246th Meeting
By Samadhi Poornima Kumarasinghe
“Don’t make decisions when you are angry, don’t make promises when you are happy”
“Love is a choice and an action”
“Impossible to see the future is”
246th meeting of the Gavel Club commenced with those plus more topic sentences written in black ink on the main board. As usual, the president opened the meeting which was then followed by the national anthem led by Chamanthi Jayaweera. The initial announcements of the president involved facts about organizing a gavel conference and Speech Olympiad. It was also the official statement avowal of the two project chairs for speech Olympiad this year, Merl Chandana and Timal Mohan.
“Capricious” was the word of the day, its meaning being “Given to sudden and uncountable changes of mood or behavior.
There were new faces amongst the usual members of the family and it was one of the quite appealing facts about this meeting. They seemed enthusiastic both in round robin session as well as in Table topics session. Round robin session got the gathering to reveal their pattern of study and also their suggestions on how a perfect study hour should be. “Best way is not to study” was a controversial concept that emerged to draw the attention of the crew during the round robin session.
It is not unusual for a gavel meeting to have a single topic sentence be interpreted in several aspects and also these aspects to be comparing, complementary or even conflicting. “Life is too short to…” was that one topic which turned out to be the most popular out of the eleven topics. “Life is too short to seek a soulmate”, “life is too short to survive” and life is too short to try and make it shorter” were some of the ways that topic was expressed out. A meeting at Gavel is often informative. It being a place where various concepts are brought out and elaborated on, a meeting hardly goes by without the crowd learning something new. “Nash equilibrium” was that new concept which was introduced during the Table Topics session
“Smile at the first person you see and it simply will make your day”
“Yes, your tone matters!”
“If you want to do something correct, you have to start well, continue well as well as end well”
All in all, the session went smooth with knowledge, humor and life lessons. At gavel we practice speaking by listening to people speak as well as listening to people speak about other people’s speeches. “Try to make the beginning and the end more meaningful so that the audience will be attentive”, “make the speech flow out of your heart and the audience will feel it” were some of the highlights of the evaluation of the table topics speeches. The meeting was a success. How far it was successful is usually a measure taken with the general evaluators report. With the exception of meeting starting 8 minutes late and the advice of no mobiles during speeches and no moving around or leaving during speeches, the general evaluator declared the meeting to be a success.
Role-players
Timer – Rochelle Silva
Ah counter- Namal Anuradha
Grammarian – Kaushalya Batawala
Toastmaster – Kasun Rosa
Table topics master – Kithmini Senevirathna
Table topics evaluators – Chamanthi Jayaweera, Sirimewan Jayasundera
General Evaluator – Timal Mohan
