October 20, 2020

 It wasn’t a scary story after all - in fact, it was great.

I am referring to the joint “Scary Stories” meeting between Lingo Advanced Toastmasters and Fabulous Facilitators clubs on Tuesday October 20/2020. Thirteen of us were dressed as witches, decked out in hats, creepy glasses or just our scary lighted selves. When asked by witch Toastmaster Edith B, all members indicated what gave them ‘perturbation’: rodents, heights, flying, being caught with or without a Halloween costume or in a housecoat were some of the items.

First speaker, Mrs X (Xiao) in her chef hat and apron, was interviewed by Estella, Evaluator, regarding her Restaurant X, a not-for-profit eatery suffering during this Covid year. Both did an excellent job.

Second speaker, Yeshu, informed us about her son’s debating experience in her speech “Debating Debate.” Evaluator Oksana said Yeshu came off as a very professional speaker. She wondered if she was watching a YouTube video. Speaker #3 was Lynn speaking direct from her daughter’s bowling game. Lynn’s speech “A little big scare” was just that as she gave as a very descriptive, per evaluator Dan, story of one of the feats she had to accomplish in pursuing her military career. After her speech, Lynn said we would not see her on “American Ninja Warriors” ever.

The highlight of the night was creepy witch Tabletopics Master Cherry, who started a story about a Ouija board experience that all responders had a minute each to continue the story where the last person left off - members took the story to the airport, Canada Place, flying as an unidentified object or bird on October 31st and back to the Ouija board. What a whirlwind and fun. Poor timer, Eileen was kept very busy. According to Evaluator Rhys backed up by alien sound effects Cam won best Tabletopics with his own sound effects.

General Evaluator Peter was impressed with our joint meeting. Quizmaster Lochlan stumped us when none of us remembered Peter’s movie reference to the Chevy Chase’s movie “Christmas Vacation” and being scared on a ladder. During evaluations Dan reminded us that the time was 20:20 on October 20, 2020. If that was not scary enough, Edith reminded us that with turning our clocks back after October 31st, we have the pleasure of one more hour of 2020 than our fellow District 99 Toastmasters in Saskatchewan.

So ended our scary stories meeting - a great success. Fabulous Facilitators will have their own Halloween Meeting October 27th unless they are too scared to do so. Lingo Advanced Toastmasters next meeting is a “Wow” meetings WORKSHOP on November 3rd. Toastmasters, besides enhancing our speaking and leadership skills, certainly get our creative juices flowing. Also noted was how we have all improved in our Zoom portrayal (thanks Lynn for the picture). Written by DTM Edith B, member of both clubs.