Meeting on 14 August 2007
Written by Luke Beahan
Highlights


The first ever Toastmasters menagerie
Lots of first time roles for members, handled adroitly by all.
Meeting
Part I- Intro
David Thompson was Sergeant-at-Arms for the meeting and started us off with accomplished and confident
gavel banging.
Our President Simon Maggs took the stage and gave energetic advice to start off the meeting. He also
graciously welcomed the guests at the meeting and then handed over to the Toastmaster for the evening,
Natalie Ker Watson.
Natalie brought her usual enthusiasm and style to the role of Toastmaster, and gave us a timely update on a
few changes to the agenda. Then she led us through the warm up, asking everyone what had made them
smile during the day. Everyone got a smile out of the stories on offer and we all got a chance to exercise our
voices. She explained the concept of prepared speeches for our guests and also revealed the question she
had asked those performing roles; “What animal would you like to be for a day?”. This gave us insight into
the psyche of our members, and also an idea of what a Meridian Speakers zoo would look like (it would be
full of Eagles apparently).
Christine Malabre was Timekeeper, and gave us a Bible reading about time, providing a unique and personal
introduction to the role of Timekeeper – a great way to liven up the role of keeping us on time. She chose a
dolphin for its grace and fun.
Paul Irvine was Grammarian, and gave us the word of the day, which was Marvellous. He also promised to
look out for good uses of grammar during the meeting and report back on it later. He chose an eagle, to soar
up high and then pounce on his prey, which tonight was nice turns of phrase.
Part II- Prepared Speeches
We had three prepared speeches and two were first time speeches.



Samantha Latouche--Number 1 speech. “Who is Samantha Latouche?”
Samantha's speech was an entertaining and informative speech about herself, and was a
wonderful introduction. She took us from the Bay City Rollers of the 70s to Wormwood Scrubs of
the 90s. Thankfully it was just to teach the inmates, and not for tartan related fashion crimes. Now
Toastmasters gets the privilege of hearing her speak. Her animal was the moth, because she loves
clothes and the light (and would also get 2-for-1 value on fashion magazines and cookbooks).
Steve Archer--Number 1 speech: “About Me”
Steve showed us his great use of humour in this speech about himself. He showed us a little about
his family life as a youth, and how he grew up. He also proved that creativity runs in his family with
his linguistic imagery, particularly his evocation of his primary school teacher. Steve also chose an
Eagle, although Natalie said she rather he kept his beautiful use of language (that would be a
parrot though).
Conor McDonnell --Number 5 speech “Lessons in Sport and Life”
We had an excellent display of tennis put before us by Conor, who is an accomplished speaker. He
displayed tennis poses and strokes with the aid of his prop, the brolly/racquet (something that
might stop Wimbledon being rained off next year). We learned the connection between tennis and
toastmasters and also learned the secret of improving; Practice, Feedback, and Observation from
a pro. In from and content, Conor showed us how it's done. He chose his wife's cat Apollo, for the
life of luxury it lives.
Evaluations were helpful with the following tips:



Sam Collin evaluating Samantha, gave a considered and insightful critique. She said what we were
all thinking, that she looks forward to hearing more. She would choose any bird, so she could soar
on up high.
Ekpo Ekpo evaluated Steve and gave a confident appraisal. He picked out Steve's confident
delivery and interesting introduction to the group. He chose the lion, a very apt choice.
Roy Maunder evaluated Conor, and gave a great run down of the checklist for the speech,
especially body-language, which is the focus of the number 5 speech. He revealed his out-of-thisworld ambitions by choosing a Wookie, the hairy natives of Kashyyyk from Star Wars.
Christine came back to give us a time report, and told us that we were on time, which was a cause for much
celebration.
Part III- Table Topics
Mollie Hamlin was the Table Topics Master and led us on questions relating to her works do. She chose a
cricket as her animal, as she liked the sound they make.







Ken Ajoku gave us a humorous start as he told us what he would arrange for his employers if he
ran a works do. He left the audience exhausted listening to the whirlwind agenda he would use.
Ian Miller gave us the final analysis on clay pigeon shooting. It's boring (interestingly no-one chose
clay pigeon as their animal for the night). He would prefer the harsh battlefield of a warehouse and
bombardment with ball-bearings. Sounded fun but painful.
Matt Kellie revealed the underside of HR and how much we should compete with colleagues. He
said that a little competition can be a healthy release of tension, and also bemoaned the lack of
decent sumo wrestling nights out.
Simon Maggs warned of the perils of drinking on a works do, and gave the sensible advice; don't
overdo it. He also suggested we could use the skills we’d learned at Toastmasters to help others
open up, by asking them questions about themselves, their lives and how they feel about the world.
Ayo Alfred talked about his work do, and revealed that for him everyday is a holiday. He also
stressed the importance of taking a licking, but keep on ticking.
Khair-un-Nisa Simmond talked about work/life balance, and revealed to us her secret. Take the
work home, then take it back into work again.
Govind Kathirvel finished the table topics off with a fine and succint opinion on whether being paid
is better than having a work's do.
Tonna Ajoku struck a professional pose with her clipboard, and gave an enthusiastic and helpful evaluating
to the evens. She chose a bumblebee. Luke Beahan assessed the odds, and chose a deep-sea fish so he
could the lifeforms and terrain where no man has swum before.
Part IV- End
Paul returned to congratulate us on our use of the word of the day, Marvellous. He also picked out some nice
phrased from our speakers and evaluators.
Dayo Amusu was the general evaluator and gave us some useful tips about setting up the room, and also
gave helpful feedback to those who had not yet been evaluated. She was another eagle in the mix, for its
elegance in the air.
Simon Maggs – who had chosen the Invisible Man as his ‘creature’ - closed the meeting, giving
congratulations to everyone who had taken a role for this first time, encouraging others to do the same –
especially the number of folks who haven’t yet been toastmaster but are clearly ready to do so.
Next Meeting
We adjourned until 28th August at The Mitre Hotel. Club social penciled in for the 6th September.