Wang, de Marco and Jane wows the crowd
Meeting 301 - 6 March 2008
Well last night was the first meeting after our 300th milestone and while we had many apologies from oodles of members due to work committments, those of us who attended had a wonderfull time!
ALL my efforts to get the program sorted early turned to mush with 4 of our scheduled speakers not being able to take their slot on the program. But you know what folks, life happens and we have to deal with it.
Before all the other credits role, many thanks to Kathy Kay for whipping up a feast of snacks that had every one socialising during the recess because we didn't need knife and forks! This did not go unnoticed by the committee and we will be making plans to ensure that other victuals are available at the meetings.
Jacques de Villiers - was brilliant as toastmaster even if I may have cajoled him into the role. Somehow I thought he voluteered but apparently he really wanted to be time keeper! Many thanks Jacques for being such a good sport
Trina McKinley - took on the role of Grammarian and listening post. Trina regularly challenges herself with the roles she performs and did us proud last night. Her feedback on people's grammar, sentence construction and fillers was most insightful. We will forgive her however for not timing Dave's speech because she was so enthralled!
Kathy Kay - took on the role of timekeeper, finesman and food provider. The finesman role fell away due to the small crowd in attendance.
Selebelo Selamolela - did us proud as the S@A for the evening. Many thanks Selo for being so willing to assist.
Cindy Knutton - proposed a wonderful toast to TMI and took us down memory lane in the process. Cindy urged us to not give up on our efforts to ensure the club continues to run at the standard Rivonia is known for.
Imke Hansen - one of our newest members not only gave the Toast of the Evening but also participated in the impromptu session! It should be noted that Dave Cairns (Saint Turion Club) automatically gravitated to the youngest and prettiest of our members for his seat. No matter. Imke gave a lovely toast to the "Youth of Today" (of which she is definitely one as Jacques pointed out).
Lauren Krog - ran an interesting impromptu session where the speakers had to put themselves into the year 2050 and after discovering a box of "memories" talk about a specific one. Thank you Lauren for you efforts to stretch us and keep us entertained.
We were fortunate enough to have 2 visitors on the night, Justin and Kgomotso and by their comments, thoroughly enjoyed a relaxed evening with RTM.
Dave Cairns gave the only speech of the evening entitled "Autobiography" and it was decided that an open evaluation would be appropriate as this is Dave's contest speech. From beginning to end, we were held by Dave's words, voice and delivery. All I can say is that none of us present will ever look at a woman called "Kitty" in the same light! However, in true Rivonia tradition, we were able to give Dave comments and suggestions as to how he can improve his speech by tweaking a word here and a phrase there. Dave actually phoned this morning to thank me for the evening which he thoroughly enjoyed.
As we have our contest evening next month, Trina gave us an educational on running a contest and what we need to consider to do the job properly. Many thanks Trina! You always manage to find something to educate us with. Our thanks also go to Trina for securing 3 judges from different clubs to assist at our contest. As Trina said, 9 judges is the quantity we should be aiming for, bearing in mind that a judge does *not* have to be a toastmaster!
Imka has already indicated her intent to enter the Impromptu Contest, and both Cindy and Lauren have indicated their willingness to perform whatever role necessary. Trina has already knabbed the role of Chief Judge and our intrepid President Steve Stevenson has the honour of running the contest.
So folks, I hope my words are enough for you to realise that you really should organise your lives and make sure you visit us on the first Thursday of every month. You just never know what you will miss.
Wishing you all a restfull weekend and we look forward to seeing you at the contest evening Thursday 3rd April.
Best wishes
Patricia (your hardworking VPE)
Patricia Lawson-Smith
The Next meeting is on 3 April ... it's our competition evening
