Together Again

Our first meeting back in Greenmeadows Community Hall on Tait Drive from 7pm to 9pm.

How fantastic it was to see everyone and once again establish our personal boundaries, enjoy supper, and hear that high standard of speaking we have come to know and love.

Our first speaker was Craig who was demonstrating how to run a smooth question and answer session in response to a presentation. The presentation was a very interesting travelogue about a village called Oberammergau who, every 10 years, put on a 6-hour passion play about the life of Jesus Christ. Time flies when you are watching a cast of 2000 dramatize with a mix of opera, stage play and Hollywood in Hebrew and German. Subtitles are provided for the 4.5 thousand people attending in the form of an English language program. Questions abound given the subject matter and the images provided by Craig…we know that in 1632 the bubonic plague was sweeping Europe and brought to the village by a resident. This was before the age of lockdown and hand sanitizer – instead, the villagers prayed, giving God the promise of a performance if all went well. The next performance will be in 2022. You can work it out if God was listening.

Second in the speaking line up was Tony with his communication style. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they communicate. So, what did we find out about Tony? If we learn anything from his speaking, he is purposeful, structured, well-paced, inclusive, and insightful. The take home message for me was that there is no right or wrong way to communicate, it is mostly situational – it is our ability to adapt and adjust which determine how successful we are in our interpersonal contact. One does not deliver a nugget like that without being given the Best Speaker Award for the evening. Congratulations, Tony!

Kerry rounded out the evening by detailing her leadership style. She was the first to admit that she has been around for enough years to have a leadership approach that sits well with who she is. And who is Kerry? She is democratic, a coach who sees potential in others and nurturing. It is no wonder she is a nurse educator who works beside her subordinates to move from caregivers to become registered nurses.

With the standard of speaking so high the evaluations should be equally polished. Steve, Nigel, and Jan, in that order, did not let us down. Steve is so proficient he managed to slip in the word of the day – surreal! Nigel with his first speech evaluation combined wit, wisdom, and wise cracks. Jan utilized the title of Kerry's speech  "Of Course You Can " throughout her presentation to accentuate the positive. All three evaluators provided recommendations and heart-warming commendations for us all to learn from. The Best Evaluator Award could have gone to any of the members, but it was Jan who walked away with it. Well done all of you!

Finally, there just had to be table topics lead by the world-famous Graeme who was fixated on the ‘first-time' experiences of participants. Karen told us of receiving a driving ticket whilst on the school pick up run and trying to change out of her sporty spandex into a ball gown. Patrick talked about the fear of going to the dentist through clenched jaws. Ian stepped out a tale of his first dance and shared a deep wisdom…when it come to the ladies, pick small shoes. Clearly size matters. Poppy, a guest, shared happy memories about her first car which was somewhat different to the scooters that were the mode of transport in her home country of China. Peter conjectured a conspiracy theory about his first pet, a rabbit called snowy. Did he and his siblings starve snowy to death through their neglectful feeding routine or did  "the parents " release snowy to greener pastures??? We might never know the answer to that one, what we do know is that Peter took out the Table Topics Award for the evening against some fierce competition. James followed with another parental lament about how he was  "encouraged " to learn the piano to keep up with his cousins. Practice 40 hours a week and you will be superior to James, who is a self-confessed Baba Black sheep maestro. Brenda, Toastmaster for the evening, wrapped up the event detailing her ambitions to be a triathlete necessitating the need to learn to swim.

Here in lies a summary of events taken from the 8th of June as recalled by me. They are the truest and most accurate record of my reality I could find. It is always so much more fun in real life…so see you there!