Peninsula Toastmasters Club

If you would like to break the inertia in your club, you could try what we did in Peninsula for our October’s meeting: a Back-to-Front meeting.

Yes, it is as insane as it sounds!

I should have run home when I was asked to stand up to open the meeting by saying: “I hope that you have enjoyed this meeting …” or was it the look on the faces of our brand new guests which was making me think “how on earth are we going to put this right!?”. But the human mind is an incredible tool: very soon into the madness, we all knew what to expect, what to say…and the fun really started! (Don’t take my word for it; you have to experience it yourself!).

But stay with me…

It all started with Gerda van der Merwe’s (club’s VPE) magnificent idea of doing a “Lucky Draw” for those individuals whose names were mentioned and had their CL books with them. Craig Strachan was the winner (for the second time running!?… this smells fishy…) and then Gerda went on to challenge all the club members to bring their manuals to all meetings. Way to go!

Then Evadne Kortje created a “Talk Backwards” Table Topics theme; we only had time for two speakers, and Craig Strachan and Francois Rossouw were them. According to Francois, he “was going to miss a party because he was going to develop a headache after eating cheese and other snacks” and Craig confused us all by “ordering diet water because he was dirty, and double whisky because he was thirsty”. Yes, I know it was a Backwards meeting but surely, Craig, a little help here!?

Lois Strachan, Toastmaster of the Evening, masterfully confused the pants out of all of us by just about the middle of the meeting. She clearly knew what she was saying and how she was saying it! But I did point out to Craig that if she could keep that cross-wired train of thought so impeccably (un)clear during the whole duration of the meeting, I felt sorry for him whenever he needed to get into a discussion or debate with her, which I am sure it must happen on a regular basis!

But it was only when I lifted my head, turned round (I was busy writing evaluations and this review, among other things) and saw Thomas Bowman wearing his jacket backwards when I realized that there was no escape. We had done it. The mad-house was in full bloom… and it was nothing to do with a Full Moon!

The Evaluations were not any better: Richard Perkins talked a fuzzy, fizzy, watered message within a lot of gibberish… with a great imagination. Ana Garcia spoke a crazy, crossed-wired evaluation where she got to the conclusion that since Vanessa was a CC07 and almost an advanced speaker, surely her speech was going to be very good, and in the end all that mattered was to get her CC and half point for the club, and we were all looking forward very much to getting totally lost by the end of her speech.

We both won Best Evaluator for the evening. I am glad to see that people have a sense of humor in our club!

Gerda van der Merwe could have fooled us as her evaluation made perfect sense (or was my mind gone by then and I couldn’t tell the difference?). Kirsten Pearson started with a clever “In conclusion” statement and Craig Strachan spoke totally backwards, just in the spirit of the evening.

Sergeant at Arms, Evadne Kortje, asked us all not to return to the meeting, or was it to switch our cell phones off in the middle of the meeting? I don’t know any more; my brain was on overload by then!

Then into the Speeches: Vanessa Clark’s CC07 “The Seventh Mass Media” was very interesting. Hard to believe that in 7 billion in the planet, there are 4 billion mobile phone users… some of whom sleep with their precious gadgets! (Not me… yet!). Well done on winning Best Prepared Speech of the evening! (Or was it the least insane one?)

Thomas Bowman gave us in his AC01 the 2nd chapter of his previous (and very funny) “The Reluctant Chef” true story: To debone a chicken. I thought he was actually telling us an epic story, he was so immersed in it all!

Andries Viljoen did his CC06 with “Brave Enough to Start” and he showed a great leap in confidence and an array of speaking skills in his conversational, story-telling tale. But next time he stands up to speak I will hide under the table, just in case he decides to ask me more questions I can hardly think the answer for! And by the way, someone get those door hinges oiled! Well done Andries for ignoring the creaking noises… twice! during your speech.

Puleng Molahlehi spoke to us about “Journey with Inspiration” by the end of which we were totally sold on the idea. “We are thirsty for inspiration, but we don’t really know how much we are until we drink of it”. She insists that inspiration is something you work on and she gave us several tips, among which were keeping a journal and listening to inspiring music and words. She maintains that “being a living dead is cheap as you save in funeral costs” but that living with inspiration creates opportunities and opens up your life. It’s worth the try, don’t you think?

Hans Pleysier did his Icebreaker. Born and raised in Belgium, he came to Cape Town in 1997 and fell in love with it. He extended his holidays of 2 weeks up to 6 months until Home Affairs had to kick him off the country… only joking! He decided to come back and stay. He set up a restaurant in Kloof street (and sold it a couple of years ago – shame, I was going to pop in for a free coffee!) but then he sold the restaurant and went to Business School in Los Angeles. However, his aching heart brought him back here after only 5 months and he is currently busy setting up an import-export business. He quoted Forrest Gump – I am not sure if it is because life is always unexpected or because he likes chocolate! If you want to keep updated of Hans’ new ventures, visit www.2xist.co.za

Thank you and well done to our new member and Timekeeper for the evening, Jaco Strydom. Not easy to give a timing on a 7 to 5 minute speech, is it?

By now I had the headache of the century and as President of the club, had to close the meeting. “Have we all gone mad?” I asked “No, this meeting is not going to be the result of insanity, but an exercise on cross-wired thinking. And it comes to show how much cac (lots of laughs here…) one must come up with when one has to address an audience and is challenged to make some sense; or worse, still, not make sense at all! Really, I don’t drink alcohol, but I think I should have one tonight!”

Thanks to Peninsula’s President, Ana Garcia, for this review.