Despite the unpleasant weather outside, 24 people rolled up to the club meeting with the theme of The Circus where they found a warm welcome and a programme full of excitement.
The Ringmaster, or Chairman Luke, drew the comparison between a circus and a Toastmaster meeting where people have fun and there is the element of “Surprise”, which happened to be the word of the night selected by the Grammarian, Ratul.
Ratul also introduced the 4 guests before Agdas set the mood for the evening with a Smile Story about table tennis.
Next up the Toastmaster, Sarah, introduced 5 informative and motivational Prepared Speeches based on Toastmasters’ Pathway on-line programme. In these speeches Greg and Nishika both detailed how differing leadership styles impact our dealings with others whether at work or at play. Lakshman entertained the audience with guidance on how to achieve refreshing Deep Sleep. Jithin gave just his second speech at the club with an impressive degree of confidence. Jacquie inspired with a speech tracing the different projects she has undertaken over the past year or so and the benefits she has found from the Motivational Strategies Pathway.
After a nourishing supper the meeting resumed with helpful, affirmative evaluations of the prepared speeches given by Yetzabel, Jinny, Liz, Steve and Kevin. Then Daisy introduced a Table Topics session about the Arts, where members and guests were invited to speak off the cuff on various subjects for one to two minutes. Two guests bravely took up the challenge as well as Richard, Jinny, Sarah and Steve. Les and Regine provided thoughtful, concise feedback for the Table Topic speakers.
The club’s business session included encouragement to newer members to enter the Humorous and Table Topics club contests that are coming up on 24th August. In addition, the club’s annual accounts and budget were presented for approval.
To conclude the evening’s entertainment, reports were given by the Grammarian who had listened very carefully for effective use of words and phrases; by Jie, the Ah Counter, on less – than – effective use of words such as ‘Um’, ‘Ah’ and ‘So’; by Edward, the Time Keeper, who proposed a slightly longer time-frame for the evaluators of Table Topics.; and by Richard, the General Evaluator, who evaluated the contributions of the remaining artists.
