Engage, Educate, Energise - 6th August 2014

Report by Philip Landergan

Engage Educate and Energise, this is the theme for Lewisham Speakers Club that was introduced last week, but what does this mean? My introduction on behalf of Jason wasn’t needed on Wednesday as the meeting explained it!

Richard opened proceedings by welcoming everyone including our guests, Ikenna, Judith, Annie and Elaine and then after announcing our theme Katy as Toastmaster took ran the rest of the meeting as she kept us on track and supported everyone without dominating the meeting.

Our Birthday Boy, Chris lead the warm up by finding out how we like to celebrate our Birthdays and Manoj as timekeeper performed his task by ringing the bell of shame on me twice and Vivienne our Grammarian ensured we had a joyful meeting.

“Is this the same England” was an Icebreaker given by Nneka from Meridian as she explained how England has become her home despite all its faults including a bland diet and cold weather all without notes.

Next was Sholem with “Family Responsibilities” recounted some advice he had heard that “in the house the wife is always correct” as he explored the issues of family dynamics and the effects of being selfish in order to support a partner.
Then Julie told us a story of how “A Club Rose from the Ashes”  through support from the wider Toastmasters Family including Lewisham Speakers Chris H, Flavia and Katy.

Then our evaluators continued the feast as the Birthday Boy affirmed Nneka, Manoj complimented Shalom on retaining our interest and Richard encouraged Julie to add more power to the story by speaking from within rather than about the rebuilding process. More examples of Engage Educate and Energize.

After the break Lucinda lead the impromptu part of the evening, Table Topics as the speakers drew inspirational cards to obtain their topics, including our guests Ikenna on “If everything happens for a Reason” and his answer was no it’s all chance, Judith on “Waiting Patiently” as he told us about getting her driving licence and Annie who told us about “Fulfilling a Desire” joining the school debating society a year early and our congratulations to them for rising to the challenge, Richard responding to “When he last felt Panic” explained how it was during his evaluation of Julie but that Panic can be used as a positive resource. Yet more examples of Engage Educate and Energize.

The virtual awards for the evening went to Nneka for and Richard was best evaluator and topics speaker and were presented by Jason who also got feedback from our very welcome guests.

Thank you to Katy and everyone who helped have such a great evening and I am looking forward our next meeting on August 20, can you afford to miss it?