Member blog: by Helen McLeod.
Spring has sprung at Boaters!
This morning we followed the theme of “recharge”. The meeting was opened by Rachel minus her carrots and fluffy suit from the last meeting. Dee was Toastmaster who shared that she recharges her phone every night and goes to sleep listening to stories read via her phone. Sabine as Grammarian presented something different by reciting a poem “The Easter Walk in Spring“ by a German poet. It finished “Here I am, here I dare to be.”
Steve Kennelly gave a textbook introduction for our first speaker, David Cooper who presented a thank you to volunteers which was designed to be different from a normal thank you.
Next Imelda introduced Cam Parsonson on his birthday. Cam apparently recharges by getting in trouble, or going outside his comfort zone! Today his aim was to be serious. He spoke of different mentors in his life; a chemistry professor, a retro-analytical thinker, a mechanic, a philosophy lecturer, a builder, a father and an accountant. Cam has learned to cherry pick from his mentors.
And then for something completely different today, we had a quiz on how do some of our members recharge. Options included running in the hills, smoking lights, reading, meditating and walking the dog.
Quiz prize – recharge kit!
Table topics revolved around the theme of Recharge. What emerged was that Louise bikes to recharge. Jacqui finds that people are commonly the cause of her stress, and she advises “to sleep on it” before sending emails so as to avoid conflict. For Gerald the screen has been his chill out zone for the last 20 or so years. Deb’s best place when the sun is shining and the birds are singing, is an elephant nature park that she once went to. She reminded us that elephants are big enough to wash themselves and don’t need people to help them to wash. Rachel coped with lockdown by moving her household and cat in with her partner, watching Netflix, walking around Ferrymead and plenty of homebrew.
Evaluations were received from Alannah, David Pottinger, Louise Green (Table Topics), Gerald as GE and Natalie as Timekeeper.
The Boaters bulletin from Sabine covered
- a Zoom workshop on Tuesday at 7 pm
- an evaluation contest on 25 September
- Imelda is doing an educational on how to give an evaluation next week
- on the 18th there will be an open demonstration meeting
- and Sabine encouraged us to like the new Facebook page for Boaters Toastmasters.
- Cam has offered to Chair the evaluation contest, any other volunteers please see Gerald
The Toastie Award went to Dee. This was her first role as Toastmaster. It was a very enjoyable morning.