The festive
theme of Weddings set a mood of ‘friendly synergism’ (to quote
our General Evaluator, Don Ekroth). Once again we had a great
turn-out, with high spirits and energy to burn.
Always gracious, Parvaneh Bahrami had the pleasure of
introducing the Chairman, Dave Stewart. It is easy to list the
reasons why he is capable of taking on this role, and his
dedication to the club as “the man behind the camera”.
As Don observed, in addition to his droll sense of humour, Dave
employs excellent bridging – a real strength; one we should all
strive to emulate. Our ears really perked up at Dave’s
innovative suggestion that one evening we have a Wedding Toast
Contest! Each one of us giving our own version of a good Wedding
Toast. The gauntlet has been thrown – let’s do it!!
Weddings are at the top of the list for our soon-to-be-wed
Wordsmith, Elma Ong. Elma, our newest member, knows that a good
marriage takes dedication, which is the Word she chose in
concert with the theme. She has already proven to be a dedicated
Toastmaster, having presented her Word better than many of us
old timers. She is off to a great start!
Michele Menzies made us laugh when she reported with dismay that
“We seem to have put Little Miss Piggy on a diet!” She told us
her job would be to help everyone refine their speeches “by
helping them smooth away the little bristly bits. It is those
little bristly bits that feed the pig.” Apparently most of us
were pretty clean-shaven this time, making the Wizard of Ah’s
job easy.
Eyes closed, completely relaxed, we opened our minds to Karen
Arnold’s Inspiration of “I Believe” truisms. They hit home with
every one of us. For Karen they exemplified how a late friend of
hers had lived her life. For us, they inspired a desire to put
our lives in perspective so that they will be richer in every
way.
Feeling relaxed and inspired, our spirits were then boosted to
the ‘laugh level’. Anne Marie knows the secret of telling a joke
well – the great build up to the suspenseful pause before the
kicker. If you haven’t heard the one about the parachutes yet
it’s worth well while asking her. This is one that is sure to be
on the circuit for a while
.
Omar Hung arrived at the meeting thinking he was off the hook
for the night. No role. What a surprise to find that we had
saved him a seat – at the Timer’s table!
With a smile on his face as usual, he sat in the chair to time
us as if he had been preparing for this all week. Thank you,
Omar
.
Ruth Sol was the other surprised member at this meeting -
surprised but not fazed for a second. Toastmaster is one of the
major roles, but Ruth slipped into it with ease – her years of
experience paying off. After setting us up to think we were
going to have a light-hearted Toast to Weddings (after all, she
had had a practice run with her first Wedding!!) she actually
had a good, strong message for us: “It’s not the Wedding, it is
the Marriage that is important.” (That was taken from Don’s
evaluation notes – too good not to use.) Ruth introduced two
Speakers for this session: Gerhard Rentsch gave a speech from
the advanced manual “Speaking to Inform”, and Neville Cohen gave
his last special presentation from the “Successful Club Series”
to earn his Club Leader Award.
Gerhard’s speech was intriguingly titled “Laughing All the Way
to the Bank”. He used money as an abstract concept and it worked
very well. He described it as “something that causes so many
emotions; it is an integral part of our lives”. He made what
could have been a difficult-to-understand subject into a very
clear and understandable story. Yes, story. With hand-out
examples, we followed ‘Sammy’ as he went through the process he
had to go through to obtain a mortgage on a house. The bottom
line message was “Mortgage brokers can get you the same thing as
a bank but at better rates.”
Jill McCormick gave an astute evaluation of Gerhard’s
performance. As Don said: “It was positive and constructive. She
used the parameters of his speech project as a framework for her
evaluation.” This was an ideal approach for a difficult project
to evaluate.
Neville chose to elaborate on the project “Going Beyond Our
Club”. He spoke about the many opportunities Toastmasters have
if they wish to gain further experience and confidence in Public
Speaking away from the cocoon of our own friendly club. This was
a revelation for many of our newer members, and a challenge for
some of our more experienced members to step even further out of
their comfort zones.
The Wedding theme ruled the Table Topics Session. It did not
seem to matter who got which topic, everyone enjoyed them. Don
said Pam Elliott (Table Topics Master) is always full of energy.
So were all the Speakers! They really got into the spirit of it
to make a great experience. It must have been difficult to
choose the Best, because we ended up with two Best Table Topics
winners: Michele Menzies and Anne Marie Deluise
.
Li Ying Kao sustained the high energy level throughout her
Evaluations of the Speakers. Keeping the tone light and fun, she
gave good, practical advice to every one. Don said, “One real
talent she has is that she doesn’t waste words.” He drew our
attention to the fact that: “She always uses the sandwich method
in her evaluations, and her suggestions are always
constructive.” This time her efforts were rewarded with the Best
Evaluator Award
.
If you have made it this far, you know that you have been
reading many of Don Ekroth’s evaluations of us and have seen for
yourselves why he makes such a good General Evaluator. His
experience in every aspect of a club meeting shows, along with
his ability to ‘teach with humour’ so that we are open to really
hearing what he has to say. And, yes Don, the festive theme did
put us in a festive mood! It was a great meeting all ‘round.
Next week, with the theme of Imagination, who knows where our
minds will take us. Come experience this with us on Monday May
15th for another meeting filled with fun and friendship.
Club 1085
