Jpura-Mora Joint Gavel Meeting
By Hesandu Hemal
It was the physical joint meeting after having virtual meetings for 2 long years. Gavel Club of University of Sri Jayawardenapura was invited to have a Joint Gavel Meeting on the 27th of November, 2022. It was a new experience for both Japura Gavel and Gavel Mora. Conducting a joint Gavel meeting physically is much harder than organizing a virtual joint meeting because there are so many things to organize before the event. Organizing committees of both universities needed to schedule a date that was convenient to the gaveliers of both universities. Then, they booked a venue which was available on the given date. Finally, they scheduled the meeting to the 27th of November, 2022 at the ENTC-1 lecture hall.
Gaveliers from University of Jayawardenapura reached our university around 9 a.m. and the meeting was all set to start. They were warmly welcomed by the President of Gavel Club of University of Moratuwa, Gavelier Suthira Wijayawardena. First of all, we stood up to pay our respects to Mother Lanka singing the National Anthem. Then, Gavelier Suthira gave the welcome speech and handed over the meeting control to the Toastmaster of the day, Gavelier Shenali Liyanage. She introduced the theme of the meeting and gave the introduction of General Evaluator. Then, the General Evaluator introduced the Timer, Ah Counter and Grammarian of the day.
Then, it was time for the Round Robin Session. We had a role that was new to the Gaveliers of Moratuwa to conduct the Round Robin Session, called the Round Robin Master. He explained the Round Robin Topic, “The sweetest person I’ve met in my life”. Each Gavelier started to speak about their sweetest persons. Some of them spoke about their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, dogs, etc. Some Gaveliers spoke about their friends sitting next to them which made the Round Robin session really interesting and enjoyable..
Then the meeting control was given back to the General Evaluator who introduced the Table Topics Master, Gavelier Nithuran, and handed over the meeting controls to him. The Table Topics Master displayed the table topics on the screen which consisted of 5 speech topics and 3 surprise topics. Everybody expressed their willingness to take a chance at doing a Table Topic on stage. But only a few of us got the chance to speak due to time constraints. At the end of the Table Topics Session, the Table Topic Evaluators came on stage and presented their evaluation reports.
Finally, the controls of the meeting were handed to the General Evaluator and he asked for the Timer’s, Ah Counter’s and Grammarian’s reports. Gavelier Thulasithan presented his Grammarian’s report in a unique and humorous way. At the end, the General Evaluator gave his report and the meeting controls were given back to the Toastmaster of the day. She summarized what happened on the day and at last, the President of the Gavel Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura gave the Vote of Thanks and ended the meeting in style. Then it was time for the official group picture.
Since this was the first time for most of the Japura Gaveliers to visit University of Moratuwa, we decided to give them a tour around the university. First, we went to the Lagaan and shared delicious butter cake and drinks. Then we guided them to the Boat Yard and where we contemplated buoyancy and its effects.
Then, we came across the Cashew Forest (“Kajukele”) and finally came back to where we started. It was a wonderful experience to all the gaveliers from both the universities. We made many new friends and met some old friends as well. We look forward to another joint Gavel Meeting very soon.
