“Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The theme of the evening focused on the thought: with patience we can achieve more in life.
Again we had the pleasure to welcome guests. For the first time Marcel and Eloisa experienced a toastmaster evening. Anna-Lena and Marion have already participated several times. Marion even took over the role as Ah-counter for the evening. It was a great pleasure for us to welcome Andrea Klee, our Division F Director, in our club. She gave the word of the evening and functioned as grammarian for us.
We are delighted to welcome a new member, Juan Kong, who was unanimously was voted in. Congratulations Juan and welcome in our club!
The word of the day ingenious was well used in the course of the evening. Jeff gave a joke which was in line with the theme:
A client comes to his psychiatrist and asked: What can I do, my wife is so impatient.
The doctor answered: Patience is a skill you can learn.
The client said: But how can I do it quicker?
“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy”. With this thought from Shiraz, Jeff reminded us to be patient when we learn new things. It takes time but in the end we will get there. As Toastmaster of the evening he explained the structure of the evening and introduced the assisting roles. The function General Evaluator was taken over by JP, the Timer was Poorana.
The guests participated actively in the table topic session. Oliver presented four questions aligned to the theme of the evening and again he supported them with visual aids:
1. “Which of the two sayings – The early bird catches the worm / or: good things need to wait – is more relevant to you?” Erjon explained his attitude to both sayings.
2. “Some people tend to stick to plan A, others freely change plans because neither of them will come right. What is your view on planning?”. Juan pointed out that good planning is the basis for a successful conclusion of issues. She would feel uneasy without a plan.
3. “How can you teach patience to children when you are stuck in a traffic jam for quite a while”. Marion gave tips she has experience with her children in situations like that.
4. “Patience while you are waiting in a line at the supermarket check out”. Marcel share with us openly how he would react when he changes lines to be faster.
With further quotations Jeff led on to the second part of the evening, the prepared speeches after the break:
“Adopt the pace of nature – her secret is patience”, by Emersson.
“Trees that grow slowly bear the best fruit”, by Molière.
We had two prepared speeches. Fangfang is working on the path visionary communication and she delivered the second speech with the title “the moon is crooked”. She told us about the joy her two and a half year old son expressed when he saw the crooked moon. She transferred this incident to the way we learn and develop. We should not lose the ability to observe and be inspired especially in our toastmaster journey. Her speech was evaluated by Martin.
Sybille delivered her third speech of the path presentation mastery. She shared a sad story with the team she had experienced and which has kept her busy all the year. It showed her what really counts in life. Her speech was evaluated by Oliver.
General Evaluator JP gave valuable and motivating feedback to everyone participating in the evening, which is always extremely helpful.
As Presiding Officer, Poorana concluded the evening asking for feedback from the guests. The awards were extended to Juan for the best table topic speech, Martin for the best evaluator and Sybille for the best speech of the evening.
Andrea Klee gave some final comments to the club. She praised the success achieved in the club and enjoyed the evening very much.
You will find a snapshot of the evening below.
(thanks to Sybille for this fine recap).