Author: zuriberg

Michelle Sabatini guided us through the eventful evening as the Chairman of the night. She introduced the Target Speaker, Tulia Lopes, who delivered a speech for the Evaluation Contest participants to evaluate. She led us on a philosophical trail of thoughts on whether happiness is timeless or time-framed, explaining a very complex matter in an understandable way. Tulia is Area Governor of Area E1, a member of Zurich Toastmasters as well as the “Walk the Talk” club. Following her speech, one by one, the evaluators, Henrik Karlsson, Ben Nordemann and Anna Bot were able to give their evaluations on this excellent speech. Ben Nordemann gave the best evaluation and was chosen the winner of the Evaluation Contest.

After the break, we listened to three speeches. First up was Vaclav Matousek, who took part in the International Speech Contest with his speech “The Perfume and Smell Museum”. He presented his idea of a potential museum in his home town in the Czech Republic and the rivalry between that and the adjacent town for tourists. His idea of a museum where you could possibly watch and smell a Dracula movie was very intriguing and fun to listen to.

Charmiene Maxwell-Batten, coming all the way from San Antonio as a guest speaker, talked to us about empathy, giving a very informative speech on this feeling. She spiced up her speech with facts and her own life experience, involving the audience by asking questions and giving a very heartfelt speech.

Surprisingly, Piotr Skoczylas agreed to take part in the International Speech Contest without any preparation. His speech sparked with ingenuity as he thought of talking about his two flatmates with whom he shared an apartment during university. He made us laugh by recalling funny moments and won the International Speech Contest with this truly outstanding speech.

It was a great evening and we are looking forward to hosting the Area Contest on the 1st of April here at our club!

The evening was begun by Marijke Habermann, who, despite initial stumbling, delivered a very interesting speech on the mantra “Do what you love, love what you do.” In an insightful speech, she explained that this attitude can devaluate the actual work you do and not make you live in the moment.

Zhe Nie, in his ice-breaker speech titled “The journey of running” took everyone of us on a journey with him through his life experiences that were always connected with running. With humour and originality, he mastered the task of speaking in front of the club for the first time wonderfully.

Next up was Vaclav Matousek, who, in a fun and unique way, described how important that spark of ingenuity in humans is and how, therefore, he is an optimist when thinking about the future. He managed to present complex and usually rather boring information in an easily understandable and exciting way.

Our last speaker tonight was Alister Smith, who made everybody laugh with his use of props: He chose to speak about costume parties and what he learnt from them, connecting interesting bits of history with funny stories and pictures from costume parties he attended. He convinced the audience and won the award for best speaker.

After an informative evaluation round, which Paul Seaman won due to an outstanding evaluation, Thomas Portenseigne took us on a trip around this world’s museums during the Table Topics. There are many special and funny museums in this world, and the Table Topics speakers had to make up reasons on the spot why we should all visit for example a museum about UFOs or one about bananas. Adrian Engler won Best Table Topic Speaker by holding a hilarious speech about a museum in India, which exhibits toilets and his experience of toilets in Russia.

All in all, it was a great evening, and we are all looking forward to next meeting, where we will be holding an international speech and evaluation contest. I encourage everyone, members and guest alike to come and take part in this exciting event!

Even though Table Topics sharpens our impromptu speaking and fast reaction skills, this Toastmasters meeting pushed some of us even further: After two speeches and their evaluations, there was a debate, a special and exciting event, where Toastmasters are challenged to improve their ability to think on the spot.

Before the debate took place, Rouven Krauer explained to us in his first speech, the ice-breaker, how speaking without words has had such a great impact on his life. From dreaming of becoming a cowboy to helping others understand what their horses are telling them, Rouven gave us a witty personal account of what was and still is important to him: communication without words.

After that, Vaclav Matousek, who had to use vocal variety in his sixth speech, told us about how he made the best out of a discouraging experience and used an electronic diary to find new techniques to evaluate himself.

Following the two speeches, everyone was curious how the debate would turn out. Even though the format was new and a bit unusual, the two debating teams shared their knowledge on the motion “Should animal testing be banned?”. The opposition team was Marc Suter and Paul Seamen while Adrian Engler and Anna Bot made up the proposition team. The event was chaired by David Kearney.

The proposition team argued that animal testing is usually cruel, that the medicines gained from such experiments are not always safe or that we even might miss out on important medical advance, and that there are valuable alternatives we should consider. However, the opposition team convinced the audience by arguing that animals do not suffer the same as we humans do, are not as advanced and that we are superior to them. Also, they argued that many scientists support animal testing, and that if we supported the motion, we should become vegetarians. They explained that animal testing is a terrible, yet necessary evil for medical advance.

After the audience had a chance to ask challenging questions, it was decided that the motion should not be supported. Everyone enjoyed the debate format, which is very different to prepared speeches, but also suggestions for improvement were offered. At the end of the meeting, Adrian Engler received the award for having completed the Competent Communication Manual, a great achievement, since it means that Adrian has successfully held 10 speeches and has grown and improved over time.

Last Tuesday we had a fun event with speeches that gave food for thought and that made us look on life from different perspectives.

First was Anna Bot, our youngest member, who in her second Competent Communication Manual speech told us about her relationship to Joshua. This was no conventional teenage love story, but a moving testimony to Anna’s adult mind and conscience, as Joshua is a young prisoner in a USA jail. After reading a website dedicated to helping young prisoners Anna had taken the decision, to participate by agreeing to a long-term letter exchange with him. I was a well organised speech which she made with feeling, composure and maturity.

Next was an Ice Breaker Speech from Bertrand Kohl, who told us colourful stories of his childhood in Morocco, his teens and 20s in Burgundy, and of 2 years he was recently working in China. He concluded with his approaching departure for a new job in Hamburg.

And third was Celestina Kuhl, who visited us from another Zürich club, and gave an excellent speech on the importance of intuition in decision making – not only in private life, but in professional contexts also – accompanied by a well designed and well managed PP show that inspired us. She demonstrated how, in certain situations, intuition can be a far more rapid and reliable way to decide on a course of action than the ponderous mental weighing of pros and cons.

These three main speakers were making Workbook speeches for only the first, second and third times at Toastmasters, and very impressive each of them were. We in the club look forward to sharing their journey and helping them develop even further. Although we were a relatively small group of members, everyone contributed to making the evening run smoothly and enjoyably.

The short and spontaneous speeches in reply to Wanbun Ho’s challenging questions as Table Topic Master added spice to the second part of the evening.

The presence and participation of the exceptionally high number of seven guests was another most encouraging sign of things to come for our club.

Below you can find a picture of the proud winners of the evening. Celestina won the speech contest, Noah the table topic contest, and Thomas was voted the best evaluator of the evening.

What is more, the new Club brochure has arrived. It is available for both those curious about Zuriberg Toastmasters Club, as well as for existing members who would like one for friends or colleagues. Please see a scan of it below and just ask take one, or ask for it at the next meeting.

See you all soon again at our next meeting!

On the 27th of April, the best speakers and evaluators in Switzerland are coming to Zurich to compete in the international speech and international evaluation contests at the Division E Spring conference.

This year, our club has the honour of hosting this prestigious event, where a Swiss delegate will come one step closer to taking part in the World Championship of public speaking. Separate contests will be held for the English and German speaking clubs and the best evaluator will also be determined.

The main event will be rounded off with good food, entertaining and educational workshops, and of course many interesting people. More details can be found on the Spring Conference website.

Whether you are a Toastmaster yourself, coming along to support a friend who is competing, or just want to meet some interesting people and learn a thing or two about public speaking, the Spring Conference has something for you.

Register Here

Educational Achievements

1. Celine Horan (past Area E2 Governor) earned the Advanced Leader Silver award. 
2. Nicola von Lutterotti (VP Membership), Piotr Skozcylas (Secretary), Marcel Cattin (former VP Education), Lip-Hong Teo (former Treasurer), and Olivia Coker (President) earned the CC award.
3. Markus Kuenkel (current Area E2 Governor) and Olivia Coker earned the CL award.

New Members, 9

Giorgio Ripamonti
David Kearney
Noah Pikes
Elena Savenko
Mai Thanh Quynh Tran
Thomas Portenseigne
Christina Ehlers
Vaclav Matousek
Yujing Liu

COMMITTEE/Leadership Achievements

1. Christian Funke (Treasurer) and I (Olivia) created this club website and blog in July 2012.
2. The committee subsequently established the “Blog Contributor” role. This not only keeps our website up to date, but makes it possible for members to complete one of two CL projects which were previously impossible to complete without undertaking a special project. (And therefore hardly anyone finished the CL manual.)
3. In addition to regular debates, we have now instituted regular speech marathons, to give members the chance to catch up on speech progress, (because we meet only on alternate weeks).
4. Nick Allan was selected from among a multitude of applicants to deliver a debate workshop at the European District 59 Conference in Bonn in November 2012.
5. I organized two special events with other clubs, the summer meeting at the Rowing Club with Mosquito Hill, and the Irish-Scottish Dance with Zurich and Mosquito Hill Toastmasters.
6. Henrik Karlsson is now also dedicating months of time as Chair of the Swiss Division E Conference Committee, leading our club in organizing and hosting the April 27th conference.
7. David Ermen conducted two officer workshop sessions (training officers from 4-5 clubs) for our Area Governor, Markus Kuenkel.
8. We updated our meeting evaluation forms, to assist with more concrete speech assessment guidelines. This has elicited more grounded and useful feedback for speakers.
9. Michelle Sabatini (SAA) has improved on the organization of our club materials and ensured that every single meeting this term has been properly supplied and arranged, and that guests have been well received. This is essential to our meetings, and the work often goes unnoticed.
10. We moved to the Blue Monkey, after Mara Eugster and I negotiated a minimum consumption rate of less than half their published minimum rate.
11. I created an annual(+) calendar (and our club Google Calendar).
    View or print the club calendar
    *The Easypeak gurus are currently developing the function of linking Easyspeak meetings to Google Calendar. It will reduce calendar input from two to a single entry point. We’ll look forward to that!
12. David Ermen has created club email addresses for each officer to facilitate contact continuity from one officer term to the next.
13. I created new meeting agenda templates in Easyspeak, to make staffing and organizing meetings much faster. These include regular meetings, debates, speech marathons, and the contests.
    Meetings are already scheduled through July 2014, because we must register our meetings at the Blue Monkey a year or more in advance to secure our reservation.
    Meetings are staffed from now through this July in order to give every member a fair opportunity to speak and to perform authoritative meeting roles–Toastmaster of the Evening, Table Topics Master, and General Evaluator–and to assist new members along the trajectory of increasing knowledge.
    Scheduling large batches in advance saves time and makes a more strategically equitable distribution of speeches and roles possible.
14. Christian Funke has been a dependable Treasurer, ensuring that all bills are paid, and dues collected from each member and transferred on time to Toastmasters International. (When dues are not paid on time, our members are not allowed to compete in contests!)
15. Christian is now also Treasurer of the Division E Conference, tracking payment for each registration (100+ attendees).
16. Piotr Skoczylas joined us as Secretary in January 2013, and has since been reliable in taking proper and useful committee meeting minutes and posting them in a timely manner. Piotr also orders club supplies from Toastmasters International.
17. Piotr is currently founding a new TM club at his workplace. Congratulations, Piotr!
18. I uploaded and catalogued all contest materials in our Easyspeak Zuriberg Toastmasters Discussion Forum, so that, from now on, Chairman, Judges, and Contestants can easily download and print the necessary forms.
19. Officers have uploaded club-specific OFFICER role descriptions to make it easier for members to prepare for annual elections and holding office.
20. I have added club-specific MEETING role descriptions to Easyspeak—click on the role title on any agenda page.
    This helps us to clarify formerly ambiguous role responsibilities, particularly those of the TME (who is responsible for ensuring meeting rosters are full), and helps less experienced members to learn our club customs.
21. Ilka Gelhar founded a new TM club at her workplace, and has served this term as officer there. We look forward to seeing more of her in the next term.

Dear Toastmasters and Friends,

What a fantastic party!

When I arrived yesterday to help arrange the Polterkeller for our party, Kristina Koch, Angela Saxby, Laura Beyer, and Mateusz Bukowski were already there, hard at work. This team of organizers has labored diligently behind the scenes for months to prepare a smashing holiday party for Zurich, Mosquito Hill and Zuriberg Toastmasters, for our fellow Toastmasters from Zug, Bern, and St. Gallen, and for our welcome friends. There isn’t enough room to record everything each one has contributed, so I’ll simply point out that without the magnanimous investment of time, talent, and even property, from each of them, our party would have been impossible.

Special kudos to one of our younger Toastmasters, Laura Beyer, whose raffle and dessert buffet last night displayed tremendous creativity, not to mention industry, as she baked and bustled the entire week to dress our tables with irresistible treats and gorgeous raffle bundles.

Big thanks to Frances Turley and William Horan, who shared their stories and a walloping serving of hilarity, and to Kamran Derakhshan, who conducted a feisty and stimulating Table Topics tournament.

Thanks also to Toastmasters who donated raffle prizes: Kristina Koch, Jack Vincent, John Styffe, and Selina Man Karlsson.

Finally, thanks to all of you who simply showed up with your smiles, your social elixirs,  and your dancing shoes, and helped to make it a warm and wonderful evening none of us will ever forget.

Douglas Hope, the Toe for Toe dance leader, told me that 200 years ago, when villagers congregated regularly for Céilidhs, quarrels between friends and neighbors would be forgotten as they danced together. That historical sketch epitomizes the spirit which we hoped to foster between Toastmasters and friends in our three clubs and beyond, when we selected a Céilidh as our holiday party activity for 2012.

So as we conclude a remarkable year and contemplate 2013, I trust we will carry this sense of camaraderie and collaboration between Toastmasters and friends into the new year.

We hope to see all of you again soon,
Olivia Coker
President
Zuriberg Toastmasters

Olivia Coker, Zuriberg Toastmasters’ president, warmly welcomed the members and the guests of the club. She went on reminding everyone about the upcoming deadline of buying tickets for the highly promising Celtic Dance Party of December 1st!

Stefano Basurto (evaluated by William Horan) got the prepared speeches off to an interesting start by describing with vivid colors the challenges of running an inline skating race in London. Illustrating the “rise and fall” in his herculean efforts to stay in the loop and cross the finish line, he suggested that a meaningful challenge is not the one that brings necessarily glory; it suffices to bring enough personal satisfaction. The use of “I” in Stefano’s speech added warmth and sensitivity managing to gain the sympathy of the entire audience in each and every kilometer of his race.

Continuing with another odyssey, Adrian Engler (evaluated by Thomas Koetzsch) described how he quit smoking. Although the vocal variety was the major objective of this 6th speech of Adrian, his witty way of presenting the hyperbole surrounding the behavior of addicted smokers turned his narrative to a first-class humorous speech. However, given so many positive examples as side effects of smoking (boost of productivity, increased concentration following nicotine intake), Adrian left the house amicably wondering whether he has quit smoking by accident.

Henrik Karlssson (evaluated by Olivia Coker) delivered an advanced speech attracting feedback on his story-telling competences. “Now or Later?” was a delicate motivation touch prompting the listener to make the small steps (now or later) which can drive to a great adventure; in this case, a trip around the world. The moral was impeccable, but the climax might have been improved by painting a picture of the trip itself and drawing the audience into it.

The first half of the session was concluded by Christian Funke, whose elegant jokes nicely entertained the audience prior to dinner being served.

Nicholas Allan’s table topics were distinctly easygoing as they reminded me of the sweet kinder garden question “What’s your favorite XYZ?”. Nicholas wanted particularly to know what our favorite film, color, holiday, food, drink, and season were.

Winners of the evening were Kevin Boomsma (Best Evaluator), Paul (?) (Best Table Topic Speaker and guest), and Adrian Engler (Best Speaker).