Category: Toastmasters International

“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:

“Do your little bit of good where you are,it’s those little bits of good put togetherthat overwhelm the world” – Desmond Tutu

In our online meeting 12 members participated and we were happy to welcome two guests, Paul from the US who had joined in previously, and Alex, our Area Director, who also delivered a speech.
JP led through the evening as toastmaster and introduced his team members who explained their roles, Jeff as General Evaluator, Alexya as Grammarian and Ah-Counter, Nadine as Time Keeper and Shruthi gave the word of the day. JP spiced the evening with quotes on inspiration: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started”, Mark Twain, a nice transition to jump directly into the heart of the warm up phase. As table topics master Caroline led through the impromptu speaking phase:

1. What is the most bizarre place you visited in the past. How would you inspire us to go there? Paul shared with us his experiences with the Holy Land.

2. Lot’s of people visit Germany. What is the best place to go to? Shruthi picked Freiburg in the Blackforest as her favorite and described her stay there with friends.

3. How would you inspire people to stay fit and healthy throughout the year. Gabi gave very professional tips on nutrition, sports and relaxation.

4. What is your best advice for a good marriage? Oliver as a single pointed out some aspects he had observed with couples he knows.

Our table topics master JP found nice transitions to the various parts of the evening: e.g. “In a gentle way you can shake the world”, Gandhi, or “I never lose, I win or I learn”, Nelson Mandela.

In the second part of the evening we had two prepared speeches. Alex, our Area Director from Darmstadt Toastmasters Club gave a 10-12 minute speech on engaging humor. He reflected on his path and shared with us all various activities he had done with toastmasters in the last years. This speech was very impressive.
Sybille gave her first speech of level two of her path presentation mastery. Her title was retired by not expired. In her speech, she share how she struggled for four years to prolong her retirement and how she finally managed to embrace this situation and feel happy in it.

Alex’s speech was evaluated by Oliver. Florian gave feedback to Sybille’s speech. He gave the advice to work more on effective body language. Even in an online format this should have been possible with more gestures.

Jeff gave a final wrap up of the meeting as GE. He encouraged the new members to take up roles soon to benefit from the new experiences.
In the award session the best TT speaker was Gabi. The best evaluator was Florian and the best speaker of the evening was Sybille.

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong”, Ella Fitzgerald.

(Thanks to our President Sybille for this great recap.)

Join us for our next meeting on the 25th of April (in-person meeting).

Best Toastmaster greetings,

Jeff, Mannheim Int. Toastmasters

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Here is a photo of the  meeting:

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”― Dale Carnegie

We were happy to welcome two guests to our meeting, Pio and Elisa, who joined the last online meeting already.

Jeff focused on the theme fun when he led through the evening as TM.

 Magnus Carlson, the world best chess player,
said "without the element of fun it is not worth trying to excel to anything."

Gabi introduced the word of the day: "light-hearted", which fit perfectly well to the theme and was vividly used by the
participants of the club meeting. Gabi gave us a full spectrum of synonyms of the word which helped to increase our vocab.

Uli's joke was short and crisp and easy to remember: What do you get when you cross a parrot to a pigeon = voicemail.

Nadine presented the Thought  of the Evening. She shared with us an incident when she threw stone in water and watched the circular waves enjoying it.
Her question: When was the last time when you did something only for the purpose of fun?

Oliver chose some fun world records for table topics  and asked the member how they would managed to out-do these records.

1. Shruti explained how she manage to place coke cans in her face and how she made people feel light-hearted.

2. Pio's record was to eat the hottest chilli in 8.2 seconds. He very convincingly explained that he practiced that with pizza funghi.

3. Uli had to break the record walking on a tight rope with high heels. She very lively performed the scene and
   described the record with excellent body language.

4. Elisa's record was to sort letters in a soup. She vividly described the process of sorting the letters faster and faster and eating liters of this soup.

We had two prepared speeches. In her speech "Leaping off the edge", Gabi shared with us how bungee jumping came into her life and how she became a member of the A.J. Hackett
Team and worked for the first bungee operator in the world. Oliver evaluated her speech and underlined her vocal variety and body language. The speech was very convincing,
well structured and entertaining. He advised her to work on a stronger ending in her next speech.

Alexya delivered her speech she gave at the contest "Adversity - Take charge or run away". She shared her experiences with adverse situations to encourage us not to give up and face challenging situations.
Alexya benefited from an evaluation round and received feedback from each participant of the evening. She did an excellent job and spoke like a professional speaker. Jeff's advice was to use
the stage more to strengthen her message.

Sybille rounded off the meeting as General Evaluator. She gave feedback to all TT speakers and praised Oliver's idea for the Table Topic questions. They were well received and enjoyable, and, yes, fun.
Uli gave her report as grammarian and pointed out a few grammar issues. Shruti gave a very detailed feedback on the filler words used by the speakers.

The best Table Topic award was given to Uli. Alexya was the best speaker of the evening.

All in all a successful evening with lots of fun elements.


"Never ever underestimate the element of fun." Randy Pausch

(Thanks to our President Sybille for this great recap!)

Best wishes, 

Jeff Gordon, Mannheim International Toastmasters. 

Next meeting is online: 11th of April, 19:14.

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Here is a photo of the meeting: 

Our Presiding Officer Oliver opened  the  meeting by warmly greeting all our guests.  It was  exciting to hear the many corners of the  world that they came from: Rebok is an experienced  Toastmaster from Australia; Aldo is a returning guest from Chili; Paul was also a returning guest and lives in upper state New York; Joy also returned from England, and last but not least, Alisa from Mannheim.

Caroline was voted into the club as a new member: welcome Caroline, we are delighted to have you on board.

Oliver was also our Toastmaster of the  evening. He smoothly led us through the meeting with meaningful quotes on the  brilliance of spring.

As Table Topics master I presented  the  following questions:

1.    What does spring mean to you? For Alisa, Spring symbolizes new beginnings.

2.    What is your favorite season and why? Paul enjoyed telling us about the freedom he experiences in Summer, all the long  days he enjoys.

3.    With spring comes daylight savings; do you think that changing the time 2x a year is a good or bad idea, and why? Caroline explained that she comes from Kenya, and that they do not have daylight savings time. For her the changing of the clocks have no special meaning.

4.    “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.” – Pablo Neruda.  Rebok told a story about a great horse race, the Melbourne Cup. His enthusiasm got us all  into the scene of his story. 

5.    Spring symbolizes for most of us a sense of new beginnings, a fresh start.  Tell us about an experience that you had of getting a fresh start in some area of your life.  Joy movingly told of her “new beginning” with Toastmasters some years ago, and how it changed her life in wonderful  ways.

Joy and Rebok shared the  honor  of being voted best TT speaker.

After the break, Oliver introduced our one speaker.  Nadine’s project: Presentation Mastery #1-2 – Writing a Speech with Purpose. The title: Not every friendship is forever. In her speech, Nadine told about how an important friendship ended, and gave us three lessons that the experience taught her.  Her Evaluator, Jan-Phillip, praised her delivery, and that the  lessons learned were certainly relevant for many of her audience.

The evening was rounded up  with a report from the  General Evaluator (me). After a helpful and exact report from Craig as our Ah-Counter  (he also jumped in as Timer), I gave some short feedback to all other roles, also giving some feedback to the Table Topics participants.

After getting feedback from our guests, Oliver reminded us of our next meeting on the 28th of March (in-person) and wished everyone a good evening.

Best Toastmaster greetings,

Jeff, Mannheim Int. Toastmasters

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Here is a photo of the meeting: