October 23rd 2007

And the winners of this year's Fall Area Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest are...

I Table Topic Contest

First place winner: Xavi Anguera
Second place winner: Marie Gomes
Runners-Up: Liam Tayler and Enric Pruna.

II Humorous Speech Contest

First place winner: Marie Gomes
Second place winner: Liam Tayler
Tied at third and fourth place: Marnee Benfield and Juan Carlos.

September 19th 2007

We did it again: impressing our guests with fascinating topics and high quality evaluations!
Veronika, our TM od the Day, initially counldn't believe that our location was so nice, thus deliberately skipped the building. Fortunately, she stepped back and brought us an INNOVATIVE evening. - David, our Biotech expert gave us a twist into the future with his Table Topics. Eager victims like Marie revealed a sexy encounter in Virtual Reality; Jeff fancied a more relaxing life with Living Forever and our guest Olga showed great anxiety in Reshaping her Body with Nano Robots to allow her enjoy gastronomies without ever to get fat! The audience was further ignited with Carol's energetic medicinal advise. We threw our heads back laughing at Liam defending the proper use of his mother tongue English against other cultures and lately severely attacked by advanced technology (emails, sms...). The evening continued with Xavi's journey into the beautiful Comarca de Priorat near Reus and Tarragona. We all learned some lessons from the constructive feedback provided by Maria, Jeff and Belinda; the importance of limiting details in order to avoid information overload, spending more time on preparing advanced speeches, and to have a concise introduction with the purpose of the speech stated clearly. Special thanks to Melinda for sorting out those very last minute changes in the agenda.

See you on October 2^nd,
Rose

October 17th 2007

We all faced a tough challenge yesterday. Not only it was our Area Governor's official visit, but our Advanced Silver Toastmaster Xavi had to manage a somewhat 'eventful' speech contest meeting. Everyone hailed him in acknowledgement of his seamless performance. Our humorous speech contestants Marie and Liam received instant additional feedback from the audience in order to help them prepare for the Area Contest on October 20th. It was indeed difficult for the contestants' evaluators (Melinda, Rose) to provide feedback in such a short time focusing on the speech/contest requirements in terms of quality and delivery. Tricky also for David to evaluate Kai's uniquely and well delivered ice breaker where he told us about himself indirectly via introducing three of the most important people in his life. Even harder for Edith to evaluate one of Belinda's best speeches. We ALL were persuaded not to buy commercial eggs! We also benefitted from Jeff, our General Evaluator who gave productive and honest feedback with regards to the meeting setup. Not forgetting Joan who threw knotty roles at Marly and Carol Ann with his Table Topics on creating a better environment for women at work. Our new member Adela volunteered giving a response and impressed all of us with her own view of how to encourage the women workforce. Last but not least, it was great to have our members volunteering to fill other important roles such as Timer (Jose Antonio, our new member), Birgitte (Ah Counter) and Carol Ann (we did have a Gramarian last evening)!

Thanks & see you in the next meeting!
Rose

October 3rd 2007

Our guest Olga was stressed after work but it eased off gradually in between the variety of topics and exposure to different speaking styles. In his premiere as Toastmaster of the Day, David raised our awareness about the good and bad of stress and the meeting started off quite relaxed with a group yoga chant. As our souls were at ease, Carol Ann, our Table Topics Master, took the chance and inspired us on how to create what we want. It was a moving moment when Luis braved the ice breaker through sharing his deep thoughts with us whilst Christian pointed out the new rules of cyclism on our roads. We also walked away with tips from Chris on how to present our business in 60 seconds. For those who did not attend, you missed yet another session of English humour at its finest with Jeff presenting a multitude of English accents. Our evaluation team (Xavi, Melinda, Edith, Florian, Rose and our surprise guest Area Governor Marie Coutart) committed to their role in highlighting key improvements and achievements of the speakers. As usual, the entertaining meeting continued as we adjourned in the bar next door where we did convert into football hooligans!

See you on October 16^th,
Rose