Jackie Baker | Elain Watt | Kevin Bennison | Tristan Mitchell

Malvern Speakers Nov 26^th   Meeting Report   Colin Jackson

Rather sparsely (16) attended, and with rather more serious-than-usual subjects for the main speeches, this meeting was enlivened by an amicable altercation between the club’s two tallest members – 18-year old Isaac Baker and 6ft 7ins father-of-four strapping boys - Kevin Bennison.  Sparked initially by grammarian Kevin’s word of the day – empirical – and featuring such rarities as Year 10 Latin, the exchange provided admirable seasoning for the evening’s three main courses!

The first of these was a moving story about a young blind girl getting her first Guide Dog.  It was  told by Mike Snoswell, whose own Hearing Dog Alvin is a regular attendee at bother Malvern and Worcester Speakers’ meetings.  Then Tristan Mitchell – who had already run the Table Topics session – presented in his unfailingly entertaining style his thoughts on the importance of mentoring in Toastmasters, under the ingenious title of Mr Mentorvator. 

Finally,  thoroughly modern Elaine Watt gave an absorbing illustrated account of how she had developed a podcast as a marketing aid for her holiday let business.  Informative and enlightening, it undoubtedly opened some eyes to the possibilities of the podcast format. 

In the table topics session, Tristan had invited speakers to discuss, spontaneously, various shopping items as varied as cheese (Dave Bradley), pizza (Dave Evans) and cornflakes (Hilary Benoit) and Kevin Bennison’s winning effort on eggs.  Jackie Baker’s expert and comprehensive appraisal of these and other impromptu speeches was voted the evening’s Best  Evaluation, while Best Speaker ribbon  went to Elaine Watt.

Next meeting will be the club’s popular and well-established Christmas Dinner (with verbal trimmings!). This will take place at the Great Malvern Hotel on Tuesday December 10th. Members please note the earlier start time of 7pm.

Ben James | Karen Lowen | Isaac Baker

Meeting Report – 12^th Nov 2019                Caroline Bellhouse

 'Never do a sit up again'! Music to my ears and on Tuesday night, speaker Ben James urged his audience to heed his plea. In a presentation filled with clear and vivid images of ligaments, connective tissue, stacked vertebrae and fluid-filled discs, he lucidly described the marvel of our spines and gave advice on protecting them. He was voted the nights best speaker. Angela Davis also taught her audience interesting facts, about three notable historical events occurring in November. First was a discussion of why we still light fires and fireworks to commemorate a failed attempt to destroy our parliament in 1606. Next, she asked the audience where they were when JF Kennedy was shot in November 1963 and explored that invisible bond that connects so many people across the world. Thirdly, the profound impact the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9^th 1989) had on Angela. With the fall of the wall came the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War.

The third prepared speech was full of emotion and beauty, from a Goan full moon to the touching words of a five year old 'princess'. Rumana Edwards not only introduced herself to the club, but took her audience on a journey of discovery of her daughter - Daddy's Girl turned into Mummy's Girl - from her first day at nursery school through to her opera and theatrical training of today. The speech was hugely emotional and full of sincerity.

Kevin Bennison posed a series of dating quandaries for certain members to imagine, eliciting a sad story of being stood up in the thundering rain, fake tan and short dress soaked, from Elaine Watt. Stan Cantrill spoke of the best gift being forgiveness and Karen Lowen declared dating a minefield. Isaac Baker was the evening's winner, with the three soundtracks to his life.

Karen Lowen won Best Evaluator with a superbly technical report.

Steve Birch summed up the meeting with tips on ensuring that notes are used effectively, including ensuring that notes are big enough to read easily, and he praised the calm, but authoritative control of the evenings toastmaster, Geoff Richardson.

The next meeting is on Tuesday 26^th November at The Great Malvern Hotel – 7:15pm for a prompt 7.30pm start. All are welcome to join the meeting and share our famous home-made cakes.