The C word
and the garden of Eden
Anna was the
Toastmaster for the day, with a well-organized and run meeting infused with
tongue twisters and pursuing excellence with pronouncing T’s. She warmly
welcomed our visitors. We all expertly repeated the mission statement together
and apologies were accepted. Linda did the honours as our Grammarian – word of
the day “Appreciation”.
Mike Introduced
Graeme, giving us some personal details about Graeme’s Toastmasters history in a
warm, cheery manner. He explained the objectives of Project 10 in the Competent
Communicators Manual speech Inspire Your Audience. 8 to 10 minutes. Speech Title
“The C. Word”
Graeme’s speech
was very emotional and such a brave subject to speak on. Firstly he asked
us if anyone knew anyone that had cancer and we all did. That drew us in to the
speech from the very beginning. Everyone was riveted to Graeme and feeling is
emotions. He told us of the journey of his brother-in law who had 5 tumors in
his lymph nodes and the strength and determination the family had to get through
it. Then he went on to say he too had battled cancer and what a battle. His
message to us all was to please don’t take chances with the sun and our health,
to protect ourselves at all times. A powerful message that we all took on
board.
Mike's evaluation
of Graeme’s speech was very sombre. He thanked him for sharing such a
personal story with us and made many commendations and one recommendation of a
little less hand clasping.
Laurel
introduced Heather in a very warm and informative manner. She went over the
objectives of Heather's speech and told us this was her second toastmasters
speech and complimented her on her Icebreaker speech. The title of this week's
speech “The Eden Project”.
Heather started
her speech by asking us where we were in 1995. That got our attention. Then she
went on to tell us about the Sir Timothy Schmits vision to plant every plant
species in one area in the UK. Construction of the Bioms began in 1996. They
were built to have the exact atmospheric conditions each group of plants
needed. The gardens were opened in 2001 and have since had millions of
visitors. This was a very interesting subject. Well researched and
presented.
Laurel's
evaluation was very complimentary. She went through the objectives and gave very
good commendations and recommendations.
General business
was reported by Marc, mentioning the executive meeting next week and the Tedx
talks to be hosted by Paula on 22nd November.
A quick
discussion about next weeks meeting took place.
Laurel presented
the official certificates for our recent Table Topics competition. Paula and
Darryl for participation. Mike 3rd honours, Carol 2nd
Honours and Marc 1st honours. Marc went on to win the Area Final on 3rd November.
Table Topics was
run by Paula with a theme of Magical Memories, this was a good idea, but as we were running overtime Toastmaster Anna
decided that each speech should be 45 seconds which curtailed answers somewhat.
Craig spoke on
“What he did as a youngster to earn money”. Craig talked about mowing lawns for
his father.
Linda spoke on “
A memory of a Christmas Santa”. She quickly told us how she was on Santa's
direct route and our they all put out their biggest pillowcase and went to bed
early.
Hayden (our
visitor) spoke on “ A time when he found out when all those magical things
weren’t real. Well done Hayden for taking on this
challenge.
Darryl evaluated
table topics by firstly saying that 45 seconds was just not long enough to even
say anything. He evaluated with great humour, as he always does. Lots of well
dones and positive comments.
Linda gave an
extensive grammarian’s report, Marc gave time report and Lou evaluated the
evaluators.
Best Evaluator:
Laurel
Best Speaker :
Graeme
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