“Each day dawns with the promise of a personal miracle. Find some magic today. Even just a little bit can go a very long way.”
― Anthon St. Maarten
At last! After almost two years of on-line sessions we met in person again. How nice to see each other and how nice to welcome our guests in person.
The presiding officer Sybille welcomed our new guest Sarah, who was attracted by Meetup. We were also happy to welcome Karl-Heinz, who is a member of the Toastmaster Club in Heidelberg, Lei, from the BASF Club and Katharina who is a former member of our club. Alex, our Area director, also came to meet us in person, how nice.
The meeting started with the voting ceremony of new members. Gabi joined the club and was voted in. Welcome to the Toastmaster family, dear Gabi.
Florian was awarded the bronze medal for completing Level 1 of the path Presentation Mastery. JP received a cup for his achievements in the division contest in 2022. JP informed the participants about the various medals that can be achieved in toastmasters.
The toastmaster of the evening JP explained the structure of the meeting for our guests and introduced the team of the evening, Timer was Lei, Grammarian Alexia, Ah-counter Florian and the General Evaluator was taken over by Martin.
Florian gave us the word of the day: “dumbfounded” – something keeps you voiceless or speechless. Example: He was dumbfounded at the great news. The word was used twice in the course of the evening.
Sybille’s joke referred to magic and was well received:
A Woman was out golfing one day when she hit the ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap.
The frog said to her, “If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes.”
The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, “Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes.
Whatever you wish for, your husband will get it ten times!” The woman said, “That’s okay.”
For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The frog warned her, “You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis whom women will flock to”.
The woman replied, “That’s okay, because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will have eyes only for me.” So, KAZAM-she’s the most beautiful woman in the world!
For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world. The frog said, “That will make your husband the richest man in the world. And he will be ten times richer than you.”
The woman said, “That’s okay, because what’s mine is his and what’s his is mine.” So, KAZAM-she’s the richest woman in the world!
The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, “I’d like a mild heart attack.”
If you think the women was clever, then read on:The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife.
Moral of the story: Listen carefully
In her table topics questions, Ksenjia referred to the theme everyday magic:
1. What is magic to you? Katharina spoke about love which is magic to her.2. What is the most magical moment of your life? Florian shared with us how he felt when his son was born seven weeks ago. This was pure magic.
3. Is magic just an illusion? Alexia twisted the question and spoke about her magical moment when she was bungee jumping.
4. Children see magic because they look for it. Oliver agreed to that statement and referred to scientists who are children that never grew up.
We had one prepared speech from Poorana working at the path presentation mastery project 4 researching and presenting. His speech titled: the roadway to continuous development. He gave us the following introduction: Are you working hard but unable to see any results? Do you feel like you are stuck somewhere on your way to success? Are you frustrated with the thought that you will never get any better? Then this is for you. Poorana finds himself in the same situation in various aspects of life and in today’s speech he would like to share with us what researchers say about this situation and how to overcome this.
He shared with us the plateau effect which can be overcome by deliberate practice, getting back to basics and long-term focus.
His project was evaluated by Jeff. In the proven sandwich technique Jeff first mentioned what he liked in the speech. For improvement he advised Poorana to slow down and employ more pauses for more effect. He liked Poorana’s energy and vigor the best which made the audience feel the subject was important to the speaker.
Martin as General Evaluator rounded off the meeting and gave extensive and precise feedback which was motivating for all actors of the evening.
In the award session for the best TT speech we had a tie between Florian and Katharina. Congratulations.
“When you quit believing in yourself, you get a life without magic”, Bryant Mcgill
(thanks to Sybille for this great recap!)
Please join us for our next meeting on the 27th of September (on-line) and on the 11th of October (in-person).
Best wishes,
Jeff Mannheim Int. Toastmasters
Here is a photo of the meeting:
