4th Dimension Toastmasters

Call to Order & Welcome

Dave Black called the meeting to order at 18.15 and Andrew Timberlake welcomed everyone, especially our guests.

New Member Induction

Amid great excitement Danie inducted FOUR new members: A second Danie, Liz, Ray and Theresa.

Should they and all the current 4th Dimension members keep the promise to undertake all the activities in the Toastmaster’s Promise, the Club would never be short of a board or anyone to undertake any assignment!

After the Loyal Toast, proposed by Dave Hardingham, Andrew introduced the Toastmaster, Coralie.

The theme for the evenings: Easter Customs

During the meeting Coralie outlined the origin of Easter and a number of the customs associated with Easter. The Queen of England’s Maundy Money, Easter Bonnets, the eating of Lamb at Easter were all mentioned. Most important of them all, is the customs around eggs at Easter. These range from the painting of eggs, searching for eggs in the garden, egg fights and egg rolling races to last, but definitely not the least: The Russian Faberge eggs.

Speakers for the night

Danie Fourie: Driving my SUV

Danie very cleverly tied the stages of his life to the cars he drove, from the aging sports car that announced the end of his time at University, to his laid back lifestyle with a convertible Combi. So the cars changed as he started a business and studied for his MBA.

Ray Smit: Stuttgart

Ray gave us just a little peek at his life when he described his trip to snow buried Stuttgart in Germany, to attend a corporate conference. He spoke of his hesitancy in standing up to give workshop feedback, how he eventually gained the confidence to talk to people and had a wonderful networking night. We got an insight into his life as a devoted husband and father who missed his family so much that he rushed straight home from the conference.

Theresa Muller – Who am I?

Theresa gave us tiny fascinating insights into her life prefixing each segment with the words “Who am I”.

Is she the director of a strategic marketing and advertising company, a magazine publisher, an illegal US immigrant, a mother? Theresa we all want to hear much more detail of who you are!

David Black – The Widest World Wide Web

David fascinated us by his summary of the development of the World Wide Web from the day the first e-mail was sent until what we know and use today. A meteoric progression which none of us would have believed if we hadn’t seen it unfold before us in those few years.

Barbara Poultney – Memories of World War II

This was not the title of Barbara’s oratorial speech but it sums up the tone of the three speeches she read from those years, speeches which ensured the British did not give up until they had won World War II.

The speeches were “The Glory Years 1939 to 1945”, “the Hour of our Greatest Effort is Approaching” and “D Day June 6 1944.

Table Topics Session

Tayengwa Masawi presented a challenging table topic session. Tayengwa asked each speaker to explain why they had the essential qualities for the following jobs:

David Black – Priest in his local church
Coralie Rutherford – The Spokesperson for the ANC
Danie Roux – A Taxi Driver
Clinton – A School Teacher
Barbara Poultney – A Hangman
Maureen – A Commercial Pilot

Evaluation Session

Andrew Timberlake chaired the wvaluation session where Sharad Mistry evaluated Danie Fourie’s speech, Monica Oosthuizen the speech by Ray Smit, Dave Hardingham Theresa Muller’s speech, Kirsten Long David Black’s speech and last but not least Andrew himself evaluated Barbara Poultney’s reading.

Closing assignments

Sue Munro gave the timekeepers report, Danie Roux, the Grammarian’s report, Liz Pearson was Hark Master and Sue Munro ran the raffle.

On a Point

Kirsten encouraged members to complete assignments for the CL manual and outlined the activities involved.

Members were encouraged to support the Area Contest, Maxicon in Cape Town on 15 and 16 May, the Club’s AGM on 20 May and especially our next meeting.

Because of the elections the next club meeting will be held at Accenture Club on Tuesday 21 April.

Danie asked members to request a DVD of their assignment, the cost was R5.00.

The meeting closed at 20:50.