Meeting 1136 - "Cats or Dogs"

There are exceptions to any rule, but Paul gave us ample examples of his comrades at home: a dog and a cat. We also learnt why you should set an alarm clock when patting a cat and how loud a dog can snore.

 

 

The meeting was called to order by Sergeant at Arms Helen, who not only gave us the mission statement, but also a circus joke.

President Gail H opened the meeting and was honoured to induct our three new cronies to the gang: Will, Liz A and Shaun. Their mentors will be Paul, Liz We and Arun, respectively.

Toastmaster of the evening Paul welcomed us to the meeting by describing a nightly routine at his house.

When he called on Vice President Education Liz We, she was happy to report that we shouldn't have any changes (unfortunately we had to cut one speech in the end).

The toast to "Cats or Dogs" was delivered by John who gave us a choice to toast to just one. There were some loud voices toasting only to one of them, but the majority liked both.

Our new comrade Liz A was up next being the Word Master. The word of the evening was "companion" which Liz A explained was a suitable word since pets can be chums, mates and pals.

Round Robin Master Will posted the question to us: Cats or dogs - what is your preference and why? 

This brought out striking replies with the majority voting for dogs (eight to one), although it must be said that Trish, Helen, Liz A, Gail H and Liz We have no clear preference and had both types as friends in their household. The mob went wild when Trish did use the word of the evening a dozen times.

It was time for our prepared projects:

1. As part of her Question-and-Answer Session (Innovative Planning path, Level 4, elective project), Gail H presented first a speech titled "Making a Project Linus Quilt". After giving us background information about the society, she presented some of her own work and then let us ask her questions about the presentation and topic. It was a highly engaged Q&A with Gail being relaxed while answering. The project and speech were evaluated by Christiane.
2. Trish's speech "Biggest Communication Myth" (Motivational Strategies path, Level 2, project 2: Understanding your Communication Style) made us all think about how we address certain cliques at boardroom meetings. She commented that there is no wrong communication style, but some might work better with the differences between the sexes. (It was taken on by Toastmaster Paul later in the meeting when he gave us the explanation why he prefered dogs over cats because of his cat)
   Shaun evaluated her speech.
3. Marlene presented her speech "Don't Look at the Dog" (Engaging Humour, Level 3, project 1: Engage Your Audience with Humour) with a twist in the story: Her neighbour got her good. Not only did the story fit perfect into the theme of the evening, but made us all laugh when Marlene impersonated her neighbour's dog. We were all amazed on the flip card Marlene used to remind her of the next segment of her story. It was evaluated by Helen.

Since our fourth speaker was stuck at work, Liz We was ready to step in as Table Topic Master to call on:

1. 
   Crony Carmy - Would you spent the money to bring your pet to Australia? Carmy gave us a clear negation, but told us about a time she brought a puppy to Thursday Island for her son. She concluded her story with the sad Good-Bye: when they left Thursday Island three years later, she left the dog behind because of the associated travel cost.
   
2. Ally Will - Would you dress up your animal? Will gave us the suggestion of having a parade of Linus quilt dressed up dogs and cats, but decided that his favourite on his dog was a super-hero outfit.
3. Accomplice John - Which animal would you like to be? After going through options and pros and cons, he arrived as a childhood memory, so settled for golden retriever.
4. Playmate Trish - Which kind of cat would you like to be? Trish expanding our thinking when we hear cat and settled on panther or cheetah.
   
5. Aide Helen - Tell us about a camping holiday with a pet of yours which caused disruption. Helen took her dog to cold Lithgow. Her protector only had to sleep the first night outside the tent.
   

Paul called on Timer Rosie for the Table Topic evaluations and stumped her. He was after the timing.

Afterwards, Carmy presented her raffle: making us laugh by regifting Toastmasters' gifts on the theme of "Tea or Coffee".

 

We used the supper break to purchase tickets (note the notes to see how popular the raffle was), write our well-wishes for Chris (he is currently in hospital with a compound fracture after a motorbike accident), sample some goodies provided by Liz We and exchange news.

The second half was a shorter part with us voting for our awards while Paul told us about his vet sagas (differences between his cat and dog), Liz A reporting on eight associates using the word (with Trish being the winner), Rosie giving us her final timing report and Carmy asking John to draw the raffle (with Trish being the winner).

 

 

 

 

To conclude the meeting of our fraternity, Gail reminded us about the next meeting being contest night as well as handing awards to:

Best Speech - Marlene

Best Evaluation - Shaun

Best Table Topic - John

Most Improved - Will

 

 

Our next meeting on September 12 will be our Humourous Speech and Table Topic contest night.