It was clear tonight that our club
thrives on Diversity. Our membership is made up of people of all
shapes, sizes, ages, cultural backgrounds, educational
backgrounds, careers, interests and hobbies. Every one of us
benefits from the diversities of the others - from what we learn
about each other by just chatting during the Break, and by
listening to each other’s speeches.
“Diversity is the spice of life!” according to Jim Sinclair, and
few would disagree with him. This was the first time Jim has
ever Chaired a meeting for us, and as in every other role he has
performed, his usual high energy and confidence buoyed everyone
else’s energy and confidence levels as well. Jim’s opening
introduction to diversity – our theme – focused on the unique
diversity of our membership, describing it as “a medley of
unique personalities”. The older ones particularly appreciated
his reference to the fact that our club is made up of ‘the
young, and the younger’!!! Thank you, Jim. Jim diligently does
his homework before the meetings and it always shows. One
obvious and much appreciated initiative was quotes. Jim
researched some interesting quotes about diversity which he used
in ‘just the right spots’ during the evening. It takes a special
person to do the role of Chairman for the first time and have
the confident ability to be able to make us all feel so
comfortable right from the start. Li Ying Kao recognized this
and commented on it in her General Evaluation, along with the
fact that his bridging was so right on the ball.
Joanne Renfer implored us to choose our words well: “Please be
as descriptive as possible because I will not tolerate
blandness.” She needn’t have worried about that this night – it
was an exceptionally colourful evening. As such, even “a
tolerable job was done” said she, using the Word of the Week,
Tolerance (it goes well with diversity, don’t you think?).
Next up was Mahmoud Moazami who declared that his role was “very
unique and definitely the most important in the whole meeting.”
He continued with: “It is a very diverse job which includes
discouraging people from wasting time with unnecessary words and
gestures.” In the end, Mahmoud announced that five of us were
the very worst offenders. This list included Jill McCormick as
the Grand Winner of Ahs, and Pam Elliott as a close second. Omar
Hung will have a nice surprise on Monday when he cracks open the
pig for the last time this year
Neville Cohen’s Inspiration was about the diversity in nature
and the importance of helping all endangered species on earth
because “every species is interconnected with another and
therefore we need them all”. Neville felt he had the great
fortune to be able to expand on this even further because of the
particular Table Topic he was given later in the program.
“What’s for supper?” Ask Karen Arnold and she will give you a
long answer along with a good laugh! Karen has a knack for
telling a joke well.
Karen also has a knack for being able to take on unexpected
agenda roles and doing them well. She actually doubled up on
them this time, and we thank her for it. Right after her joke
she hustled quickly back to her seat to describe her role as
Timer, laughing when Jim referred to her “manning the disco
lights”!
We were given a diverse collection of Table Topics by Stuart
Manning, many of which at first seemed to be quite challenging.
Then came the surprise … not one Speaker was stumped! Every one
used their time and spoke so well that choosing The Best Table
Topic Speaker was not an easy task. The winner above all was
Mahmoud Moazami, who humorously demonstrated how obvious it is
to see that the common language for a diverse humanity is Body
Language
Parvaneh Bahrami did very well in her very first role as the
Table Topics Evaluator. She was generous with her praise, but
was not afraid to help us, either. Li Ying was impressed with
“the good picks she found for her suggestions for the Speakers”.
Her suggestions were very practical; all things we could easily
rectify next time around.
We had a Great Celebration during the Break, with a special cake
in honour of two of our esteemed members. Both of our Speakers
after the Break gave final speeches which earned them awards,
and took them to a higher level of public speaking. The award
levels are: Competent Toastmaster (CTM), Advanced Toastmaster
Bronze (ATM-B), Advanced Toastmaster Silver (ATM-S), and
Advanced Toastmaster Gold (ATM-G).
Veronica Marshall achieved her Competent Toastmaster award for
having completed all ten speech projects in the compulsory basic
manual.
Ruth Sol achieved her Advanced Toastmaster Bronze award for
having completed another ten speeches (5 from the Speaking to
Inform manual and 5 from the Humorously Speaking manual).
Veronica’s speech project was “Inspire Your Audience” and the
title of her speech was “The Song in Your Soul”. The title is
based on Emily Dickensons’ poem, “The Song in My Soul”. This was
a serious, sincere speech, about how one simple thing changed
her whole life: the song in her soul, which is hope. “Hope is
like a little bird singing inside you always. Never forget it is
there, no matter how soft its voice may sometimes be.” Through
her personal story, Veronica convinced us that “hope is the most
crucial part of being alive”, and inspired us to never take it
for granted. She inspired us to always be conscious of the hopes
of other people as well, making sure that we “support and
encourage their hopes; making sure that whatever we do we do not
squelch them.” I would wager that those of us who heard her
story never will take hope for granted again – our souls will be
singing.
Jill McCormick’s excellent evaluation of Veronica’s speech
summed it up with: “I believe the strength of the speech was
that it was her own story. How can we help but be inspired to
have compassion and hope for others?”
The last project in the Humorously Speaking manual is “The
Humorous Speech” in which Ruth Sol was required to use
exaggeration to tell a humorous story to entertain her audience.
She was to use body language and voice to enhance this story. We
knew right off the bat that Ruth was on the right track as soon
as she came to the lectern with a sideways ball cap on her head
and a bit of a ‘goofy’ smile on her face. This was going to be
funny! The best part was that it was ‘personal funny’ – a funny
story that often poked fun at herself and her sibling. Dave
Stewart said it best in his evaluation of her: “Ruth is
naturally funny when she wants to be. She has an effervescence
when she is in front of us.” Her story was about kids who had
never been out of the logging camp they were raised in until
their father was transferred to the big city. Things in the city
that we take for granted were objects of curiosity and amazement
to them, and we heard many delightfully descriptive examples.
When an acknowledged accomplished speech evaluator like Dave
says “This was an extremely entertaining speech!” the Speaker
should feel very proud indeed.
The winning Evaluator of the evening was the General Evaluator,
Li Ying Kao. As Ruth said after the meeting, “Li Ying always
calls things like she sees them, she is never afraid to say what
she thinks.” Yes, and she does it with a smile and a bit of a
lilt in her voice which make the suggestions so easy to take,
and make the strengths that have impressed her feel so good!
Now … Let’s finish this year off with a Bang! We encourage
everyone to come to our last meeting before the summer break.
Monday, June 19th we have another great agenda and are looking
forward to seeing you all then. Guests are always welcome to
come as well – we have a lot of fun learning together. And don’t
forget the Wind Up Party which will be held at Pam’s house on
Monday June 26th. Guests are most welcome to join us there, as
well, just let us know you would like to come and we will give
you the details.
Club 1085
