More awards than usual for West Rand Toastmasters
The West Rand Toastmasters used Meeting Number 479 to celebrate not only their usual achievements, but to give a few other members recognition as well.
It takes a lot of courage and practice to be able to stand in front of a room full of people and speak, either off the cuff, or on a subject you have prepared. The Toastmasters, whose aim is to help improve people’s confidence and public-speaking skills, has almost become masters in the field.
Not everyone starts out a master; you need to work on your skills to perfect them. The West Rand Toastmasters knows that, and spent 5 March rewarding well-deserving members who have completed specific levels in the Toastmasters’ Pathways Programme, a course comprised of 11 paths to help improve communication and leadership skills.
The Club’s Vice President: Education, Malcolm Harris, called the meeting to order before handing the gavel to club president Lynette Harris, also the evening’s Grammarian, to extend welcomes to their returning members and guests. Meeting number 479 had five guests, four of whom signed up to be members at the end of the night.
Sometimes if you don’t laugh, you cry; which is why Thato Majela, the joke master for the evening, used truth and humour to speak about thefts in the country.
Stephanie Watkins, who had also chosen the theme of the evening (Birthday), then read out the minutes of the previous meeting before calling on the various role players to stand and explain their roles to the visitors.
The prepared speeches saw Carmina Dos Santos take to the lectern first to enlighten and educate the Toastmasters on the process and necessity of evaluations.
Next up was Claude Joshua, who covered a topic that most people can’t seem to keep quiet about – the Coronavirus.
Claude’s informative speech was followed by a story by Thato Majela about fighting through the bad days, because there are good days too.
A short adjournment was called for the Evaluators to gather and look back on the prepared speeches while everyone else enjoyed small talk and refreshments before the meeting re-convened for the Table Topics Session.
Andre Diedericks was the Table Topics Master for the evening and set up a court scene in which the impromptu speakers covered the case of Albert No Good, who was accused of stealing a car to take a young woman to the zoo. Ultimately, George Hemsley’s humorous testimony on why Alberts case should be thrown out won him the Best Impromptu Speech Award.
The other award for the evening went to Stephanie Watkins for Best Contributor.
A few more Toastmasters took home awards that night for their progress in Pathways, a course comprised of 11 paths to help improve communication and leadership skills.
The Pathways awards were presented to:
• Michael Glencross – Completion of Level 1 and 2
• Stephanie Watkins – Completion of Level 1
• Glen Campbell – Completion of Advanced Leadership Bronze
• Lynette Harris – Completion of Advanced Communicator Gold
• Malcolm Harris – Completion of Competent Leadership
For more information about the West Rand Toastmasters Club, contact Glen Campbell on 073 538 9560 or glencampbell@telkomsa.net.
