Gary chaired tonight’s meeting with the theme “Value”.

Grammarian Dirk presented “jarring” as the Word of the Day.  In his report at the end of the meeting, he noted that several people had managed to slot “jarring” into their presentation!

Dale presented Table Topics and used the opportunity to gain credit towards an Active Listening project.  This meant that she was required to comment on each speaker’s table topic to demonstrate active listening skills.  In introducing the Table Topics session, Dale talked about how she has sometimes wondered what else she might have done or where else she might have gone had she taken another path in life.  Therefore the theme for each speaker’s topic tonight was “If I could turn back time”.

Darrell decided he was happy with what he did, although he did wonder if he could have been a songwriter or a comedian!

Angela would have tried to stay in the UK longer than her 2-year visa allowed.

Jocelyn has been retired for two years and in no way wants to turn back time!

Dirk studied engineering but works in IT and wishes he could have landed somewhere in the middle of the two with a hands-on role.

Janine personally wouldn’t change anything but acknowledged that probably her mother wishes Janine could turn back time and finish one of the study paths she started but never completed!

Megan also wouldn’t change anything.  She initially studied PE but quickly decided it may not be for her.  On looking at the subject list for something else, she started at A and stopped there at Accounting!

Deiter thought he should probably have ended up as an engineer but was only offered one course which was accounting.  As it turns out, he would not change given the choice.

Dale’s insightful and positive comments after each table topic demonstrated that she had indeed been actively listening to each speaker!

The first prepared speech was delivered by Darrell and titled “Risque, Risky or Rude?”.

Darrell started with a taster of his upcoming stand-up comedy routine!  Then he went on to explain the differences between stand-up comedy and a Toastmasters humorous speech.

In evaluating Darrell, Kathy liked the way Darrell presented in a very relaxed manner as if he was addressing each of us one-on-one noting that it comes across as very natural.  Kathy recommended that Darrell take care with the position of the lectern as it blocked the view of part of the stage for those attending the meeting online.

Angela talked about gun crime in the US and presented horrifying statistics about the number of guns owned there by citizens and the number of people murdered by gunshot.

In Dirk’s evaluation of Angela, he praised her for an excellent speech.

The final prepared speech of the evening was Kathy presenting an inspirational speech titled “The Extraordinary Ordinary”.  She made the point that we all have a story to tell and in each of our ordinary stories, someone else sees something extraordinary.

In his evaluation of Kathy, Darrell felt that Kathy had achieved the objectives of inspiring the audience.  He recommended that when delivering a presentation online, she take care to ensure that her head and shoulders are always in the frame of the camera.

In her General Evaluation, Megan praised everyone for a great meeting which provided “value” to all who attended.