Category: Meeting Report

As one of our members wrote in our WhatsApp group, this meeting was really fun and funny, and actually quite delectable (word of the day meaning:  something that is highly pleasing or delicious especially).

We had four charming guests. Charly and Alexander, who were here for the 1st time; and Valentine and Nadja, who both have visited before. Nadja announcement that she wants to join the club was greeted with applause.

I had the pleasure of being Toastmaster of the day, and I chose some quotes from famous people about their favorite foods.  For instance:

“A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.” – Barbara Johnson

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Caroline gave us the word of the day, delectable, which was used quite often.

Oliver told the joke, fitting to the theme: “what is fake pasta?” Its an impasta. 

Pio gave us a moving thought of the day from his own experience eating a good meal and noticing that something was missing: he was alone and missed having company.

Nadine led us skillfully through Table Topics. She laid out about 20 pieces of paper, each with a food written on it. The TTs participants would then come to the stage and take one, and spontaneously talk about the food for the allotted 1 to 2 minutes:

• Caroline was to talk about cheese burger.  She spoke of loving burgers with blue-cheese, which she knows is quite unusual, especially since they don’t serve cheese at all in Kenya, where she comes from.
• Our guest Valentine had lasagna on his paper: he talked with great passion about a horrible lasagna he saw in a YouTube video, where some guys made a giant lasagna our of about 50 Big Mack hamburgers.  He description was so vivid that we were rolling in the aisles picturing this monster burger-lasagna.
• Our guest Alexander spoke about sushi, and his learning to enjoy vegan sushi after he started being a vegan.
• Pio talked about croissants: he told a story of a memorable vacation to France with his sisters, and fine, fresh baguette and  croissants that they were served every morning.
• Our guest Charly had pizza Hawaii on his paper, but chose to talk about hamburgers, which reminded him of his first day in Germany and the kind person (his new roommate at collage) who was so helpful even though Charly was a stranger to him.

Before the 10 minute break, I gave another quote from another famous person, Woody Allen:

“I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead – not sick, not wounded – dead.”

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We had two prepared speakers, both working on the Path Presentation Mastery #1-4 – Evaluation and Feedback – 1

The title of Shruthi’s speech was Savoring Comfort: A Taste of Joy, a Moment of Healing. The speech, fitting to the meeting theme,  told of her first arriving in Germany and feeling isolated and lonely. She spoke of the comfort of being offered food that she knew from her family in India, and of the joy she experienced when she made a circle of student friends who especially enjoyed eating together. Her Evaluator Oliver underlined the strength of her being vulnerable in her story, which brought the audience into her message. For improvement he suggested that she use stronger gestures and vocal variety to bring more drama to her story.

Our second speaker was Gabi, and the title of her speech was Gold mining – a dream to become rich. Gabi told of her time in New Zealand as a tourist guide in an area where gold could still be found in a river. She (and we) learned lots about how gold seekers mine the river banks. Her Evaluator Alexya  praised Gabi’s conversational style, humor and effective use of props. She suggest that Gabi show dialogue through better use of her position on the stage.

Our General Evaluator Poorana led us through the evaluations, giving everyone with a role feedback.

In my eyes, it was a delectable meeting, and the feedback from our guest confirmed this.

“A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” – Thomas Keller

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Join us for our next meeting on the 11th of July (on-line meeting).

Best Toastmaster greetings,

Jeff, Mannheim Int. Toastmasters

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Here is a photo of the  meeting: (Alexya and Charly had to  leave earlier.)

“Music is the soul what words are to the mind”.

We were happy to welcome four guests at our online meeting: Ming Wang, Tugce Özkepir, Ipsita Seth and Nadja, who has joined several times and even took over roles this evening.
Nadine, our Toastmaster of the Evening, firstly referred to the theme, explained the structure of the evening and introduced her team. Nadja took over the role as grammarian, Caroline did the Ah-Counter and Gabi was the timer. The general evaluation was done by Sybille.

Nadine had many hats on this evening. She presented the word of the day: eclectic, meaning varied and diversed. This word was used four times in the evening.
Pio’s joke was in line with the theme. It was short and crisp and funny.

Jeff referred to a quote by Oliver Sacks in his thought of the evening.
” Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears – it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many neurological patients, music is even more – it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.”

As Table Topics Master, Nadine very efficiently explained the role and presented her questions charmingly:

1. What was your latest experience in a karaoke bar?
Caroline has never sung in a karaoke bar. However, she spoke about the music Lingola which is widely distributed in Kenia, where she comes from. Whenever she listens to it she feels better and warmer.

2. Suggestion of a song everybody should listen to and why?
Paul mentioned that he is not an expert in music but loves listening to it in Youtube. Music touches him and he loves dancing to it.

3. Sad side of music. Musicians stop their career.
Nadja told us that she misses Jonny Cash and his music.

4. Certain songs have a special meaning to us.
Pio shared a personal story about the song “In meiner Wolke”. This song takes him back to nice holiday times with his family.

In the second part of the evening Nadine introduced Poorana’s speech with the title “Communicate like a toastmaster”. This is the second speech at level 2 in the path presentation mastery with the project understanding your communicatio stye. Poorana shared with us a challenge he experienced in a business meeting and he succeeded because he used skills he has learning in Toastmasters. He concluded his speech with three take aways for us Toastmasters:
– take up roles
– adapt your communication style to the situation
– keep it simple

His very enjoyable speech was evaluated by Jeff who underline the many strenghs in this speech. Poorana started off with a nice story which took the audience right into it. He used the technique internal dialogue: “What if …”, he had a strong message. To improve, the climax could have been more effective when the torture of reading out the legal text would have been shown more.

Sybille gave feedback to all roles of the evening and congratulated Nadine for an excellent job as Toastmaster of the evening.
The award for the best table topic speaker went to Paul. Congratulations.

At the end of the meeting Sybille, as presiding officer, presented two club business issues:

New Officers Team. The following officers have been voted in for the next officers year starting July 1, 2023:

Presiding Officer:    Alexya
Secretary and immediate past president: Sybille Maas-Müller
VP Education: Nadine supported by Oliver
VP Membership: Poorana
VP PR: Jeff
Treasurer: Jan-Philipp
Sergeant at Arms: Pio

The second issue were the membership fees. Since Toastmaster International has increased the fees by 33%, our club has to increase as well. Three options were presented. The members agreed on the annual increase to € 132 (which is € 11 per month). This leads to a balanced budget without inforcing money collection at meetings.

(Thanks to our still President Sybille for this grear recap!)

Join us for our next meeting on the 27th of June (in-person meeting).

Best Toastmaster greetings,

Jeff, Mannheim Int. Toastmasters

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Here is a photo of the  meeting:

“Spring is the best life coach: It gives you all the energy you want, all the positive thoughts you wish and all the boldness you need”, Mehmet Murat Ildan, Turkish contemporary writer.

With quotes on the theme spring splendor Sybille, Toastmaster of the Evening, structured the evening. We were happy to welcome four guests: Nadja, who had visited Toastmaster clubs a long time ago, Raja, who has been a guest to the Heidelberg club, Mahmut, who came for the first time and Jason, who expected a German speaking club. Sybille explained the structure of the evening and introduced her team. General Evaluator was Oliver, Nadine took over the Timer role and Uli checked the use of filler words as Ah-Counter.

In the warming up phase Sybille gave the joke:

A couple is getting ready for bed after a long day’s work. “I look into the mirror and see and old man”, the husband said. “My face is wrinkly and I am sagging all over. And look at the size of my gut.” The wife was silent. “Hey!”, he said and turned to her. “Tell me something positive to make me feel better about myself.”
“Well, honey,” she replied. “Your eyesight is still very good.” 

Gabi gave the word of the day: invigorate. This word was used frequently in the course of the evening.

Alexja was the Table Topics Master and she asked the following questions:

1. What was your encounter with a stranger giving you unexpected kindness which made you believe in strangers again?
Jeff shared with us an encounter with a lady at a parking lot when he gave her his parking ticket.

2. Let’s put an end to this debate. What came first the chicken or the egg?
Gabi ended the debate and took the egg to make breakfast.

3. Life is about dreams. Swap your life with someone else. Who would that be?
Nadja shared with us how she followed her dreams and succeeded in getting the job she wanted.

4. Make room for new treasures.
Shruthi told us how hard she had worked to complete her master thesis. Now she is done and open again for new challenges.

5. Mountain or beaches – what do you prefer?
Poorana depicts a scene with children he observed in Freiburg. The children playing in “the Bächle” sailing little ships against turbulences.

The warming up session ended with a quote by Emanuelle Soni-Dessaigne: “Give your splendor to everyone.”

We had two prepared speeches.
Caroline gave her Icebreaker with the title “the subject of happiness“, telling the story of a couple who moved to Shanghai in China, a police state, but felt very happy there. Later they had to move to Finland, which is said to be the most happy country in the world. But the couple felt miserable there. So happiness is a very personal thing and you should try to find it in little things.
Her speech was evaluated by Jeff, who praised the speaking skills she already has. He would have liked to learn more about her personal view on happiness and liked the line “happiness perfume”.

Shruthi gave the third speech of level one Presentation Mastery with the title “Think before you act“. She described the difficulty of getting a train ticket and the conflict with a guy taking her seat.
Her speech was evaluated by Gabi who liked her usage of body language, she would have positioned the chair differently. But the description of the guy was the best.

We had two votes, for the best Table Topic speaker and the best evaluator.
The award for the best TT went to Poorana. The two evaluators had a draw, so Jeff and Gabi received an award for the best evaluation.

“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flowerwe will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind”, William Wordsworth, British author.

(thanks to our amazing President Sybille, who not only did this recap, but was Presiding Officer, Toastmaster and teller of a very funny joke!)

Please join us  for our next meeting (on-line) on May 9th.

Best Toastmaster wishes,

Jeff, VP-Public Relations.

Here is a photo of the evening:

“Spring is the best life coach: It gives you all the energy you want, all the positive thoughts you wish and all the boldness you need”, Mehmet Murat Ildan, Turkish contemporary writer.

With quotes on the theme spring splendor Sybille, Toastmaster of the Evening, structured the evening. We were happy to welcome four guests: Nadja, who had visited Toastmaster clubs a long time ago, Raja, who has been a guest to the Heidelberg club, Mahmut, who came for the first time and Jason, who expected a German speaking club. Sybille explained the structure of the evening and introduced her team. General Evaluator was Oliver, Nadine took over the Timer role and Uli checked the use of filler words as Ah-Counter.

In the warming up phase Sybille gave the joke:

A couple is getting ready for bed after a long day’s work. “I look into the mirror and see and old man”, the husband said. “My face is wrinkly and I am sagging all over. And look at the size of my gut.” The wife was silent. “Hey!”, he said and turned to her. “Tell me something positive to make me feel better about myself.”
“Well, honey,” she replied. “Your eyesight is still very good.” 

Gabi gave the word of the day: invigorate. This word was used frequently in the course of the evening.

Alexja was the Table Topics Master and she asked the following questions:

1. What was your encounter with a stranger giving you unexpected kindness which made you believe in strangers again?
Jeff shared with us an encounter with a lady at a parking lot when he gave her his parking ticket.

2. Let’s put an end to this debate. What came first the chicken or the egg?
Gabi ended the debate and took the egg to make breakfast.

3. Life is about dreams. Swap your life with someone else. Who would that be?
Nadja shared with us how she followed her dreams and succeeded in getting the job she wanted.

4. Make room for new treasures.
Shruthi told us how hard she had worked to complete her master thesis. Now she is done and open again for new challenges.

5. Mountain or beaches – what do you prefer?
Poorana depicts a scene with children he observed in Freiburg. The children playing in “the Bächle” sailing little ships against turbulences.

The warming up session ended with a quote by Emanuelle Soni-Dessaigne: “Give your splendor to everyone.”

We had two prepared speeches.
Caroline gave her Icebreaker with the title “the subject of happiness“, telling the story of a couple who moved to Shanghai in China, a police state, but felt very happy there. Later they had to move to Finland, which is said to be the most happy country in the world. But the couple felt miserable there. So happiness is a very personal thing and you should try to find it in little things.
Her speech was evaluated by Jeff, who praised the speaking skills she already has. He would have liked to learn more about her personal view on happiness and liked the line “happiness perfume”.

Shruthi gave the third speech of level one Presentation Mastery with the title “Think before you act“. She described the difficulty of getting a train ticket and the conflict with a guy taking her seat.
Her speech was evaluated by Gabi who liked her usage of body language, she would have positioned the chair differently. But the description of the guy was the best.

We had two votes, for the best Table Topic speaker and the best evaluator.
The award for the best TT went to Poorana. The two evaluators had a draw, so Jeff and Gabi received an award for the best evaluation.

“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flowerwe will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind”, William Wordsworth, British author.

(thanks to our amazing President Sybille, who not only did this recap, but was Presiding Officer, Toastmaster and teller of a very funny joke!)

Please join us  for our next meeting (on-line) on May 9th.

Best Toastmaster wishes,

Jeff, VP-Public Relations.

Here is a photo of the evening: