Valentine's Day, Hearts and Romance - heartfelt thanks for the hearty helpers
The theme of the evening, Valentine's Day, was chosen by the Toastmaster of the Evening, me, Angela Lansbury. I wanted to dress to fit the theme. I was sure that somewhere in my vast clothing collection I had hearts. I found a tee-shirt with I love Philadelphia (the city, not the cheese), from a press trip or tourist show. Another hunt produced a Croatian heart, and another heart pendant.
David had earlier in the day said he had his heart on his sleeve. At my request a previous President of HOD, David Phelops, added hearts to both the agenda and the badges on the afternoon of the meeting. He had even made the hearts on the badges red. He specially printed one copy of the agenda for me printed with a red heart.
Lessons Learned - About Revising Speakers and Roles
David was also table topics master. David took over topics from Gill who seemed too overworked all week to prepare her speech. I moved her from Speaker to Table Topics master. Then she said she had no time to prepare topics for impromptu speeches. (She has previously produced props such as wooden ducks for table topics - most amusing.)
Topics Subjects
After so many changes, even of normally reliable people, just in case of a last minute change in topics master, I sent all the committee a list of suggested questions. Pairs of lovers such as Romeo and Juliet. Venues for romance such as Paris. Successful and failed Valentine's Day Dates.
In the end Gil was not up to attending the meeting and I only learned this on the drive to the venue. I was quite anxious about her healthy. So sorry to miss her.
I had bought a red heart balloon on a stick from Tesco for a modest £1. I also found a flat Japanese style fan and made a red paper heart which I stuck on with sellotape, in lieu of Blutac, which would have been as good or better.
I had checked out the heart shaped gifts or chocolates and biscuits at both the two nearby supermarkets, Tesco and Morrisons. In the event, David brought chocolates from Tesco for the Table Topics speakers.
Peter bought shortbread biscuits from Morrisons. Delicious. Plentiful.
Agenda Changes
Changing the agenda was not difficult. I was able to assign roles to other people who turned up at the last minute. I corrected my agenda. However, I kept losing the revised agenda. I kept putting down the revised agenda on the side table with my props and later the ribbons. Then I picked up another nearby copy of the agenda and got the name wrong or got confused. The solution to his problem is to have the Toastmasters of the Day having their own agenda attached to a clipboard - not one of the club's identical clipboards but a coloured and named clipboard, if necessary with an identifying ribbon, or amusing small balloon attached to identify it and make it look like part of the props.
Peter commented that some of the older generation find it even harder than the youngsters to cope with the fatigue of working as well as going out in the evening - especially if they have to be up early next day. I wonder if we need to have a rota in place for giving lifts to people.
We had one two lifts arranged. Mine from Peter (David as an alternative.) During the day Adeola had said she would be working late and did not have her car. Mike Freedman came to the venue, went back for Adeola. He was ready to take another driving diversion to get coffee cups. (We had disposable cups, but the insulated ones for hot drinks were lost at the last meeting when we did not get them back in our locked cupboard).
Mike Freedman as Grammarian gave us the word heart to be used in any way we liked. Somebody noticed that our timekeeper's surname was Hart. Speakers, evaluators and others made good use of hearty welcome, heartfelt, art, arty and other words in a heart-warming effort to use the word heart.
At the end of the evening I was delighted that we had kept the theme going across the printing, food and topics and word of the day.
A hearty thank you to everybody who participated in making a memorable evening.
David had earlier in the day said he had his heart on his sleeve. At my request a previous President of HOD, David Phelops, added hearts to both the agenda and the badges on the afternoon of the meeting. He had even made the hearts on the badges red. He specially printed one copy of the agenda for me printed with a red heart.
Lessons Learned - About Revising Speakers and Roles
David was also table topics master. David took over topics from Gill who seemed too overworked all week to prepare her speech. I moved her from Speaker to Table Topics master. Then she said she had no time to prepare topics for impromptu speeches. (She has previously produced props such as wooden ducks for table topics - most amusing.)
Topics Subjects
After so many changes, even of normally reliable people, just in case of a last minute change in topics master, I sent all the committee a list of suggested questions. Pairs of lovers such as Romeo and Juliet. Venues for romance such as Paris. Successful and failed Valentine's Day Dates.
In the end Gil was not up to attending the meeting and I only learned this on the drive to the venue. I was quite anxious about her healthy. So sorry to miss her.
I had bought a red heart balloon on a stick from Tesco for a modest £1. I also found a flat Japanese style fan and made a red paper heart which I stuck on with sellotape, in lieu of Blutac, which would have been as good or better.
I had checked out the heart shaped gifts or chocolates and biscuits at both the two nearby supermarkets, Tesco and Morrisons. In the event, David brought chocolates from Tesco for the Table Topics speakers.
Peter bought shortbread biscuits from Morrisons. Delicious. Plentiful.
Agenda Changes
Changing the agenda was not difficult. I was able to assign roles to other people who turned up at the last minute. I corrected my agenda. However, I kept losing the revised agenda. I kept putting down the revised agenda on the side table with my props and later the ribbons. Then I picked up another nearby copy of the agenda and got the name wrong or got confused. The solution to his problem is to have the Toastmasters of the Day having their own agenda attached to a clipboard - not one of the club's identical clipboards but a coloured and named clipboard, if necessary with an identifying ribbon, or amusing small balloon attached to identify it and make it look like part of the props.
Peter commented that some of the older generation find it even harder than the youngsters to cope with the fatigue of working as well as going out in the evening - especially if they have to be up early next day. I wonder if we need to have a rota in place for giving lifts to people.
We had one two lifts arranged. Mine from Peter (David as an alternative.) During the day Adeola had said she would be working late and did not have her car. Mike Freedman came to the venue, went back for Adeola. He was ready to take another driving diversion to get coffee cups. (We had disposable cups, but the insulated ones for hot drinks were lost at the last meeting when we did not get them back in our locked cupboard).
Mike Freedman as Grammarian gave us the word heart to be used in any way we liked. Somebody noticed that our timekeeper's surname was Hart. Speakers, evaluators and others made good use of hearty welcome, heartfelt, art, arty and other words in a heart-warming effort to use the word heart.
At the end of the evening I was delighted that we had kept the theme going across the printing, food and topics and word of the day.
A hearty thank you to everybody who participated in making a memorable evening.
Labels: heart biscuits, hearts on agenda, hearts on badges, hearts on clothing
posted by Angela Lansbury Author at 10:57 AM
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