Last night we had another session of our Dutch Spokesmen Club.

The meeting took place in Maarn, about 20 km east of Utrecht. We had six "members" present, along with myself and three guests. A couple of the fellows were missing because of illness or other commitments. The session started at 8 p.m. on a weekday evening, so it is a considerable effort for the fellows to meet for this training. However, it is a valuable experience. We also have some younger fellows participating like Bastiaan Arendsen (in the photo), who was the topicsmaster for the first part of the meeting. Marteen Arendsen and Eric de Moei gave sermonettes. Eric brought his family with him, and during the evaluation period after his speech he looked a little surprised – good-naturedly – when his wife and son also commented on his performance. (For the speeches we have one main evaluator, but when the main evaluation is finished, other club participants may also comment briefly on the speech.) Once again I was impressed by the overall very positive attitude displayed during the session, with everyone interested in helping each other improve speaking skills.