Thursday, 25 June 2009 saw the Peninsula Club celebrate its 30th birthday with a slightly different agenda for the evening. Instead of the usual post meeting snacks we were treated to a delicious sit down meal and an after dinner guest speaker, at the usual venue of Tafelberg Tavern.

Newer members (myself included) got a taste of some of the formalities such as an Invocation and pre-dinner Toast, that we don’t always experience.

Prepared speeches for the night included:

• Gerda van der Merwe doing her CC3, Get to the point, and evaluated by Jason Sandler (a visitor from Chuckle and Chat in Somerset West).
• Vanessa Clark presented her CC4, How to say it, and was evaluated by Paul Jensen (visiting from Taverners). You can read her speech "We’ve come a long way" here.
• Tim Wagner presented his CC9, Persuade with power, and was evaluated by Lois Strachan. Tim went on to complete his competent communicator the following week at Tableview – CONGRATULATIONS!
• Congratulations also to Nic van Schalkwyk achieved his competent communicator presenting his CC10, Inspire your audience, evaluated by Ana Garcia.

After timekeeper for the evening, Tim Wagner, delivered his report, Deirdre Pluke presented the Invocation on the subject of being grateful. Toastmaster Craig Strachan had warned us that it is customary to hold your applause after the Invocation, in order to contemplate the message delivered. Difficult not to applaud though after Deirdre’s well-delivered, thought-provoking Invocation.

Jason Sandler then entertained us with the story of how Peninsula Club was formed 30 years ago. It was appropriate that he shared this story with us, as his father was instrumental in setting the club up.

The after dinner guest speaker, Graham Williams, is the author of the book The halo and the noose, and shared with us a fascinating presentation on the power of story telling and story listening in business life.

Finally the new club officers were inducted. The Peninsula Club’s committee for 2009 – 2010 is as follows:

President – Ana Garcia
Vice-president Education (VPE) – Gerde van der Merwe
Vice-president Membership (VPM) – Tim Wagner
Vice-president Public relations (VPPR) – Vanessa Clark
Secretary – Lois Stachan
Sergeant-at-arms – Evadne Kortje
Immediate past president (IMM) – Craig Strachan

In closing, here is a link to Ana Garcia’s acceptance speech – have a read to find out what exciting things are upcoming for Peninsula Club.

PS – We wish Craig Strachan, immediate past president of Peninsula Club, all the very best for his tenure as District Governor for Toastmasters district 74 (Southern Africa). Read about what Craig has to say about the honour here. I am sure Lois will have a few tips for you from her experiences as last year’s District Governor.

PPS – A huge thank you to Evadne Kortje (incoming Sergeant-at-arms and outgoing Area Governer) for arranging such a fantastic feast. The chicken pie lived up to all expectations

Thanks to Vanessa Clark for the report on the June 2009 meeting.

Tags: meeting review

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Club Events, Club Meetings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.