West Rand Toastmasters finally see each other again, from a distance

For the past few months, the West Rand Toastmasters have been conducting their meetings through Zoom.

However, on Thursday, 3 September, the group of public speakers were buzzing with excitement when they finally came face to face with their club members for the first time since the beginning of lockdown.

The Toastmasters cautiously returned to their original meeting venue, the Discovery Bowling Club, for meeting number 488 as they covered the theme of Change.

Alwyn van As, the club’s Sergeant at Arms and Table Topics Chair for the evening, called the meeting to order before handing over the gavel to West Rand Toastmasters President, Thato Majela.

Thato took on the role of Toastmaster before welcoming Glen Campbell to the lectern to propose a Toast to Spring.

Alwyn and Glen couldn’t stay away from the spotlight for long, and soon joined Tebogo Majokana in delivering their individual prepared speeches. Glen spoke about her experience of spending her formative years in a convent, while Alwyn spoke about being a corporal in the army for his speech entitled Identity. Tebogo’s speech saw him speak about his journey of coaching young men who were identified as ‘problem children’.

The Table Topics portion of the evening was next. Four brave public speakers gave very interesting impromptu speeches after being assigned random words.

Stephanie Watkins was up first and was assigned the words ‘bowls’ and ‘stick’. She spoke about the time when she assisted blind bowlers who participate in the sport.

Lorraine Ravele was a guest at the meeting and was assigned the words ‘maths teacher’ and ‘calculator’. Her speech described how her maths teacher was never fond of calculators and would rather have her students using their brains.

Lebo Pilane gave the third impromptu speech, using her word ‘celebration’ to describe her decision to resign from her job, which for her, was cause for celebration.

The final unprepared speech was presented by Malcolm Harris, who was given the words ‘mother-in-law’ and ‘cat’. He took the humorous approach of describing how he would pet a cat if it were to meow at him, but would never pet his mother-in-law.

If you would like to find out more about the West Rand Toastmasters or their next meeting which will be held on 17 September, contact Glen Campbell on 073 538 9560 or glencampbell@telkomsa.net.