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Isis Speakers Club Meeting Summary - December 15 2011

Introduction: 

Dear Fellow members and Guests, Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Isis Meeting on Thursday December 15th , it was immensely enjoyable. This meeting was a challenge because we were rather low on members to fill the required roles. Given that, on the evening, the weather was abysmal and it was our last meeting before Christmas, this was hardly surprising.there are many people to thank for stepping in at the last minute to fill roles. Gavin Hageman was Toastmaster of the evening for the first time. Chris Lima  stepped in at the last minute To be  table topics Master. Aziza[ a Guest member from Malaysia) stepped into be our timekeeper on her first-ever visit to Isis speakerss o a special thank you to Aziza. Arjun, our president stepped in to evaluate table topics. I've not finished yet! -, Don O'Neill was collared to do an evaluation as well.thank you all very much. Nicolas Stevens  introduced the word of the day which on this occasion was scintilla' and he encouraged us to use it in its many forms.

Table topics: 

 As always, we started with a scintilating' Table Topic session mastered by Chris Lima . Each Speaker drew a card and we had some very entertaining answers to  questions such as 'who has been the biggest influence on your life?  And if you were famous, what would you like to be famous for?

Prepared speeches and evaluations: 

The second half as usual started with the prepared speeches . Colin Jack gave us a very interesting educational speech comparing nuclear fission with nuclear fusion.  Don't try this at home Everybody! Colin was well supported by Anneka, who  gave her first speech from the competent communicator's manual-the icebreaker.  Her speech wasentitled the five languages of love' .thank you Anneka for showing us the many ways that love can be shown.

 

Nicolas Stevens very usefully fill the gap created by one of our absent speakers by orchestrating a practice run of his proposed pantomime script fo Cinderella.  Several Isis members, including Anneka, Chris, Don and guest John ran through the lines and very quickly got into the flow of reading Nicolas' humorous script.

Wrapping up: 

Our president, Arjun presented the prizes. first-time guest,John won best table topic for his interpretation 'how would you like to be famous' there was no award for best prepared speech, as the club doesn't vote when there are less than three speeches.Arjun won best evaluator for his table topics evaluation.And finally,It was great to see many of you on Thursday 7 12. at the Christmas get together at the Mitre public house..  It was a fun evening, there was singing, dancing and impersonations of Sean Connery doing Santa Clause and that was just from Nicholas Stephens!  These were the other highlights...
Arjun and Kate Tomes presented the Table Topic or Dare/Pass the  parcel game. (amalgamation of games) .  It included Geoff Watson doing impersonations of present Toastmasters including Nick Dewey.  Sheila Lee told us who she will be giving her heart to this Xmas and Colin Jack debated whether Xmas was becoming too commercial.

After Dinner, John Morley reported back from the recent District Conference.  There was a lot of good news and awards for our area:

  • Jean Gamester received District 71 and won best Area Governor for 2010
  • Pieter Oosthuizen received an award for Select Distinguished Area  (Area 7)
  • Paul Ovington for Distinguished Toastmaster
  • Colin Walsh for Distinguished Toastmaster (Posthumous).  There was a standing ovation in honor of Colin who knew so many Toastmasters across the District.
  • And Simon Wallis for demonstrating exemplary service and dedication to District 71

More info on the next one here.

The evening continued with a quiz and prize givings:

  • Gavin won a box of Belgian chocolates for having the best party hat, It was made from real Toast!
  • The Mad Hatters won the Quiz starring Simon Wallis, Daniel Mathke and Arjun.

Thank you to Annika who devised a wonderful yet humbling (low scoring!) quiz which I expect prompted any of us to refresh our learning on the city we live in though I am pleased to say that all the teams did well on the Toastmasters round!

If you took any pics then please send them to Arjun and he will ensure that they go up on the web (unless anyone has objections?).

Finally, there is another Christmas dinner open to all Toastmasters on the 21st in Abingdon as organised by the Ridgeway Toastmasters.  If you can make it then please let John Morley know at : morley@arjam.net.  It's open to all Oxford area Toastmasters.

News and Dates for Diary: 

Our next meeting is Thursday 5th January 2012 7pm.Please ensure you inform Dan if you cannot fulfill your allocated role

The Isis Pantomime Cinderella  is  on 7/1/20112 Please contact Nicholas Stephens for details

 

Avery merry Christmass to you all &  I hope to See you on 5/1/2011

   Gavin Hageman

VP, public relations Isis speakers