English speaking countries speak
English quite like we do, or have the customs that are uniquely
ours.
In her energetic delivery, Li Ying Kao gave an evaluation that
was as well constructed as the speech she was evaluating!
Then our Guest Speaker, (Past District Governor) Anne Kramer,
called us to action with her personal reminiscence about what
Toastmasters has done for her, and what it can do for us, in her
“More Than I Expected”. “After all … When life brings you more
than you expect from it, doesn’t it feel Great ?!?” You bet!
Gerhard Rentsch ‘focused on the strength of Anne’s speech’ – the
storytelling part which he described as an engaging personal
story. The General Evaluator appreciated Gerhard’s analogies,
such as: “In a figure skating competition on a scale of 0 – 10,
I would have rated her 9.9.5.” He also used an interesting
‘watch tower’ analogy. Dave aptly noted that “Gerhard was
genuinely inspired by her speech and this was reflected in his
evaluation. That may be one of the reasons why Gerhard won the
Best Evaluator Ribbon.
Don Ekroth’s widely assorted Table Topics were upbeat, easy to
speak to, some even specially tailored for the newer members.
They were also masterfully delivered by Don, who, (as Dave
pointed out) suspensfully paused long enough after each topic to
give us all time to think about what we would say if he were to
call on us!! Once again, Jim’s confidently animated speech was a
Winner
Many of the General Evaluator’s comments have already been
quoted as each member has been mentioned, but there was a lot
more to Dave Stewart’s evaluation than just those quotes. He
spoke directly to us individually with warmth and sincerity. He
has the ability to focus directly on the individual he is
addressing and at the same time make the audience feel
completely included. He often uses humour, some of it lightly
self-deprecating, to get more serious points across. These
qualities are valued in any kind of verbal evaluation.
This was yet another upbeat meeting filled with new things
learned through fun and friendship.
Please join us next week for another dose of all of the above.
As you already know, Guests are Always Welcome.
- Valentine Day Dinner Meeting at Cheers February 13th (please
come and bring guests – the more the merrier).
- An ‘edutaining’ Guest Speaker who will demonstrate the do’s
and don’t’s of using a microphone at our Open House on February
27th.
Club 1085
