Despite concerns that several members were absent on their holidays we went ahead with our normal meeting
in August and we were glad we did as our numbers were swelled by a number of guests.
Brent Crouch took the lectern as Toastmaster and introduced Dominic Bottrell, from Hamwic Speakers,
who was our timekeeper for the evening. He then asked Kaye Crush to set out her role of Grammarian and give us a word for the evening. The word was “repudiate” meaning to disagree or not pay.
We had three speeches – Brent led with a speech encouraging us to write to our Members of Parliament,
followed by Michael John Smithson amusing us with a tale of his sailing expedition at the weekend. Finally Keith Oliver gave an
educational talk on organising your speeches.
Members and guests enjoyed a network break, when we were again able to enjoy the coffee and snacks on
offer before returning to the second half of the meeting.
Keith Oliver, David Cockeram and Paul Winfield gave the evaluations, before Paul led us in the Table Topics
around a theme of 12 August – the Glorious 12th.
In the absence of a General Evaluator we went round the room explaining what we all individually liked
about the meeting.
It fell to Keith Oliver to give the club business. Keith showed off his Leadership Excellence Certificate,showing he had completed his Leadership Programme, and also referred to a certificate from the Princes Trust and signed by Prince Charles himself acknowledging our work with the Princes Trust. Gavin Meikle had collected it on behalf of the club and we hoped to
display it at our first meeting in September. Keith reminded members of our social on Southsea Common on the 26th, weather
permitting, and advised that on our return in September we would be having our Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests.
Michael John presented the awards for the evening before closing the meeting.
Best Speaker – Michael John, Best Evaluator – David Cockeram, Best Table Topics – David Cockeram