Wednesday 20th May 2009

by Sharath Jeevan

A picturesque evening beckoned the start of the 20th May Riverside Communicators meeting. The effusive John Craddock was acting President in Gray Standen’s absence, and Jenny Betts played the role of Toastmaster to a tee.

Geetha Mazarelo played the Timekeeper role earnestly and strictly (both essential qualities in any good timekeeper) and Grammarian Heidi Ashley-Hacker focused on ‘spectacular’ as the word of the evening.

The audience was treated to three outstanding speeches, including Sue Kennedy’s moving story of a mother knowing best – even though it took years, in the example she used, to prove it. Bek Singh’s icebreaker allowed him to cleverly cover the many aspects of his life – everything from resisting parental pressures for an arranged marriage to the joys of fatherhood. Robert Yuen then followed with a wry entreaty to allow children to watch more, rather than less, TV – listing all of the reasons why it can actually be good for early development, in a funny yet well-argued way. Robert duly won the best speaker award.

Evaluators Andrew Klimaytys, Pilar Sibbick and Sunaina Shori performed their roles with gusto, including a moving outline of what storytelling was all about, and Sunaina was applauded for her first evaluator role.

Topicsmaster Dorothea Stuart then moved onto the topical theme of MPs’ expenses and a series of ethical questions about what reasonableness would really mean in this area, and asking us what each of us would do in a similar situation. Tom Biswas played his first role as Topics Evaluator, managing to find constructive points and encouraging feedback about each speaker.

The evening finished off with General Evaluator Jo Holmes (London Cardinals), who had very positive comments about the club as well as some useful recommendations related to her experience of observing other clubs in the area.