Thank You

Dear Toastmasters and Friends,

What a fantastic party!

When I arrived yesterday to help arrange the Polterkeller for our party, Kristina Koch, Angela Saxby, Laura Beyer, and Mateusz Bukowski were already there, hard at work. This team of organizers has labored diligently behind the scenes for months to prepare a smashing holiday party for Zurich, Mosquito Hill and Zuriberg Toastmasters, for our fellow Toastmasters from Zug, Bern, and St. Gallen, and for our welcome friends. There isn’t enough room to record everything each one has contributed, so I’ll simply point out that without the magnanimous investment of time, talent, and even property, from each of them, our party would have been impossible.

Special kudos to one of our younger Toastmasters, Laura Beyer, whose raffle and dessert buffet last night displayed tremendous creativity, not to mention industry, as she baked and bustled the entire week to dress our tables with irresistible treats and gorgeous raffle bundles.

Big thanks to Frances Turley and William Horan, who shared their stories and a walloping serving of hilarity, and to Kamran Derakhshan, who conducted a feisty and stimulating Table Topics tournament.

Thanks also to Toastmasters who donated raffle prizes: Kristina Koch, Jack Vincent, John Styffe, and Selina Man Karlsson.

Finally, thanks to all of you who simply showed up with your smiles, your social elixirs,  and your dancing shoes, and helped to make it a warm and wonderful evening none of us will ever forget.

Douglas Hope, the Toe for Toe dance leader, told me that 200 years ago, when villagers congregated regularly for Céilidhs, quarrels between friends and neighbors would be forgotten as they danced together. That historical sketch epitomizes the spirit which we hoped to foster between Toastmasters and friends in our three clubs and beyond, when we selected a Céilidh as our holiday party activity for 2012.

So as we conclude a remarkable year and contemplate 2013, I trust we will carry this sense of camaraderie and collaboration between Toastmasters and friends into the new year.

We hope to see all of you again soon,
Olivia Coker
President
Zuriberg Toastmasters

Meeting 13. November 2012, Report by Christina Ehlers

Olivia Coker, Zuriberg Toastmasters’ president, warmly welcomed the members and the guests of the club. She went on reminding everyone about the upcoming deadline of buying tickets for the highly promising Celtic Dance Party of December 1st!

Stefano Basurto (evaluated by William Horan) got the prepared speeches off to an interesting start by describing with vivid colors the challenges of running an inline skating race in London. Illustrating the “rise and fall” in his herculean efforts to stay in the loop and cross the finish line, he suggested that a meaningful challenge is not the one that brings necessarily glory; it suffices to bring enough personal satisfaction. The use of “I” in Stefano’s speech added warmth and sensitivity managing to gain the sympathy of the entire audience in each and every kilometer of his race.

Continuing with another odyssey, Adrian Engler (evaluated by Thomas Koetzsch) described how he quit smoking. Although the vocal variety was the major objective of this 6th speech of Adrian, his witty way of presenting the hyperbole surrounding the behavior of addicted smokers turned his narrative to a first-class humorous speech. However, given so many positive examples as side effects of smoking (boost of productivity, increased concentration following nicotine intake), Adrian left the house amicably wondering whether he has quit smoking by accident.

Henrik Karlssson (evaluated by Olivia Coker) delivered an advanced speech attracting feedback on his story-telling competences. “Now or Later?” was a delicate motivation touch prompting the listener to make the small steps (now or later) which can drive to a great adventure; in this case, a trip around the world. The moral was impeccable, but the climax might have been improved by painting a picture of the trip itself and drawing the audience into it.

The first half of the session was concluded by Christian Funke, whose elegant jokes nicely entertained the audience prior to dinner being served.

Nicholas Allan’s table topics were distinctly easygoing as they reminded me of the sweet kinder garden question “What’s your favorite XYZ?”. Nicholas wanted particularly to know what our favorite film, color, holiday, food, drink, and season were.

Winners of the evening were Kevin Boomsma (Best Evaluator), Paul (?) (Best Table Topic Speaker and guest), and Adrian Engler (Best Speaker).