Epsom Speakers meeting 19th March 2018
First of all, thanks for everyone braving a bitterly cold night to come along to our meeting on Monday evening. I must admit, I poked my nose out the door and nearly turned back when I saw two penguins happily walking along the street. I knew it was bitterly cold from the biting cold on my nose, and how comfortable the penguins looked. Of course I am joking, but it is all of you who make the effort to come to the club each meetings that makes the club such a success. So thank you for making the effort. We are all appreciative of your efforts for all of our learning experiences.
We had a very experienced Toastmaster running the meeting. Amanda Zwarts was the Toastmaster for the evening and kept the energy going for what was promised to be a very informative evening. There were many hiccups at the start as we were not sure what time the general evaluator was going to turn up, and one of the evaluators couldn’t make it, among other problems. Apart from all of these problems, the evening ran smoothly. Amanda’s team did a great job. Mark was the timekeeper and kept us to time. This is a very important aspect of refining your points to a specified time. Paul D took on the videographer role, which he jumped in at the last minute to take on. Julia was ballot counter and was made redundant at the beginning of the meeting, as there were not enough speakers to vote for. It is was quite a choppy sea at the beginning of the journey of the evening, but these problems were overcome very quickly.
Fatai then took on the warm up. We were asked about presents for Mothers day and everybody managed to say something on the subject so it was a good warm up. The purpose of the warm up is to give people the opportunity to speak for 20 seconds and try to make it as easy as possible for the members. Fatai did this well.
Then came the speakers. First up we saw Matthijs with his ice breaker speech. It was great to hear about his midlife crisis, and how he is coping with it. Matthijs spoke a little quickly, but this is understandable with an ice breaker, as I am sure the nerves were tingling. It was great to hear him speak about himself. Well done for completing your ice breaker. Second up we had Charlie with an advanced speech on Toastmasters. Charlie is one of our better speakers and went through all the ways Toastmasters can help you with your quest to become a better speaker. Even our more experienced Speakers can draw a blank, and Charlie did lose his train of thought during this speech. We can all learn on how Charlie calmly waited until the thread of the speech came back to him, and then carried on as if nothing happened. It was a very good example of staying calm if you lose your place. It happens to the best of us, so if you are new to Toastmasters and public speaking, you need not worry. Your confidence will grow the more you get up on stage and speak.
The evaluators were Phoebus, who was evaluating Matthijs. Phoebus has improved with his public speaking and evaluation skills quietly and confidently over the months he has been a member. Phoebus gave us a very good evaluation of Matthijs. Phobeus showed us he was listening and observing the speech well. I am sure we all learnt much from this evaluation. Doris stepped in and took on Charlie’s evaluation. Doris being an ex President and one of our most experienced Toastmasters gave us a great evaluation. She did give a few recommendations as well as many commendations. Again we learnt much for Doris’s evaluation.
We then took a break, which Paul organised the refreshments so well. Instead of the usual topics session we had an educational on Pathways. Filip graced us with his presence instead of attending his new clubs International speech contest. A big thank you to Filip for doing this. He presented an easily understandable presentation on Pathways. Although some of the processes are a little harsh on some of the older members, I do understand why it has to be that way. Any change can be hard to take, as we are all  conditioned to be creatures of habit, but I feel that this change is going to be a good one. Club meetings will not change. What you have to do for your educational progress is going to change though. I am here to help, as well as any other members of the committee. So if you have any questions please just ask. You have all been sent the log in details to the website so go ahead and get stuck in.
David Goodman gave us a great general evaluation to end the evening. He ran through the events of the evening well and gave us all something to think about with his commendations and recommendations. So thank you David. David was also very positive about the change of education system we are all facing and was prepared to start again on his Toastmasters journey. Great inspiration from David there. Thank you.
Our next meeting is on 9th April when Dan Magill will be our Toastmaster. Please reply to him as soon as you can for your roles. It is his first time and he is hot off the experience of winning our International Speech Competition, so I am sure it is going to be a great night. I will see you then.
Keep shining.
Peter. đŸ™‚
El Presidente.