Grand & TMU Toastmasters Clubs Joint Meeting

It was an exciting evening! Besides the in-house Tabletopics contest, Grand held the first joint meeting with Taipei Medical University (TMC) Toastmasters Club, a protege club of Grand, newly chartered in November 2014. The joint meeting didn't take place sooner, because Grand holds biweekly and TMU holds weekly meetings on Wednesday evenings. Grand and TMU seized the chance to mingle the youung and old, mentors and mentees, during the winter break, Wednesday evening, January 24th.

Toastmaster Gary Kuo, VP Education, mobilized 12 Toastmasters from TMU, including two invited individual evaluators (IEs), Harry Hsu from National Taiwan University Toastmasters Club and Willy Lin from Premium Toastmasters Club. With one third of participants from university Toastmasters at the age of 20, the house was full of energy and laughter.

Grand’s in-house tabletopics contest began first. President Zoy Juang was the first timer contest chair, Jimmy Wu was the seasoned chief judge. Division A Governor Michelle Fan was called upon to be one of the judges the moment she walked into Grand's meeting venue. Four contestants were CT Lin, Gina Cheng, Helen Lin, and Sherry Li. It was a tabletopic of self-indulgence, what you like the most about yourself. Being a person of ego, I felt bold and unabashed to be full of myself in public. "I like my body which is sexy. I like my brain, which makes my body sexier. I like my my heart the most to chase after dreams courageously. Thanks to my parents for the DNA, thanks to my husband for unconditional support," said I and I won the contest with Helen Lin.

Toastmaster May Hwang, Toastmaster of the Evening, took over after the in-house contest. She decided upon the meeting theme "Keep Warm in Winter". All assignment takers had different ideas how to keep warm in winter, eat hotpot, do yoga, drink hot tea, read in the sun, stay in, just to name a few. Icebreaker Emily Lin impressed the audience with her speech "Don't belittle Yourself". Being short, Emily overcame the ridicule of others, stood tall, and won the best speaker. Icebreaker Andrew Lee gave his second speech "The Mute Who Spoke". Being a shy person, Andrew told us about the struggles of the engineer club in high school and how he led the whole group to achieve. Both C1 speakers from TMU were fluent in English and prepared their speeches well. Toastmaster Ian Yang delivered his C9 speech "Needs and Wants" by persuading the audience into balancing needs and wants in life and soliciting the donation to kids in country of poverty. Coincidentally, Toastmasters Gina Cheng also shared her experience visiting a remote aboriginal village in Taidong County in her A28 speech "An Extraordinary Trip". She opened her speech by carrying a huge suitcase of old clothes to give away to those in need.

During the intermission, Toastmasters mingled happily around the table full of food and desserts. As the General Evaluator, I consulted TOE May Hwang in advance to take charge of the entire evaluation session for a change. The first IE Harry Hsu was a master of analogues and quotations. He won the best evaluator. The 2nd IE Willy Lin encouraged the speaker to increase the voice volume to connect with the audience. The 3rd IE Billy Chen advised the speaker to focus on key points and to finish the speech on time. The last IE Helen Lin suggested the speaker to use a photo of the aboriginal village to arouse the interest of the audience.

If the joint meeting were a live performance, TOE would be a competent director with a box office. The meeting started on time and ended on time with strong cast, good food, and friendly atmosphere. The participation of college students brought down the average age significantly. President Zoy Juang invited Toastmasters from TMU for a second party at Young-ho Soybean milk shop in the neighborhood to show her appreciation.