Pressure in Lewisham

At 7.30pm Paul, our Sergeant at Arms, asserted himself and smoothly launched the meeting.

Flavia, our President, welcomed our guests putting them at ease and encouraging us all complete our CC manuals

Habibu our Toastmaster then explained our theme of “Pressure” by commenting on how we are all under pressure, but what matters is how we handle it, before introducing his team.  Lucinda, later on in the meeting, as General Evaluator reminded us how Habibu’s more relaxed style possibly reassured us?

Flavia, our Warm up leader got us to recall a Pressurized Incident.   The  main memory is how we all rose to the challenge of the challenges, from “Elevator Speeches” to twelve mile walks, very encouraging.

Verna ensured we kept to time and she encouraged, as the Grammarian, to be “Insightful” and she was.

Paul presented his fourth speech (How to Say It) about drinking in context, and recounted how often we all drink and told us some stories, but also warnings, that we can be too relaxed with colleagues.

Richard entertained us with “What One Man Can Achieve” speaking about his desire to be a Champion inspired by his grandfather, recounting various setbacks and dreams, including being knocked out in boxing and at snooker, before realizing he is a Champion by being himself and valuing his wife.

Richard Green - Best speaker award

Julie, spoke about how she celebrated her birthday with “Is It Worth It” and she is certainly ‘young’ enough to know better but put herself under pressure by attending so many meetings and story telling events. However she informed us that,  ‘yes it is worth it’, if we connect with people and bring them alive, and have many lives in our years.

Philip, Flavia and Chris as evaluators encouraged our speakers, by acknowledging the power of using experiences from life and how they are all maturing like wine, and use of rhetorical questions can add power, in story telling how it helps to have a constant “guru or sounding board” and once again the power of three and how with practice we can be taken into someone else’s world and finally, how even our imperfections can enhance our speeches by making them “ours.”

Our visitor Orlando wins best table topic speech

After the break Anne led the table Topics Session around our theme, with James stressing over ambiguity at work.   Orlando was proud of how he coped when he had to take over a role in the Young Entrepreneurs scheme and learned new skills, Robert finds physical activity helps him cope and encouraged us all to run or walk.  Miriam enjoys social occasions to de-stress along with a drink, Zumba or singing.  Reuben, on how to relax, was very insightful, encouraging us to find what works for us as he finds a good film and a drink to be helpful.  William, felt that if we can embrace pressure it can be good and finally Maureen, felt that we are less likely to make good decisions under pressure because we can lose perspective.  All that can be said is thank you to everyone who took part in Table Topics as the challenge to think on our feet and deliver a short speech does put us under some pressure, but everyone rose to the challenge especially our guests, Orlando, Robert, Miriam, Reuben, William and Maureen.