Living in the Moment

Our first meeting in November was particularly relaxed and fun. One of our, first time, guests said she was surprised by how much fun we had – she was expecting something more serious. She said it felt like she had been welcomed into a family.

Our Toastmaster was Lukas, who introduced the theme of ‘Living in the Moment’. He told us about his experiences when he took his new camera to the park and first noticed the beautiful colours of the trees and landscape. They’d obviously all been there before but he hadn’t noticed. He recognised the value of slowing down and noticing what was all around him, the value of living in the moment.

Flavia, our President, welcomed us all to the meeting and gave a general explanation of Toastmasters and our group for the visitors. John warmed us up by asking us all to think about a time when we had managed to let go and live in the moment. The answers ranged from yoga and sports to holidays in tranquil places - and very intimate relaxing experiences, ahem. (Julie still has her funny bones for sure!)

Verna and David supported the meeting as Timekeeper and Grammarian. David gave us ‘odious’ to include in our speeches wherever we could.

Our speakers for the evening are both very experienced and competent. Richard chose to practice a speech he’s given before to bring himself up to competition level. His mission was to ‘Persuade with Power’ with his speech ‘Norman’. He drew us in by walking over to the window, and saying ‘There’s a mountain out there – and it’s following me.’ We were intrigued! His finish left an impression too as he kicked the door open and invited us all to climb that mountain with him. In her evaluation, Lucinda noted the power of Richard’s speech and his use of differentiated voices and characters.

Julie gave us her ‘Keynote Address’, taking us through the first seven speeches in the Competent Communications Manual. She told us of her first speech when she fell in love with the audience and her second, when she started by telling how, in her childhood she killed – with her eyes. As Flavia said when she evaluated Julie’s speech – she gave us a masterclass in how to put a speech together and gave us all plenty of tips for composing our own speeches.

Philip lead the table topics giving our guests and members who hadn’t spoken a chance to think quickly to give answers to his questions.

Paul was our general evaluator for the evening and highlighted the skills of those who hadn’t yet been evaluated, adding some recommendations. He praised Flavia’s warm welcome and Lukas’ smooth transitions and John for keeping us all engaged with his warm up.

During the break we enjoyed some yummy cake, thanks to Paul, to celebrate our 7th birthday.