Can you hear me now?

“Sweat is glistening on our president, Dave Cook’s, forehead. The other 7 Toastmasters in physical attendance are joking around to lift the tension in this well-known technology battle. Eventually Dave gives a big sigh of relief and our 6 fellow virtual Toastmasters are connected with video and audio on Zoom. The meeting can begin.”

Gary Nicholson was the chairman and he masterly led the meeting and told us all kind of weird facts which was to be taken as truth – because the Internet says so. LOL.

Katina was on par with the word she chose as grammarian – “Clarity” With all the commotion behind her letting more virtual toastmasters in on the Zoom meeting, she was cool and collected and gave a ‘clear’ description of her expectations for the evening.

Table Topics Master, Christo Botes, took us back to our childhood memories. We heard a few very interesting stories from a ballerina being a tree, a four-year-old that did something secret, a visit with Princess Diana, a bossy older sister, crushable teenagers, a love for reading and some interesting school experiences.

Darryl shared his heart and told us about the frustration he experienced by trying to do good. In today’s age and time, it is almost impossible to be an anonymous giver. However, he persevered and the Cancer Society was blessed with his generous anonymous donation.
Ron enlightened us with a speech about eight well known Leadership styles.

And then Dave humoured us with the last speech. He updated us with the renovation process of his house. The fun and games – jumping on floors, a staircase busy collapsing, crawling under the house and see bora dust raining down – were all worthwhile as the projected finished timeline is in November.

As always, the evaluations of the speeches were just as interesting as the speeches itself. All three evaluators were online while two of the speeches were in the physical room.
It was good to see how successful the Spinnaker’s Hybrid meeting was conducted.

And then, last but not least, Gary ended the meeting with a personal story. This time really the truth. Last Thursday, when he arrived home after a nice dinner out, there was no power in his suburb. He always opened the garage door remotely and entered the house through the garage. Having no power, the garage door could not open with the result that he had no keys to enter his house. Typically Gary, he made a plan and decided to enter the house through the dog door. He wiggled himself halfway, got stuck and was a licking target for his dog. While the dog had an enjoyable time licking Gary’s face, he managed to wiggle himself out, now without keys and a hurt ego.

And so it goes with our Toastmasters and the amazing speeches that enrich all of us.