As the presiding officer, Oliver greeted all of us, and especially our new guest Alexya. Alexya is from India, but is now living in Mannheim and working on her doctorate. She is an experienced Toastmaster and was immediately willing to jump in as Evaluator for Kala’s speech project. I think that a part of the excitement of a Toastmaster meeting is that you never know when you will be called on to serve and hopefully experience the joy of giving first hand. Thanks to Alexya for helping out!
Oliver was also our Toastmaster of the Evening, and he led us smoothly through the agenda, bridging agenda points with lovely quotes on the evenings theme. As everyone attending was an experienced Toastmaster, Oliver started directly into the program.
Florian told a really funny story about Sherlock Holmes and his side kick Watson and their missing tent.
I brought in a Thought of the Evening with a true story of a friend of mine who, despite her own chronic pain, experiences meaning through serving others, adding the following quote:
Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
JP led the Table Topics session, giving the following questions, all relating to the theme of the evening:
- Oliver was asked to share his wisdom about the positives in giving.
- Alexya was asked to talk about which gift that she has received gave her the greatest joy.
- Kala was asked about what she would wish for if given three wishes.
- And I was asked about what I would definitely take with me if I was stranded on an island.
I think that we all found it fun and uplifting to be able to talk about such positive experiences.
We had two prepared speeches tonight. Kala finished Level 1 of the Presentation Mastery Path with a well delivered speech on how important the soil is for our world. Her evaluator was Alexya, who pointed out how effectively Kala used her background picture and even her tee-shirt with the title of her speech printed on it: Save Soil. Congratulations Kala on finishing Level 1 with this passionate call to action!
The second speaker was Craig, who did Project 1 of the 5th Level, also in the Presentation Mastery Path. This was a longer speech (18 to 22 min.). I was Craig’s evaluator and I had high praise for Craig’s professional stage presence and use of voice, gestures and dramatic story-telling to keep the audience glued to their screens.
JP was also our General Evaluator. He commented on how well everyone did their jobs, some of them on short notice, to help us have a flowing and exciting evening. He specially thanked Alexya again for spontaneously agreeing to be an evaluator tonight; and Florian, who took on three roles tonight (Joke, Ah-counter and Timer!) Great work Florian.
Our next meeting will be in three weeks, on June 14th. Till then, best Toastmaster greetings from me,
Jeff
——————————————and here is a picture of the group:
