3 July meeting
From the desk of Patricia Lawson-Smith, President, Rivonia Toastmasters Club
My apologies for being very late with this update, but after the Toastmasters meeting, this has been my first day back at work since contracting flu and bronchitis together!
Nevertheless, Thursday 3rd July proved to be a fun filled evening at Rivonia, with plenty of visitors to bolster the numbers!!
Jacques de Villiers was our toastmaster of the evening and chose the theme. A couple of times during the proceedings we did not seem to pick up on his humour quick enough!
Brad Strydom, one of our newest members and current VPM, gave the toast of the evening.
The Wordmaster/Grammarian's role was ably discharged by our new IPP Steve Stevenson.
Jenny Shiers, our Area H3 govenor was on hand to propose the toast to TMI and to discharge the previous committee members and induct the new committee members for the coming year. Thank you Jenny for the wonderful way in which you handled this part of the evening. I thought the use of the candle was particularly effective "Passing on the light of leadership".
Selebelo made his first appearance as S@A and we are sure he will grow into the responsibility of his new position.
Khomotso Keikelame was due to be our first speaker and her husband Austin was somewhat worried when the door finally opened and in streamed Khomotso and what we though was her fan club. Turned out to be something totally different, but more about that later. Khomotso gave her ice breaker speech entitle "Fun with Pythagorus". We all listened attentively and thorougly enjoyed getting to know Khomotso (and Austin) a little better. Kohomotso almost made it through her speech without refering to her notes which is a tremendous achievement for a newly joined Toastmaster! Well done Khomotso.
Our second speaker was Jeff Harvey with a speech entitled "Happiness comes in 3's". Jeff told us the story of 3 incidents that had happened just this year that had changed him forever. We were so intent on listening to the ending that all of us, including Jeff (but not our intrepid time keeper) missed the red light!
Our last speaker was Keryn House entertained us with a speech entitled "The Robe" during which we all learned that judges robes had previously been colourfull until the death of King Charles II, when the judiciary decided to wear black and apparently is still in mourning!!
The evaluations chairman was Lauren Krog with yours truely and Ruth Pressler rounding out the evaluations committee. It was also nice to have Justin join us in the bar for the process while enjoying a sumptuous meal of grilled chicken breast, roast potatoes, cheese sauce, salad and bread rolls. YUM.
Jacques de Villiers then gave us a talk on setting our goals and an explanation of the Distinguished Club Program that we can aspire to. Each and every new member, and all our achievements contribute to these goals. I therefore urge you to speak to Jacques and get yourselves on the program to "tell your stories"!!
And last but by no means least, our "other" guest of honour was George the Travelling Gavel. Rivonia had only just acquired George and displayed him on the night, for us to loose him. You see, what we thought was Khomotso's fan club turned out to be 5 members of Postitive Speakers from Soweto in the form on Thabo, Tsholo, McDonald, Gift and Gloria. It was great to have you guys with us and we shall be strategising on how to get George back shortly.
For those of you who could not join us, you missed a good night, but we look forward to seeing you at our next meeting!!
