Toastmasters High

I am again, after about 9 years, a Toastmaster in good standing, member of Club #6884 (at least I think that's the club number, though could be wrong, lol). I paid my dues this evening in time to be eligible to compete in the Humorous Speech Contest.

This particular club originally, the third one in our little city, was formed in 1997 under the name Positive Living Toastmasters, and I was one of the Charter members of the club. Due to not having the dues, and to life in general, I only attended for the one year. I often thought it would be nice to go back to it... one day.

This past spring I got a call from a man, James, who is a current member of the club who's name has since been changed to Monday Night Vernon Toastmasters. (Personally, I prefer the original name, but oh well.) Anyway, James said they were celebrating their 10th anniversary (time sure passes quickly) and they were hoping to get some of the Charter members to come to the special dinner they were having for the occasion. I went to it and had a very nice time, yes I get excited about it again. I may have let it drop again, but they invited me to go to the next meeting too, as it was the last meeting before the 2 month summer break.

Of course I went to that meeting. Patch knew I wanted to get up and do a table topic, so made sure that the table topics master of that evening knew to call on me. A table topic is when you are called upon to give a 2 minute impromptu talk on a topic you are given by the table topics master. I thoroughly enjoyed giving that short speech, and I received a very good evaluation (all speakers are evaluated on their talks). It was a wonderful evening and after the meeting I was invited to join some of the people for coffee at Tim Horton's for social time.

When the fall season started in September, I was unable to attend the first 2 meetings, but made it to the third one, last Monday. I found out that there was a Humorous Speech Contest being held this evening, and my long time friend Barb asked if I was going to compete in it. She was. Okay, I'm usually up for a challenge, so I ended up signing up for the contest. Nothing like jumping right in, haha.

All week I thought about what to speak on, but couldn't quite figure it out, though I finally decided that after church yesterday I would not come home. I would go to a restaurant for tea or just stay at church and write my speech. I stayed at church after everyone else left, and started to write. I had a bit of an idea what I would write about, but in the end the speech was totally different than I would have thought to begin with. I'll post the speech soon. It didn't give me much time to practice delivering the speech, but oh well.

Tonight there was 3 people competing in the Table Topics contest, and 3 in the Humorous Speech contest. We drew numbers to see in what order we'd go and I was #3. When #1 got up and did her talk I knew I wasn't going to be the winner... she was great. That's okay, because I really didn't enter to win, but to have fun. #2 was Barb and she also did a really great speech. I gave a quick prayer then got up and donned my "costume" I'd decided to wear (a ball cap and a red & black jack shirt) and gave my speech. Twice I had to stop and wait until the laughing died down. It went over really well. The speech was to be from 5 to 7 minutes. It it was shorter than 4 1/2 or longer than 7 1/2, you'd be disqualified. Green light comes on at 5 minutes, yellow at 6, and the red light comes on at 7 minutes. I finished speaking very shortly after the red light came on. Whew, but it short. It didn't take that long when I practiced it, lol. Next time I'll have it planned ahead that I have some extra stuff to throw in if I've extra time to fill, and know what to take out if in risk of going over time.

As I expected, #1 won the contest. She deserved to, she put on an excellent speech. Only the winners were announced, so I don't know if I came in second or third, and that's okay. That's as it should be. I got Lisa to take some photos of me so I could post one or two for you to see. I'll post them with my speech tomorrow evening.

After the meeting Barb, Kevin and I went to Tim Horton's.

All in all, it was an awesome evening!!!