Our vision: to be a club where members want to come to every meeting to perfect their skills, and to achieve their personal goals
Our Mission: provide the best Club to learn and improve in speaking and the exercise of leadership
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Our next meeting is:
| Date | Meeting Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2008/09/10 | Normal Meeting | Visitors Welcome |
Meets at: Time: Contact: |
Huis Der Nederlanden, Central Square, Pinelands 18:30 for 19:00 Liz Dewing: 082-658-7020 |
Hi Again
Well, even more of a delay (due to business travel this time), but as the old adage goes, better late than never .....
Carolann, our Toastmaster of the evening, decided to go big with the theme Brian had assigned for the evening - "The Spring Flowers Are Blooming!" - and laid out an extraordinary array of hats from which each participant was invited to select the one which best matched their item on the program.
We kicked off with an Educational delivered by Yours Truly from the Better Speaker Series on "Creating An Introduction." As one of the most common activities that someone could be asked to perform, giving an introduction can either set a speaker up to succeed, or shoot them down before they even begin so the suggestions and guidelines provided in this tutorial are really useful. I chose aParliamentary Peak cap for my headgear due to the nature of the Educational as well as the fact that I was the Timekeeper. Sadly, this was a bit of an omen as I discovered to my horror as the first speaker started that the battery had fallen out of our stopwatch and the timekeeping efforts for most of the evening were erratic and best and hopeless at worst..........Using a cellphone stop watch simply doesn't cut it!!
Moving onto the Communication Program Don Connan stepped up for his CC2 "donning" (ha ha ha - sorry!) a very appropriateNike "Just Do It" cap to deliver his speech "The Gift of Dyslexia." Diagnosed late in life as dyslexic himself, Don used a very different perspective from which to present some rather unusual insights into this subject. His Evaluator Lynnette (hatless - Gasp!!!) noted that the personal anecdotes made the speech more accessible and that it had a notably uplifting impact, a bit of a deviation from what might have been expected.
Second up was Hilton Munday with a CC3 on "The Importance of a Holiday." Starting off in atartan cap he delivered some very alarming facts and figures associated with the failure to take adequate holidays and narrated the route by which he and Sarah had decided to go ahead and book their holiday in France at the end of the year. By the time he swapped the tartan cap for afloral sunhat we were all green with envy and planning our next trip feeling that it was the right thing to do! Ruth Hobbs, who evaluated wearing aTop Hat, made some useful observations, pointing out that she felt the ending may have had more impact if he had stopped with the words "even God rested on the 7th day." How can you argue with that?!
Sarah Lee Williams was up next, also a CC3, and she chose aTiara to ask the very pertinent question "What Is Happiness?" Again - a source of some astonishing statistics (Did you know that in the seventeenth century women typically had 10 children in order to ensure the curivival to adulthood of 2?!........Me neither. However the piece de resistance was the following line in which she concluded that "as a result women had little time to work." Once the hysterical laughter had abated she was able to proceed to convince us that happiness is predominantly dependent on mindset rather than circumstances........so if you happen to find yourself neck high in manure at some future date remember to keep your eye open for the pony!
Sarah was evaluated by Martin Louw (complete with Billy Ray Cyrus style ponytail as an added extra on hissporty bright orange peak) who pointed out that she could lose her notes and feel no pain as she's hardly using them now anyway.
Our final speaker was Denise Bolttman who celebrated the completion of her CC10 with a speech entitled "The Power of One." In her very dashing Pink Cowboy Hat she persuaded and inspired us to chage the world one person at a time through spontaneous acts of random kindness. As someone who professes to "work to earn a giving" Denise has a veritable suitcase full of wonderful personal stories with which to illustrate her talks and this was no exception.....I think each of us took the R5 dished out at the end as a personal challenge to go and make a difference. Gordon delivered the evaluation in abright orange straw hat expressing the club's congratulations on achieving this milestone.
Christine delivered the Thought of the Day, likening each day to a gift and pointing out that even if the day before was terrible, every day begins with promise and opportunity - and whether we are "tear off the wrapper" or "treasure every moment" types, we should be thankful for each and every "present." TheOrange Straw Hat added sunshiny emphasis.
The less said about the Timekeeper's Report the better! Let's just say time passed and move swiftly along.
Hugh Solomon seized the baton with considerable aplomb after almost a year's hiatus and delivered his CC12 from the Technical Speeches manual. Playing the role of a Home Maintenance Contractor he delivered a thorough and well structured proposal to the Forest Glen Homeowners' Association explaining how they could improve their properties and save money by undertaking the painting of their homes themselves making use of his discounted and detailed approach. Extremely competent and convincing he was too, despite, I might add, the considerable impression made by hishuge floppy floral headgear. Of course there's always one, and during the short Q&A Hugh had to explain why his proposal didn't include nubile speedo clad young men to perform the painting for the single ladies of the complex! Christine evaluated and confirmed that not only had Hugh's presentation fulfilled the speech criteria, he managed to entertain us whilst presenting it as well and we all look forward to more of the same....I could do with the same kind of flair from my Plumber and Electrician I can tell you!
The Awards went to Denise as Best Speaker, Martin and Ruth shared Best Evaluator, and in the absence of a Table Topics section a Best Hat award was presented instead to Hilton for his oratory equivalent of a golfing Eagle! Lizette gave the Gavel to Hugh for helping her with the Sargent At Arms role which was a little fraught due to the size of the group and the range of activities for the evening.
Thanks to our first time guests - Grant Kohler, Glynis Denicker and Robin Stone, as well as to all those who were with us for a 2nd or even 3rd visit. Closing news - our newest member is Aletta Rochat who has just been registered. We look forward to CC1's from Morne, Victor and Aletta in coming weeks.
Remember to join us on the 27th for the Humour Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regards
Liz Dewing
President
Cape Town Toastmaster
Cape Town Toastmasters Club was started in 1982, over 25 years ago, and serves members
of the public in the greater Cape Town area.
We meet every second and fourth Wednesday at at the Huis der Nederlanden,
Central Square, Pinelands, at 18:30 for 19:00, usually finishing by 21:30.
Meetings usually cost R55, which includes a finger supper.
If you wish to attend a meeting, or find out any further information, please contact
Liz Dewing, or any members of the club.
Alternatively, click here to complete a feedback form
Last Updated 11 July 2007
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