M.E.A.T. meetings are becoming more and more challenging and professional. It is visible the combined effort from all members to stand for what we call an “Advanced” club. It is clearly shown through the meeting preparation, agenda, quality of speeches, and effortless participation of all attendees.
The theme of the meeting was “Give”, and that set very well the mood of all for us because each participant gave their best throughout the meeting.
Our TT Master, Naomi Isaacs, challenged us to “speak from the heart”, without thinking too much before diving into the topic she was giving to each of us. We had to pick random words and make the best use of them with impromptu stories. It was a real “brain teaser”.
We had quite a few volunteers this time and it was amazing how by challenging themselves to speak from the heart raised their own energy and enthusiasm, and therefore, the quality of their deliveries. I will take the opportunity to share the outcomes of their messages, as I particularly found them precious and priceless.
I was the first TT volunteer, and my word was Donate. In my impromptu speech I suggested that “we should donate ourselves to our audience when speaking and presenting, by speaking from the heart, not from the head”.
TT 2 was Hector Perez, and his word was Award. Hector referred to the Olympic games, and said that the “Olympic spirit should survive, despite of all politics around it”. And he reminded us that, “we are all athletes in our daily lives, by accomplishing our daily tasks and goals. Therefore we should not forget to reward ourselves regularly.”
TT 3 was our guest, Lubomír Turák, and his word was Distribute. Lubomír told us that “we should distribute things that are important for people. Things that could make them smile, fell happy, and change their lives.”
TT 4 was Bence Goczan, our VPE, and his word was Provide. Bence beautifully reminded us that “to provide our experiences is the best we can give others, especially to the young generation”.
TT 5 was Esther Debus-Gregor and her word was Contribute. Esther told us that “contribution (the noun) is a collective action”, and she highlighted that “successful toastmasters meetings are examples of that”.
TT 6 was Karla Viebahn, and her word was Furnish. Karla said that the first thing that came to her mind was a furniture store, however, thinking further she made the analogy of how “funishing a house with love and care can be related to furnishing our children with love and care so they develop strong values and principles”. Beautiful!
TT 7 was Michael Antesberger, and his word was Deliver. It is amazing how our brain works because Michael said the first thing that came to his mind was “deliver the liver”, which he told us it was something from a scary movie he watched in the past. However, he managed to transition to something more valuable (thank God!) by sharing with us that “although in most cases when we think about delivery we think about receiving goods from a courier (especially in this pandemic time), he reminded us that delivery is also about giving, not only getting.”
Lastly, our TT 8 was Markus Künkel and his word was Grant. Markus said that the word reminded him an “University grant” for education. And he told us that he didn’t get any during his student time, however, “he was lucky enough to have had parents who granted him (and his brother) the opportunity to travel to anywhere in the world they wanted, and they picked Japan”.
Amazing isn’t it?
Words carry emotions with them, and those emotions are directly related to our personal stories and experiences. Our Table Topics volunteers today showed us how words make us travel in our imagination, take us back to places, people, and experiences.
On that note, choose your words carefully. Build a rich and empowering vocabulary. By doing so you will be creating high quality emotions and experiences in your own life and in the lives of others around you, your audience.
And above all, give, always from your heart.
