Sunday, April 18, 2010

The road to Palm Desert: The Division E Speech Competition

Shirley Renwick of East London won the Division E Speech Competition on 17 April. She will now go on to represent the Eastern Cape at the District 74 MaxiCon Annual Conference in Gauteng in May. Joining Shirley at the Conference will be our own Nicholas Mitchell who will compete for Division E in the impromptu speech and speech evaluation competitions.

The Conference is the final stop on the road to the Toastmasters International Convention, to be held in Palm Desert, California in August. Winners of District Contests, including District 74 (Southern Africa), will compete is a series of speech contests at the Convention which culminates in Toastmasters International awarding the World Champion of Public Speaking.

Good luck to Shirley and Nicholas! Remember to watch this blog for all the news from the District 74 Conference in May.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

A visiting guest wins Table Topics

In what might be a first for our Club, a visiting guest won Table Topics at the April 13th meeting.

The Table Topics Master for the evening was Glenis Whitehead. The scenario: a crowded doctor’s waiting room. The receptionist announces to the walking wounded that the doctor only has time for one more patient. Cue all manner of theatrics as Table topics participants had to argue as why they should be the doctor’s last patient for the day.

There was Adam Engela’s sick Julius Malema and a hirsute Candice Finklestein with a crippling case of razor rash, but it was first time visitor Mimi Makupula who won Table topics with a hilarious, hearing impaired patient, who also had ants in her pants.

There were two prepared speeches for the evening. Rhona Murchie presented her “icebreaker” and introduced herself to the Club as the ultimate hyphenate: mother-teacher-student. Louise Solomons presented a talk on the arithmetic of success in which love, money and knowledge don’t add up to much; rather it all comes down to an individual’s attitude.

Alison Immelman was inducted as a new member and Thomas Duthie was re-inducted. Thomas also picked up the Top Toastie floating trophy for stepping into the role of evaluator at very short notice.

At our next meeting (27 April) Gillian Nutt will complete her Competent Communicator manual and we will induct our newest member: Zuki Skade.

Hold this date: Saturday, 5 June 2010

The Algoa Club will mark its jubilee anniversary (that’s fifty years) with a dinner at the Port Elizabeth Golf Club on Saturday 5 June. Tickets will be R120. Past members as well as friends of Algoa Toastmasters are invited to join the Club in celebrating this important milestone. Watch your email inbox for invitations and more information on how to buy tickets to the Algoa Club’s biggest celebration in five decades!