A meeting with a difference last Wednesday. In past years, we’ve conducted the Committee
Change Over at an outside venue dinner, but for various reasons it was decided
to carry-out the change over process as part of a normal meeting.
A feature of the evening was an extended tea-break where
everyone brought a ‘plate’ ………. This extended tea break allowed us to mingle
and chat for longer than the usual 10 minutes …….. very enjoyable.
We welcomed Narissa as a Visitor.
Our Immediate Past President Elena enhanced the night by
attending despite her forced heavy business and personal life commitments and
I’m sure everyone joins me in saying how good it was to see her.
Wendy in her usual proficient manner acted as Toastmaster
and carried-out the dissolution of the previous years Committee and
installation of the 2017-18 Committee with her usual aplomb ………… well done
Wendy.
No Business session was held, but we did have the Round
Robin and Table Topics sessions, plus two Speakers.
As usual, the Round Robin was fast and fun with Wendy posing
the question Do You Have A Hobby? Wendy kept the responses to 15 secs, which
ensured the pace fast and furious.
Our Table Topics Master was new VP Education Chih, who posed
four interesting and thought provoking questions around the theme of hobbies.
In the face of tough competition Daniel was judged the winner by humorously
responding to “what hobby does your wife have that you do not like”.
Only two speeches featured because of programme changes.
Peter making a determined and sustained effort toward reaching the Competent
Communicator level provided an engaging speech around the topic of thinking
before speaking …….. always good advice.
Daniel provided a great educational on a key aspect of
Toastmasters …. Evaluation. A master evaluator, Daniel showed us simple yet
effective ways to set-up and deliver evaluations and I’m sure his advice will
produce some very professional evaluations into the future.
For me the highlight of the night, indeed the year, was
being awarded the Club’s Toastmaster of the Year. This award was totally
unexpected and one that I regard as a great honour. My objective over the next
year will be to make it two in a row and I sincerely hope and look forward to
others making a determined effort to prevent that happening!!!!!
In all we had an enjoyable and relaxed meeting with a
difference.
Paul von Harder
