Special 90th Anniversary Meeting on 31 October (meeting 1034)

This meeting was a reflective one where we heard from some of our more experienced members and talked about how we got here and where we are going in Toastmasters.

The first speaker was Ianon, who told us about her role as VPE (Vice President Education).  The role is essential in the running of the fortnightly meetings.  Hopefully when we have agenda setting via the website running smoothly, her role will be much easier.  Ianon concluded by encouraging members to be involved in a leadership role and progress on their leadership programs.  As well as the benefits to individual members, many hands make light work and each role will be more manageable.

The second speaker was Peter who told us about Safe Driving, starting with outlining his vast experience as a driver.  He emphasised keeping both vehicle and driver well maintained and treating driving as a risk management job.

Ever hardworking Ianon was not only First Speaker, but Table Topics Master at this meeting.  She chose a number of table topics from the Toastmasters website.

• What would you say to Toastmasters Founder, Ralph Smedley?  – Linda said why weren’t women included from the start?  It seems hard to believe looking back that women were ever excluded – good question Linda!
• What will our Club be doing in 10 years?  Nick, who hasn't been around for all of the last 10 weeks, let alone years, gave the best answer he could.  Hopefully we will still be learning and winning competitions.
• Keiko talked of her own history with Toastmasters.  It’s hard to believe she started out as a poor speaker, but easy to see how she became addicted to a program that works so well for her.
• Which Club would you visit? John said he would like to visit Brazil, as Toastmasters has not really taken off there, and share the benefits of experience and give them some support.

The following week we had a Committee Meeting.  One point from the meeting I would like to share is that the Mentoring Program is really getting started.  You can make as much or as little of the program as you like, but I can see a lot of potential in it.  Let’s get into it and really make it work for us!

The next meeting is on Friday the 14^th of November.  Unfortunately coinciding with the Staff Services Fair where we will have a stall, so a couple of us will be there.

Coming up we will have the Evaluation Contest at the meeting of 28^th November and the Club Speech Contest  on 12^th December.  Then we will have a break and reconvene on 30^th January.

Have a great meeting and I’ll see you at the contests.