Fellow Toastmasters,
Last week the new committee was incepted in an evening dedicated to Leadership. As the committee members completed their High Leadership Projects (Level 5), they presented their last year’s work, shared their learnings, shed light into the purpose behind their officer roles and, most importantly, explained their motivation to serve the club in the upcoming term.
We thanked our immediate Past President Roland Straub for his immense contribution to the club. In his speech, Roland shared with us insights into Leadership what the gained during his presidential tenure, in particular his experimenting with different leadership styles and balancing between previous experience in the corporate world and a volunteer organization.
The meeting closed with an energetic table topic session on new beginnings moderated by Aaron Huànico-Ramos.
We achieved so much in the last year, as individuals and together as a club. As we progressed on our paths we saw new members coming in and evolving into competent speakers, earned numerous external nominations for our members’ accomplishments;
- Elias Miano and immediate Past President Roland got nominated for the triple crown
award in the District Conference, and saw our members - Alice Nuslova
and Monica Vlad compete and win the second place at the Speech
contests at Division Level.
At the club level,
- we attained the President’s Distinguished Status and,
- our VP Mentoring Harry Loots and Karina Castella got acknowledged at the District Conference for their contribution to the Toastmasters Organization. Harry and Karina organized multiple contests and got us established in the Toastmasters world.
I could not be prouder of being a member of this club and its exceptional committee, which works tirelessly to create room for all of us to thrive.
Toastmasters ethos is to develop its members into confident public speakers and leaders. Same to a sailing boat, leadership committee roles, where everyone has an equally important role to play has been the essence of my personal learning xperience, having served as VP Membership, VP Education, and transitioning to President.
The pleasures of sailing, such as basking in the joy of the sea, are similar to the great speeches we relish every Tuesday at our club. However, for the ship to sail, substantial administration work must be done and there are many rules we adhere to, by the
captain and the crew. Similarly, every club officer needs to deliver on their tasks, and each one of them is an equally important member of the Toastmasters boat, Additionally, every one gets the chance to shape the future of our club.
Shaping a supportive environment, giving back to the community, getting a glimpse into the Toastmasters organization, and understanding the significance of their role for the club, as well as the impact they have on their fellow members are key motivators for our committee members. These elements inspire them to continue serving the club, whether in their current role or in a new one, in the upcoming year.
Next year the Zuriberg Toastmasters’ resolutions are to continue working together towards achieving our goals, learn collectively in this great environment but also to live up to the heritage of being the biggest and one of the best clubs in our District, but without losing focus on our main goal: having lots of fun while learning!
To accomplish that, we prepared a highly diversified agenda full of interesting workshops, engaging debates, and an Award Dinner that will open up the opportunity to practice diverse speech styles. Come up and declare interest to be part of these events!
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, the meeting theme is Culture!
Best Wishes,
Vanessa Stournari, IP5
President
zuribergtoastmasters.ch