~ Sarah Rossouw

After an excellent meeting the week before, mostly because I got over myself and shocked everyone by delivering a prepared speech, I was thrilled to see a full table of faces greet me on Wednesday morning – 14 pairs of eyes stared with anticipation back at me!  We welcomed two guests in this number, Rhona and Leanne, a mother and daughter team out to conquer the world.  We hope to see them again.
 
Francois led the meeting with his usual aplomb and entertained us with stories in between the items on the agenda.  He included one about a young American driver, who, under the influence, was totally unaware he had picked up a newspaper delivery man – through his windscreen!  Francois did, however, get a resounding telling off for not running the meeting to time from our General Evaluator, Brenda.  Well done Brenda!
 
All admiration goes to Wendy Ward who, on the day, realised that she could not deliver the CC 9 she wanted to do, and still do it justice.  She needed more time to prepare.  But instead of dropping the Toastmaster by just pulling out, she honoured her commitment, and filled her time with her blog post, which was most entertaining.  Charlotte Kemp followed with an Eduslot on Impromptu speaking and shared with us 5 useful tips to delivering a great impromptu speech.  I think Charlotte possibly also broke the world land speed record for the fastest speaker in one part of her speech! Wow!  She also reminded us that to become proficient speakers and to always improve we needed Stage Time, Stage Time, Stage Time!  Excellent advice.
 
After one very impromptu evaluation and one excellent evaluation (it’s fantastic to see Simric getting up there and learning the ropes of evaluating), it was my turn to present my Table Topics.  No pressure on me to follow Charlotte’s detailed presentation of what makes a good Table Topic topic and what doesn’t!  But I think I did okay.  Kudos to Leanne, our guest, for being brave enough to give it a shot.  Good job, Leanne!  Of course, Nathan walked off with the prize AGAIN!  Man, he’s good!  I hope he’s going to compete in the next Impromptu Contest.
 
After another entertaining, interesting and fun-filled meeting, we all waved good bye and went on our merry inspired ways for another week.  See you all next time!  Ciao