Toastmasters Club #620500, Beijing, China

Meeting Minutes March 18,2009 Good Boss, Bad Boss

Dear All,

What kind of life style do you have and how you guys spend your life? Let our team tell you how and why. Each meeting in GC is special and we always have fresh air for the meeting, here we have first our beautiful member Ms. Sue Jiang lead this meeting and chose this theme, she always be an deep thinker and let us enjoy our life, after we smelled flowers around us long time ago and teach us how to play Golf, she bring another meaningful them for us, that is “How to spend your life”. Here we also have our first NEWS MINUTES lead by our experienced member Mr. Kelvin. Let me tell you how it was and how wonderful it was.

March 11, 2009

Our president Ms. Angela gave us a wonderful opening showed us her big smile, She brought an nice and worm welcome to our old members and new guest. More new guest came to our meeting this time, they were:
-Ms. Carry, it was third time for her to come to our meeting
-Ms. Portia Wang
-Ms. Alee
-Ms. Sha Sha
-Mr. Zebo
-Ms. Donna
-Ms. Yong Mei came to our club for 2 times
-Ms. Ann
-Mr. Designer and he is on a business trip for few days
-Ms. From Taiwan and live in Beijing now
-Ms. Yi Nengjing Student and want to go abroad this year

Toastermaster Ms. Sue Jiang showed us her life style and brought an meaningful topic that is “How to spend your life”.

GE Bruce Gao led her team in a special way, he showed his humors and used many body language
-Timer Cathy Liu Bing Liu Bing told us how to control our meeting, he has two tools that is Agenda and Cards, green yellow and red, green card means that you have max time for your speech, red card means that you should end up your speech, yellow card in the middle, in Table Topic section when he showed red card you still have 15 sec, in Prepared speech you still have 30 sec.

In Table topics section

Table Topics Master Rolf Rolf always bring fresh idea for us can creative, he used another way to test our skills, he let us choose a topic and don’t open it then the speaker talk about the impressive trip and he will show her/him the topic which she/he chose before the speech, he require the people continue the speech based on the topic which he/she chose. Very challenge topic and let’s see who and how they give a speech.
Liu Bing-A trip to wife’s home town-Hammer-That is a long way from his wife and they were tired. How he used hammer during the trip.

Matt-A general Vacation-Flash Light-He spend a vacation with his friends and GF and laying on the beach in the night, then he bring flash light, how fun he had.

Alee-Tianjin – Koran-Japan-Crease?-Campus Retired people and had fun with them, they have special food and have 3 swimming pool, however she need a campus.

Angela –Qing Hai-DVD She like the beautiful mountains and bring DVD with her relax and joyful.

Donna-Africa-Noodles—she wants to see animals and need noodles also

Yong Mei-Netherlands-News Paper –She like Hiking and spent long time there and didn’t take newspaper with her.

Sha Sha-Professional mountain climber
She went there with her mom, she bought ice-cream for her mom and let her mom know how to help poor people.

Do you want to know more about our table topic? Come next time and you can enjoy our next meeting and I am sure you will love it.

News Master Kelvin Zhang He used an special way to bring a news for us, we read news everyday and he found a real news around us, that is a new restaurant, he is from Lan Zhou and he found an very good Lan Zhou beef noodles restaurant named YanLan restaurant in West street of Jingshan. We are looking forward to test it some day.

In our Prepared Speeches section:

Speaker 1-David Guo CC1-Ice breaker Life is circles
Impressive opening showed us his life circles in his life: Life in Yu Lin, Life in Xi An then go to Beijing, third circle is TM

He was born in a small hospital in Shan Xi Yu Lin, he has 2 old brothers and his parent hope that he can be a girl, however, he is a real man, his parent planed to give him a name as Shen Li(a name for a girl), when he was born his name became Shen Li(a boy’s name), he enjoy his life in his life there, he go swimming, fishing, hunting, etc. His family moved to Xi An when he was 9 years old and he entered Xi An Dayan University, when he was graduated from university in the year of 1998, he back in touch with some of his friends. He word in Beijing for 10 years

Cherry Gao CC5 Take hold of everyday
Cherry brought an impressive story around her, a mom want to save money and live in a poor location, her son fight with others and died, however, it was been found that she have a big money, why she want to save money and what the money for? The money is just for better life, if the people gone what does money mean? She realized that is what the life for and don’t want to squander her life and save money, she want to buy what she need and don’t want to save money just for some simple reason, she would like to enjoy the life. That is what we should follow, enjoy the life and be happy.

Lydia CC7 Life is not race
She used to study abroad and has good education back ground, however, when she back to China she found many classmates became General manager or VP in a company, she was feel unfair, and she would like to be better and would like to compete with others, however, when she back from a trip in Si Chuan she changed her mind, the people in Si Chuan influenced her, the people enjoy their life there and no race, she realized that she can spend her life in a special way and enjoy life, she also changed her style, she wear a pink suit instead of black one. She showed us that how to spend our life and there is no race in our life.

Quiz master Will Lu
Shared some questions with us and test our listening and memory, he used some general questions and we should put the answer together. That is senior level question test.

Good news:

Yong Mei & Ann will join us from today. Welcome you both and hope you tow can enjoy your life in TM Global Communicator

The awards were:
Best Evaluator: Matt
Best Speaker: Cherry Gao
Best Table Topic Speaker: Liu Bing
Best Function Role: Sue Jiang

Members presented were: Angela, Liu Bing, CK, Cathy Yue, Cathy Jia, Daisy, Justine, Kelvin, Bruce, Lydia Jin, Sue Jiang, Rolf, Cherry, Will.

Angela announced that we will also hold an Chinese contest on March 23, Please show your talent and register as early as you can.

Daisy
Club Secretary

Meeting minutes March 11,2009 How to spend your life

Dear All,

What kind of life style do you have and how you guys spend your life? Let our team tell you how and why. Each meeting in GC is special and we always have fresh air for the meeting, here we have first our beautiful member Ms. Sue Jiang lead this meeting and chose this theme, she always be an deep thinker and let us enjoy our life, after we smelled flowers around us long time ago and teach us how to play Golf, she bring another meaningful them for us, that is “How to spend your life”. Here we also have our first NEWS MINUTES lead by our experienced member Mr. Kelvin. Let me tell you how it was and how wonderful it was.

March 11, 2009

Our president Ms. Angela gave us a wonderful opening showed us her big smile, She brought an nice and worm welcome to our old members and new guest. More new guest came to our meeting this time, they were:
-Ms. Carry, it was third time for her to come to our meeting
-Ms. Portia Wang
-Ms. Alee
-Ms. Sha Sha
-Mr. Zebo
-Ms. Donna
-Ms. Yong Mei came to our club for 2 times
-Ms. Ann
-Mr. Designer and he is on a business trip for few days
-Ms. From Taiwan and live in Beijing now
-Ms. Yi Nengjing Student and want to go abroad this year

Toastermaster Ms. Sue Jiang showed us her life style and brought an meaningful topic that is “How to spend your life”.

GE Bruce Gao led her team in a special way, he showed his humors and used many body language
-Timer Cathy Liu Bing Liu Bing told us how to control our meeting, he has two tools that is Agenda and Cards, green yellow and red, green card means that you have max time for your speech, red card means that you should end up your speech, yellow card in the middle, in Table Topic section when he showed red card you still have 15 sec, in Prepared speech you still have 30 sec.

In Table topics section

Table Topics Master Rolf Rolf always bring fresh idea for us can creative, he used another way to test our skills, he let us choose a topic and don’t open it then the speaker talk about the impressive trip and he will show her/him the topic which she/he chose before the speech, he require the people continue the speech based on the topic which he/she chose. Very challenge topic and let’s see who and how they give a speech.
Liu Bing-A trip to wife’s home town-Hammer-That is a long way from his wife and they were tired. How he used hammer during the trip.

Matt-A general Vacation-Flash Light-He spend a vacation with his friends and GF and laying on the beach in the night, then he bring flash light, how fun he had.

Alee-Tianjin – Koran-Japan-Crease?-Campus Retired people and had fun with them, they have special food and have 3 swimming pool, however she need a campus.

Angela –Qing Hai-DVD She like the beautiful mountains and bring DVD with her relax and joyful.

Donna-Africa-Noodles—she wants to see animals and need noodles also

Yong Mei-Netherlands-News Paper –She like Hiking and spent long time there and didn’t take newspaper with her.

Sha Sha-Professional mountain climber
She went there with her mom, she bought ice-cream for her mom and let her mom know how to help poor people.

Do you want to know more about our table topic? Come next time and you can enjoy our next meeting and I am sure you will love it.

News Master Kelvin Zhang He used an special way to bring a news for us, we read news everyday and he found a real news around us, that is a new restaurant, he is from Lan Zhou and he found an very good Lan Zhou beef noodles restaurant named YanLan restaurant in West street of Jingshan. We are looking forward to test it some day.

In our Prepared Speeches section:

Speaker 1-David Guo CC1-Ice breaker Life is circles
Impressive opening showed us his life circles in his life: Life in Yu Lin, Life in Xi An then go to Beijing, third circle is TM

He was born in a small hospital in Shan Xi Yu Lin, he has 2 old brothers and his parent hope that he can be a girl, however, he is a real man, his parent planed to give him a name as Shen Li(a name for a girl), when he was born his name became Shen Li(a boy’s name), he enjoy his life in his life there, he go swimming, fishing, hunting, etc. His family moved to Xi An when he was 9 years old and he entered Xi An Dayan University, when he was graduated from university in the year of 1998, he back in touch with some of his friends. He word in Beijing for 10 years

Cherry Gao CC5 Take hold of everyday
Cherry brought an impressive story around her, a mom want to save money and live in a poor location, her son fight with others and died, however, it was been found that she have a big money, why she want to save money and what the money for? The money is just for better life, if the people gone what does money mean? She realized that is what the life for and don’t want to squander her life and save money, she want to buy what she need and don’t want to save money just for some simple reason, she would like to enjoy the life. That is what we should follow, enjoy the life and be happy.

Lydia CC7 Life is not race
She used to study abroad and has good education back ground, however, when she back to China she found many classmates became General manager or VP in a company, she was feel unfair, and she would like to be better and would like to compete with others, however, when she back from a trip in Si Chuan she changed her mind, the people in Si Chuan influenced her, the people enjoy their life there and no race, she realized that she can spend her life in a special way and enjoy life, she also changed her style, she wear a pink suit instead of black one. She showed us that how to spend our life and there is no race in our life.

Quiz master Will Lu
Shared some questions with us and test our listening and memory, he used some general questions and we should put the answer together. That is senior level question test.

Good news:

Yong Mei & Ann will join us from today. Welcome you both and hope you tow can enjoy your life in TM Global Communicator

The awards were:
Best Evaluator: Matt
Best Speaker: Cherry Gao
Best Table Topic Speaker: Liu Bing
Best Function Role: Sue Jiang

Members presented were: Angela, Liu Bing, CK, Cathy Yue, Cathy Jia, Daisy, Justine, Kelvin, Bruce, Lydia Jin, Sue Jiang, Rolf, Cherry, Will.

Angela announced that we will also hold an Chinese contest on March 23, Please show your talent and register as early as you can.

Daisy
Club Secretary

Meeting Minutes Feb 25,2009 Speech Contest

Dear All,

Sorry for absent for a long time because of some reasons and didn’t do my role seriously, here I came back and try to make it better, and, meeting minutes came back with me, I got an offer from an US education company and to be HRM from this year in charge of 20 new cities recruiting and may travel sometimes, I try to do my work and hope everyone can benefit from the notes.

The new years first contest was hold in a nice night, everyone are nervous and looking forward to see how it will be, our President Ms. Angela and Toastermaster Mr. Jeff came to the meeting room very early and prepare for the contest, our contest member are also in tension to prepare for the exacting minutes. More old members came and looking forward the New Year’s first contest.

Feb 25, 2009

Our president Ms. Angela gave us a wonderful opening and chose a joyful topic that is our SPECH CONTEST, She brought an nice and worm welcome to our old members and new guest. After some days absent I can feel that our club has a new style and our new committee members are trying to find new way to make our club better and show their professionalism.

Our new Guest:
-Ms. Cathy Qin She is from Tianjin Toastmasters
-Ms. Shuchen Chang张淑贞 She is from Taiwan
-David He comes to our TM for 3 times and will join our club soon
-Mandy She used to be our member long time ago and to be marketing manager in an lighting company now.

Toastermaster Mr. Jeff Wang showed us his professionalism, this is the first speech contest and some of our members don’t know how it will be and don’t know the process of speech contest, Jeff explained it in detail:
Club contest——Area Contest—–Division Contest——District Contest——International Contest
That is our contest process, if you got first and second place in our club contest you have right to stand for our club to participant Area contest, we can know our destination.
GE Terra led her team and showed us the difference in this special contest meeting, we don’t have word smith and Ah counter, we only have two timers, Ms. Cathy Yue and Mr. Will both will be our most powerful person in this meeting, they will help us to control our time and help to evaluate the speech’s quality:
-Timer Cathy Yue & Will Cathy told us that she will show us three cards in our speech, when green card been showed, that means that you have maximum time in your speech, yellow cards means that you still have some time in your speech, the red card means that you should sum up, in the table topic section, the speaker have 2 minutes for your speech and when she rise up green card means that still have 1 minute left, when yellow card been showed that means that you have 30 second left, when red card been showed you should end up your speech; In contest speech, each speaker have 7 minutes to delivery the speech, when she showed green card, that means that speaker have 2 minutes left, when yellow card been showed that means that speaker have 1 minute left, when red card been showed speaker should end up the speech, when red card been showed he still have 30 second, if the speech over the time or less than 6 minutes the speech will be recognized as disqualified speech and lost the chance to lose in the contest, she will not make any noise or signals as usual. After the speech Mr. Will will gave us report.

In Table topics section

Table Topics Master Kelvin chose interesting topic and lead a humor topic, his way is quite cractive, he helped speakers choose topic and let us look back, what we used to be and what good things or bad things we experienced, the year from 1968-2009, let’s review the years together, that is meaningful and we can think what happened in the past, very interesting topic in a humor way.
Angela-2008 unhappy things-She looked back and talked some happy things including visited 11 places in China and also Olympic Games, later she talked about the bad thing in 2008, she used to compete for the role in her work but failed, that is really bad thing in her mind.
-That always bad in our life, but no pain no gain, I think she can be better next time or can find another platform, Angela always outstanding.

Cherry-2002 happy things-In the year of 2000 she entry university in Inner Mongolia, for the first year in university she lost her self and didn’t join any social activity and work hard, one year later she got high mark because of her hard work and in the year of 2002 she got confidence, she became take part in some activities and joined Student Union, that is good thing for her, she got confidence and be proved that she is outstanding.
-Life is long, we all may met this kind of experience, after some effort on some project we won in the end, that is quite happy. I also have the same experience and I don’t fear any difficulties right now and try to find some way to solve the problem. No pain no gain. Trust that we are the best and we can do it.

Lydia Jin-2009 happy things-Lydia feel happy because her company got some changes and became better, the company’s success can inference everyone and she is quite happy to be marketing manager and proud to be one part of Benze.
-We grow with our company and also can feel happy if the company’s business became better, we are the part of company and put more effort in our work and we are proud to be the part of our company.

Mandy-1999-happy things-Mandy brought us to the new century Eve, she got promotion, and she worked in marketing department in an US chemical company, that year she got promotion.

David-2000 happy things-
He used to be software engineer and always travel to different cities, he was work for Bank in Guangdong Dongguan, the clients are quite rich and he tested many delicious foods, which are good memory.

Shuchen Chang (Guest)-1997 unhappy things
She used humor way and count down the years at the very beginning then she got answer and found that there was no unhappy things because she got married at that year, however, she also remember that she planed to study in abroad but her BF didn’t agree, that make she feel unhappy.

Table Topics Evaluator Cathy Jia gave detail evaluation for 6 table topics speakers, shining points and weak points

In Speech Contest, three experienced speaker gave us impressive speeches:

Liu Bing Stretch for better
Impressive drawing and explain TM different stages which have different direction
-CL/CC-AL
-CL/CC-AC

That is two sides of TM and focus on different direction, however we should step by step, give yourself some stretching goals can help you achieve your goal, he used an example that Rolf told him that what he did in the past years he start from reduce”Ah” and gave himself more pressure, he has some purpose each time once he came to TM, and try to make progress everyday. Set stretching goals can make us better.

Jason Jiao Hermit crab
Jason Jiao explained how hermit crab’s behave, it takes others shell and have their language, it change their shell once they found a suitable shell, it eat a lot and their body became bigger, the old shell is not suitable for it at all, it need a bigger one, this way can related with our life, the job hunting just like change shell as hermit crab. He used an example, a big factory produce soap, the manufacture line put the soap in the bottle, the success rate is quite low, some rich factory bought robot to help them improve the success rate, however, the poor factory don’t have so much money, but the manager let the engineer to improve it within 5,000 RMB, how to do that, if the engineer quit or find another way to solve the problem?! Finally, the engineer let one people looking at the bottles and pull down the empty bottles, the problem has been solved, stay or find a solution, that is the way of hermit crab.

Tessa A cell phone, a stranger and me
Tessa gave us a vivid story and showed us how far from each other, she used an question and want to borrow our TM members’ cell phone, she got a quick response that is no problem, she explained that because she we know each other and trust others, however, she used to face a problem that her cell phone had run out and she was in a strange place very late, she want to borrow a cell phone, however, she asked two people and they all don’t trust her and find some reasons to reject, she want to try last time, one guy helped her finally, she was moved and start to think about it. If we can be kind to others and others can copy your behave. Show your nice face and pass it to others, the world can be better.

Porsher Oh…Oh…
“Oh” can express ourselves in different way, she used to work in Japanese company and found that the people have different understanding of “Oh”, she write something on the name card which Japanese gave to her, the Japanese “Oh”(means surprise and can’t understand), Porsher said “Oh”(means that she realized that she made something wrong) they used the same word”Oh”but it have many meanings. She also used another example, a guy complained his wife, say some bad things towards his wife, Porsher said”Oh”, it means that how this guy complain his wife, she also think that this guy is not very good, otherwise he will not complain his wife.
She encourages “Oh” frequently.

Matt Is your phone powered on?
Matt used to ask his student that how to speak Chinese, he can’t control his tongs, Sb told him that “That is simple, just speak quickly and forget tong”, he practice”Wo Xiang Qu Wangfu Jing”(Very fast) the driver don’t understand, he tried for several times and finally he speak slowly with body language, then the driver understand, it showed that speak fast can’t help. What you want and you should put more effort and start from easy things and practice, Da Shan spent 6 month learn songs, that is a good start for language, why you buy a phone, you must have purpose to buy a phone, that is you should set a specific goal and you also need power to use, learn language is your goal and you should practice that can help you achieve your goal.

The awards were:
First Place: Tessa
Second Place: Matt
Third Place: Liu Bing
Best table topic speaker: Cherry

Members presented were: Angela, Liu Bing, CK, Cathy Yue, Cathy Jia, Daisy, Justine, Kelvin, Bruce, Porsher, Lydia Jin, Tessa, Jeff, Terra, Sue Jiang, Rolf, Cherry, Will, and Jason Jiao.

Guests were: Cathy Qin, Shuchen Chang, David and Mandy

For the first Toastermasters Speech Contest meeting, it is a good start for the new year and we can see that our meeting quality became better, let’s put more effort on it and make progress everyday.

Daisy
Club Secretary

Meeting Minutes Feb 18,2009

The meeting this week was a bold meeting, because TM Lydia brought us a theme on “Thick Face and Black Heart”, and she creatively put the Guest Introduction session ahead of her theme promotion which gave the guests a nice feeling about our club.
Our Guests George, HP, Ann (from Xiamen TM Club), Anelina and Shengwei introduced themselves.

Lydia Motivated audience by raising questions and lead a discussion session to promote the theme.

GE team was lead by Peter, he introduced the roles and purpose with an enthusiastic smile from the beginning to end.
The word of the day was “Meek”, even though it being a new word for most of audience, still there were 8 speakers used the word in their speeches.

TT session was led by CK, he referred to the manual and gave audience 20seconds to think about the message around his topics:
First topic was: “As a boss of a small company, you need to cut 20% cost or headcount off, what you will speak to your employees”
Porsher was chosen to speak, she smartly created ideas to encourage employees to bid for a low salary to avoid being laid off.
Second topic was: “Your friend wants to borrow the Benz car from you, but you are reluctant to lend, what you will say to him”
Our guest Sheng Wei volunteered to speak and he chose to simply reject the request.
Third topic was: ”You have to fire a staff in your department, how you will say to them”
Guest HP volunteered on to the stage and decided to have a lucky draw to solve the problem.
Fourth topic was: “you are in a job interview, your interviewer wants you to explain a financial report which you are not good at, how you deal with it”
Matt came to the stage with an amazing preparation of a quickly drawn chart on his hand to deliver the TT with Visual Aids!, and he delivered his message with humor and convincing confidence.
Fifth topic was: “you need to sell an expensive equipment to your customer who are not really need that one, how you will say to him”
Guest Ann bravely took the challenge and tried to find out other ways to avoid the hurt to both sides.

TTE Jeff gave each speaker a specific feedback on what they did well and how they could be better next time.

Quote master Cathy Jia brought a quote: “A great obstacle to happiness is to anticipate too great a happiness”

In the prepared speech session, we had two speakers
First speaker Will presented his side around “Dreams”, he shared his story about how he broke with his girlfriend due to money concerns from her family, what else can irritate a young man to pursuit big wealth than this? So MMM (Make More Money) was once his dream in all. However, in the end of his speech he diverted to a more balance on the side of emotion with family, parents more than wealth”
His evaluator Tessa confirmed his strength on the use of visual aids and fluent delivery, and advise him to hold the stage more firmly.

Second speaker Cathy Yue shared with us tips on how to save money in such economic crisis age, which were “Indirect saving” and sustainable saving”, her message was delivered in an organized structure.
According to her evaluator Bruce, her confidence could be reinforced by anticipating more of the concerns of audience.

The awards were given to Best TTS: Matt, Best Speaker: Will, Best Evaluator: Tessa, Best Function: Lydia.

Members presented were: CK, Will, Kelvin, Cathy Jia, Matt, Liu Bing, Susan, Sue, Tessa, Jeff, Peter, Cathy Yue, Justine, Lydia, Porsher.

At the end of the meeting, Tessa promoted the Speech Contest to be held next meetingand confirmed the meeting roles.

By Liu Bing

Meeting Minutes Feb 11,2009

Cathy Yuestarted the meeting from her happy spring festival experience of the red envelopes, however, in this first time after her working experience she had to face a new pressure about her big case of life time (zhongshendashi), the experience is so warmly familiar with all the married people – a so traditional typical Chinese concern on young people. Cathy brought up and promoted the theme smoothly.
GE team had new practice brought by Timer Bruce, he tested members’ memory on the timing rules by a series of questions in his role introduction, which had also good effects on reminding audience of every rules of time controlling

TTM Liu Bing brought a debate TT, in which three pair of speakers had chance to debate on the Chinese traditions in Spring festival.
Arthur and Cherry were to support and against “visit relatives”, Cheery did a bold fight.
Yong Mei and Johnson were to support and against “stay awake the whole new year’s eve night”
Angelina and Kevin chose the positive and negative side of “giving Ya Sui Money”, they did the most fierce fight with their points of views were fully exposed to audience.

TTE Jason gave each of them encouraging and specific feedback in a so enthusiastic way.

Jenny gave her CCI speech about herself, she introduced herself in several aspects and we deeply remembered that she is a microphone master in karaoke, for sure she will have chance to demonstrate in our coming club events.
Her evaluator Jeff thoroughly confirmed her speech delivery while encouraging her to add more enthusiastic effect by eye contacts with audience.

Cherry did her “How to say it” speech, two meaningful stories was narrated in a very touching way, I would nearly come to tears. She successful reminded audience that precious things need an open heart to receive.
Her evaluator Liu Bing suggested that her speech would be more powerful by putting the rhetoric devices more

Peter brought a speech with clear logical hinge on the Disney land in China, however, there were many new words for some members, hence his evaluator CK advised him to choose more oral expressions in his speech.

Obviously our GE Lydia had done a good preparation on her role, she gave comments on every roles which were not evaluated. Especially the feedback to evaluators, which were specific, humor and helpful.
Grammarian Tessa introduced word “Cheer” and pointed many shining points of language usage in her end report.

Members attended: Cherry, Arthur, Liu Bing, Bruce, Peter, Tessa, Jenny, Jeff, CK, Cathy Yue, Jason, Lydia

Guests were: Yong Mei and Kevin knew GC from our website, Will from Angela, Cynthia Zhang from Jason, Johnson and Angelina

The Best TT Speaker given to Kevin, Best Speaker given to Cherry, Best Evaluator was Liu Bing, Best Function was Cathy Yue.

By Cathy Yue & Liu Bing

Meeting Minutes Jan 21,2009 Taste of Spring Festival

Prior to the meeting, President Angela cheerfully greeted the members and guests. She briefly stated the mission of Toastmaster and reiterated the regular rules. (The audience was noticeably smaller than usual as the time was approaching the Spring Festival). As the meeting started, TM Cherry explained her chosen of the meeting theme - “Taste of Spring Festival”. She recalled many childhood memories and traditions related to Spring Festival, e.g. wearing new clothes, making dumplings with the family, firing fireworks, receiving red envelop, visiting relatives and expressing good wishes, etc. By contrasting the festive atmosphere in the past and nowadays, she concluded that the tradition of celebrating Spring Festival is “fading out”. She attributed the diluted taste of today’s Spring Festival to the material abundance of the modern society, and called the audience to “refresh those long lost memories”.

Then Two guests presented in this meeting gave brief self- introductions to the audience: A not so-new-guest and promised-to-be member Angelina and her American friend Josh.

In the following session, GE Liu Bing came to stage to introduce the evaluation team. The first team member was WordSmith Tessa, and she brought the “word of the day” – Cherish. She expressed her cherishment of the friendship of fellow Toastmasters while explaining the usage of this word. Afterwards, Timer CK and Ah-counter Angela introduced their own function roles respectively.

In the Table Topic session, TTM Susan introduced the theme of this session and explained the rules in a confident matter. According to her instruction, every participant would need to give an impromptu speech about a random selected pic depicting some typical activities during Spring Festival:

1st speaker Liu Bing (was asked to talk about karaoke with his family): He skillfully switched the topic to some other activities such as inviting friends to visit their home and skiing as his wife does not like singing.

2nd speaker Tessa (was asked to talk about a classmate union during Spring Festival): She gave a vivid description of the changes of some childhood’s friends of primary school reunion, including “her first love in primary school.” J

3rd speaker Jenny (was asked to talk about watching TV with her family during Spring Festival): She said rater than watching TV, she prefers some other activities such as chatting or going to movies with her family;

4th speaker Nancy (was asked to talk about firecrackers): She talked about the most famous firecracker of this year – footprint, which was reminiscent of the grant fireworks of the 2008 Olympic 2008 opening ceremony;

5th speaker Josh (was asked to talk about red envelop): He related the Spring Festival to Christmas and related the red envelop to Christmas gifts, and genuinely summed up the sprit of both festivals as “giving and sharing love.”

6th speaker Angelina (was asked to talk about pet and holidays): she talked about her love for military dogs and how pets help people to keep a harmonious and balanced lifestyle;
7th speaker Justine was asked to talk about family dinner on Spring Festival): She talked about memories of old family gatherings with relatives in her late grandparent’s home during Spring Festival;

In the next session, Quote Mater Jenny shared a meaningful quote by Dolly Parton – “Storm makes trees to take a deeper root.” Combined with some personal experiences, she reminded everybody that “Hardship will enable us to counter difficulties” and “Strong will is developed in troubled time. In a convincing and sincere way, she inspired the audience to “challenge every moment and whatever life gives to you”.

In the following Table Topic Evaluation session, TTE Tarra gave some detailed and specific feedback to the speakers of their impromptu speech:
1) For Liu Bing: he was witty enough to switch a subject to fit his own situation;
2) For Tessa: she made up interesting stories and demonstrated good time management; also, her conclusion was impressive;
3) For Jenny: she needs to appear happier to suit the festive atmosphere and topic;
4) For Nanny: she made a good relation of her topic to Olympics;
5) For Josh: he made a good relation to gifts to loving relationships with people;
6) For Angelina: she gave a cheerful speech but should try not speak Chinese and laugh too much;
7) For Justine: her speech was a bit unrelated to the topic and she needed to make her description more vivid.

In Part 2, the first speaker Tessa gave her CC10 speech (Inspire the audience) with the title “Start from Ourselves” after a brief introduction of TM Cherry. She started the speech with a serial of questions and personal experiences to describe the daily conflicts that we encounter in life. She explored the reason of these conflicts and concluded they were primarily caused by “always think from ourselves”. She continued to tell us a beautiful and heart-touching movie – “Pay Forward” and illustrated a system that introduced by it. According to this theory, if every person could do something kind to people around them and the whole world would eventually change to a better place. Her story deeply moved the audience and her word “Ask not what other people can do for you, but what you can do for the others” was quite impressive. After she finished the speech, TM Cherry gave her personal comment to compared good deeds as sunshine that everyone welcome with an open heart.

Next, President Angela delivered an education speech about Toastmaster. To new guests and many Toastmaster members alike, her speech was very informative about aspects of Toastmaster, from its history, its purpose, its structure, its intensive network, the different level of speech projects, club programs, the awards and achievement of Global Communicators, etc. Despite all the detailed and comprehensive information, Angela gave a super eloquent yet interesting orientation that enchanted the entire audience.

After Quiz Master Angelina gave a good test of the listening skill of the audience, Speech Evaluator Justine provided her evaluation of Tessa’s CC10 speech. First, she congratulated Tessa for giving a very effective inspirational speech. She pointed out that the biggest shining point of this speech was the use of lots of stories, personal experiences and anecdotes which helped to attract the interest of audience and add meaning to her message. The story of the movie was very impressive, as well as the pic Tessa drew on the blackboard. Advices for improvement were a stronger conclusion and strengthened emotional appeal would add drama to the message. Nevertheless, Tessa gave a very successful speech especially considering the short-time Tessa had to prepare the speech.

In the evaluation session, Timer CK thanked the cooperation of most participates with a few exceptions. Ah-counter Angelasummarized the crunch words used during the meeting. She especially praised the clean and unhurried style of Terra. Wordsmith Tessareported the use of the “word of day” during the meeting. For shining points, she recited Jenny saying “Without a painful start, you never have a beginning” and some good expression by other members. Finally, GE Liu Bing delivered a convincing evaluation of the whole meeting:

1) For TM Cherry: Overall, she gave an excellent opening remark and created a good Spring Festival atmosphere throughout the meeting; one pity was she did not give further explanation to the beautiful pic she pasted on the blackboard.
2) For Wordsmith Tessa, She did a good job for effectively introduced a meaningful word to the audience;
3) For Timer CK: he was praised for his vigorous effort to reinforce the timing rule;
4) For Ah-counter Angela: she gave good suggestions;
5) For TTE Terra: She did effective job to evaluate more than usual speakers and her two dimension evaluation method was impressive. Liu Bing also suggested her to use specific examples to guide speakers follow her advice.
6) For Quote master Jenny and Quiz Master Angelina: both did a good job despite their lack of experience to take function roles;
7) For Speech Evaluator Justine: she closely followed the menu to measure the speech of Tessa;
For President Angela: she did an excellent job to give a comprehensive speech which brought lots of useful information to the audience.

The Role Call session was led by VPE Tessa for next meeting on Feb 4:
Toastmaster #1CK ChenKe
General EvaluatorCherry Gao
Wordsmith GrammarianKelvin Zhang
Timer #1Sissi Zhang
Table TopicsAngela Han
Quote MasterPeter Liu
Table Topics EvaluatorJustine Chang
Speaker #1Cathy Jia
Speaker #2Jason Jiao
Quiz MasterCathy Yue
Evaluator #1Hong Xie
Evaluator #2Jeff Wang
Evaluator #3Lydia Jin
Back up Speaker #1Bing Liu

As a warm and graceful hostess of the meeting, TM Cheery summarized the whole meeting and announced the reward:

The reward went to:
Best table topic speaker -Josh,
Best Speaker - Tessa,
Best evaluator - ?
Best function role - Cherry
Member presented: Cherry, Tessa, CK, Liu Bing, Terra, Susan, Justine, Jenny, Nancy
Guests presented: Angelina, Josh

Finally, our long term member Nancy announced her personal plan to move to Shanghai. This is a real pity to the whole club and all her friends here in Toastmaster. Although people come and go seems to be part of the nature of Toastmaster, we will all cherish the good memories and friendship that make this experience worth-well.

Meeting Minutes Jan 14,2009

VPE Tessa’sfluent introduction our meeting this week was opened.
The meeting was all about “Travel”. Toastmaster Jason promoted the theme enthusiastically, “in your travel you lost yourself first, then in next travel you will find yourself again”, from that we can see how Jason loves to travel.

GE CK lead a team with strong desire to help others.
Wordsmith Rita promoted a word “Promote”
AC Justine reminded every to control Ahs by self examples.
Timer Tessa did an excellent promotion in explaining the role and helped audience to be familiar with the timing rules.

TTE Sissi brought 12 questions about travel experience, each one were nicely designed for speakers to easily relate to.
Peter’s topic was his best travel experience in travel, he remembered his experience in Zhe Jiang.
Cherry’s topic was an unforgettable experience in travel, she beautifully described her stay in Li Jiang
Guest Johnson’s topic was challenging, he needed to share an embarrassing experience in travel, he cited his trip in Swiss where he met a cheater.
Guest Yi’s topic was about Vehicle.
Guest Jenny’s topic was to face a situation her boss gave her an urgent task when she was just about to start her trip
Guest Cat’s topic was to explain whether she likes luxury or economic trip.

TTE Bruce gave every speakers a specific feedback with focuses on speaker’s eye contact

Quotemaster Cherry shared with us: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out”. She explained the quote using the examples of bankers in the economic crisis.

There were two Speakers.
Terra shared with us her opinion toward smoking, there are three key reason for people to smoke, easier to start Communication, facilitate Thinking, and release Pressure. However, there is a very high percentage of cancer out of it, to retain your health, keep away from it.
Liu Bing shared his opinion toward Love, though there are a lot of definitions about Love, there is only one key characteristic in Love – Change, he used examples to show why Change is the key feature and urge us to lead the change to our favorite side.

Cathy Yue and Peter evaluated the two speakers.
The Final awards went to: Best TTS – Johnson, Best Speaker – Liu Bing, Best Evaluator – Cathy Yue, Best Function - Jason
There were many guests yesterday: Johnson from a Charity foundation, Yi Wan knew GC from website, Allen – a friend of Jason, wants to what attracts Jason to come on every Wednesday, Cat – our old member, Rita, Jenny and Jenny Du.
Members presented were Sissi, Susan, Justine, Cathy Yue, Tessa, Liu Bing, Cherry, Terra, Peter, Jason, Bruce.

At the end of the meeting, VPE Tessa announced the monthly theme of January, which is “Orientation” it is required not only for new members but also for all other members.

By Liu Bing

Meeting Minutes Jan 7, 2009

Dear All,

2009 is coming and my dream come true, I am our new secretary for this term, I would like to do my effort and make notes for each meeting, I hope my notes can help everyone remind the content of the meeting and understand the meeting in detail, I am happy to take this role, hereafter is the first meeting notes in 2009.

Jan 7, 2008

An impressive evening for the first TM meeting in the year of 2009, our member came to the meeting room and enjoy the meeting very much, people come here and share experience together, on this special new year club meeting, our new president Ms. Angela gave us an wonderful opening and chose a joyful topic “Enjoy Life and Have Fun”, She brought our new committee’s style also showed us the culture of our club, Life is so short and we all should enjoy the life , to be friendly and enjoy the life, we should laugh more and must have a lot of fun in our life, the club also full of fun and laugh, we not only work hard but also enjoy the real life together, that is our club!

GE Sissi Zhang led her team explaining the evaluation team:
-Wordsmith Justine told us her job: introduce new word and pay attention to the usage of the language, her special word is Cinch, it can be V. or N.it means easy or certain
-Timer Liu Bing told us how timer works and his tools: Agenda and cards and explained how to use his tools in detail.
-Ah Counter Peter mentioned the word “You know” which our members always use it in the speech, he gave us this example and would like to remind speaker reduce their useless words in the speech.

In Table topics section

Table Topics Master Cathy Yue chose interesting topic and lovely animal as the main point, based on the animal which speaker selected; they can deliver a speech based on the question which Cathy Yue gave them. The question always showed or presented the animal’s character.
Paul-Dog-He love dogs however his GF doesn’t like it and don’t want to marry him, how to persuade his GF
Paul used vivid description words as long hair white etc and try to persuade his GF.

David-Cat-If he is Tommy, how to be friends with rat Ms. Jerry
David is quite brave and give us some reasons that how can be friends with Jerry, found Jerry’s strong point and compare with him, showed us the friendly relationship between carton cat and rat.

Jason Jiao-Rabbit-Rabbit will not eat the grass which around his home
Jason Jiao showed us why rabbit don’t eat the grass around his home with his vivid words, also with special sound, rabbit is kind and full of thought, that is nature character of rabbit, rabbit always recognize the grass is a part of his home.

Cathy Zhang-Snake-Ms.Wife Bai don’t like Mr.Xu Xian
Cathy Zhang gave us an interesting reason that she don’t like Xu Xian, because he is a famer, a normal famer~ (That may not a real reason, haha)

Cathy Jia-Sheep-Sheep have right fight with Wolf and can punish Wolf
Cathy Jia don’t want to punish Wolf and want to live with wolf in peace, that is real sheep and always kind and treat other well.
Terra-Fish-if she is a fish, will she stay in the sea?
Terra told us the fish like to stay in the sea because it like freedom, we all have right to choose the life you like, she would like to be a fish in the sea.

CK-Monkey-Will Monkey king Mr. Sun Wukong will accompany Mr. Tang Seng go to west for learning
CK connected this role with VPE and Tang Seng just like mentor, Mr.CK Monkey King want to persuade Mr. Tang Seng change his way to teach,haha, that is wonderful!!

Quote Master Tessa gave us an meaningful quote “Live life to the fullest” She explain this quote in three capital letters”T,T,E” test, talent, enjoy. It just like play games, just do your best and get high score, try your best always and live life to the fullest.

Table Topics Evaluator Daisy gave detail evaluation for 6 table topics speakers, shining points and weak points:
-Paul brave and vivid description words
eye contact should improve

-David Compare with different part of the animal’s character,
Vivid description words can let we know the reason, nature gestures

Jason Jiao Nature gestures and special sound
Should speak more to enhance the content

Cathy Zhang creative and interesting opening
Enhance the content

Cathy Jia Showed sheep’s character

Terra showed us fish’s character
Good vocal verity
Good conclusion

CK creative example and had matching with VPE role in Toastermasters

In prepared speech, three experienced speaker gave us wonderful speech:

Cherry CC3 Get to the point-Cashmere Mafia
She told us an wonderful film and showed us the different story about four women, actors present different life style, whatever they breakup or quit promotion even they got problem with their kids, what they experienced and how they make decision, that is real life and be showed by movie, it quite close to our real life, after we listened what Cathy said we all want to watch this film, that is a successful speech.

Jeff CC4 How to say it-Getting around with Angry and Frustration
Jeff gave us an impressive speech and told us how to control ourselves to get around with angry and frustration, that is damage control, knowing big picture and understand others, stand on a higher level, Forgive & forget, that is efficient way to get around with angry and frustration, you can also hold on for 6 seconds, calm down and think about it, we always facing this situation, that is quite useful everybody try to count down for 6 seconds.

Susan CC7 Research your topic-Plan your vacation
Susan gave us an real example that she went to Philippine and realize she should prepare for everything, she told us how to prepare for that including paper work and doing search, find more information as she can, find difference between different travel method and agent, what you should know before you leave for traveling(culture,history,geography.etc)

The three evaluators gave evaluations in detail, Monica did a great job as usual and even pay attention to the small point of Jeff’s speech, our powerful evaluation team helped speaker realized what is strong points and weak points.

Bruce did show a great listening skill by some questions as Quiz master.

GE Sissi gave us what we did well and point out which part we should pay attention and make improvement next time.

The awards were:
best table topic speaker: Paul, best speaker Cherry, best evaluator: Monica, best function role: Angela

Members presented were: Angela, Liu Bing, CK, Cathy Yue, Cathy Jia, Daisy, Justine, Susan, Kelven, Bruce, Peter, Sissi, Lydia Jin, Tessa, Jeff, Terra, Susan Song, Sue Jiang, Monica, Rolf, Cherry.

Guests were: Paul, William, Ann, Cathy Zhang, Lily, Will

For the first Toastermasters meeting, more members came back and more guest join us, I am sure we can make our club meeting full of meaning and full of fun, let’s enjoy our life and fun together!

Happy New Year and happy new life!

Daisy
Club Secretary

Meeting minutes December 31 2008 - New Year Resolution

Written By Cherry Gao

Another special evening, New Year Eve, our meeting is held by our experienced member TM Tessa with the theme of “New Year’s resolution”. Almost everyone will make resolutions on New Year Eve, but do you know what the world’s top ten popular resolutions? Do you know how to make resolutions so that you have the most chance to accomplish them? Tessa told us all the answers in New Year Eve’s toastmasters. Following Tessa’s tips, hope all your resolutions will be achieved in 2009.

GE Cherry led her team explaining the evaluation responsibilities very effectively.

Around the theme TTM Jeff gave members very challenging but interesting jobs to do.

Liu Bing was asked to give tips on how to make time seem past slower. He came up with the answer of doing meditation sometimes.

Porsher was asked to give a prompt speech on Zhang Ailing’s famous saying about different feelings about time according to different ages. How tough!

Our guest Paul was asked to give a speech about if he thinks it’s good to make a commitment to himself or just fly with the wind.

Daisy was asked to give a regret example on her critical decisions she’s made so far.

Justine was asked to give a very right example on her critical decisions she’s made so far, which is reverse to Daisy’s task.

TTE Sissi showed great evaluation and observation skills by giving every member evaluations of not only positive points but also of improvements.

Cathy Yue shared a meaningful quote of “God help these who help themselves” and explained it with a vivid figure example in popular TV show of Starlight Avenue.

In the second half, we enjoyed two great speeches.

CK gave us his excellent CC10 speech, on the topic of “it’s time to set goals”, matching the meeting theme very much. He did achieve the CC10 objective of inspiring the audience perfectly by four workable tips.

Liu Bing gave us his great ACS1 entertaining speech on the title of “conflict is opportunity” by telling us a very interesting story between a dog, a cat and a cute mouse. What kind of story can happen between these three adorable pets? Check it out with imagination.

The two evaluators, Justine, Porsher did their job fantastically, not only demonstrated great evaluation skills but also showed great passion which is a necessary part of an excellent evaluator.

Quiz master Daisy did show a great listening skill as she captured some tough points during the meeting.

GE Cherry showed great evaluation skills by giving evaluation to every role. She didn’t only point out the good points but also gave some good suggestions for each role’s improvement. Susan did behave powerfully as a timer and controlled the time very well; Peter raised higher standard for the members to use the word “progress” not only as a noun but also as a verb. Bruce did his job very creatively as an Ah Counter, not only used a very effective table to count everyone’s crunch words but also put forward a new method to reduce the crunch words one by one during every meeting. This creativity is doubtlessly what TM greatly encourages.

The awards were: best speaker CK, best evaluator: Porsher, best table topic speaker: Liu Bing, best role: Tessa

Members presented were: Liu Bing, CK, Cathy Yue, Daisy, Justine, Susan, Porsher, Bruce, Peter, Sissi, Tessa, Jeff and Cherry.

Guests were: Paul, Gavin

With the ending of this exciting TM meeting, 2009 is closer to unveil itself, with all the new things, happy things to come.

Happy New Year & Wish every member a wonderful life in 2009!

Meeting Minutes Dec.24 2008 Christmas

Written By Cherry Gao

In such a special evening, Christmas Eve, our meeting being held as scheduled. No surprise for guessing the meeting theme, “Christmas” of course. Our TM Liu Bing creatively symbolized the image of Christmas with three colors: green, red and white. Green can be represented by the big Christmas tree; the red can be represented by the famous kind Santa Clause with lots of presents; the white can be represented by the snow decorated on the window. In the following TM sections, Liu Bing furnished us with useful and interesting knowledge by a small quiz about the origin of Christmas tree and Santa Clause.

GE Angela introduced her team with the three colors too. Green as Timer Rita; red as Wordsmith Joe who brought us the word “festive” which matched the atmosphere very well; white as Ah Counter Rolf who gave us very good tips on how to reduce crutch words by being just silent or pause.

What is most attractive about Christmas? It goes without saying, Christmas gift! During the table topic section, TTM Daisy asked the participants to decide what kind of gifts they will give in term of different situation.

Cherry was asked to give gifts to her children. Her answer is the classic Barbie doll.

Angela was asked to choose the gifts for herself. She started from a picture of house she had chosen as gifts in her corporate club’s TT, and ended up giving the answer of a happy life.

Joe was asked to invite a lovely girl to dinner on Christmas Eve. He said he would always use his shyness as an advantage in such a situation. Who knows or who cares as the result is he always got what he wanted.

Angelina was asked to give gifts to her kids too. Her answer is a series of educational and inspiring books.

Rolf was asked about how to spend Christmas with his girlfriend. As an old member, he would take her girlfriend to toastmaster club as he thought TM is the most romantic place, isn’t it?

Monica took the Quote master and Table Topic Evaluator rolls at the last minute. Her quote is “speak appropriately like golden apple in the silver basket” which urged everyone to treat other people with respect and encouragement. As a result, we will get return by surprise. Then she gave very good suggestions to every speaker and she pointed out one common problem that the members should be more imaginative and smile more. After all, it’s Christmas, a festive time.

In the second half, we enjoyed three great speeches.

Justine gave us her beautiful CC5 speech, by lecturing on the topic of .Christmas and authentical love, matching the meeting theme very much.

Peter gave us his excellent CC3 speech, about how to avoid harm from the polluted foods, which is very helpful when we live in such a time that we can hardly find any unpolluted foods. He shared 4 practicable tips so that everyone is easy to follow.

Grace gave us a passionate inspiring speech with a title “run freely”. Through her observation of a boy running and felling down with her mother watching, she told us that do what we want to do and what we can do ignoring the other people’s comments.

The three evaluators, Cathy Jia, Cherry and CK did their job fantastically, not only pointed out the speakers’ good points and also gave them proper suggestions to improve.

Quiz master Liu Bing did show a great listening skill as he captured some tough points and came up with some questions no one could recall.

GE Angela showed great evaluation skills by giving evaluation to every role. She didn’t only point out the good points but also gave some good suggestions for each role’s improvement. Rita, Joe and Rolf also did a very responsible job by giving timing control report, word using report, and Crutch word using report. Worth mentioning, Joe captured lots of pronunciation mistakes and grammar mistakes as well which helped members to improve a lot. And Rolf found that the speakers use crutch words most when they referred to the notes, which gave some inspiration for the speakers to figure out why.

The awards were: best speaker Grace, best evaluator: Cherry, best table topic speaker: Joe, best role: Liu Bing

Members presented were: Joe, Liu Bing, CK, Cathy Jia, Daisy, Justine, Grace, Angela, Rolf, Peter, Monica and Cherry.

Guests were: Rita, Angelina, Shaan, Susan

At last, TM Liu Bing ended the meeting by singing a well-known Christmas song “Silent night” and all the members ended up celebrating the Christmas Eve by eating a tasteful Christmas cake together. What a meaningful and romantic TM meeting on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas & see you on the New Year Eve.