Wednesday 6th February
This was a meeting with a wide range of topics as well as speakers. We had two speakers giving their Ice Breaker speech. One was an experienced speaker who wanted to take a step into the pathways experience (the Toastmasters new educational programme) and one speaker who was completely new to Toastmasters.
Wojciech, who has been a member of our club for 3 years now said of doing his icebreaker again:
“I have to say I much more enjoyed my second Icebreaker. And another challenge accepted with the Pathways educational programme. You cannot get bored with TI (sic – Toastmasters International).”
Wojciech also got the best evaluator award.
Less Bag and More Makeup
Sam gave her very first speech, her Icebreaker. I was intrigued by the title but by the end of the speech I was laughing at the images of her over preparing for a three day music festival with a large rucksack! She explained to us how taking so much care to prepare actually meant that she was less able to enjoy the event and how over time she learnt to relax and take things as they came.
Thrive
Karl spoke to us about the Thrive programme and how it has transformed thousands of lives around the world. He explained the key psychological concepts and why it’s not therapy. It was an interesting speech and we hope to hear more about it over time.
Bucket Lists
Andrea’s speech was about making bucket lists – a list of what a person wishes to achieve or experience before they die. Examples were given from her own personal bucket list. She then questioned whether such a list was of limited value. Was it only useful for building memories to carry us through old age but lost when life ends. To illustrate this, she surprised us all when she opened and closed the door next to her, kicking the bucket containing items on her list, outside so that it disappeared from view. It was proposed that a second bucket list could also be written with goals designed to help others or impact the world positively. She filled a new bucket with goals designed to make the world a kinder place. Explaining research revealing that the process of physically writing a goal makes its realisation 42% more likely, she gave a handout, challenging us all to write a list of what we wanted to achieve for others.
Best Speaker Award: Andrea Lee
Best Table Topics Award: Dorothy Molloy
Best Evaluator Award: Wojciech