- Think outside the box; Photo credit: rw626f12.blogspot.com
First Time
This evening Alex stepped up for the first time as Toastmaster of the Evening. He set the mood and explained to our 6 guests the program order. Tolga broke the ice tonight, giving his first speech Fail More!. Tolga started out with humor using self-depreciating remarks about his name: means battlefield eggs and last name “Oygen” should not be confused with oxygen. Then he shared mouth-watering details of his mother’s Turkish cuisine recipes. We gave him a standing ovation for his amazing first efforts and a “welcome to Mercury pin”.
Science made vivid and memorable
Second speaker Holger is a climate scientist and absolutely hates when people ask him: “Is it getting warmer?”. Instead he would rather be asked: “How is the climate change going to impact my life? What can I do to limit my footprint?” Who said that scientific explanations had to be complex and boring? Holger had the ability to make the topic of Green House Effect come alive vivdly and memorably.
Be a Fan
Master evaluator Matthias shared his knowledge and insights on evaluations, Three rules for a great evaluation speech. Here are the three rules:
- Be specific
“Nice” is not specific. Use descriptive words, give concrete examples.
- Be a fan
After an evaluation, the speaker should be motivated to try again!
- Break rules
Think outside the box. Have the courage to discover your own format for evaluating and not necessarily the format that is often used at Toastmaster meetings.
Iron Man/Woman Contest
The second half of our meeting was the favorite part for most of our guests. Khushi led our Table Topics with some great questions regarding little known competitions like the Iron Man/Woman Contest where contestants have to do physical stunts while ironing a shirt.
Our evening rounded off on a humorous note from guest Sheng-Hung Chung:
A cosmetic surgery patient wakes up from surgery. She asks the doctor if he could do something about her small eyes. And the plastic surgeon replied, “when you see the bill, it will make your eyes bigger!”
