‘Tis not quite the season but you would have been forgiven for thinking it was already upon us if you had been at toastmasters last Tuesday. Toastmaster Jennifer, first time in the role, did an excellent job of guiding the evening and encouraged many expressions of joy.
First up Bard Matt shared insights from Mahe Drysdale. What makes him such a great rower? “Successful people are selfish”. At first glance this might seem a bit harsh but actually turns out that they are selfish because there is a need to give others happiness and this is what keeps them committed.
Kathy then intrigued us with her cooking skills or so we thought. But no, her It’s About Time’ speech gave us a very clear personal example of how distractions get in the way of writing a good speech. Kathy’s powerful use of visual aids, and formula for getting rid of the unimportant and not urgent things in life, should see all of us with better time management and hence more speech writing!
Following on from this Gary encouraged us to consider using a Run Sheet as a way to memorize a speech. “Not all of us are freaks of nature, like JP”(you will have to ask Gary about this JP) and we “won’t get to lofty heights unless we learn to deliver a seven minute speech without notes”. Gary encouraged us to be well versed with our topic and then give the Run Sheet a go.
Jan pulled out her creative hat once again as Table Topics Master by linking book readings with TV shows. Dave Y connected Dr Seus to Inspector Morse who makes a great detective because he sees the real person and not just the outside. Dave B met Dr Phil after climbing to lofty heights and falling out of a tree. Malcolm had to make the best of times out of the worst of times and marry this to Beauty and the Geek. Visitor Gillian showed great excitement as a single man, wanting a wife and competing on Master Chef as a way of checking out potentials. Then to cap that off Ellie wowed us with how her exploding grandmother provides a Better Home and Garden, with the punchline “the fruits of my Gran are with you.” Eek!
Thanks all for a fantastic evening. May the joy continue to flow for one and all.