New year, six new Toastmasters

On 16 January, the West Rand Toastmasters welcomed six new faces to their first meeting of 2020.

The ‘Be the Best You’ themed meeting was called to order by Sergeant at Arms, Jeffrey Nkwazi. He then passed the gavel on to the club’s President, Lynnette Harris, who chaired the meeting.

Welcomes were extended by Thato Majela, Vice President Membership (VPM), before Lynette introduced the evening’s role players. Alwyn Asa, Grammarian for the evening, chose the Word of the Day: Bent.

The four prepared speeches didn’t disappoint. Jacqui Motaung spoke appreciatively about how having a strict mother as a role model shaped her into the mature, successful woman she is today.

Glen Campbell took a trip down memory lane with her speech, explaining her first experience at the West Rand Toastmasters meetings, and how she sees the club and its members as, “The Best in the West”.

A welcome surprise to the prepared-speech category was a visitor from Honeydew Toastmasters, Caleb McAravey, who impressed with his speech entitled, ‘Response-Ability,’ which described how we have the power to determine our behaviour and take responsibility for our own lives.

Innes Leal covered a more politics-related subject, explaining the differences between bureaucratic and democratic leaders in the workplace.

A short adjournment was called to allow for the Evaluators to discuss the prepared speeches.

Thato chaired the Table Topics section. He creatively took on the role of a judge questioning a defendant, two witnesses, and the accused in a trial about pig theft. He left the Toastmasters in stitches as he found the accused not guilty of stealing a Jewish rabbi’s pig.

The Table Topics continued before the first awards for the year were handed out to Michael Glencross (Best Evaluator), Thato (Best Contributor), Caleb (Best Prepared Speech), and Max Kaan (Best Table Topic).

For more information, contact Glen Campbell on 073 538 9560 or email glencampbell@telkomsa.net.