A Regular Prostmasters Meeting
We all have our day jobs and some weeks are frought with crazy meeting marathons and lethally tight deadlines. My week was one of those – a new project had just landed on my desk with some serious milestones this week.
The wise thing at first sight, seemed to be to skip our Toastmasters club meeting and focus on work… Yet, I never skip a meeting unless I’m out of town or half-dead. So, I figured out how I could squeeze Prostmasters in AND deliver a quality and timely project.
And what a good thing I did!
We had 7 guests, 4 marvellous speakers and a fabulous evaluation round. Admittedly, some of the speakers and evaluators went more than slightly over time – but it was worth it! Monica’s Icebreaker was so engaging, that I immediately wanted to pack my suitcase and my dreams, just like she did, to face new challenges. Nana showed how even in the timeframe of an Icebreaker, you can do a vignette-style speech packed with alliteration and energy. Vittoria managed not only to teach us a 3-step approach for sustainable change, she also proved that it is possible to use visual aids flawlessly. And Caroline experimented very effectively with body language on stage – in such a smooth way, that it seemed totally effortless.
In the best of Toastmasters traditions, the evaluations were at once analytical, positive and critical. I was amazed again by the difference a quality evaluation makes. Evaluations should be personal, practical and powerful, and this time each evaluator made sure to give value back to the speaker and the audience.
But of course, easy for me to say that our club is great. What did our guests think? One after the other agreed it had been a fabulous meeting, they enjoyed the fact that the level of speakers was high and that the evaluations were so thorough and… each and every one of our guests said they had had fun!
And that makes me think about our mission, in line with what Ralph Smedley says about Toastmasters: “ours is the only organization dedicatec entirely to the individual”, Munich Prostmasters is dedicated to the individual AND to excellence – for members and guests, so that we can all grow in a fun, friendly and fabulous environment. And yes, I also met my deadline in a fabulous way, I was just so energized by our meeting!