Our President Poorana opened the meeting by greeting everyone, and especially the many guests. Experienced Toastmasters Mike, an American now working in Bulgaria, and Joy, from England, both returned as guests. Joy delivered a wonderful speech, and Mike gave useful feedback as Evaluator for JPs speech. Frequent visitor and Toastmaster friend Chris from the Heidelberg Rhetoric Club served as General Evaluator. Thanks to you all for your valuable support!
We also welcomed Armin back, and were delighted to greet three guests for their first experience with Toastmasters: Petra, Kathy and Moritz. With 18 participants in all, there was a good energy and liveliness to the meeting that really was a reason to feel HOPE.
As Toastmaster of the meeting, Oliver led us smoothly through the evening, enriching the theme with interesting and sometimes profound quotes:
· Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu
· In joined hands there is still some token of hope, in the clenched fist none. Victor Hugo
And especially poignant, these words from Amanda Gorman’s Poem “The Hill We Climb”:
· For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
The Word of the day was Aspiration (noun)
- · a strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition:
- · a goal or objective that is strongly desired:
Ulrike did the Joke for the evening: Why can Peter Pan fly? Because he lives in Neverland, which got some wry smiles from the participants.
Kala did a fine job of leading Table Topics, explaining the benefits of practicing off the cuff speaking for everyday life.
- · Florian talked about the benefits of hope.
- · Petra about what makes you feel hopeful right now.
- · Mike about why hope is important in his life.
- · And Karl about what the power of hope is.
Karl was voted as the Best TTs Speaker. The Best Evaluator Award went to me for my evaluation of Joy’s Speech, and Best Speech of the Evening was awarded to Joy.
Poorana closed the meeting with asking our guests for feedback on how they experienced the meeting. Here were some of the comments: “great to have such a large crowd”; “enjoyed the theme and the speeches”; “high quality content, I will be coming back!”; “I found the evaluations supportive and helpful”.
That’s all for now. Hope to see you all at the next meeting on th犀利士 e 8th of February.
Jeff Gordon, Mannheim Int. Toastmasters
Here is a photo from the meeting: