With Michelle at the helm, as Toastmaster of the Evening, we would expect nothing less than a theme of ‘Your Beliefs Create your Reality’!

Bappy took his first role as a member, and did a particularly diligent job as Sergeant at Arms, winning him the President’s Award by going above and beyond – not only opening the meeting on time and getting us all back from break in a timely manner, he also collected, sorted and counted all the votes for the awards.

We had 11 guests including the PR Manager for District 71- Ernold Van Bueren.  

All the guests were welcomed personally by Nishanth, our President.

This was the first time we’ve had a visit from someone from our District and it was really exciting to hear that the reason that he was visiting Godiva’s was because he had heard, repeatedly, what a fantastic club we were! 

It appears that he was hearing about the amazing Godiva Speakers everywhere that he went, so much so that had to see it himself!  The great news is, he really wasn’t disappointed!  Ten new guests at this meeting alone and three of our members going through to the Division Contest for International Speech and Evaluation.  Godiva Speakers really are living up to their position as best club!

James was our Grammarian for the evening and his word of the day was ‘perseverance’, which was used often and with humour.

Doyin took his first role as a member, keeping us all in time with his lights and bell!

Sher warmed us all up nicely, by moving us forward 10 years, and asking us what we would like to achieve.  There seemed to be a theme of Caribbean islands, parties and successful businesses!

All three prepared speeches were very impressive – 

Pratik gave us some insight and information about Block Chain and how this new technology works.

This was evaluated by Tim who won best Evaluator of the evening.

Denise kept up her momentum following her icebreaker at the previous meeting and delivered the award winning speech of Crowning Glory.  She told a very moving story of how she lost her hair, with humour and clarity.

This was evaluated by Emil.

Zack delivered an incredible icebreaker and took us into his own mind – The Mind of an Overthinker – which he delivered well with humour, passion and good structure.

Santhosh joined us online to evaluate his speech.

After a vibrant break, I took the stage as Table Topic Master.

James, a guest, told us a bit about himself and also what ‘beliefs’ meant for him.

He was voted in as Best Table Topic and evaluated by Matthew.

Jack, another guest, put himself in the future for five years and told us about his world. 

This was evaluated by Kevin online, who won Best Table Topic Evaluator.

Our newest member, Laura, totally faced her fears and delivered her first speech on stage. It was short but strong!  What do you need to believe in order to fulfill your dreams? The answer was simple – to believe in herself!

Galdeep told us about what is possible for him in his world and this was evaluated by James.

Doyin gave his Timer Report and James, the Grammarian Report, followed by an extra burst of energy to the already exuberant stage, as Ernold took to the stage as General Evaluator, sharing with us his thoughts of this incredible meeting.

Nishanth closed off by giving awards for the people that got through the Club International Speech and Evaluation Contest, that had been run online on 8th March.

International Speech:

1st – Bence – Title: The Idiot

2nd – Fiona  – Title: All Rise

3rd – Gina – Title: The Universal Gift

Evaluation:

1st – Gina

2nd – Santhosh 

3rd – Michelle

Nishanth also spoke to all our guests, asking for feedback and giving them welcome packs.  He ended the meeting by  presenting the awards for the evening.

These are some of the comments from the guests:

“Everyone’s level of speaking was fantastic!”

“Lovely group”

“The welcome I received has been really great.  It feels very much like a family.”

“Very welcoming!  I am going to join!”

“Fun and energetic!  It is not easy to speak in front of people, but because of the safe environment, I was able to do it.”

“I think this is a good place to help myself grow.”