A new month and a new venue as members and guests met at St Luke's for our first meeting in September.
Te meeting started on a high as Simon Roberts became our latest member. Suzy Slight then got the meeting underway as Sergeant at Arms,welcoming all to the meeting and advising where the facilities could be found. She then welcomed Wendy Benson as the evening's Toastmaster.
Wendy explained her role and the protocols before asking Marie Newman to explain her role as Timekeeper, followed by Sue Windell as Grammarian who set the word for the evening as Calvous – meaning bald headed.
Keith Oliver was then asked to deliver the night's warm up. He asked members to set out their Toastmaster goals for the coming month's and it was gratifying to see so many intending to complete their speech and leadership manuals.
Wendy led us on to the prepared speeches. The first was given by Chris Ellis with “Divorce is always painful” a light hearted look at the Scottish devolution vote and potential break up from the rest of the UK, and he was followed by Gavin Meikle with a reading from 'Krapp's Last Tape' the of an older man.
After the obligatory network break we moved to the evaluations given by Keith Oliver and Michael John Smithson, both using the 3 things I liked, 2 areas for improvement and 1 thing I will take away approach.
It was now time for impromptu speaking, with Brent Crouch offering a selection of everyday and obscure objects which volunteers had to explain to imaginary police officers who had found them in their cars. Family heirlooms, discrete John Wayne movie watchers, a very thin lunch box and a star trek emblem were among the items found and explained.
Allan Wadsworth gave the evaluation of the participants emphasising the importance of structure with a start, middle and end, using examples to back up his evaluation.
Sue Windell gave her grammarian's report picking up on the use of the word Calvous, as well as highlighting good language used throughout the evening.
Ray Adams concluded the meeting as General Evaluator giving his views on the night's events.
Keith Oliver as Club President reminded members of the forthcoming Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests,before announcing the club had achieved Distinguished Club status in its first six months.
Michael John then gave out the evenings awards before closing the meeting.
Best Speaker – Chris Ellis
Best Evaluator – Keith Oliver
Best Table Topics – Gavin Meikle