But just my luck, the venue was occupied for a management meeting and the Toastmasters meeting had to be pushed back a little. No worries, I got to chat with a few members while waiting.
Shown above are the attendees of the meeting (left-right): Standing: Jin, Gabriel, Alfred, Lydie, Winston, Rendum, Tereso, Mario, Jaynel, and Chris. Seated: Edwin, me, Jeffrey and Hari.
Shutting Off the Projector
In the first meeting I attended, the club had the projector switched on the whole time. It created a nice cool blue background for the room.
In today's meeting though, the projector light was sometimes hitting the speakers' faces like Jin Morales' (below, left). It appeared she was wearing a headband but she wasn't. That's part of the Toastmasters logo projected light hitting her forehead. Cool effect!
The multimedia projector had no practical use for this meeting so I suggested just turning it off if no one was delivering a presentation.
Others shown below are Edwin Villamor, as Toastmaster of the Evening and Jaynel Lasco, as the Ah-Counter. This, after the projector was turned off.
Seating Layout Change
When I came in today, I saw that the managers' meeting had the tables arranged "conference-room" style with the tables at the center and seats around it. So I suggested that we in the Toastmasters club just adopt the same layout so that we wouldn't have to rearrange tables and chairs.
In the first meeting I had with Omega club, the tables and chairs were arranged "classroom" style. The trouble with this layout is that sometimes those at the back are not too visible to the speaker and vice-versa.
Here's Hari delivering his Ice Breaker speech with the new seating layout.
I think this layout works well for Omega. We had this layout in my club's old venue at MMCP. This was where a few visitors from IPI visited last year.
Another workable layout is the 'U-Pattern" where tables are arranged in a "U" layout. In the "U" layout, the speaker stands at the open space (top of the "U") like in my club's new venue at Gather.
But in the end, it's up to the club to decide on the layout that suits them best.
Lectern Position Change
Another change I suggested is to put the lectern on a regular table rather than on a stand that they used in my first meeting with them. A normal regular table, with the lectern on top of it, would be comfortable for most individuals with average height.
In the above photos, the portable lectern rests on a regular table. In the old setup, we had the lectern on a stand and was a bit high for most people.
After a long yet enjoyable learning experience, members were all smiles when dinner was served!
That was so very well-deserved, guys. Bon apetit!
It was only Ramil (still in meetings, I heard) who didn't make it as prepared speaker tonight. Here's a scanned copy of today's meeting program.
And that's... a wrap!
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