Congratulations to Ben, he has won his second Toastmasters of the day award and he was not even giving a speech! What was winning, was not just that he filled roles that he had not undertaken before but it is also for his aplomb manner of execution and ability to deal with the unexpected.
Our meeting’s theme was “Walls”. In our theme’s terminology, Ben was firstly there to fill in the missing “brick” labelled Table Topics Evaluator. He agreed to this with only a few hours notice, which is not long when it’s your first shot at the role. Then when another “brick” started to wobble – because of emergency calls – Ben pulled up his chair and helped hold the wall in place. Eventually, the timer “brick” of our meetings wall had to slip out leaving two meeting “bricks” in Ben’s hands.
Ben’s ability to deal with the unexpected was further tested when Chris the chair (perhaps a little flustered with the timers departure) invited Ben up to what should have been the Table Topics Evaluation, but instead called for the Timer’s report! Ben who was already half way up calmly went back to the timers table to pick up the timings sheet and returned to give both reports superbly.
And that is why Ben most certainly deserved the award today, even if it perhaps felt like being stuck halfway up a climbing wall with now way up or down.
Chris’s daughter Theresa aged 8, at Hang Dog climbing wall Lower Hutt.