Our last meeting was back up in the old boardroom to make way for a one-off booking in the restaurant and despite a slight drop in numbers we had a fabulous evening.
We kicked off promptly at 7:15pm with a General Welcome from our VPE Chris standing in for President Brett who was among the apologies for the evening including Peter, Rowenna and Paul M. Chris combined his Welcome with his first role as Chairman for the First Session.
Sam read the Mission of the Club followed by our round the table Introductions.
Chris then walked us through a fairly comprehensive Agenda Update and Glen H took on the task of Leadership Manual Evaluations. John as Grammarian for the evening, introduced the Word of the Day – Circumvent. As there were no Visitors or Guests to Welcome we moved straight into the First Prepared Speech Session.
Bishnu was Toastmaster for the First Speech Session and presented a meticulously managed segment in his first role as Toastmaster. Excellent. Adam presented Speech No: 8 – Get Comfortable with Visual Ads – with a riveting Speech entitled ‘Why’ in which Adam challenged us all to think about “Why we do what we do”. Questioning what motives us to do what we do. Another vibrantly delivered, well-researched and captivating presentation that included a seamless use of both laptop and projector, in a manner we have come to expect from Adam.
The second Speaker was Dai Fei who presented Speech No: 7, Research to Inform and took us on an in depth investigation into “What Makes an Experienced Writer”. Dai Fei as always conveyed a deep passion for her topic and provided some very thought provoking insights and examples.
Adam was meticulously Evaluated by Natasha who demonstrated a growing expertise in analysis and observation in her critique. Dai Fei was Evaluated by Daniel who as an ‘old-hand’ always passes on some invaluable hints and standards of application in presenting an evaluation.
We went to the break a few minutes ahead of schedule and were reconvened by S@A Daniel who handed the Second Session to Chairman Dai Fei.
Daniel delivered an impassioned Toast to the Australian Athletes for their hard work and achievements at the recent Commonwealth Games.
Gary took on the mantle of Toastmaster for the Second Session and Introduced Paul who was delivering an unusual format in a Speech entitled “The Successful Negotiator” in which he introduced some comprehensive guidelines for negotiation techniques before presenting a role-play with John. Paul was the Customer seeking to reach an agreeable leasing contract with John, the Lessor, of imaginary commercial premises. Although some general outline had been discussed prior to the presentation the role-play was to be as realistic and impromptu as possible. To conclude, Paul sort feedback and critique from the audience. The time frame was of course extended beyond the normal speaking time.
Paul (and John) were Evaluated by Adam, who brought some very insightful observations and points for improvement to the exercise in his appraisal of the segment.
Adam then returned to the lectern as Table Topics Master introducing a very unique and highly entertaining segment in which 2 participants were called upon to role-play scenarios given to them by Adam. The results were outstandingly creative, exhaustingly funny and of great benefit to participants and observers alike.
Gary was a school principal attempting to advise parent Bernard that his son was out of control (and borderline psychotic) will Bernard vehemently defended his son’s actions as merely anal and quite acceptable. The result was outstanding in terms of response and delivery.
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| Glen H (left) doing a sterling job of dismissing a remarkably calm but very unhappy customer played by Bishnu (right) |
The second scenario was Glen H as the recalcitrant shop-keeper dealing with a very calm but extremely focused Bishnu, as a very dissatisfied customer returning a faulty product. This segment delivered some absolute gems from both participants and Glen certainly gave John Cleese a run for his money as the ‘Basil Faulty of retail’.
The final segment was a Boy Scout, Sam trying to convince a very crotchety ‘senior citizen’, Daniel that he Sam, wanted to provide some form of assistance to Daniel with the alterior motive of earning a vital Scout Badge. We witnessed a Boy Scout who definitely has a future career in the law as he ‘put his case’ to a constantly unimpressed and disinterested returned servicemen. An total riot!
Dai Fei and Chris who struggled with their on-the-spot observations, because they had been breaking up in laughter throughout what was an absolute corker of a Table Topics segment, but managed to deliver some very helpful evaluations.
The evenings concluding Evaluations included Ums and Ahs by Glen H, Grammarian and Word of the Day announcement by John. Big Ears by Sam and Timers Report by Natasha who pointed out our continuing struggle with keeping to time.
It is interesting that so many relatively new members have moved past the challenge of speaking for long enough – to be having to focus on keeping down to time, a clear indicator of improving confidence in such a short period of time.
Bernard tackled the onerous task of General Evaluator for the first time and delivered a very detailed and carefully constructed observation of a very busy and highly energised meeting.
VPE Chris took us through the Forward Planner before stepping into the role of presenting Closing Remarks on behalf of President Brett.
NEXT MEETING
Tuesday 26th October 2010
