We were happy to welcome Sharon, Brian, Johannes, Pio, Turin and Bianca at our meeting on Valentine’s Day – a great occasion to think share thoughts and ideas about our topic love.
Paulo Coelho: “Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly.”
Sybille our TM of the evening introduced the theme with background information on St. Valentine. There are various stories. One dates back to the year 270 CE when Roman emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men to get better soldiers. But bishop Valentine continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret (and was beheaded for his efforts).
In the warm-up phase Sybille gave the word of the day: adulate which means admire. Example sentences: Most critics adulated Leigh’s work. Or: Honors were showered at him and he was adulated everywhere he went. The word was used four times in the course of the evening.
She also gave the joke:
A wife asks her husband: “How would you describe me?” Her husband replies: “A B C D E F G H I J K.”The wife asked confused: “What does that mean?Husband replied: “Adorable, beautiful, cute, elegant, fashionable, gorgeous and hot”.Wife reacted: “Wow, thank you. And what about IJK?”“I am just kidding.”
Gabi explained the rules of the table topics session and informed about the timings. Our guest Bianca spontaneously took over the timer role and did a really good job.
Table topics questions:
1. If you were to change something about Valentine’s day, what would it be?
Alexya talked about the commercial side of Valentine’s day, which she does not like.
2. Would you rather kiss 100 frogs to find out your dream partner or forget the frogs and run the risk of not finding the right partner?
Pio dealt very well with this difficult question and explained his trust in God to find the right person,
3. What is the most romantic thing you have ever done?
Johannes organized a big event for over 100 people to impress the love of his life.
4. If you were to design a dating site what would it be like?
Oliver explained technical issue of this site focusing on the ability to pres-elect.
Quote by Daila Lama:
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”
The second part of the meeting consisted of two prepared speeches. Gabi worked as an outdoor guide in the past. In her speech with the title “well planned and organized is half the summit” she tells the audience about her personal experience as an outdoor guide and points out the most important criteria to plan a hiking trip so that everybody feels well at the end of the day.
Her speech was evaluated by Poorana. He liked the power of her voice the comfort she has when speaking. He advised her to work on a clearer structure to get a better impact of her speech.
Jeff shared with the audience his experience running Bonding Groups in his center in the German countryside. After describing the elements of their setting, he talked about the special format for 3,4, and 5 residential bonding workshops. The title of his speech was “Have you ever had a dream?”
Oliver evaluated his speech. As this was a trial run for the a professional presentation that Jeff will be giving soon. Oliver gave some tips about the content and the structure of the speech.
As General Evaluator Jeff praised the participation of the guests and especially the timer who jumped in spontaneously. In the award session the best Table Topic award went to Alexya. Best Evaluator was Oliver. The best Speaker of the evening was Gabi.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “True love begins when nothing is looked for in return.”
(many thanks to Sybille for this recap!)
Join us on the 28th of February for our next in-person meeting.
Best Toastmaster wishes,
Jeff