8th May meeting - Phil's view

What a great night last night and thanks to all those who could attend.

We started with our first time Toastmaster of the evening David Fisher after being called to order by our Sergeant-at-Arms Garry Ferguson. Well done to you both on a fine introduction.

After being welcomed David introduced us to the various roles introducing Bill Lister as Ah Counter and Sue Taylor as Grammarian. A simple word was "Choice" which she challenged us all to use. More later!

I was then introduced as Timekeeper as unfortunately one of our members couldn't make it so I stepped in at last moment.

Our only speaker for the evening was Michelle Gerwitz - our great supporter from York. She gave us a demonstration speech showing us how to approach 'The Icebreaker'. Great use of notes with a clear voice she wowed us with her very funny tales of her being 'A Savage in a Nutshell' All good stuff and thanks Michelle. Hopefully we can get some of our newer members to take up the challenge and introduce themselves to the group.

After the short break Garry brought us back on track with TM David introducing Anthony Day and the Education Slot. An opportunity to show us what we had received in the new Club pack he went through the documentation.

Richard Forrester then introduced his team of evaluator (me!!) and I then gave a 3 minute overview of how well I thought Michelle had performed. After giving her a couple of pointers I rounded up by congratulating her on showing us how it should be done.

Sue Taylor then stepped up to the plate with her Table Topics. What fun and a great example of how the simple things can be very effective. She had brought a bag of food shopping!! We all had to dip in the bag and pull out an object to talk about.

First up was David Fisher with some Sea-salt. He gave us a fine example of a personal story about ski-ing with the twist at the end - great stuff!!
Next was Garry Ferguson who pulled out Jasmine Tea. Garry proceeded to tell us about different types of tea but the overwhelming smell he got was of mint sauce which made us all laugh!
Third speaker was Bill Lister with some Marmite. He gave an interesting story about the product and then told us how nice the jar was!! All good stuff (and he actually liked it!!)
Michelle Gerwitz spoke next with a story about mushy peas! They don't have them in New Zealand (they don't know what they are missing!) and she expressed her great dislike for the stuff.
Justin Joyce then stepped up to describe Blackcurrant Jam. Nice little story about jam and a good example of thinking on your feet - well done Justin.
Anthony Day followed up with an apple - again with a personal story about his previous garden where he grew fruit trees. Pip pip old chap - well done!!
Phil Heath then regaled us with a story about his mystery shopping job when he pulled out a packet of very weird coloured Pasta (must look out for that it looked interesting!)
Final slot went to Richard Forrester with a packet of Oatmeal. He told us how to make it but promptly upset the Scots in the audience with his story - och aye the noo!

Final section we handed back to Richard Forrester who gave us the General Evaluation of the meeting giving some good pointers and feedback to the whole team. Thanks for that Richard - much appreciated.

David Fisher then wound the evening up with the close and applause for Michelle winning the best Table Topic award.

Overall a great meeting and we just get better. Don't forget to tell your friends, colleagues people you meet on the street about how Toastmasters improves lives. If you want any evidence of this then just look at some of the world's top speakers. They have all been to Toastmasters at some point. It must be good!!

Thanks to everyone - I hope to see a lot more people at the next meeting which is on the 22nd May at the Cairn Hotel starting at 7.00pm prompt.

Good luck in all you do this week.