masks Masks MASKS

Darrell chaired our 5 October meeting with the theme “masks Masks MASKS”. There was 10 present plus 3 guests, plus 2 joined us online.

Andrew’s word of the day was “aplomb” which means complete confidence and self assurance, poise. He reported at the end of the meeting it had been used 14 times that he had counted.

Table Topics theme run by Katina was telling a fairy story with an unusual ending or twist. So we had Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel & Gretel. Our speakers made the most of it coming up with great endings to their alternative stories. Best table topics was jointly won by two of our guests Chris and Darrell.

Speech 1 by Ron was an introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring, where Ron outlined what mentoring is and how it works, personally and in professional life, and at Toastmasters. He said “it’s an experiential journey”. Dave’s evaluation said that Ron certainly shared some examples and we learnt some new things from him about mentoring.

Speaker 2 was Ian, a level 3 Persuasive speech “When you are smiling, the whole world smiles with you!” Ian outlined the benefits of smiling, how it gives energy, is infectious, helps you and helps others and at the end he gave us a recipe of 5 ingredients for smiling. Kathy’s evaluation said it was clear and concise with Ian’s unique brand of Irish comedy.

Speaker 3 was our guest Kendall who’s speech “Second Chances” was a humorous speech using effective body language. She had a twist at the end when she woke up from her dream. Evaluator Dale said it was well organised, entertaining, with dynamic body language and had the potential to be a contest-winning speech.

Best speaker – Kendall. Best evaluator – Dale.

Christo, our memory master challenged us with virtual chocolates for answering lots of questions about what some speakers had mentioned, and Zelda handed out the physical chocolates for the correct answers.

General Evaluator Gary complimented Darrell on such a well run meeting saying he had got out of the gate early and pulled the meeting together, even with the current meeting restrictions in place. He liked Dave’s evaluation style with the use of “I really liked…”, Kathy’s positive points for Ian, and Dale’s professional and concise evaluation for Kendall.