“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” Mark Twain.
How much do we all miss traveling with all the lockdowns we are facing. The theme of the evening “memorable journeys” helped us talk about and share memorable travels. In a round robin the participants happily told stories and anecdotes about their travel experiences.
Again we had the pleasure to welcome guests. Arun from the Aachen club and a good friend to Amrith participated the first time. For Juan from Mannheim and Anna-Lena from Freiburg this was the first toastmaster meeting. Marion came for the second time. Piyali our division F director participated as observer and conducted her second club visit.
The word of the day was “embolden”, which is a synonym of encourage, was presented by Martin and used once by Amrith.
Sybille as Toastmaster of the evening explained the structure of the evening and explained the assisting roles. The function General Evaluator was taken over by Poorana, the Timer was Jan-Philipp, the roles Grammarian and Ah-Counter were filled by Martin and Amrith.
The guests participated very well in the table topic session. Sybille presented four questions which aligned to the theme of the evening:
1. “Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of the passport.” What does this quote mean to you? Jeff delivered a speech.
2. “Louis Armstrong sang: … And I think to myself, what a wonderful world”. Do you agree with Louis and why? Marion shared with us a travel experience.
3. “Take only memories, leave only footprints.” Chief Seattle. What do you suggest to make traveling more sustainable? Anna-Lena gave us many ideas how travel can be more environmentally friendly.
4. “Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” Roy Goodman. Juan pointed out that your goal in life is important but most important is the process to reach it.
We had two prepared speeches. Both were Icebreakers. “Be the difference” was the title of Fangfang’s speech. She shared with us her life-story on being the difference. Fang fang was evaluated by Jeff. Amrith spoke very openly about a crucial turning point in his life which has helped him to mold himself and to be the person he is today. The title of his speech was: “Open your mind”. Jan-Philipp evaluated Amrith’s speech.Amrith was voted as the best speaker of the evening. Jan-Philip was awarded the best evaluator of the evening.The award for the best Table Topic speaker went to Jeff.
General Evaluator Poorana gave valuable feedback to everyone participating in the evening which is always extremely helpful.
As Presiding Officer, Poorana informed about the Division F contest on Saturday in which the winners of the area contest, Jeff, Poorana and Sriram will participate . We keep our fingers crossed!!
Our next meeting is on the 13th of April. Mannheim Toastmasters would love to welcome you at the meeting.
Here is a snapshot of the meeting.