Dear friends,
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver”, with this quote from Mahatma Gandhi the theme of the meeting was set. In Poorana’s absence, Oliver took over the role as presiding officer and welcomed the guests Anna-Lena and Prince who had dialed in again. Oliver’s first task was to vote in Eloisa, our new member. She was asked a couple of questions and the team voted her in. Welcome on board, Eloisa! Since this was the last meeting of the current toastmaster year the new officer’s team was also voted in: Most of the officers are going to stay in their functions: Poorana will continue as presiding officer, JP will be the treasurer, Oliver stays VP Education, Martin VP Membership, Sybille continues as secretary. Jeff takes on the role as VP Public Relations together with Craig and Amrith assumes the role of Sergent at Arms. Thanks to all officers for keeping the club running with their special commitment.
Jeff, as Toastmaster of the evening, very briefly explained the structure of the evening and welcomed Craig as Grammarian, who also presented the word of the day, well-being. Erjon took up the role as timer again and JP functioned as General Evaluator.
The word of the day “well-being” seemed simple, but was presented in its manifold facets and frequently used in the course of the evening. Amrith shared with us a joke that really happened in his working life: His boss asked him: You are from a different cultural background. Could you tell me a joke from your home? Amrith answered: I am very busy at the moment, can I send it later, I have no time now. The boss’s answer was: That’s hilarious. Send me another one please.
The table topics questions were related to health and were well chosen by Oliver:
1. All things are poisonous. Only the dose makes if it harms or heals. Eloisa shared her view on this question.
2. What does health mean to you? For Amrith good social contact, especially talking to his family contributes to his health.
3. Mark Twain cynically says that to stay healthy is to do things you are uncomfortable with. Craig shared with us the notion to enjoy the food we eat, even if it is not so healthy. We should try to balance what we eat but always enjoy the food.
4. Your health is an investment not an expense. Prince pointed out that the best investment is investing in happiness.
5. Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors. What do you do to cheer yourself up. Anna-Lena agrees that laughing and being in a good mood improves well-being giving some examples.
We had one prepared speech this evening. Fangfang working with innovations led a research tying to find out the top innovation killers. “Why does innovation die out in corporations?”. She presented her brilliant findings with great slides and found that ineffective cross-functional communication and command-control structures are the main killers.
Her speech was evaluated by Sybille.
As a bridge to the evaluations part of the meeting, our Toastmaster of the Evening (Jeff) left us with the following information: “Birthdays are good for your health. Studies have shown that people with more birthdays live longer.” In the evaluation session the Grammarian Craig gave a very entertaining and memorable report on the usage of the English language of this evening. The General Evaluator gave feedback to all functions and table topic speaker and praised the efficient time management of the evening.
The award session was short, since there was only one speech and one evaluation. The best Table Topic speaker of the evening was Craig – again a hilarious and entertaining speech. We were all proud to hear from Oliver that our club has received an award as “Select Distinguished Club” this Toastmaster year, in spite of the difficulties caused by having to meet online.
(A big thanks to Sybille for this great recap!)
Our next meeting is in three weeks, on the 13th of July, we would love to have you join us!Best wishes to you all, Jeff
Here is a snapshot of the evening: