Last meeting of the year and Christmas Social
So... last Tuesday was the last meeting for the current year.
We had a short meeting with only three speeches, three evaluations and a General Evaluation. The second half of the evening was then the Christmas Social. :)
There were fifteen members at the meeting and lately we have seen consistently good turnouts leading to busy and vibrant nights.
For some reason the Hotel had put us into the Arden Suite which is much smaller than our usual room. For a one off this gave a nice cosy atmosphere but it made moving around the room and coming to the front quite difficult in the limited space.
Tanya did a great job as Toastmaster of the Evening making sure that those who needed to come up were in seats that were nearer the front. She suggested that some of the roles could be delivered from members' seats if they weren't able to get to the front and this helped.
One Evaluator, Catalina, even made an appearance from under the table to much amusement.
The first speech was an excellent Icebreaker which could have passed as a speech from much further along in the manual as it was well delivered, well structured and had superb content.
Our second speaker gave a well researched and technical speech on the fascinating subject of "Big Data", a phrase I had not heard before but will definitely use in the future.
Peter gave our final speech. You can choose from around fifteen further manuals after you have gained your "Competent Communicator" level .Peter was speaking from the Humorous Speaking Manual and his brief was to make it funny with plenty of punchy humour (I think I got that right).
It was an excellent speech and it was suggested that for his next speech the group would do a communal evaluation as this would help us to find recommendations that are always difficult to suggest for a speaker of this experience and competence.
The "Word of the Day" was Onerous and it was used successfully by a few people, however, Tony managed to successfully NOT use it three times. He used the words ominous, odious and odorous very cleverly and very entertainingly.
We had decided to stay in the Hotel this year for our Social as the usual Indian Restaurant close by had last year been full of around eighty young teens after their sports event. On checking we found it would have been the same this year.
The Hotel had saved three tables for us but Sanat suggested that we might be allowed to stay in the Arden Suits and they agreed. After a quick rearrangement of the tables we had a large communal table with every one being able to face each other without having to turn around.
This is only my second Christnas Social and, as the last time, there was a great friendly atmosphere. We played a few party games like "If you had to be a drink then which drink do you think you would be?" and we had answers ranging from An expensive Single Malt to a naturally sparking Mineral Water from a specific place in Italy to a Good Brown Ale.
I will leave you to try to figure out who was who...
For those who have not been to a Social before, or who have not stayed behind in the bar after a meeting, this is how to see both sides of this Toastmasters club. The formal meeting side and the social, relaxed side.
I personally believe that it is the blend of both of these group dynamics that makes Toastmasters such an enjoyable club to be a part of.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday and a great New Year :) and I hope to see you all on the 6th of January
By the way I have started to mention people's names in the blog to try and make it more personal.
If anyone is not comfortable being named then that is no problem. Just drop an email to toastmastersheartofengland@gmail.com and I will keep your name a secret.
We had a short meeting with only three speeches, three evaluations and a General Evaluation. The second half of the evening was then the Christmas Social. :)
There were fifteen members at the meeting and lately we have seen consistently good turnouts leading to busy and vibrant nights.
For some reason the Hotel had put us into the Arden Suite which is much smaller than our usual room. For a one off this gave a nice cosy atmosphere but it made moving around the room and coming to the front quite difficult in the limited space.
Tanya did a great job as Toastmaster of the Evening making sure that those who needed to come up were in seats that were nearer the front. She suggested that some of the roles could be delivered from members' seats if they weren't able to get to the front and this helped.
One Evaluator, Catalina, even made an appearance from under the table to much amusement.
The first speech was an excellent Icebreaker which could have passed as a speech from much further along in the manual as it was well delivered, well structured and had superb content.
Our second speaker gave a well researched and technical speech on the fascinating subject of "Big Data", a phrase I had not heard before but will definitely use in the future.
Peter gave our final speech. You can choose from around fifteen further manuals after you have gained your "Competent Communicator" level .Peter was speaking from the Humorous Speaking Manual and his brief was to make it funny with plenty of punchy humour (I think I got that right).
It was an excellent speech and it was suggested that for his next speech the group would do a communal evaluation as this would help us to find recommendations that are always difficult to suggest for a speaker of this experience and competence.
The "Word of the Day" was Onerous and it was used successfully by a few people, however, Tony managed to successfully NOT use it three times. He used the words ominous, odious and odorous very cleverly and very entertainingly.
We had decided to stay in the Hotel this year for our Social as the usual Indian Restaurant close by had last year been full of around eighty young teens after their sports event. On checking we found it would have been the same this year.
The Hotel had saved three tables for us but Sanat suggested that we might be allowed to stay in the Arden Suits and they agreed. After a quick rearrangement of the tables we had a large communal table with every one being able to face each other without having to turn around.
This is only my second Christnas Social and, as the last time, there was a great friendly atmosphere. We played a few party games like "If you had to be a drink then which drink do you think you would be?" and we had answers ranging from An expensive Single Malt to a naturally sparking Mineral Water from a specific place in Italy to a Good Brown Ale.
I will leave you to try to figure out who was who...
For those who have not been to a Social before, or who have not stayed behind in the bar after a meeting, this is how to see both sides of this Toastmasters club. The formal meeting side and the social, relaxed side.
I personally believe that it is the blend of both of these group dynamics that makes Toastmasters such an enjoyable club to be a part of.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday and a great New Year :) and I hope to see you all on the 6th of January
By the way I have started to mention people's names in the blog to try and make it more personal.
If anyone is not comfortable being named then that is no problem. Just drop an email to toastmastersheartofengland@gmail.com and I will keep your name a secret.
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