Mike Baldwin opened the meeting giving the usual housekeeping rules before welcoming our Toastmaster for the evening, Ian Millen. Ian ran through the protocols before setting our theme which was \\'Energy\\', and asked the audience to welcome the participants with extra energy.
Ian then asked Mike Reed to explain the role of Toastmaster and Keith Oliver that of Grammarian. Keith indicated the word for the evening which was \\'grit\\' as in pluck or courage.
Sheryl Andrews set the warm up picking up on the theme of energy, and asked how those present felt when full of energy. We had racing cars, race horses, champagne and even reflected energy
We now moved to the speeches with two Icebreakers from Roz Bristow, who spoke on how she moved from her shy comfort zone to embrace public speaking, and Ray Adams with “He not being busy being born is busy dying” with how he ignored those holding him back. In between Gavin Meikle gave us an interpretative reading of “The Journey to Two Shirts”by Terry Pratchett.
Following the usual break we had the evaluations from Robin Clarke (Solent), Brent Crouch and Wendy Benson.
Chris Ellis led the Table Topics again taking the theme of energy. We started with Robin Clarke and Sheryl Andrews taking the roles of BP Chairman and a Greenpeace supporter, followed by Ian Lester-Card with his views on fracking, and Adrian Reed told us of his personal energy. Ian Millen spoke on negative energy, introducing the \\'blamethrower\\', and finally Michael Baldwin spoke on what causes his energy.
After giving the Grammarian\\'s report, picking up on some of the good and bad language used, Keith Oliver then moved on to evaluate the Topics speakers, picking up on the various styles used.
It now fell to Adrian Reed to evaluate the evaluators and the rest of the meeting as General Evaluator before Keith Oliver gave out the awards and concluded with club business.
Best speaker – Roz Bristow
Best evaluator – Wendy Benson
Best table Topics – Ian Millen