Meeting 864 - Holidays

Sometimes, when our group is smaller and there are a lot of programme changes, it turns out to be a dynamic meeting. That's what happened last time. There were numerous impromptu fill- ins and it was wonderful to see our members rise to the occasion.

New Members, Michelle and Inge were inducted into the club by Sharyn.

 The holiday theme was carried through the meeting, beginning with Liz's Round Robin "What is your favorite kind of holiday?"

 Jonathon filled in the Table Topics Master's role & called on Sharyn, Chelsea, Liz and Jennine to speak on Holiday themed topics. June and Harry evaluated the Table Topics - it was the first time as Evaluator for both of them.

 New member Melissa presented her IceBreaker Speech, "What's my Label." She spoke about various labels that could describe her and finished with the conclusion that she was "indefinable."

 Dave gave an Interpretive Reading of the poem "Ullysses."

 Marlene filled in the Speech 3 slot with a creative session, & had people using their vocal variety skills to portray emotions - eg anger, amazement, sadness, joy, & mysteriousness. Sharyn carried this idea further when we still had some time at the end of the meeting and got everyone to try some of the exercises from the "Your Speaking Voice" booklet.

 As another "fill in" Jonathon spoke enthusiastically about his plans to put club videos on YouTube.

 New member Elizabeth bravely took on a role at short notice and told a couple of short anecdotes from her childhood.

 Chelsea introduced us to a new word "Schadenfreude" which means to find amusement in another's misfortunes. Inge, having come from Germany, was able to correct our pronunciation. Four people managed to use the word during the evening.

 Awards for the evening went to John & Jonathon, (tie - Best Contribution) Melissa, (Best Speech and Personal Best) and Chelsea. (Best Table Topic.) Jonathon was also Best Evaluator.