Substitute or the Pyramid of Gold

Our 2nd meeting of the month was bought forward which must of put many members off from attending. For the twelve fortunate toastmasters, it was one of education, humour and substitutions.  The meeting was opened by Ian, who also doubled as the General Evaluator – so much for an impartial evaluation of how well the meeting was run!

Craig stepped in (and up) to run a successful Table Topics session. With the word PREP on the whiteboard, it looked like Craig was demonstrating how much preparation he had done. Well he had, as he bought a box of Robert Goddard books and challenged us to use either the PREP formula (point of view, reason for the view, an example and then close re-stating the point of view) or Rudyard Kipling’s  What, Why, When, How, Where and Who. Using the title of a randomly selected book as the topic, the challenge was taken up by Joyleen, Karen, Anna, Pedro, Julie (a guest) and Bella.

On solo duty tonight was Jan, who provided very pertinent and thoughtful evaluations to our Table Topic speakers. Jan is so deserving to have represented our Club at TT at area level.

We had three great speeches on the night. Our first speaker, Roslyn, was introduced by Karen, with an intriguing title "a four-legged strategy". We gained a great insight into her lovely poochon dog (half bichon fries and poodle) and her negotiating styles to encourage Roz to play with her. Talk about the tail wagging the dog, or in this case the owner!  Roz is great at role plays, and with a box of toys demonstrated how well she can wag her own tail.

Secondly, Craig introduced Graeme as a "Stupid Man" but we were to quickly learn that this was the title of his speech. Using a little incident, Graeme showed how frustrating it can be to misplace an item, and the ensuing implications. While it seemed self deprecating, the end could of equally been a subtle advertisement for Specsavers.

Our final speaker, Peter B introduced by Joyleen, had been previously marketed by a mass email campaign during the week, the Pyramid of Gold. Along with a great visual flipchart, Peter demonstrated the art of selling a pyramid or was it gold. While being serious, yet tongue in cheek, the SCAM (strategy, capitalise, ambition, and money) had many more twists and turns than the Tour de France. With tongue in cheek, Peter made a convincing argument for us to invest money under Dr Ahmed’s SCAM (Strategy, Capitalise, Ambition and Money). Where do I sign?

All speeches were evaluated to our normal high standard with each of our evaluators,  Karen, Craig and Joyleen, using the CRC formula. 

We were fortunate to have Anna, our Area Director, attend as part of her duties. Anna challenged us to RISE UP – well not exactly to stand up, but more to be upstanding. The acronym RISE stands for Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence which is imbedded into the core values of Toastmasters. Anna is hosting a series of talks about Toastmaster on Radio Kidnappers – watch the airwaves.

While all attendees were winners on the night, the trophy winners were Karen (Best Table Topic), Joyleen (Best Evaluator) and Dr Ahmed aka Peter B (Best Speaker). Best Contribution was awarded to Mr Toastmaster, Craig.