Don’t you just hate it when you are sitting there waiting for the meeting to start and you suddenly realise everyone is looking at you.
Sneak a quick glance at the agenda and to your horror, you find out that you have been “volunteered” as Sgt at Arms….. Teresa why do you do this to me?

Once the embarrassing and shambolic opening was over Toastmaster for the evening Sue Coppens-Browne took over and from there on in things took a much more professional veneer. This was Sue’s first time as Toastmaster and such was her unruffled self confidence that it was hard to believe she had never run a meeting before.

Sues introduction theme was “Which place in Suffolk would you recommend people to visit”, gave Proof, if proof were needed, that Americans don’t do geography came with Teresa’s reply, Bosham Harbour near Chichester in Sussex.

For reasons that weren’t explained the traditional order of things was reversed and we had prepared speeches in the first half and Table topics in the second. It made a change but there was a slight problem in that the speakers did not have the opportunity to talk to their evaluators in the break. Was this just change for changes sake?

The principal speakers were Raj Mistry, Teresa Dukes and Jeff Short.
All three were on top form and gave scintillating speeches that informed, educated and entertained in equal measure.

It was good to see Jeff Bartrop back after an enforced absence, his hints and tips sessions are invaluable. His subject this evening was,
“The Internet as a speakers resource”. It was amazing to find out how much information is available to those who know where to look.

Our Word Master Dinesh Bhuyan gave a more than competent performance and showed that he has a keen ear for language His word “Vanilla” surprised most of us by not being just a noun but also an adjective meaning plain or simple. The phrase of the evening went to Howard Smith for. “My uncle has just had kittens”.

Martin Koyabe hosted the Table Topics session on the theme of inspiration. despite being a tough theme everyone rose to the challenge magnificently. Margaret Stanway was the well deserved winner.

Jeff Short