Meeting 19. March 2013, Report by Celine Horan

Last night we had a great meeting full of great speeches!

Noah Pikes gave his Ice Breaker speech: “Cries, Roars, Songs, and Words.” He opened by making us feel relaxed with his calm, honeyed tones. He shared about his book, The Sound of the Voice, and took us on a journey back to 1941, to the Blitz and a special letter his mother wrote to him. In the middle of his speech, he grew very excited when he talked about the man who had inspired him, author Roy Heart, and enlightened us with the information that the human voice has an octave range of six.

Even though this was his first speech, he showed no nerves and was brave enough to give us a vocal demonstration. Noah’s Ice Breaker was eloquent and wonderfully enthusiastic, and he even managed to include the word of the day: elucidate. Well done, Noah!

Konrad, our second speaker, gave us insights into student life in his speech “Give a Chance,” and he talked about his dad. To illustrate his points, he used slides with great ease and to great effect. He adhered to the simple rules of one-idea-per-slide and the-more-visual-the-better. He achieved this very well, making his well-prepared, detailed speech very easy to follow and enjoy. Well done, Konrad!

Adrian Engler evaluated Konrad and pointed out the simplicity of Konrad’s slides and his strong connection with the audience. He gave a detailed and balanced evaluation in his own inimitable style, and we enjoyed his evaluation very much. So too did Michelle Sabatini give an enthusiastic and balanced evaluation of Noah’s first speech, encouraging him to continue the work he had started in her usual gentle, humble manner, with the radiant smile we have all grown to love.

Both evaluations were excellent, given that neither had even the luxury of the dinner break to consider their points in more detail. This shows how flexible Toastmasters can be and how they do their best work under pressure. Congratulations to you both!

David Ermen hosted the table topics and asked a fun question about dreams that inspired some very weird and funny answers.

Nicholas Allen told us about his friend who can never stay awake on a train and who always ends up far from home (more often than he cares to admit). Thomas Koetzsch told us about his maths teacher at boarding school who yelled “Yawn with your mouth closed!” Guest Sonja talked about a depressed hamster, Thomas Portenseigne told a story about something chasing him through the African bushes, Henrik warned us to be afraid of cornflakes, I talked about a monkey and a Louis Vuitton backpack, and last but not least, Georgio revealed how Harry Potter got the philosopher stoned, to roars of laughter from the floor.

Listener Christian Funke decided to take the strange things that were uttered throughout the evening out of context, which made for interesting listening and caused us all to laugh out loud.

We were not even in our new home, Blue Monkey, but this did little to dampen our spirits. Although a number of guests did make mention that they preferred the Blue Monkey over our temporary abode, even having said that, they all agreed that they had a great time and were impressed with the speeches and structure.

I must say that I too was impressed with the guests, who all did a great job in the table topics portion of the evening, so much so that our guest Sonja, together with Thomas Koetzsch, won best table topics. Kudos to you both!

Thanks to Kevin Boomsma, Toastmaster of the evening; Michelle Sabatini, Sergeant at Arms; and David Ermen, Acting President, for your enthusiasm and flexibility under the many last-minute changes, nevertheless creating an evening that was fun and enjoyable for all. To all of you, well done!

Here’s to our next meeting.

Meeting 30. October 2012, Report by Martin Hahn

“We, the Oviri”, Olivia Coker

Nicola von Lutterotti (evaluated by Adrian Engler) got the evening off to an interesting start by thinking about the nature of communication. Citing research on primates, she suggested that only humans have the capacity to cooperate and, correspondingly, communicate. While I would have liked to debate Nicola with some rivalling research that clearly shows animals exhibiting altruism and cooperative behaviour, I applaud her efforts to make us feel good about communication and to think more deeply about it.

Inspired by a TED talk, David Ermen (evaluated by Celine Horan) continued the scientific agenda by asking if our body language can actually have an effect on ourselves (not just on our audience). Using his own body as an example on stage, David explained how different poses affect people’s confidence and even their hormone levels. His speech was as interesting as it was practical for everyday life, not least for the topic of public speaking without fear.

Olivia Coker (evaluated by Nicholas Allan) delivered a colourful speech on the colourless prints by Paul Gauguin. Setting the scene – and drawing the audience into it – at the Kunsthaus Zurich, Olivia painted a vivid picture of the artist who at the end of his life described himself as a savage. “We, the Oviri” was a tour de force of art, civilization, and psychology – passionately delivered and sparingly supported by visuals, to mark yet another highlight in Olivia’s outstanding collection of speeches she delivered over the past years.

Table Topics Magic Duster, Seun Oyetan

Fiona Wallace-Mason’s table topics were distinctly amusing and reminded me of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”, as she asked a number of people to pick obscure items from a bag and talk about them spontaneously. Objects included a chocolate bar, a broom stick, a pack of (magical?) mushrooms, and cinnamon sticks.

Winners of the evening were Nicholas Allan (Best Evaluator), Robert MacKenzie (Best Table Topic Speaker and guest), and Olivia Coker (Best Speaker).

The session was concluded by Marcel Cattin, who almost brought the house to tears with two rather sassy jokes.

Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests

Table Topics Winners: 1st, Marc Suter; 3rd, Fiona Wallace-Mason; 2nd, William Horan
Humorous Speech Winners: 2nd, Nicholas Allan; 1st, Marc Suter

We started with Table Topic hosted by Ilka Gehlhar. Each contestant was asked to promote his/her own new book titled “Our Iceberg is Melting”. Henrik Karlsson started off by bringing up the seriousness of environmental issues we had on our planet. Marcel Cattin diverted the topic from “iceberg melting” to “ice breaker” as in an opening for a speech introduction. Fiona Wallace-Mason gave an energetic “I love iceberg!” start and connect icebergs to childhood memory. Adrian Engler gave a “matter of fact” stand and urgency about the topic of climate change. William Horan made a hilarious presentation on showing us a run-down of “don’t believe anything-anyone says” chapters on the book. Cameron Roy took the “two PhD doctors searching for answer” proof on global warming. Nicholas Allan expanded on “luggage-carrying” pinguins on the cover of the book. Finally, Marc Suter opened with some serious questions, continued with some fuel facts, and ended with sense of urgency to promote people to act.On Oct 2, we had our club’s Table Topic and Humorous Speech Contests. Tonight’s format is a bit different from our usual meetings. First, the speech order is drawn by lot on the day. Second, we have no evaluation, only ranking and results for the speeches. Not to mention our first two winners for both categories will be representing our club at the Area Contest on Oct 13! Talk about pressure!

On our second half of the meeting, after an introduction from our club president Olivia, we started with humorous speech contest. Nicholas Allan kept us entertained in “Sleepless in Transit”, with tales of his own traveling experience on long-haul flights and stories of his friend sleeping through stops and managed to keep missing his stop in one drunken evening. Marc Suter showed us some powerful techniques on how to stop losing things with “Count & Bundle”. Unfortunately, Fiona Wallace-Mason was disqualified due to timing.

Congratulations to all the winners! Wish you best of luck and success in the Area Contest!

Debating workshop at the District 59 Conference in Bonn

We congratulate our club member Nicholas Allan for having his workshop on debating included in the program for the District 59 Fall Conference in Bonn. As we know from trying the format in our club meetings, it is not only educational, but also a lot of fun for the participants and the audience.

Nicholas Allan will lead the debating workshop at the District 59 Fall Conference in Bonn

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The Speech Marathon

Our first speech marathon, a mini-marathon really, on June 26th was a fun and fitting conclusion to the 2011-2012 Toastmasters term!

As always, the meeting was a team effort from start to finish, with almost every member performing at least one role, some more than one.

Special thanks to Christian Funke, who spent two weeks working behind the scenes to advertise, find the perfect gift for our prize winner, and investigate the special beamer logistics in the big hall. He also arrived early Tuesday, saving the day by sprinting out to print more evaluation forms at the last minute—since I had forgotten we would need 7 per person!

Lesley Stephenson, our club’s founder, not only offered expert tips in her evaluation to Lip-Hong, but jumped in on two-hours notice to deliver a professional, innovative, and inspiring Pecha Kucha presentation on her High Performance Leadership project, which has evolved into a permanent foundation: Ethiopian Enterprises. Thank you, Lesley! Look for more from Lesley in autumn, when she returns from Ethiopia and extensive professional speaking engagements.

It might have seemed as though every time you blinked, there was Nick Allan, crouching under tables and chairs, perched at the edge of the stage, emitting a subtle, steady stream of clicks as he materialized first in one spot, then another! That’s because Nick, a much-in-demand photographer, was on an action photo shoot—check out the results in the gallery!

Ilka Gehlhar exhorted us all to make Toastmasters our babies, because we get more when we invest more—sing it, sister!—and Nicola Von Lutterotti delivered a much-needed kick in our derrieres with her speech, “Let’s Move!” I described how Toastmasters helps us satisfy the universal human need to be understood, Christian Funke delivered an incisive and amusing critique of the Schengen visa system, and David Ermen had us laughing and gripping our chairs during his anecdotal dramedy, “The Taxi Ride to Chill”.

Piotr Skoczylas was a witty and upbeat TME, and William Horan payed a warm tribute to the club as he expounded on the joys of his experience this year as VPE. Lip-Hong Teo delivered his final CC manual speech, also a farewell address to mark the end of his four-year Toastmaster journey—we wish you well, and you are always welcome back, Lip-Hong! Christina Ehlers and Martin Hahn regaled us with joke interludes, one of which, in conformance with statistical probability, involved a mother-in-law. Evaluators, timer, Vice SAAs, everybody contributed, thank you all for making it a wonderful evening!

Congratulations to Nick Allan on the Best Evaluation. Congratulations to Lesley and me, Best Speakers. Finally, grunts of respect to Nick Ahmann, winner of the “Bring the Most Guests” prize, who sprang up to the stage like Rocky to collect his Logitech PC remote control.

A warm welcome to our two newest members: Alice and Stefano. Look out for their Icebreaker speeches!