Yesterday evening, our meeting theme was “Magic December”. Martin S. as Toastmaster of the Evening had carefully prepared the event and also some other members contributed sweets and some Christmas decoration. Rather furtively Kate Bush had slipped into the room: The lyrics of her song “December will be magic again” was read (and partly even sung!) by Martin S. which added to the season’s mood.
We were happy to have three guests this time: Wenrong (Vivi) joined us for the very first time and did a splendid job as Timekeeper right away! The second new face was Nana, introduced to the club by Ekaterina, our third guest who had attended previously.
The Table Topics session was different from the normal procedure. Martin E. guided us through a round of “White Elephant” gifts. Every Table Topics participant had to unwrap one the BEAUTIFUL gifts that members had skillfully packed. René was delighted to find two pieces of portable energy in his parcel (toys not included). Next, Bernard found a fossile which he thought to be “approximately as old as myself”. Alexander was lucky to find a most charming pink Valentine’s candle (heart shaped…). Having got six brand new knives as a present, Günter announced that he would invite the whole crowd for dinner at his place (at some time). Jeff was the last participant and gave an award-winning impromptu speech about the sweeeet porcelain frog he got as a present.
A severe uproar was heard from one of the more senior members when Rolf presented his Thought of the Day. It said: “Don’t worry about avoiding temptation…As you grow older, it will avoid you.” 😉
With four prepared speeches, the agenda was once more fully packed with interesting performances. First, Sophia explained intrinsic motivation as the secret to high achievement (Project No. 3, Get to the Point). Then Ombretta gave us some practical advice and explaination about alcohol-caused headaches (also Project No. 3, Get to the Point). JP had prepared a speech called “Flight of Fight” in which he shared some personal experiences in the applied science of romance (Project Storytelling No. 2, Let’s get Personal). JP, I honestly think you can grow rich by selling the video of this performance! Winning the award for the best Prepared Speech was a good start!
A special moment had come, when Christian had finished his speech about the moment when “Gandhi entered my shower”. With this truely inspirational speech which included VERY cold showers (Project No. 10) Christian crossed the finish line on his way to “Competent Communicator”. The group paid credit to him by standing ovations, while the formal presentation of his CC-Award is still to come.
In the third part of the meeting, Jeff led the evaluations, given by Günter, René, Rolf and Alexander. All speakers received a lot of praise and a couple of valuable suggestions for improvement. Rolf was voted Best Evaluator for his feedback for Christians speech.
During club business, René thanked the officers team for their dedication and successful work for the club. Each of them was awarded a book on how to forge messages and ideas that stick (Made to Stick – Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck). Jazzmin: I need your postal address in South Africa, so you can also get your well-earned copy!
Quiz for those who couldn’t attend: Jeff’s word of the day is hidden somewhere in this meeting report. The first to find it get’s a glass of Mario’s “Hauswein” for free after our next meeting on January 8th! 🙂
Until then: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! 🙂