Thank you all for a most enjoyable, informative and fun marathon-speech-evening. Markus did an excellent job as Toastmaster of the evening – all slots were filled, every one knew what to do, and the meeting was running according to schedule. Also, all 12 marathoners – the 6 speakers and the 6 evaluators – reached the finishing line and thus met the objective of accomplishing yet another communication challenge.
Vaclav convincingly explained to us that the only way to grow and to be successful (i.e. with girls and other difficult to manage challenges) is to step out of your comfort zone. Seun started by asking “who owns a robot” (only one had went up) and then described the many useful ways robots can be used for on a daily, and not-so-daily basis. Thanks to Ben we learned a lot about the strategies of retailer brands, and thanks to Hui Mei we now are aware that you neither need a Ferrari in your garage nor (a lot of) money on your account to be wealthy. Elena introduced herself to our club with her “geography”: The running title and content of her Icebreaker speech were so convincing that she won the speech marathon. Congratulations! And Michelle managed to make the word “self-discipline” sound like something very soft and agreeable – of course, only if you apply it the right way. Due to Michelle’s commitment as SAA – self-discipline wouldn’t be the right word here according to Michelle 😉 – we always had a perfectly prepared meeting room and never run short of any equipment. Thanks Michelle for everything you did for this club.
The evaluations also were helpful and supportive. It is always great to see the personal touch each evaluator gives to his or her feedback: The evaluations encompassed suggestions like singing your speech when trying to improve on vocal variety (evaluation was given by an opera singer who definitely must know), to “TTT” (Turn Touch Talk) when using power point slides in a powerful way. By far the most challenging evaluation of the evening was the “evaluation of the evaluators” – a task Martin definitely excelled in. Martin reminded all of us that the only way to be remembered as an evaluator is by giving a memorable evaluation (definitely makes sense) – that is a feedback that “sticks”.
Markus installed the new committee with grace! I am very much looking forward to a great, fruitful and fun year with the members of the new committee and all the members of our great and extremely varied Zuriberg Club.
Kind regards and see you all soon Nicola