Josep, standing in for President, before handing over to our  Toastmaster of the Evening Larry who chose St Patrick’s Day as the theme for his first time in this role.

We inducted three new members: Mohamed will be mentored by Claudia, Margot by Danielle, and Debbie by Suzanne. 

Caroline told us, “If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, you’re lucky enough,” and gave us an Irish toast. Benoit, amidst much hilarity, introduced ‘craic’ (fun) as the word of the night. Connal our club Irishman, gave a suitably-themed joke.

Josep had engineered some interesting table topics responded to eloquently by ex-member Mia, Mohammad, Margot, Cyril, Bob and Debbie.  

One of our newest members, Nadège, gave her icebreaker, “Active Hope”, which Benoit described in his evaluation as “inspiring”, acknowledging that “everyone was captivated” by her performance. 

Claudia noted Amir’s excellent handling of interruptions from the waiters during “Is Happiness a choice?” 

Siobhan evaluated Vicki’s “Killing Two Birds with One Stone”. She celebrated Vicki’s physical command of the room, her use of questions to engage the audience and indicate the need for work on the website, and her presidential language (for example that it is “time to feel proud”). 

Anäelle had what she called the hardest job of the night, evaluating Suzanne’s prize-winning speech, “already so polished.” 

Danielle, our General Evaluator, highlighted many people for praise and finished with an excellent recommendation, that mentors should evaluate their mentees’ evaluations. 

As usual, members voted on the night’s awards. (Suzanne, already a prize-winner at competition level was exempt). Congratulations to Bob and Cyril, joint winners for Table Topics, Benoit for evaluation, and Nadège on her powerful Icebreaker, the winning speech.