M.E.A.T. – Members Experiencing Amazing Transformation by Tulia Lopes
Another sparkling meeting!
Hadrian Augustyn, our grammarian, wisely chose this very much appropriate word for the
celebration of M.E.A.T. 5th birthday.
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but, Advanced clubs are a big challenge in the
Toastmasters’ world. Most of them die off before reaching their third year. Why? Well, there are several reasons, however, the main and most common one is that most advanced clubs fail to keep their members engaged and motivated, as a consequence the energy and enthusiasm start fading away and then, all of sudden… the club is gone!
It is paramount that advanced clubs create an advanced enviroment which challenges their members to “the next level”, whatever they define this next level should be. Saying that, a strong leadership is needed to create such environment, plus a lot of creativity to make it exciting and fun! We all know that, we learn better and faster when we are enjoying ourselves.
And THAT is what M.E.A.T. is about. We were celebrating not only its 5th anniversary but above all its achievements, the effort of its leadership team and the commitment of its members to make it happen. To make M.E.A.T. to be, become, what it is now.
We, M.E.A.T. officers and members, can confidently say that our club is setting examples and has become a role model to many other clubs to follow, and of course, we are proudly celebrating that.
We had many Toastmasters guests, VIP guests and founding members celebrating with us.
I’ll take the opportunity to share some of their own insights about M.E.A.T.
Morag Mathieson, Toastmasters International Second Vice-President, told us that she sees M.E.A.T. as “Members Experiencing Amazing Transformation”. Lovely and true. (Thank you for that Morag.)
Elizabeth Smith, District 95 Director, mentioned how M.E.A.T. has not only set its standards high but how it shows service leadership throught its members volunteering in many activities outside the club boundaries, becoming trendsetters and role models to other clubs in the Toastmasters environment. (Thank you Elizabeth. We follow Toastmasters motto: RISE – Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence.)
Our current President, Karla Viebahn (soon to be our Immediate Past President), gave an outstanding and entertaining speech praising and thanking her direct nutty team ? , the Executive Officers of M.E.A.T., for their work throughout this term, she shared the ups and downs, the challenging moments and how much she learned during the process of leading M.E.A.T. (We learned a lot from you too Karla. And above all, M.E.A.T. is also about T.E.A.M.)
And, at the top of all of this, we still had our “normal meeting” with a full agenda with prepared speeches, table topics, evaluations, all skillfuly led by Mikaela Gallon, our Toastmaster of the Morning and Esther Debus-Gregor, our General Evaluator.
From my side, I’m happy to be part of this club, as I’m glad that I had the opportunity to serve as VP Membership during this current term, and I’m personally honoured to continue supporting this amazing club to thrive beyond its borders by leading the Speaker Series, where I’ll be bringing highly qualified speakers and trainers to give private training to our members, and Toastmasters of other clubs who are seriously committed to becoming outstanding speakers and trainers themselves.
And to you out there I would say, come to visit us and expect more from M.E.A.T. and rest assured that we will definitely deliver it.
Tulia Lopes
M.E.A.T. VP Membership