Club President Christian presented the following awards
Humorous Speech Contest
Jeff Gordon – 1st
Jazzmin – 2nd
Table Topics Contest
Jeff Gordon – 1st
Jan-Philipp Esch – 2nd
Bikash Bansal – 3rd
Winners of Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest
Finishing the Toastmasters’ year 2013|2014
President Martin Sturm welcomes Alexander Baykushev (left) as a new member
On the last meeting in June 2014 we could welcome a new member at Mannheim International Toastmasters Club. Welcome Alexander Baykushev and all the best on your way with Toastmasters! Finishing the evening outgoing President Martin Sturm handed over to his successor Christian Rusch and the new officers. On behalf of all club members: thank you very much Martin and the officers team for leading the club successfully through the last 12 months. Like in 2012|2013 the club will be “President’s Distinguished” this year again.
- Introduction of the new President Christian Rusch (2nd right)
Open up for summer action but be aware of grandsons with pillows [meeting report of 2014-05-27]
When opening the meeting on May 27th President Martin S got us into the perfect mood. He asked the really relevant question to find out this season’s favourite ice cream flavour. Toastmaster of the evening Christian managed perfectly to keep track of the meeting. After introducing all the supporting roles he started the warm up session.
“Torrid” was suggested by Jeff as Word of the Day; the expression means exposed to great heat and also hot in temper or passion. Women sometimes tend to comment on the driving style of their husbands intensively. What would happen if a man did the same with the cooking of his wife? This was lively described in Jazzmin’s joke. Inspiration for summer activities were given by Martin — drinking lemonades, fishing or counting stars. He quoted a little poem as thought of the day.
To describe the best places for vacation was the challenge for the Table Topics. Chairing this part of the agenda Martin S had prepared photos of holiday destinations. Living on the beach, swimming in the sea and watching fish — for Katharina the Caribbean is the place to be. Heidi felt comfortable spending some time in Palma de Mallorca, though belonging to Spain almost everyone would understand German too. She was almost succesful to convince the Table Topics Master to pay for the trip. Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch was the reason why Guenther wanted to go to Norway; the lifeless bird is said to come from there and the Scandinavian country is ideal for some reflection in the nature.
Although she had already visited Asia Judith wished to go again. Keen on river rafting and nightlife she talked about a perfect time in Nepal. Jeff vividly described how the Baltic Sea and the horizon on the island of Ruegen would inspire him because “If you travel with an open heart you’ll never come back as the same person”. Heading to the Maldive Islands Jazzmin wasn’t sure if spending 4 weeks on her own would be fun. So she invited every Toastmaster to join in. Martin E’s plan was a holiday at home. He recommended a staycation and wondered why his grandma used to go to the mountain’s with her three sisters every year in a small VW Beetle.
After the break JP continued in the session of prepared speeches. He assumed the role of a grandson with serious money problems. Though he hadn’t seen his grandmother for a long time he suddenly became very worried when the elderly lady made acquaintence with “Rosie” — a man who was 25 years younger than herself. The entertaining presentation finished dramatically when grandma drew her last breath because of a pill犀利士
ow pressed on her face.
Alexander powerfully persuaded the audience not to dedicat oneself just to big projects in life. He stressed out that taking care of everyday issues — simple things like health or eating and drinking — is important too. He included a personal experience about his recent relocation from Mannheim to Oxford.
In the 3rd speech Sophia demonstrated how to get a message across without sayinga word. Non-verbal communication is even more important than verbal communication, what an interesting topic for every Toastmaster! Supported by excellently chosen photos she figured out main aspects of confident body language: take up space, remove barriers and maintain eye contact. She will continue talking about the subject in another presentation.
Being the General Evaluator Guenther introduced the feedback speeches by Katharina, Jazzmin and Martin. As an experienced Toastmasters he furthermore had carefully observed the meeting. So he was able to make some fundamental suggestions to improve the meeting’s procedure and atmosphere.
Finally it was President Martin S’s duty to hand over the awards for the best speeches to Katharina (evaluation), Jeff (speaking of the cuff) and Sophia (prepared speech). Before the crowd finished the meeting he announced upcoming Toastmaster’s activities like the meeting of the Rhetorikclub Mannheim, BASF Toastmasters and the conference of the new District 95 in Frankfurt.
pictures:
Rainer-Sturm / pixelio.de
Lupo / pixelio.de
Konstantin Gastmann / pixelio
Recap: “resurrection and renewal” Meeting on Apr.22 2014
The last meeting for our outgoing VPE Alexander brought lots of surprises and improvisation. Especially since we were on a “special agenda” with a total of no less than six table-topic speeches. Alexander himself led through the evening with a theme of “resurrection and renewal” fitting the Easter Holidays, which he also incorporated into the table topics. The first prepared speech was given by Bikash. As his Icebreaker speech, he not only explained how his becoming an engineer was preordained from birth so strongly that he succeeded in becoming one even though he studied at the best place for doing everything BUT study, but went on to win best prepared speech of the evening – way to go! As the first table topic speech, Oliver speculated on what the traditional color of Easter eggs was and how they came to be so colorful nowadays. Alexander then revealed that they originally were red as a reminder of the blood of Christ.
Wenrong explained some key differences between German and Chinese culture in the second prepared speech. In the following table topics, our guest Farzana sought for an explanation of the origin of the Easter Bunny and added some parallels from her own culture.
The last prepared speech by Christian was from an advanced manual. Christian presented us a laudation for a colleague in which he used the metaphor of fire to illustrate warmth, energy and enlightenment that his colleague had shown. In the following table topics, Pieter was asked what the story of the resurrection meant to him. He suggested that even though we may sometimes reach points where we cannot know what’s ahead of us or see no way to go on, we should never give up.
Evaluations were introduced by Jazzmin, who was general evaluator for the evening. Yinqi praised Bikash’s speech and, referencing a quote from it, suggested that he had the abilities to “aim high” as a speaker. In the ensuing table topics speech, our guest Bea was asked by Alexander to explain some pastry he brought and what its connection to the occasion is. He later revealed it is called “kozunak”, a Bulgarian speciality for the Easter Holidays.
Pieter evaluated Wenrong’s speech, relating it to his own meeting Chinese people. Jazzmin had just handed the floor back to Alexander for the next table topics speech when he called her back for the speech to tell us about her time in Cape Town.
The last evaluation was given by JP, who praised Christian’s use of a metaphorical framework and opening and closing the speech with famous quotes. He, too, had barely returned to his seat when he had to come back and, as the last table topics speech of the evening, had to tell us about the meaning of the light of resurrection. It was all worth it, though, given that he was awarded both best evaluation AND best table topics speech of the evening.
Finally, our president Martin Sturm presented a farewell gift to Alexander, who in turn distributed the kozunak under those attending.
All in all, it was a very rejuvenating meeting. For the club, with an Icebreaker winning best prepared speech, but especially so for Alexander, who has lots of changes coming to his life in the coming days. We wish him all the best and good luck in Oxford!
Oliver Hauss
Freshly made! Group photos 2013!
