Our President Poorana opened the meeting with a warm welcome to all, and especially to our two guests: Jon, who was with us for the first time, and Karl, visiting for the third time (a potential future member, maybe?). He also reported from the Area Contest, where JP won first place in the German Evaluation Contest; and Jeff won first place in the German and English Table Topics and second place in the English Evaluation Contest.
Poorana then gladly welcomed Martin Ernst to the club as our “newest” member. Many of us know and appreciate Martin, who was a member of our club long ago and is known for his kind heart and clear mind. It is really great to have you back, Martin!
As our Toastmaster of the Evening, Jeff made a short reference to the war in Ukraine, mentioning that the bravery being shown by the Ukrainian people was an impulse to have courage as our theme tonight. Toastmasters need courage to speak up in all kinds of environments and situations. This quote by Brené Brown states this well: “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”
The Word of the Evening was given by Harriet. Tenacious: Extremely persistent in adhering to or doing something; stubborn or relentless: “tenacious defenders of their harsh and pitiless land” (Dee Brown). b. Characterized by extreme persistence; relentless or enduring: tenacious detective work; tenacious superstitions. Quite fitting for the theme of the evening.
Kala led the Table Topics session with four questions involving courage:
- Uli talked about “doing the right thing, standing up for one’s values”.
- Martin was asked: “how do you show courage in your everyday life”.
- Craig talked about the question: “is public speaking a crazy (i.e. stressful) thing?”
- And Florian was asked: “When were you courageous in your life?”
All speakers bravely and smoothly told of their experiences. Uli and Craig were voted both as best TTs.
We had two prepared speeches.
- Harriet gave her Icebreaker with the title: Movement: the key to awakening a mind. She shared her experience of getting more lively again after some stagnation during the pandemic by trying out some really new things.
- Karl did a level three project: Presentation Mastery #3-11 – Focus on the Positive – 2, talking about attitudes of optimism, pessimism and realism. He also shared three things for which he is especially grateful.
Harriet was voted best speaker of the evening.
JP led us through the evaluations as our General Evaluator. Both speakers got insightful and valuable evaluations: Martin for Harriet’s speech, and Poorana for Karl’s. Poorana was voted best evaluator.
JP underlined the high quality of the meeting, and especially that all roles were filled before the meeting. With their feedback at the end, our two guests confirmed their impression of an interesting and supportive meeting.
One last quote, this one from a famous cowboy: Courage is being scared to death … and saddling up anyway.” —John Wayne
———————————————————————————————
We hope to see you all at our next meeting, which is Tuesday, the 22d of March. Until then, best wishes, Jeff
Mannheim Int. Toastmasters
Here a photo of the meeting:
