Fellow Zuribergers,
It’s been almost a week since we enjoyed a truly energizing workshop with Tara Brodin, a talented Canadian improv and acting instructor who lives right here in Zurich! We all owe our thanks to Vanessa Stournari, our immediately past president, and her months-long effort to make this workshop a reality.
Tara reminded us that great speeches are made up of a lot more than just well-structured sentences and paragraphs. In fact, only 7% of the message an audience receives comes from words, while the vast majority of communication is actually transmitted through body language and the tone of our voice. With Tara we all stood in a circle and explored the range of our voices with handy techniques and acronyms such as FREEE (Feel, Respirate, Elevate, Energize, Enjoy). For those of you who couldn’t make it, ask fellow members for some tips!
Tara is a founder and director at the close encounter theater –https://www.closeencounterstheatre.com/ – and offers improv and acting courses. Quite a few of our members have taken part in her classes in the past (Vanessa, Elias, Alice, Tatyana & more).
In addition, at the beginning of the meeting, we were able to listen to a brief presentation by Stephanie Chen, Toastmasters’ District 89 Finance Director, who gave us a glimpse of the wealth of TM clubs that exist in China. It was a reminder that we are part of a vast ecosystem of speech lovers here at Toastmasters, and that “Toastmasters Tourist” (where TM members systematically attend toastmasters meetings in every city they visit), is real and a cool way to travel.
Now – what can you do to practice all those new skills Tara brought to your attention? You can sign up for roles and, in particular, speeches! Tomorrow is a committee meeting, so you have plenty of time to sign up and prepare a speech for next Tuesday, September 10th! See you then!
Your VPE,
Anna Franzen