TOASTMASTERS helps members improve their public speaking, presentation and leadership skills. TRANSFORMERS CLUB meets the 2nd and 4th Monday's of the month at the Morningside Country Club in Johannesburg, South Africa. Come and visit us to see what TOASTMASTERS is all about!
Theme for 2011/2012: The Club is the newest member

Meeting #618

9^th January 2012

Theme: “ Out with the old, in with the new”

Many members are still on holidays –our President, John-Peter sent greetings from Betty’s Bay – so the list of apologies was longer than normal, but those who were present had an enjoyable meeting.

The word of the evening was “Induce” and members found many occasions to use it.

Prepared Speeches

Matthys               “Take a mini-holiday”

Matthys was back at work early in January and was already feeling the need for another break. He gave 3 great venues in Jo’burg to have a mini-break.

                                Botanical Gardens:          Check out the eagles

                                Johannesburg Zoo:         From Scorpions to monkeys to Elephants            

                                4 Ways Lion Park:             The enclosure for baby lion cubs

Margie                 “Surfing with your eyes open”

                                Margie warned against believing everything we read on the web.

                                She recommended that we focus on three areas:

                                Web Page – check last update date/ copyright / what links to professional site

                                Author – Qualifications / contact details / Peer review

                                Article – Fact vs Opinion / Verifiable / Referenced

Keith                     “ Best Mentoring Ideas”

This was a follow up session to his previous advanced speech on the club status. The focus was on mentoring and the detail was in the following areas:

Stay in Contact

Encouragement

Set Objectives

(Take note from the above – each speech focussed on 3 major points which simplified the message and made it easier for the audience to receive.)

Rod                        “Sipho Mabuzo”

Rod was speaking from the Story telling manual and gave us an inspiring story on the principle of “As you sow, so shall you reap”. How a spontaneous gesture can have major repercussions.

Table Topics

Staying in consistency with the theme, Mary selected old/obscure words and asked members to devise new explanations for them:

Belpharospasm                Keith tired to explain that this was a word to describe Tony Blair’s expressions but in fact means Persistent Winking.

Callomania                         Leny expounded on the travails of telesales personnel but the word means the delusion that one is beautiful.

Defossion                            Rod brought us back to the Roman days in Britain to the ‘Foss Way’ but he should have been talking about live burial.

Epaulion                               Glenice gave a graphic explanation about how to walk into a window – not face first but with the shoulder instead!            However the word pertains to the ‘Day after the wedding’         

Fliitwite                                Ryan expounded at length about a biological phenomena regarding white light but in reality he should be talking about a fine for fighting.

Galeanthropy                   Margie gave us an intriguing account of the study of Viking ships – she neglected to mention the delusion that one has to become a cat

Hallux                                    Matthys introduced us to a new swear word but somehow neglected to mention any reference to ones Big Toe.