On the momentous day that will go down in history for the United States if not the world, Excalibur held its own momentous meeting.
Seargent-at-Arms Paul Andreas called us all to order with “fone, fire and fun”!
President Lynne Cantor kicked off the meeting in her usual passionate style encouraging us to be “bullish” and stating implicitly that although she resides in Essex, she is not an Essex Girl! She welcomed 6 guests including Marc from Geneva Toastmasters, Francine from Experience French and Jill Segal from Grosvenor Square Speakers.
First time Excalibur Toastmaster of the Evening and “Kentish Maid” Suzi Fish led the meeting starting with a quote from Barack Obama: “No matter what happens, the sun will rise in the morning” to help put things into perspective! Suzi promised an evening of taxing Topics, stimulating speeches, exceptional evaluations & enticing introductions. She thanked the role players stepping in at the last minute.
Our exuberantly enthusiastic Freddie “on speed” Daniells hosted our impromptu Table Topics encouraging us to “sharpen our skills like a pencil”! Topics ranged from your worst date, throwaway economy, biscuits and whether Britain was on the edge of a precipice or a golden age. The speakers were David Adams, Errol Williamson, Jill Segal and guest Marc. Instant evaluators were Paul Andreas, Monika and guests Ajay and Francine. Lynne Cantor has been training us well and a how to recommendation was given by everyone!
Lynne Cantor was our first speaker with “90 Years Young” from the ‘Special Occasion Speeches’ manual, project #5, ‘Speaking in Praise’. Lynne touched us deeply by honouring her mother-in-law who will be 90 in January with anecdotes amassed from members of her family.
Odile Facih gave us ‘Technical Presentation’ #3 ‘The Non-Technical Audience’ called “Trust Me, I am a Project Manager”, communicating complex information about what she does in an easy to understand way. She is a true Project Manager as she even planned in advance to have a guest assistant, Francine, to help her with her slides!
Paul Andreas was our final speaker of the evening, speaking to #5 ‘The Oratorical Speech’ from the ‘Interpretive Speaking’ manual, which he chose thinking it would be an easy option to help him obtain his Advanced Communicator Gold award. He has since realised it’s not as easy as it looks! He chose “The Greatest Speech Ever” originally delivered by Robert Kennedy about Martin Luther King, Jr, which helped Indianapolis remain calm and not riot following Mr King’s assassination. It was a delight seeing Paul really stepping into his voice and obviously channelling Robert Kennedy himself!
Our evaluators were our newest members Monika Swiderska and Hannah Van Der Deiji, and Chinkata Okpara respectively, who all gave insightful reports with helpful recommendations.
David West facilitated our Open Feedback session with a difference. As well as this being an unusual part of a normal Toastmasters meeting, we not only evaluated the three speakers this time, we also evaluated the speakers’ introductions which had been written by the speakers. Lynne is very keen to have quality introductions and we all took something away that we can improve on for our own introductions.
Our guest GE Jill Segal gave us a warm general evaluation of the meeting and anyone who hadn’t yet been evaluated, with specific areas of improvement for us all.
Errol Williamson ably kept us all to time delivering his reports with warmth and enthusiasm. He personalised his timings with a gem of encouragement for each speaker.
The Best Table Topics Speakers were David Adams and Errol Williamson, the Best Speech was won by Lynne Cantor, and Chinkata Okpara won the Best Evaluator of the evening. Well done to them all.
Excalibur lived up to its ethos of Challenge, Quality and Variety and an enjoyable evening was had by all.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 23rd November, 6:45pm for a 7pm prompt start where Irene Bradshaw will be giving a workshop on breathing! To make our VPE Freddie’s job easier, kindly let us know if you are attending via Easyspeak.
Our last meeting of the calendar year will be Wednesday 14th December and will have a festive theme!
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