Welcome to yet another great
meeting. This one took in all the themed “Senses”:
The ‘sights’ of a large audience and Speakers with bright faces
and enthusiastic gestures; The ‘sounds’ encompassing every
concept of vocal variety, including that emanating from friendly
chatter during the Break; The firm ‘touch’ of confident hand
shakes at the lectern; The welcome ‘smell’ of fresh brewing
coffee and the ‘taste’ of the cookies that went so well with it.
Parvaneh Bahrami opened the meeting by warmly introducing Stuart
Manning, the Chairman. Stuart’s well-researched introduction to
the theme even included the elusive Sixth sense: ESP, which gave
us an even wider scope to explore. Jill McCormick’s general
evaluation of Stuart was well put: “Stuart’s introductions were
very well prepared, and he was completely on the ball with his
role.”
Jessica Li was disappointed only to hear her Word of the Week
(Sensory) used once during the meeting, but perked right up when
quoting the rich and wonderful word pictures and colourful
language we were able to conjure up using this particular theme.
This is the first time Jessica has been our Wordsmith. She has
proven to be a very good listener.
Another successful ‘first timer’ was Elma Ong in the role of
Wizard of Ah’s. Elma also listened well and at the end of the
meeting was full of praise for the dearth of um’s, ah’s, and all
the other interesting sounds and gestures we often make that
distract the audience when we are speaking. Elma is our newest
member, but as Jill observed, one of her strengths is the “nice
eye contact she has with the audience”. It is unusual for a new
speaker to show that level of confidence and comfort so soon – a
big plus for Elma!
Gerhard Rentsch’s Inspiration was really a ‘call to action’ –
asking us to write to our MPs to support the set up of a special
fund that will give kids a tax break to help them pay for their
university fees.
Jim Sinclair ‘waxed poetic’ (really!) when he gave us a poem
that was also a great joke!! We love originality and can’t
remember another time we have had a treat like this.
It was wonderful to see Joanne Renfer back in the club with her
course now successfully completed. As composed and efficient at
always, she performed the role of Timer as though she had never
missed a meeting, even smiling the times she had to unfailingly
ring the bell to remind the more loquacious speakers that there
is a limit on the floor.
Everyone seemed to have a good time with the Five Senses Table
Topics, which began with “What would you miss the most if you
could no longer (see, hear, etc.). The challenge for these
Speakers was to try to expressively use all of their senses
while enveloping the audience in them (as many senses as
possible), as well. It was a very sensuous experience. Even
though Gerhard had many of us making scrunched up faces and
exclaiming “Oooo ick!!” he had a captivating story with a
terrific punch line: Best Table Topic of the evening.
Jim Simpson was once again at the lectern – this time as a last
minute favour to evaluate the Table Topics. It is difficult to
catch Jim off guard these days - he is really getting into his
stride with evaluations and doing so well that once again he won
the Best Evaluator ribbon! Jill described his evaluations as “so
encouraging”. Yes – he uses positive, encouraging words and
phrases; so sincerely keen to help each Speaker.
Another ‘welcome back’ was extended to Veronica Marshall, just
returned from a holiday in Scotland! Jill noted what a
confident, now very experienced Toastmaster she has become. Her
Toast encompassed a variety of ‘takes’ on the senses. She also
suggested how all five of our senses are inter-related. Then she
used a motivating argument compelling us to stop taking our
senses for granted because there may come a day when we, like
her ninety year old Grandmother, may begin to lose some of them.
After the Toast, she had two speakers for whom she gave
excellent, formal introductions, and her bridging between them
was as flawless and interesting as usual.
Karen Arnold chose to base her Ice Breaker speech on three
particularly special memories she has from her many worldwide
travels. Titled “Fun, Fever, and Freedom”, Karen stimulated many
of our senses as she took us to Fiji, Malaysia, and Indonesia,
concluding with: “The richness of my travels stays with me
always. The feeling of freedom I needed (or maybe just ‘wanted’)
continue to stay with me long after, right here in Vancouver.”
Ruth Sol’s active evaluation of Karen’s presentation included an
animated imitation of some of Karen’s well-mimed gestures.
Ruth’s valued evaluations reflect keen observation and wise use
of words. One quality Jill particularly admires is her “very
good eye contact with your Speaker while also including the
whole audience” – this is a quality for which many of us are
still striving.
Anne Marie Deluise took the project title “Organize Your Speech”
literally, and gave us an excellent speech (along with some very
practical advice) on how to “Get Organized!”. Her speech was
based on a book by Julie Morgenstern titled “Organizing From the
Inside Out”.
Neville Cohen gave Anne Marie a very astute evaluation,
including good pick ups on both her strengths and a few pointers
for her to help with future speeches.
Many of Jill McCormick’s comments as General Evaluator have
already been quoted through the text of this newsletter. One of
the best quotes from her for the benefit of the club was : “This
meeting wouldn’t have gone half as well if people didn’t have
such excellent listening skills.” Learning how to listen well is
right up there with learning how to speak well, and if our club
is doing well in this department then we have come a long way
and should be congratulated
.
Please join us for another meeting on June 12th filled with fun
and friendship. We are expecting a full house to enjoy the
privilege of hearing two Speakers who will be attaining exciting
goals – By the end of the evening, one will have achieved her
Competent Toastmasters Award and the other her Advanced Speakers
Bronze Award. We are very excited for them and looking forward
to their speeches. You already know that Guests are always
welcome, but we will remind you of this anyway.
Club 1085
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