We had a lot to celebrate tonight – the end of the Toastmasters year, Sam’s first run as Toastmaster, Sam 2’s first go at Timer, Jennifer’s awesome speech which completed her CC award and JP wrapping up his ACB award with his final speech from the Speaking to Inform manual. Then there was David B’s first run as Tabletopics Master, Ellie filing her CL award and Dave Y getting his CC as well (For the second time). With so much on, we figured it was only fitting to run a short meeting and head out for drinks to celebrate. Oh I forgot to mention, we achieved 10/10 for the DCP points! Incredible.
But incredible is a word which could be used to describe Jennifer’s 10th CC speech tonight “Life is not a motivational poster”. This project challenged the speaker to inspire their audience – something Jennifer well-and-truly achieved. The real genius was the way this speech unravelled the fascinating history of Galileo, stripping down the hero on the pedastool, unveiling his faults and destroying the argument that his discoveries were entirely his own work, all supported by an incredibly ironic series of motivational posters featuring the man himself. In her conclusion, Jennifer put Galileo back on his pedastool, showing her deep respect for his work and asserting “You don’t have to be a great person to accomplish great things”. Congratulations Jennifer, what a way to finish you CC manual.
Also completing another major award tonight was JP with his final Speaking to Inform project “That age old question”. This hilarious speech was delivered in whiteboard lecture-style with deadpan expression, all on the topic of why men have nipples. That’s right. This speech had a highly technical bent to it and JP took us from chromosomes, to PTHrP to Prolactin. Adding colour to his topic, JP described three famous historical cases where men’s ability to lactate was beneficial.
David B’s tabletopics were well prepared and a massive challenge tonight, with participants charged with making a 2 minute speech based on a random colour and one-line statement. Matt talked about Ferrari Red sunglasses and David K went all flamingo pink. Ade described her new day-glow orange office and Jennifer her preference for an ‘electric’ blue sky.
Congratulations everyone on a monumental toastmasters year!