TM Session 7 Nov. 2012
Another
great evening with a room full of enthusiastic Toastmasters and visitors. At
8pm Thomas Ronholt called to order and opened the session as Sergeant at Arms
and then handed over to Marion Chevalier, our acting president. She started
with a video clip of Barack Obamas inaugural speech as newly re-elected
President – she was inspired by his words as well as his oratorical talents.
Just as Obama said in his speech, we in Toastmasters are like one big family,
where the members collaborate and help each other – and Marion is convinced
that as TM’s we will become as good as or even better speakers than Barack
Obama.
Marion then
went on to club matters and welcomed two new members: Sandra Guerrero and
Lorena Mendez. Unfortunately neither of them were able to come to the evenings
session. We also had the pleasure of welcoming Mónica as first time visitor –
she said she would like to be as good a speaker as Obama.
The
Toastmaster for the evening was also Marion, so she continued to describe the
programme for the session, introduced our technical team consisting of
Timekeeper: Óscar Gonzalez, Ah-counter: Eduard Couchez and Grammarian: Asun
Cabezas, who had chosen the Word of the Day: Excitement/Excited. Finally
Riccardo told us a funny joke that lightened up everybody.
First
speaker is Katya Georgieva from Bulgaria, who, although a little nervous, with
great talent tells us about the culture shock when one moves to another country
for a longer period of time – and the reverse culture shock when one moves back
to the home country. Katya had lived in Germany for a while and told us some
funny anecdotes about the Germans.
The second
speaker of the evening was Christian Clottu, who with great seriousness told us
about the creation of the US Federal Reserve System. A scary story about how
the Federal Reserve System is a private organisation, cartel that control
competition and affects all of us – all based on true facts from the book: The
Creature from Jekyll Island.
Finally our
third speaker, Carmen Pazos, gave us a touching speech with anecdotes from her
personal life, about crossing boundaries and never say never. Among other
things, she had said she would never have a dog, but eventually ended up with
one. And that she would never have children – but believe or not she is now 4
month pregnant. CONGRATULATIONS CARMENJ
Our dear
Lucie Arnaudies is General Evaluator for the evening, but unfortunately she had
lost her voice, so Magdalena Guillén kindly helps as a “loudspeaker” – which
created a few amusing moments. The evaluators are introduced and first on stage
is Agnieszka Gut to give her opinion on Katya’s speech. Agnieszka has similar
experiences from living abroad so felt very connected to Katya’s subject.
Afterwards Cristina Hernández provided some constructive criticism to
Christian’s speech in that she missed some statistics, research, charts, etc.
to back up the statements from Christian. Good point and we should all take
note. Finally Javier Macias evaluated Carmen’s speech number 10 – likewise
emotional as Javier had seen Carmen progress through all the speeches in the
Competent Communicator manual. He also drew parallels to his own everyday work
– interesting.
Next on the
agenda was the Table Topics, where Rubén Martínez-Fanals had prepared the
topics as Table Topic Master - addictions. We laughed when we heard about
Cristian’s “addiction” to bubble wrap bursting, how Andrea started her
“addiction” to eating paper when she was about 3-4 years old and finally when
Judit talked about her “addiction” to collecting safety pins.
We were now
getting towards the end as Lucie/Magdalena asked the technical team for their
reports – and surprise when Eduard went beyond his 1:30min to give his report
and his technical team member, Óscar, as the time keeper, started to clap. A
new rule when someone exceed the allowed time limit (not applicable for the
first 3 prepared speeches). Finally the general evaluators commented on the
following things to improve:
-
Please
come in good time to avoid last minute rush and have time to talk to others
before the session.
-
If
late, please enter only when the audience is clapping.
-
For
all speakers, there is no need to apologise for being the “1st time”
– we have all been there.
-
Evaluation sheets where missing for the
audience to evaluate the speakers.
The end of
the session was near and the acting president closed the session the some club
business:
-
The
District conference is from the 16-18 Nov.
-
Next
Wednesday, 14 Nov. there is a general strike and we do not know if our venue
(the EAE) will be open or not. All please check your e-mails before the next
session.
-
All,
please confirm your attendance in EasySpeak before each TM session – this will
help to find stand ins for the roles in case of emergencies.
-
Magdalena
is preparing our X-mas party for the 1st of December – more details
later.
-
Finally,
Marion needs voluntaries to help prepare the anniversary party next May.
The final
act in the show was a standing applause and a ribbon for Carmen Pazos for
having completed her 10th speech – she is now Carmen Pazos, CC
(Competent Communicator).
Thomas
closed the meeting and another lovely session was over – for some whereas
others continued with toasts and beers at a nearby location.
Blogger
Thomas Ronholt
