  
Last night we had our autumn contest. In the first part, there were the side splitting humourous speeches and in the second part, the nail biting table topics. I kicked off the evening with a speech about the pain and devotion necessary to become a writer, then Dorothée told us about the difficulties of finding the perfect sailing partner. The appreciative audience and great atmosphere helped us overcome our nervousness and the judges cast their votes: I came second and Dorothée first. In the break, we were treated to not just one but two cakes of the day. New member Jon made his famous and delicious carrot cake while I brought along a Tunis cake with half a kilo of chocolate melted on top! So nobody went hungry as we all took a breather. Next up were the Table Topics with double the amount of contestants - Jon, Jan, Waltraud and myself. Christian K. asked us to explain why the club is called Mercury, a challenging and interesting question requiring us to think on our feet. It was fascinating to see how different each answer was and all contestants used a great amount of humour and imagination to bring our evening to a wonderful close. The first two placed contestants were Waltraud second with me first. Thanks to all contestants, judges, counters, timers, guests and our contest master for making this a truly special and memorable occasion. Those who took part said how rewarding and inspring they found it and I'd like to encourage everyone to take the plunge and sign up in spring next time around!
Last Saturday three Mercury members took part in the Area 59C2 contest which is open for all English and German speaking clubs in Berlin and Leipzig. Dorothée and Christian K. participated in the nerve wracking evaluation contest and put their critical skills to the test. Both of them did a great job with Dorothée coming second. Well done to both of you! Afterwards, Emily and Dorothée gave it their best shot in the international speech contest. Speaking on this level certainly isn't easy and involves plenty of hard work and the willingness to step outside your comfort zone. In the end, Dorothée won another prize for Mercury, making third place. Congratulations to all contestants! The level of the contest was higher than ever this year and it was wonderful to have Mercury represented in both sections.
 Last Wednesday 11th March was our In ternational Speech and Evaluation
Contest. I'm sure that those of you who were there will agree how
enjoyable and interesting it was. During the speech section, Christian
K started off by giving us the lowdown on DNA, then Dorothée got us all
thinking about whether we're skimmers or divers and Emily revealed the
difficulties of being an imaginist.All three speakers managed to keep a cool head, thoroughly entertained us and did a great job. In the end, Emily came first, Dorothée second
and Christian third. Well done!
After the break, we continued with the evaluation contest. Jan presented his hugely entertaining speech "Let them drown in their Garbage" about the perils of sorting out your rubbish incorrectly. Then those same contestants from the speech section tried their very hardest to give him the best evalaution possible. It certainly isn't easy and requires good listening skills and some quick thinking. This time Dorothée made first place, Emily second and Christian third. Congratulations again to all participants and many thanks to everyone who made this lovely evening possible by getting involved!
 On September 24, we had the pleasure to listen first to Lisa talking about “Peeling Onions” and then to Doreen’s speech titled “Brutally Honest”, both part of the Humorous Speech Contest. Both speeches absolutely deserved the attribute humorous, were well presented and contained a proper deal of self-mockery. Although the judges, of course, did not reveal their voting I am sure it must have been a tough choice! In the end, Doreen made first and Lisa second place. Congratulations to both of you!
 During the same meeting Dorothée, Lisa and Jan showed their creativity when Emily asked them to advertise a bunch of lovely, colorful, artificial flowers during the Table Topic Contest. Although this did not belong to their task all the three of them displayed a lot of humor and made the whole contest entertaining for everyone. Again, the judges made their decision: Lisa made first, Dorothée second and Jan third place. Congratulations to all of you!
Again, congratulations to all the participants and thanks to everyone who contributed to this event!
Congratulations to Amy A. who completed her Advanced Leader Silver and to Olaf B. who is now a (new) Competent Leader. The Toastmasters educational programme provides a communication and a leadership track. These can be worked on simultaneously if you wish. The Competent Leader manual is the first stage in the Leadership track programme and involves working through ten projects while you carry out various meeting roles in the club for which you are evaluated. After this come the Advanced Leader Bronze and finally the Advanced Leader Silver which refine and further develop these core skills. It's great to see our members taking full advantage of the opportunities that Toastmasters offers to work on their leadership and interpersonal skills!
Congratulations to Chrissi S. who is now a (new) Competent Leader! Chrissi has been a member at Mercury since 2004 and this latest achievement is another example of her constant commitment to the club. It's also another useful reminder how important the Toastmasters Leadership track is for developing leadership and teamwork skills and that it's not just about giving speeches. You can find more information about the Toastmasters educational programme using the link below, or better still, why not come along to one of our meetings and find out for yourself just what Toastmasters can do for you? http://www.toastmasters.org/education.aspÂ
Congratulations to Olaf B. who proudly represented Mercury at the recent spring contests! He made third place in the speech competition and second place in the evaluation competition in the Area C2 contest in Berlin at the end of March. Building on this success, he then continued to the Division C contest in Hanover at the end of April where he did a fantastic job and won the evaluation section! Moving onto even bigger and better things, Olaf also took part in the evaluation competition at the District 59 contest in Prague in May, which meant he was among some of the best evaluators in continental Europe. He didn't win a prize this time but told us he got fantastic feedback and that it was a great experience. So working consistently on evaluations at our regular meetings finally paid off and it's a good reminder that Mercury is not just about giving speeches. Constructive feedback is the cornerstone of the Toastmasters philosophy! Once again, well done Olaf!
For the last 5 years, Mercury Toastmasters has been fortunate enough to be able to offer its members a powerful aid in their learning of presentation skills: a videotaped record of all speeches, meeting roles, and table topics performances.
During that entire time, the person solely responsible for transferring the footage from every single meeting onto his computer, editing the clips, and uploading them for viewing online has been Peter. As if this were not enough, Peter has patiently helped members with any technical issues related to viewing of the videos.
Peter was a member of Mercury from October 2001 until March of this year, and after performing this behind-the-scenes task tirelessly and graciously since the beginning of 2003, he is taking well-deserved leave of his role as video processor for Mercury from the end of this year, after which the video processing will be moving in-house at Mercury, maintaining the high standard set by Peter.
We would like to publicly honour Peter for this outstanding contribution both to Mercury and to other Toastmaster clubs in the Berlin area, in consistently and generously helping many dozens if not hundreds of member speakers to accelerate their progress.
Dear Peter, on behalf of Mercury members past and present, for your services above and beyond the call of duty, we thank you.
Congratulations to our very own Olaf, Willy, and Lisa for their successes in the recent Area Contest which took place on September 22nd in Berlin. We are proud to announce that Olaf came first in the humorous speech competition (not easy to do!), while in the Table Topics competition, Willy came first and Lisa came third. Well done people! All reported challenging but enjoyable experiences overall, and recommend highly that other members take part in future competitions. The opportunities for growth - not to mention the satisfaction of a winning place - are substantial!
This is a belated shout-out to our very own secretary Lisa P. who completed her Competent Communicator manual on July 25th earlier this year! Congratulations to Lisa, who is already powering her way through the advanced professional speaker manual. While Lisa's icebreaker was exceptionally good, her steady growth in poise, confidence, and skill in public presentation has been a pleasure to watch as she has progressed through the CC manual.
Well done Lisa!
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