At busy Toastmaster Clubs like VanCore, the speaking roster often fills up quickly. You snooze, you lose. But that doesn’t mean spaces don’t sometimes open up at the last minute. It’s like getting a call back from the restaurant French Laundry – which normally takes bookings three months in advance – that there’s a table open tonight. What do you do? You grab it.

This week two speeches fell through when the scheduled presenters’ plans changed – which meant opened the door for other members.

Lorne slipped into the breach and delivered Project 2 in his Competent Communicator manual, Organize Your Speech, on a subject dear to his heart, the Printing Industry.

John took advantage of the second gap to deliver an impromptu speech on personal safety and security. He even, in the brief prelude to speaking, hatched a great title: ‘Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail.”

New member Nicky Cullen wasn’t pinch-hitting for anybody – he was the scheduled Table Topics Master – but he nonetheless brought a freshness to the role, possibly because it was his first time doing it. He provided a key word to each participant to inspire a speech.

And of course, everyone he called on stepped up.