Relive the Moments – Grosvenor Toastmasters Meeting October 10, 2012
Andrew Mathenge was the Chair and Toastmaster at last Wednesday’s Grosvenor Toastmaster meeting. This was his first time doing the role, and he did a fantastic job keeping the meeting organized and energetic. Andrew introduced the theme, "2012 – What a Year!", a testament to past challenges and hopes of new opportunities in the new year through Toastmasters.
Wayne O’Brien was the Table Topics Master. In honour of the Presidential debates in this year’s US elections, Wayne had members and guests square off to take opposing views on some very fun and controversial topics. Congratulations to our guests who stepped up to the plate and took part.
Clive Hannah spoke first and gave his ice breaker speech. With emotion and humour, Clive shared his brush with death as he battled kidney disease and received a kidney transplant, donated by his very own sister. But, despite these tremendous hardships, Clive talked about how important it was for him to have a positive outlook in life. It was a truly inspirational and moving speech from a first time speaker. Vahid Anwari evaluated Clive’s speech.
In his second speech, Colin Nekolaichuk, talked about his quest to find the best burger in Toronto. After 86 days of burger-testing, Colin has the burger quest down to a precise science which he shared with the audience. Apparently it all comes down to the meat and the bun and all the rest is just "extra". Who knew? No one will look at burgers in the same way. Colin’s speech was evaluated by Stephen Schroeder.
Finally, Geoff Smith spoke about his mis-adventures travelling to Mali, Africa where he was captured by a hostile tribe and threatened with death-by-ants, only to have Toastmasters save his life. Not only is Geoff the President of Grosvenor Toastmasters, he is now also the Toastmster King of this special tribe in Africa. Geoff has perfected the art-form of unexpected twists and making the ludicrous plausible, important ingredients for the perfect humorous speech. Ralph Czychun evaluated Geoff’s speech.
Vahid Anwari did double duty and was the General Evaluator for the evening. Michael Ilyasov was the Quizmaster and Omayma Haq was the Grammarian, both did the roles for the first time. I (Noelle Hamersley) was the Timer.
We did not count votes at last week’s meeting, so we do not have voting results. But, all of our speakers did a fantastic job (seriously…I’m not just saying it!) So if you missed them, make sure to check out the videos of their speeches on the Grosvenor Toastmaster’s website once they are posted.
Also – we had a new member join last week – please give a warm welcome to Brittany Cryder! We are excited to have Brittany join us.
Area Contest
As you may be aware, the Area Contest was held on the same night as our regular meeting. We are proud to announce that Biswajit Das placed first in the Humorous Speech contest! Prasad, who competed in the Table Topics Contest also brought the house down, but unfortunately due to timing issues did not advance. Congratulations to both Bis and Prasad for making Grosvenor Toastmasters proud.
Bis will be competing at the Division A Humorous Speech Contest this Friday, October 19, 2012. Please see the attached flyer for time and location. I would encourage everyone to come out and see Bis in action…I know from experience that Bis would appreciate having friendly faces in the crowd to support and cheer him on.
Our next meeting is on October 24, 2012. Until then, have a great week!
Noelle Hamersley
Grosvenor Toastmasters
Club Secretary
Grosvenor Toastmasters 