Lucky Dip: What Did We Choose?

August 28th was a fantastic meeting and Alison was the Toastmaster. The Toastmaster has to facilitate the whole meeting and keep both to time and agenda; Alison excelled at both.  

She also added her cheery mood to the event by getting everyone involved. Visitors are often a little nervous to just stand up and start speaking – but that’s actually the way that works best. John visited and Alison handed out some lines of poetry to read which had everyone on their feet and we were able to give John his First Speaker ribbon – much sought after!

Alison also set a task during the break – to ask what people did when they were alone in the car. We found most of our group were singers!

Well done Alison. We look forward to your next session as Toastmaster.

 

Word of the Day

The Word of the Day is supposed to be inserted into the speech at appropriate times. Matthew set the word as “Innovate” or derivatives from it.

Table Topics and Evaluations by Becky

Sireesha had a lucky dip bag and we chose from various quotations and questions. Becky did the evaluations. Well done to all those who took part:  

• Alison talked about always borrow money from a pessimist. Their outlook is so bleak they will not expect it back. Becky observed that Alison started off by asking questions of the audience and deemed her, “The Involver.”
• Steve chose where he would most like to live. New Zealand! However, age and other factors were against him and he decided that with grandchildren why would you want to move away from that? Becky noted that Steve employed the “Flipper” technique of talking about one thing and then moving to another.
• Lincoln had to look at the pros and cons of what is best: intelligence or common sense. Becky noted that Lincoln moved from side to side – he was the, “Debater.”
• Paul talked about being punished at school – often unfairly. Becky said that Paul’s technique was the, “Actor.”
• Ben started discussing free spirits. Then he questioned, do free spirits really exist. He was the, Philosopher, in Becky’s view.
• Matthew talked about failures he’s like to repeat. Although he’d never experienced it, he did think insolvency had some benefits. He was the, “Advisor”
• Craig talked about dangerous activities explaining that he helped construct wind turbines out at sea. From a great height he wondered what it would be like to do a dive into the deep sea. He’d never done it; nor ever would. But that would be the most dangerous thing he could think of. Becky’s view, the Challenger.
• Bayo gave another philosophical viewpoint on the topic of memories and lies. Bayo disagreed stating that people with good memories do lie; they are just good at covering it up.
• Becky talked about people who were too clever by half and look for a simple word to replace it with something with more syllables to impress people who could not understand them.

Well done Becky, who was voted best Table Topics Speaker.

Best Speaker

Well done to Ben who won Best Speaker. Ben gave a thought provoking speech on Time and Space. 

Steve was runner up with a talk on everyone’s favourite game, Monopoly.

Roles

Every meeting relies on a number of people performing roles. Thank you to all of those who took part yesterday.

Lincoln – Serjeant-at-Arms

Murali – Timekeeper

Matthew – Grammarian

Lincoln – Speech Evaluator for Ben

Murali – Speech Evaluator for Steve

Ben – First Speaker on Time and Space

Steve – Second Speaker on Monopoly

Sireesha – Table Topics Master

Becky – Table Topics Evaluator

Paul – General Evaluator