Minutes of meeting October 2nd 2014

October 2nd was a special day. We celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on this day and it is also considered as the International Day of non-violence. It is on this day that 'Clean India' drive was launched by Narendra Modi, the reigning Prime Minister of India. Falling in line with the theme, the word of the day was placid. As always every member who attended the meeting was given a chance to speak during the meeting and managed to use the word of the day: placid. 

The President of Vox, Dilip opened the meeting with a token of appreciation for all Voxers who are in office. He awarded them with a beautiful badge showing the logo of Toastmasters. While handing over the token he also spoke about how each member went out of their way in managing various operations at Vox Toastmasters smoothly. He mentioned every contribution in terms of new PR initiatives, documentation of minutes of meeting, managing Twitter and Facebook accounts, arranging open house events, having new members in the club and retaining them, spreading awareness about Area and District level leadership training workshops, etc.

The Toastmaster of the day allowed for all the roles to be introduced by the members who were assigned respective roles. Kavitha impressed us, yet again! with the way she introduced her role as a timer. She started of with reference to the movie 'Lake Placid' and also managed to use the word of the day: placid. 

Vidya was the speaker of the day. She spoke about the various energy centers in the body and how each energy center can boost the presence and personality of an individual. She was the best speaker of the day. Anand was the best evaluator and brought out all the positives of Vidya's speech. He also encouraged her by commenting on her natural speaking ability, stage presence, great usage of body/body language and the importance of winding up the speech with higher energy and gusto.

Clear and succinct, with the confidence and charm of a seasoned Toastmaster, Mohan swept the crowd away with his joke. Praveen chose the theme for table topics in keeping with the significance of the day. We had 3 new guests viz., Robert, Mubeen and Richu. Mubeen spoke about the leadership initiative he would take for the next 4 to 5 years as in educating people because he thinks without education the progress of a nation would be stinted. Mark shared the best speaker of the day award as he narrated his experience about volunteering for firefighting and as a paramedic and the satisfaction he gained in saving lives of people.  Richu shared the best speaker award as she spoke about the one single change she would bring about if she were the President of the country. She said she would promulgate the principle of feminism and equality of men and women. All speakers used the word of the day effectively.

For the table topics: Kavitha said that rather than choosing one ideal place to live in the rest of her life, she would like to explore placidity in traveling to one new place every day and meeting new people all the time and exploring newer cultures. Mohan spoke about what he would do if he were to  donate money to a needy/hungry person when he had just got swindled. He chose to be alert and aware of not being swindled again before he donated his money to the hungry person.

Nothing skipped the evaluator's eye this time as Dilip went into a detailed evaluation session starting with the way the session started, the courtesy of introducing the visiting guests as the first thing, starting on time, the way the speaker of the day was evaluated, the comments on the creative expressions by the timer, usage of word of the day, observations which were skipped, order and timing of events, etc. Dilip was all for precision, quality and strict process and organization in his evaluation session. The visiting guests appreciated this aspect of our club proceedings and mentioned that this is a compelling reason for them to sign up for membership with Vox Toastmasters. So much for the session of October 2nd.

Looking forward to see you guys at the Open House and Halloween Spooktacular event. Check out the Facebook page for more details: https://www.facebook.com/VoxTM?ref=br_tf

--Vidyangi S. Patil, (Club Secretary, Vox Toastmasters)

Photo credits:
http://www.images55.com/category/gandhi-jayanti/page/9/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/02/modi-launches-indian-clean-up-campaign