Category: Club meetings

Dear all

One of our smaller meetings this year. But nevertheless full of energy, fun, and learning!

Let me remind you first about the announcements we made.

Base Camp Outage

There will be a Base Camp outage beginning on October 9, 2024, that is expected to last through October 25, 2024.

• If you’re working on a project you may want to reference in that time frame, we recommend you download the project PDF by using the Print My Project link on the Your Evaluation page of your project. Plan to download any needed materials or wrap up any loose ends before Base Camp is inaccessible.
• Completion certificates – While progress and credit will be transferred to the new system, certificates will not. If you would like copies of certificates you have earned, download and save them.
• Additionally, to ensure your education progress is up-to-date and accurate when you log into the new system, ask your club officer to approve any pending Level completions and submit them on Club Central before October 9.

Contests

• International Speech Contest will be held on 14 January 2025. All members, who have completed Level 2 are eligible to compete in this contest.
• Table Topics and Evaluation Contests will be held on 11 February 2025. All members are eligible to compete it these contests.
• The District will also hold an Online speech contest this year. We’ll figure out the details in due course and arrange a contest evening for this event.

Judging Workshop

Due to disruption caused by Covid, clubs, areas, divisions, and districts turned to online / hybrid judging models. The downside of this is that judging experience in clubs suffered. Roland and I will present a judging workshop in November to prepare our members for judging contests at the club and beyond. I hope to fill all judging slots from within our club, to give our members the necessary experience to also be able to judge outside the club in future. Date will be announced in next few days.

Reflections on our meeting

Toastmaster of the Evening, Joran conducted the meeting. He introduced each participant with an intro reflective of the theme of the evening: acrobatic. And each participant had their own interesting take on the question he posed them.

We listened to three excellent speeches. Gabriel’s ‘My wife ate the whole jar of Nutella’, dealing with don’t believe everything you hear. Anna spoke about her experiences as both a mentee and mentor in ‘Unexpected Learnings’. And, finally, Ishan proposed that God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence is being challenged in ‘God has competition’. Our three evaluators, Nicola, Tatyana, and Etienne, provided constructive and useful feedback to our speakers. Topicsmaster, Roberta, challenged us with acrobatic themed topics, resulting in some interesting and humorous presentations.

Timekeeper, Zsolt, Ah-counter, Samira, and Grammarian, Pietro all did great jobs to keep us on time, and have us watch our ums, ahs, and p’s and q’s. In perhaps a first for the club, General Evaluator, Fereshteh, had opportunity to criticise herself. Having forgotten to turn her phone on silent, it started ringing midway through Gabriel’s speech… Gabriel, handled it like a pro. A reminder perhaps to all to ensure that phones are either switched off or in silent mode when we have speakers on stage.

Awards

Best Speaker: Anna

Best Table Topics: Harry

Best Evaluator: Etienne

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 8 October. We’re looking forward to seeing you all there.

Harry

Please click here for details of our next club meeting

Thank you for an enjoyable evening, filled with great speeches and contributions from our delightful post-antediluvian audience of members and guests.

The speeches

On our first meeting since the summer break, we had four of our members present four distinctively different speeches. Fereshteh told us how important her PhD mentor was to her in helping her find her voice in her community. Alice told us how she learnt from her Mysterious Maverick Luca, was supported by Luca, and eventually outgrew Luca. Both of these speeches were from Level 2 ‘Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring’ projects. We got to know both Tatjana and Ishan better through their superb Ice Breakers. Tatjana’s sharing of her core values resonated with us. Receiving a special mention for her natural use of body language when illustrating her nephews and nieces spontaneous ‘Toastmasters’ meeting. Especially as this was an Ice Breaker speech. Ishan’s analogous comparison of the Persian prophet Zarathustra to his own path in developing a ‘startup’ drew some fascinating insights into the teaching of a prophet who had influence on many of the world’s religions including Zionism , Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Zarathustra or Zoroaster is best know after the philosophical work of Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”.

The Evaluations

Evaluations from Michelle, Elias, Anna, and Richard were well-thought-out and to the point. All provided suggestions for improvement for the speakers. Suggestions which each and every one of us can learn from, even if we were not the speakers standing in front of the audience on the night.

The Table Topics

Table Topics challenged the speakers to compare contrasting ideas and present which may be best. Speakers showed that striking a balance between (for example) tradition vs innovation is equally important. And that the one without the other may not be possible. This was a good choice of topics, which speakers, including guests, were able to relate to and construct meaningful speeches.

The rest

Our Toastmaster of the Evening, Nicola, was her usual efficient self, as she conducted the evening, keeping to time, and bringing each participant on stage with a well-thought-out introduction. The Timer (yours truly) became so engrossed in the first speaker’s speech that he forgot to show the green card until nearly 30 seconds had passed. I should add that he did manage after this slip, to show the cards at the right time. Which reminded him how important it is to be fully focused on the task when you are the timer. General Evaluator, Joanna, commented on what was overall a well-run meeting. Despite dinner only being served twenty-five minutes into the break to some of our attendees, which resulted in them still eating when the meeting reconvened. An area where we can definitely seek improvement from the catering staff. Kevin challenged us to use the word ‘bygones’ 15 times in our speeches. He thought he had failed when he was only able to count 13 bygones from speakers. But th en sneakily slipped in one of his own so that we stood at 14… And before long we had our 15… even though Kevin had sat down by this time. Our Ah-Counter Gabrielle, shared some tips on how he is managing to avoid erms and ahs that all of us can learn from.

One area where I think we can improve on is how we conduct our Table Topics sessions. Recently, we’ve developed a habit of asking for volunteers. Which does not always work, and often lead to wasted time. The intention of Table Topics is two-fold: to teach members to speak extemporaneously. Off the cuff. And to give members who do not have a role an opportunity to participate. So the way to conduct it, is to identify members without a role. The topicsmaster call on these members to present a topic. It is okay to ask if any of the guests want to volunteer. But we give our members a first chance to speak. And they do not have an option. See also the Topicsmaster role description on our website: https://zuribergtoastmasters.ch/roles-at-meetings

Awards

Awards went to, Alice for Best Speaker, Anna for Best Evaluator, and Roland for Best Table Topic. Fereshteh received a Level 2 Completion Award and our two Ice Breakers, Tatjana and Ishan received Ice Breaker ribbons!

Next meeting – 27 August: Improv Workshop

Please click here for details of our next club meeting

Harry Loots

Well. Perhaps not quite so much into the wilderness, as members stayed on familiar ground and delivered five inspiring and informative speeches.

The theme did, however, provide the Toastmaster of the Evening, Anna, with some great introductions of the speakers. 

First up was Vanessa, who shared her first experience hiking with Michelle and Anna, and what she had learnt. Svetlana and Rafael both presented Level 2 projects – Understanding your communicational style, and both provided us with insight into communication patterns and styles. Svetlana explaining on Passive, Passive/Aggressive, Assertive and other styles. Rafael mimicked the style of a typical pilot. Making the point that the style is deliberate to instil a sense of confidence in passengers. Calm, Self-assured. Nothing can go wrong while I’m in control… Joram and Harry both completed Level 1 of their current pathways projects. Joram asked if the price is right? And, Harry’s takeaway message was, ‘Engage. Before you judge.’ which earned him the Best Speaker award.

All our evaluators provided valuable feedback to the speakers, with Michelle receiving the Best Evaluator award. 

Thomas presented us with a series of topics based on the Wilderness theme. Michelle took this award as well. On top form, our Michelle!

Alicja was our timer of the evening. She explained clearly what the timing requirements were for each section of the programme (Prepared Speeches, Evaluations, and Table Topics), and provided the speakers with feedback on how long they had spoken for. 

Vassilis chose the word vacillate as our word of the day. His feedback, on the use of our language, showed there’s always opportunity for improvement. Ah-counter Anton kept tabs on our use of filler words. And Fereshteh, as General Evaluator, gave us great feedback – especially as regards the introduction of speakers. We welcome speakers on stage, accompanied by applause. Then announce their name, title, title, name with no further applause at this point.

Our programme featured two major changes: Our Sergeant-at-Arms now calls the meeting to order, shares a few house-rules (like mobiles off or quiet), points out the toilets to guests (and forgetful members), then introduces the President. 

The other change is that the timer works with the TME. Announcing times immediately before the prepared speeches, evaluations, and table topics. This way, the timing is clear in the speakers’ minds. The timer also provides the actual time for the speaker at the end of the session.

Our next meeting will the last before our summer break. We still have a few roles open for the evening. Please go and sign up. And, if you can’t make it, please mark yourself as not attending. I look forward to seeing you there!
Please click here for details of our next club meeting

Harry Loots