Wednesday 19th August 2009

By Gray Standen

It was a delightful evening, still warm and sunny, when President John Craddock called the meeting to order. The balmy weather prompted Toastmaster Maria Hemming to warm up the audience by asking for their holiday destinations, which ranged from A for Albania to all over the world.

Kirsten Gronning, in her first appearance as Timekeeper, offered as previous form her timing of children’s swimming matches. Pilar Sibbick, our Grammarian, underlined the importance of good grammar, and revealed her soon-to-be successful Word of the Day: STUPENDOUS.

PREPARED SPEECHES

Alison Shuttle spoke on the perils of picnicking: the weather, the food (especially wine bottles, which break or lack a corkscrew), and wildlife.

Next up was Brendan Bensley, who advised us to take life seriously by taking responsibility, deciding what we wanted to do and making a plan. He left us with this Japanese proverb: ‘Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.’

Sharath Jeevan recommended tennis as the best of games: it’s easy to organise, anyone can play, it provides scope for expressing one’s personality, and is good to watch. Game, set and match!

Last but not least was Dorothea Stuart, an advanced member, who told the story of Bill LeMesurier, a structural engineer, who – years later – solved a serious problem in New York’s Citicorp Building, a building his firm had constructed.

EVALUATIONS

Andrea Blackie spoke eloquently about Alison’s good use of structure. Franco Vaccaro commented on Brendan’s solid outline and gave him some good recommendations. Jenny Betts started off by listing the speech objectives, which she felt Sharath had achieved, and saved her best commendation for last [the GE said later that this was a model evaluation!]. Geetha Mazarelo praised Dorothea for the useful changes she had made to this speech, which Geetha had first heard at Excalibur, the central-London advanced speaking club.

GUESTS

Membership VP Errol Williamson introduced guests Jacqui Connor, Dennis Clarke, Lee Maben and Felicity Lee, two of whom said they would join Riverside!

TABLE TOPICS

First-time Topicsmaster Richard Holland asked for our advice in planning the sponsored walk he and his wife will be taking in France. Robert Yuen dealt with whether Richard should come clean about the mountainous terrain. Gray Standen advised him re taking a donkey. Anne Feeney speculated on what luxury items would be useful. Laura Shimili told us how Richard could defend himself against bears. Sunaina Shori suggested what they (Richard and his wife, not the bears) could do in the evenings. John Craddock wove the previous answers into a story. Lee Maben, asked to suggest an additional tool for a Swiss Army Knife, told us instead that choosing the right donkey would solve all of the pair’s problems.

Sue Kennedy, the Topics Evaluator, produced a very amusing evaluation, which was followed by Pilar’s enthusiastic Grammarian’s report.

General Evaluator Amanda Warwick (London Athenians) gave us her judgement of the meeting, and said she would be happy to come back. Hurrah!

AWARDS

Best Prepared Speech: Brendan Bensley
Best Evaluator: Sue Kennedy
Best Topics Speaker: Gray Standen