Despite the unusual absence of our President, Steve Osborne, members were inspired to new heights. Dan Webb filled the president's roles, as well as Toastmaster of the Evening and enthused over our efforts, with a theme of making change happen.  You'd never believe he's only performed TME role a couple of times!

Lots of people stepped up to new roles: Patricia Galbraith as timekeeper, Kem Galbraith as Sergeant at Arms, Kenny Jones as Evaluator, David Mitchell as Evaluator. This is always a delight to see as a new perspective is portrayed, and we all experience the importance of doing a good job, not to mention change and moving forward!

The ice-breaker speech from Fiona Knight had some great humour despite talking about conveyancing! 
Soroosh Farid had interesting content in his second speech,  much to tell another time.
The winning speech by Melanie Austreng had a very powerful message about heart research;  when asked who had a close relative with heart disease, over 90% of us sat down.

Table topics, a delight as usual was led by Tony Peters,

David Singleton-Smith won best evaluator.

Four great speeches and lots of fun both in the Kenny James warm-up and during Table Topics meant that we ran overtime by nearly 15 minutes.

Best speech was won by Melanie Austreng who has really found her voice and enthralled all by talking about the cold, cold Canadian winters.  Tim Berry provided a well-written speech about Warren Buffet; David Singleton-Smith a beautifully worded, enthusiastic speech about Oscar Wilde and Shirley Thompson interacted well with the audience whilst explaining what Project Management is all about.

Lesley Lyle was Toastmaster and helped everyone feel comfortable with their evening with her elegant style.

Efe Ohwofasa was Table Topics master as well as Sargeant at Arms and wanted to know what people would do if they were a Government Ministers.  Some useful ideas were presented to the audience.  Clearly political potential amongst our Members, although Hannah Dykes, a visitor, won the best Table Topics award this meeting.

Robin Thirlwell won best evaluator with his clear, cogent consideration of David Singleton-Smiths speech.

Olga Taylor was Timekeeper, everyone cheered when she pointed out that one Table Topics participant should be made Minister because they had confined their speaking to just one minute.

It was announced that the Members monthly fee will increase for the first time some years in Spring 2010, by £2 per month to £11 per month.  Robin Thirlwell, our treasurer will provide details next year.