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 “1^st 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 1^st 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 10^th 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