Maxim
Start with Why. Cathrin C.
Attendance
There is a very close link between the quality of a meeting and the number of participants, and the number of participants and the quality of a meeting. With 22 participants (60% of our membership, plus 6 guests), it was one of our biggest meetings to date.
Communication
The Competent Communicator (CC) manual contains 10 speech projects. Today we heard project 7 (objective: Research your Topic) from Iris, project 9 (objective: Persuade with Power) from Cathrin, and project 10 (objective: Inspire your audience) from Bertalan. With his 10th speech, Bertalan has achieved his CC award, and can now select 2 advanced manuals to take his speaking skills to a more advanced level.
Impromptu speaking skills are vital in one’s professional and private life. 4 speakers were brave enough to conquer their fears and spoke for up to 2 minutes on a variety of topics given by the Table Topics Master tonight, Petros. The brave speakers who expanded their zones of comfort speaking off the cuff were Benjamin, Ben, Ranja, and Yuei.
Evaluation helps the speakers improve. Today’s evaluators were our new transfer member Eva, who gave very generous, sensitive, and constructive feedback to Cathrin. Radu who shone with his insight and positivity for Iris. And Christian Kellerman, who we welcome back after a long gap (his daughter will be one on Friday), whose evaluation was well crafted and weighted for Bertalan.
Organisation
The meeting was well run by the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) Asli, in large part because all the meeting rolls were filled and the roll holders were aware of what they had to do, and so the meeting ran smoothly and professionally.
Being satisfied with Good leads to stagnation. Better is our goal. To achieve this, we evaluate the entire meeting. Today’s observations about excellence, and learning points for future implementation include:
Evaluators: don’t just introduce the speaker, but create curiosity in the audience to enhance the whole event.
Impromptu speaking: use the time before you start speaking to imagine a speech goal or a structure for your 2 1/2 minutes on stage. It will be worth it.
Timing – ask the timer to time the General Evaluator and Grammarian rolls, to keep to the overarching goal of delivering the meeting on time.
Is it time to invest in a flip chart from the club funds?
Club News
We welcomed two new members: Ranja & Eva.
Our newest CC, Competent Communcator, was recognised: Bertalan. This is our 2nd CC in two meetings, and together they help achieve 1 point of the 10 Distinguished Club Program (DCP) points.
Area News
Our club is part of a larger organisation, the Area of Frankfurt, where there are 4 clubs, including the new Taunus Toastmasters in Bad Homburg. In turn, there is a Divisional zone, covering south west Germany. On 31st January the second Open Stage speaking event will take place, in Darmstadt. This is a Divisional event. Speakers, introducers, and other roll holders can develop their skills on a bigger stage, and outside of the comfort of their own club. Dare to speak.
Upcoming Meetings
3rd February: TME: Ben. Saalbau Gallus, Room 4 or 5 (entry through the car park).
17th February: TME: Olaf. Saalbau Gallus, Room 4 or 5 (entry through the car park).
2nd March: TME: Barbara.
16th March: Club contests (International Speech Contest & Evaluation Contest).
30 March: Extra meeting to replace the meeting of 16th March.
6th April: Area contest, hosted by Business Club Frankfurt.
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