West Rand Toastmasters talk money and International Men’s Day

The West Rand Toastmasters held their 493rd meeting on Thursday, 19 November at their regular venue, the Discovery Bowling Club.

Celebrating International Men’s Day, the Toastmasters kicked off their meeting with a joke from the multi-talented Sergeant at Arms, Alwyn As, who took on the role of Joke Master.

One of the club’s many Distinguished Toast Masters (DTM) in the group is Glen Campbell, who presented the Toast of the Evening to ‘All men on this planet – the good, the bad, and the ugly’.

While it was a quieter meeting because of some members writing their end-of-year exams, or staying away due to Covid-19 scares, the West Rand Toastmasters made the most of their one prepared speech.

Alwyn returned to the lectern for this portion, delivering a speech about courage. He used his personal experiences to give newer members tips on improving their confidence in public speaking.

The Impromptu speeches were more eventful, with five speakers taking their shot at a Table Topic.

Glen spoke about the beautiful sites she would visit in Namibia if she was given R50 000 to spend. Keeping in line with the money-spending topic, but with a few more restrictions, Michael Glencross was given an imaginary R2 million to spend, but he could not spend it on a house, car or international travel. So how would he spend his money? Michael dove straight into the loophole and said that he would travel locally with his wife.

The next public speaker to be given fictional prize money was Tiffany Lee. A curve ball was thrown her way, because in her scenario, a greedy fiancé wanted to get his hands on her winnings. Without skipping a beat, Tiffany confidently presented her speech on how she would break up with the greedy man and pay for her teaching and master’s degrees.

Ndumiso Mduli’s impromptu speech covered the friends and possessions he would have if he was offered a very high-paying job. However, by the end of his speech, his opinions had changed, and he said he would not accept the job.

Thato Majela, the club’s president, was next to present his unprepared speech on if he had found a potential wife from Lesotho, and when he went to pay the lobola, the father of the bride offered him his other daughter instead. Thato replied that he would offer lobola for both women and get two wives for the price of one.

As the Table Topics Chair, Alwyn evaluated the speeches and laughed, saying that they gave him a better understanding of each of the speakers’ character.

For more information about West Rand Toastmasters Club contact Glen Campbell on 073 538 9560 or by emailing glencampbell@telkomsa.net.