What a great start to 2020.
Debra opened the evening as Sargent at Arms. She did an amazing job to welcome everyone and it was hard to believe this was only her second time in the role. She introduced Dave.
Our President Dave gave a great introduction with some notices, including the upcoming COT (Club officer training) which any current or prospective committee member will find useful and interesting.
The next person to the stage was out Toastmaster for the evening, Dan. He introduced his team for the evening; Paul on the stopwatch, who explained the lights. Debra again, now videographer who told us how all speakers get a private link to their video for watching afterwards. Costa our brief ballot counter who counted.
Gillian had us all taking part in the warm-up and then Dan introduced the three speakers; John, Amanda and Matthijs. They were evaluated by Dave, James and Matt.
The biggest surprise for the night being that Matthijs’ speech was to deal with an unruly group when doing a presentation. It is not normal procedure to interrupt speakers, but this time it was required and our Toastmasters showed what a disruptive group they can be when given permission. (Did anyone work out where Costa has booked a holiday)
Debra closed out the first half by introducing our guests for the evening; Vanessa, Robin and JP.
The second half was passed to our Topics master Gary, who allowed people into a world of amazing ideas for the future; including who would you have for dinner and how would you suggest somebody visited London. Great to see new visitors joining in and breaking the ice of their first time on stage.
Charlie then wowed us with an eight-person evaluation of topics without a script. Although if you looked on his chair we had written out notes, but did not need them for his deliver!
Penny has the task, as the general evaluator to reprise the whole evening and this gave me a chance to check my notes of the evening matched hers!
Our President Dave closed off the meeting but not before handing our the ribbons for the evening.
- Matthijs won the best speaker for surviving his heckled speech.
- James had the best evaluation
- Guest, Vanessa was voted the best table topics speech.
Thank you for everyone who came and all made some contribution to the night.