Florida Toastmasters are feeling good after their last meeting

With the Toastmasters, each meeting has a set theme aimed at teaching the public speakers a lesson in life.

At their last meeting on Tuesday, 21 July, the Florida Toastmasters chose a theme that is well suited for many of us: Feel good.

When they logged on for their Zoom meeting at 7.30pm, the Toastmasters hoped that by the end, they would be more proficient in seeing the positive side of a negative situation. One member who did a stellar job at keeping spirits high throughout the evening was Mandy Gobisang.

Sergeant at Arms, Matthew Knights, called the meeting to order before the club?s president, Tim Knights, took over to welcome returning members and guests.

The welcomes were followed by the usual brief business session before Lesogo Nhlapo proposed the Toast to Toastmasters International. Gail Hemming was next to take the spotlight with her Toast of the Evening, entitled Consistency within Toastmasters.

Tim once again had all the attention focused on him when he took over for the Educational Session, which he used to focus on the importance of constructive feedback in public speaking.

The prepared speeches were next. Diana Rodrigues intrigued her fellow Toastmasters with her descriptions of the history of the parkrun and her personal experiences as a volunteer for the weekend runs.

The second prepared speech was presented by Maggie Mtshali, who spoke about the differences between sales and marketing; differences she was unaware of before starting her own business.

Next to give a speech was Robert de Kramer. The adventure enthusiast spoke about one of his freezing cold trips that ended in him sipping a glass of sherry while eating freshly baked bread with homemade butter.

The most entertaining part of the evening was, as usual, the impromptu speech portion. Dick Hallet took on the role of Table Topics master and gave out topics related to the evening?s feel-good theme.

The Table Topics saw five speakers talk about a randomly allocated subject in unique ways. Victor Chewe described the joyful feeling of being above the clouds, Gail Hemming described the importance of planting a garden by hand so you can deal with weeds, and Koketso Motseothata described how looking good and taking care of yourself lead to empowerment.

The other two impromptu speeches were presented by Lesego Nhlapo (who took a stand against people bringing ‘bad vibes’ into her life) and Matthew (who spoke about a few things that make it impossible to feel good).

The conclusion to the interesting evening was the awards portion, where Diana won Best Prepared Speech, Karen Gray won Best Evaluator and Lesego aced the cup for Best Table Topic.

For more information about the Toastmasters or to join the club, contact Tim Knights at timknights3@outlook.com or 082 894 7542.

Alternatively, you can contact Dawn Hemming at gaildawnh@gmail.com or on 082 330 9215.