The Highlight of this meeting was our Guest Speaker, Judy
Johnson, author of “Public Speaking for the Terrified”. In her
book there is a section on how to use a microphone, and this is
what she was focusing on for us this night. Judy is “friendly
and funny” (to quote Dave Stewart). She engages her audiences
with humour while she educates them on the intricacies of using
a microphone. Her presentation, “The Secret Life of Mr. Mike”,
is full of tips to help speakers confidently use a microphone,
and to help them anticipate and overcome the pitfalls. We were
delighted to have her with us. We were also delighted to welcome
her Capilano College students who came to hear her and to see
what happens in a Toastmaster meeting. They helped to swell the
audience at our Open House and make it such a success!
Many, many thanks to Dave Stewart for providing the microphone
and equipment that made this special evening possible.
It was a pleasure to welcome back and induct yet another former
member who has been on hiatus for a few years. We always keep
their name badges, knowing that over time many of our members do
return
The Word of the Week, chosen by Wordsmith Stuart Manning, was
ingenuity, a well-planned fit for the theme – “Imagination”. As
you can imagine, with a theme like this he had no trouble
picking up some excellent descriptive quotes from the Speakers –
especially from our Guest Presenter, and from the ‘out of the
box’ table topic speeches. In his General Evaluation, Dave
Stewart praised his “fluid opening, good pick-ups, and cogent
comments”. Well done, Stewart!
Neville Cohen was the jovial ‘policeman’ who was keeping a keen
ear on our um’s and ah’s. You would think a larger audience
might induce a few more of these than usual, as nerves often
will, but Neville was quite surprised to report that we actually
were better than usual this night! Not much gets by Neville, so
this really must be true!!
We were grateful to Neville for standing up during the ‘Open
Mike’ to recycle one of his previously enjoyed jokes! It was
pointed out that many of us thoroughly enjoy a good joke and
then promptly forget it a short while later. For those of us in
that boat, it was a great laugh all over again. Also, as the
General Evaluator remarked – “Even though I already knew the
twist in the punch line, when it hit me I laughed as much as I
had the first time I heard it!” Thank you, Neville
Nothing sticks in the mind like a personal story. Jim Sinclair
knows this well, and used a story about his young daughter to
illustrate his Inspiration. One day she realized that she was
actually faster than the star player on her team. That day she
dared to imagine that she could be the best on the field. After
that, it actually seemed to happen ‘overnight’! This young girl
is living proof that: “Nothing limits achievements like small
thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed
imagination.”
Welcome back to Andrea Clarke who has just returned from an
extended vacation in New Zealand. She found herself greeted even
more excitedly than usual because the Timer had a last minute
business meeting and Andrea was the perfect person to take on
this role! She so easily fell into the rhythm of the job that
Dave credited her with “being the perfect Timer – doing
everything so right that she was in the background, totally
inconspicuous”. This was a new-to-us description of the Timer’s
role, Dave – we should even add it to the job description in our
Club Roles.
Table Topics were saved to the end of the meeting this time, and
they were well worth waiting for. Veronica Marshall was a top
notch Table Topics Master, with creative topics which were
plucked from a container and read on the spot – no warm-up time
to think while dragging one’s feet on the way to the lectern.
The Table Topics were written as partial sentences which the
Speaker had to complete and then embellish – for example, the
first one read: “I was driving to work when a grizzly bear………….”
How would You finish that one?? Veronica said they were all “a
little off the wall / out of the box” and they were, but they
did stretch imaginations, resulting in creative tall tales and a
lot of fun. Joanne Renfer was the winner in this section for her
well developed speech which was brimming with creative ideas for
paper clip art!
Li Ying Kao’s evaluations benefited everyone, not just the Table
Topic Speakers. As Dave said: “She was so good at explaining and
physically demonstrating the suggestions she made to the
speakers that we could all see and hear how each speaker (and
all of us) will be able to easily follow her advice and gain
from the knowledge.
We could say the same of Dave Stewart, the General Evaluator,
himself! Like Li Ying, full of praise and congratulations, he
also made a point of focusing our attention on carefully
describing how each of us could have improved (even just a
little) for next time – something for us to look forward to
practicing when it is our turn again
How could we go wrong … We were blessed with a full Open House
of guests; we were royally entertained by a Guest Speaker; we
were treated to an extra special “off the wall / out of the box”
Table Topics Session; and we were sumptuously fed special treats
because it was a Special Night.
Looking forward to many more nights with our members and always
warmly welcomed guests; nights that are Special for all the many
reasons that entice us to come out on Mondays to learn together
through fun and friendship.
Club 1085
