Meeting Theme - HAPPY 2025!

Best Table Topics - John, Best Evaluator - Estelle, Best Speaker - Liam

Meeting Theme - It’s Chriiiiiistmas!

Best Speaker - Nasar, Dynamic Leadership Completion - Krystyna, Best Evaluator - Natalie, Best Table Topics - Visitior

Meeting Theme - The Traitors

Best Table Topics - joint winners Jacqui & Visitor (far right), Best Speaker - James

Meeting Theme - Sport - the good, the bad and the ugly!

Best Speaker - Joint winners Kate & Nasar, First Timer Award - Hichem, Best Table Topics - Visitor, Best Evaluator - Natalie

MEETING THEME - The Road Not Taken

Best Table Topics - joint winning guests, Best Speaker - Dan, Best Evaluator - Geoff

Meeting Theme - Visit Poland

Best Table Topics - Visitor, Best Evaluator - Pam, Best Speaker - Nasar

Hollie was off for this meeting, so I’m returning to tell you about our last meeting. We had two prepared speeches – I did one all about what your book recommendations tell me about you. I also had you give me your book recommendations which you can see below if you are looking for your next read:

Nick also spoke with killer advice on writing well – you can tell from this post that I may not have taken all the advice.

Greg ran Table Topics and asked us about stepping outside our comfort zone, and we wrapped up with the usual evaluations.

The roll of honour is:

·        Best Speaker: Nick

·        Best Evaluator: Adrien

·        Best Table Topic: Duaa (a guest)

We had two guests as well:

• James

• Duaa

• Sarah

A massive hello to our newest member, Krystyna as well – welcome to the club

Non-Fiction

Who	Book	Author	Amazon
Lejla	Utopia for Realists	Rutger Bregman	https://amzn.eu/d/2IcnKrz
Karen Lee	Lucky Man	Michael J Fox	https://amzn.eu/d/cg0z3Rz
Karen Lee	What Dreams May Come	Richard Matheson	https://amzn.eu/d/aB3mEV5
Anita	Heath Robinson: Wonderful Contraptions and Extraordinary Inventions	William Heath Robinson	https://amzn.eu/d/51XZBqF
Duaa	Breaking the habit of being yourself	Joe Dispenza	https://amzn.eu/d/eihraBi
Duaa	The Magic	Rhonda Byrne	https://amzn.eu/d/37Wl5HE
Anonymous	Awaken the Giant Within	Tony Robbins	https://amzn.eu/d/btdHLie
Greg	Homo Deus	Yuval Noah Harai	https://amzn.eu/d/8gR7sxz
James	The Ride of a Lifetime	Robert Iger	https://amzn.eu/d/bPNHZzB
Elaine	Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway	Susan Jeffers	Https://amzn.eu/d/5mShxhN
Elaine	The Happy Pear Vegan Cookbook	David and Stephen Flynn	https://amzn.eu/d/2MGLiNH (there are several "Happy Pear" books – Elaine assures us the recipes are fab)
Mario	Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion	George J. Thompson	https://amzn.eu/d/gbEnCcy
Mario	The Road Less Stupid	Keith J. Cunningham	https://amzn.eu/d/0PZrjkz
Geoff	The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k	Mark Manson	https://amzn.eu/d/aAEPh1R
Geoff	Scatter Brain	Shaparak (Shappi) Khorsandi	https://amzn.eu/d/hREYQhu
Geoff	Ultra-Processed People	Chris van Tulleken	https://amzn.eu/d/e36NpRW
Hollie	The Power of Now	Eckhart Tolle	https://amzn.eu/d/5gJUDss

Fiction

Who	Book	Author	Amazon
Karen Lee	What Dreams May Come	Richard Matheson	https://amzn.eu/d/aB3mEV5
Natalie	1984	George Orwell	https://amzn.eu/d/5rbwwWu
Natalie	Wuthering Heights	Emily Brontë	https://amzn.eu/d/5hmorq7
Natalie	(all of them)	Dan Brown
Natalie	Little Women	Louisa May Alcott	https://amzn.eu/d/00X46v8
Greg	Engleby	Sebastian Faulkes	https://amzn.eu/d/g0VB9Cn
Pam	The Dogs Who Came To Stay	George Pitcher	https://amzn.eu/d/0Eka3kj
James	Orphan X	Gregg Hurwitz	https://amzn.eu/d/0gbi3Zg
Melanie	Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years	Sue Townsend	https://amzn.eu/d/8kEkEAs
Melanie	Five People You Meet In Heaven	Mitch Albom	https://amzn.eu/d/hoc9WSI
Hannah	An Orchestra of Minorities	Chigozie Obioma	https://amzn.eu/d/0t5dhxG
Hannah	Children of Blood and Bone	Tomi Adeyemi	https://amzn.eu/d/0ivKnaT
Geoff	Fahrenheit 451	Ray Bradbury	https://amzn.eu/d/1uPG7o8
Hollie	The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	https://amzn.eu/d/gENV0KH

Last night's meeting was all about welcoming our new President, Elaine, and our new committee members, Hollie and Melanie. It's looking to be a great Toastmasters year. The theme was Our Toastmasters Club.

Louise won the best speech with her talk on breaking the cycle, with special commendations to Zaki for his speech on fasting and Hannah's Ice Breaker speech. Paul led the round of table topics on the summer theme, where we learnt what Mario did on a specially-laid carpet.

I won both table topics and best evaluator and no - it wasn't me who counted the votes.

Hope to see you all on the 19th.

"Congratulations Elaine – President-Elect"

Wednesday's meeting was exciting – we had club elections for the new committee. Many familiar faces but were beyond excited to welcome some new committee members (okay – beyond excited may be a bit of a stretch, but we are excited).

Before I tell you the results, we have had a meeting.

In two prepared speeches, we heard from Muhammad, who talked about Ramadhan, why millions of Muslims worldwide dedicate themselves to fasting every day for a month from sunrise to sunset and how non-Muslims can benefit from fasting too. This allowed me to tell everyone my fascinating (really) fact that Muslims who live in the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai must fast for 2 minutes longer if they live on the 80th floor or above and three extra minutes if they live on the 150th or above as the sun takes that bit longer to set.

Even though it wasn't his first speech, Nick H delivered his Ice Breaker, where he introduced himself to the club and told us several stories about his life.

We had a few table topics on "opportunities", and everything was evaluated.

Then we had the annual club committee elections. I'm pleased to announce your committee next year will be:

President: Elaine

Vice President Education: Karen Lee

Vice President Membership: Pam

Vice President PR: Hollie

Secretary: John

Treasurer: Geoff (me)

Sergeant at Arms: Melanie

Immediate Past President: Natalie

Thanks to everyone for stepping up, and welcome to the committee to Hollie and Melanie.

The next meeting is Wednesday 21st; why not come down and see what it's all about

-        Geoff

Nick, Nisar & John

Last night we had a really full room, filled with loads of members and quite a few guests, for a night of inspiration and learning. Franci our Toastmaster for the night used the theme of Environment to bring many issues to light, which was continued by Karen Lee in the Table Topics section of the night.

We had 3 cracking speeches on a variety of subjects. Anita brought us an inspiring ‘use them or lose them’ speech about the benefits of resistance training when getting older. Next up was long time member, Susan, who reminded us not to wait to do something,as sometimes time runs out. Lastly Muhammad talked about how in our ultra-connected lives people can still be lonely, and what we can do about it.

It definitely was a thought provoking night.

Winners

Best Evaluator - John Champion

Best Speaker - Susan H.

Best Table Topics Speaker - Nick Harvey

As one of our newest members, Nisar Khan received his First Timer ribbon for doing his first role in the club, Timekeeper.