It was an evening to “Celebrate in the good old summer time” and to “commemorate” our survival over these last two years. Four clubs joined on a July 5/22 for an in-person Potluck meeting at Eileen S’ house. Thanks Eileen! The four lucky clubs were: Lingo Advanced Communicators, Fabulous Facilitators, Riverbend and Golden Mountain. With the threat of more rain, we met inside where everything was sunny and warm. While only 9 of us gathered, all clubs were represented. We had great food and wine too.
Cherry C opened the meeting and introduced Edith B as TM with Cam B as grammarian/Ah counter and Xiao X as timer. For introductions we indicated what we were looking forward to this summer. A variety of things were mentioned from trips, a new dog, being with family and friends and Club Officer training being well attended.
Cherry led Tabletopics in a very unique manner in that she had everyone of us pick an item out of a bag and state “if we were that item, how or what use would we be in Toastmasters.” Some were really difficult like the newest TM Miranda H. picked a glue stick, another picked a razor, or green masking tap. Lip balm and a travelling mug were not that easy too. One item was easily adapted to TMs, a gavel. Harry P won best Tabletopics with his compassionate, if not emotional description of using “tissues.” I soaked it all in like a “sponge,” my pick. Dan Mc was Tabletopics Evaluator and managed to make some suggestions for responses especially if the TT responder did not relate their response to TM.
We charged our glasses, compliments of Eileen, and had toasts to all four clubs starting with Golden Mountain (36 years), given by Harry P, Fabulous Facilitators (35 years) given by Peter H, Riverbend (17 years) given by Cherry and Lingo Advanced (8 years) given by me. Congratulations to all club members from these clubs. We fought and won the Amazing Race in surviving these last few Covid years. Peter was the only one who had asked for an evaluator, as we should have, per Peter H’s advice, “never give a wasted speech.” Eileen chose
to concentrate more on the last page of the Pathways Social Speech evaluation, which worked well for a short speech. Many things were done well but this would have been a good opportunity to show lots of expression.
As is my practice, I gave Dan, as Lingo outgoing President, a bottle of wine especially chosen to represent the time or situation. I, first, had to catch up on 2019/20 giving him
“19 Crimes” which represented the year and several other things. This year I chose a wine from our Opimian wine collection. It was called “Bosman.” We wish Dan well, not only in his health, but as D99 Quality Program Director (fellow Lingo member Richard M, can you keep an eye on him?). I am the in-coming President, I wonder what wine I should select for me next year?
Our evening ended with Peter, as quizmaster. It was noted that we may not have been as attentive as we should have been or as we are on Zoom. The round robin evaluation comments were that there were some nerves with meeting in person but we sure appreciated being able to use eye contact more, either meet each other or renew personal acquaintances. Other comments were, “I thought you were shorter…”
We all left with a smile on our faces, for more than one reason. We look forward to our next joint meeting hosted by Fabulous Facilitators on July 19/22. It will be back to Zoom with the theme “Beating Inflation.” See you then.
Edith Baraniecki, VPPR (Lingo 21/22) and Fabulous Facilitators (ongoing)
