I am amazed by the talent, leadership, depth, and flexibility of the membership. We had an opening in the roster for a speaker develop a few days before the meeting because Jeanne Boorn, who is an excellent speaker, had an educational commitment crop up unexpectedly.
Heather Zeitzwolfe, the toastmaster, sent the roster with a plea for a new first speaker. After a couple of hours of internal debate, I signed up. That meant giving up the evaluator role, which set in motion the possibility that Lydia Hoover, as reserve, might be called upon to step into that evaluator slot if no substitute evaluator could be found. That would have been a win-win situation because Lydia is an experienced toastmaster highly skilled at all the roles. That was Wednesday.
All was well until midday Thursday when both Heather and Marcia Spencer, who was scheduled as speaker 2, both emailed to say that they had family medical emergencies and would probably not be able to attend the meeting. The scheduled absences of three of our more experienced toastmasters (Christine Seed, Jim Robison, and Karen Semprevivo) narrowed the available talent pool considerably and limited the options to fill the roster.
I called Mary Reinard, our VP of Education, about 2 and left a message for her to call me. Mary was spending the afternoon with her grandson and returned my call about 5:35. Since she was scheduled to be table topics master, we discussed the possibility of eliminating both speeches and going to extended table topics. We decided that I would remain as first speaker, she would become toastmaster, print the agenda for the meeting, and after arriving for our 6:30 meeting somehow find someone to do a hot speech and a person to evaluate that speaker.
When I arrived at 6:05, Lydia had completely re-arranged the room by herself. As she began putting out the podium and timing equipment, she filled me in on the new configuration that the room had been left in and would have to be restored to. Mary arrived at 6:10 with the newly configured agendas.
A few minutes after that Alia Paloma came in. Mary asked if she could do a hot speech. Alia said she had one left and agreed. Now Mary had one role to fill. Several guests had already arrived and were watching the fill-the-roles drama. A few minutes before the meeting started at 6:30 Shane Jackson came in and sat down at the one empty seat around the table. Mary asked Shane if he would evaluate Alia. He agreed and the roster was full. All of the fires had finally been put out.
The new lineup was great. All of the regularly scheduled people performed their roles well. Mary lead the meeting smoothly as fill-in toastmaster and pointed out how Lydia as reserve had filled that role well by being ready to step in. Alia gave an entertaining hot speech about her mother. Shane focused on Alia's creative use of an ice breaker during his hot seat evaluation.
Congratulations to everyone on presenting a seamless meeting showcasing our considerable talents to our appreciative guests.
-Russell Pike, Club President
