La Mode Toastmasters Club's 1st Demo Meeting

To live is to learn. I learned a lesson this evening from the first demo meeting of La Mode Toastmasters Club in Hsin-tien. I learned that many people knew about the demo meeting from D67 web site (many thanks go to D67 Webmaster Robert Chou). I learned that I shouldn't have turned off my mobile phone during the demo meeting so that people could contact me anytime. I learned that I should have prepared a big Toastmasters sign to identify ourselves and to attract the curious audience.

The first demo meeting of La Mode Toastmasters Club took place successfully at Starbucks Cafe' near Exit 1 of Dapingling MRT Station. I was the first one to arrive, followed by Scott Fu, Wendy Chen and Trini Ding. While waiting for the others, four veteran toastmasters talked about how to attract local residents to join the first community toastmasters club in Hsin-tien more effectively. I was moved to see how toastmasters help us develop the community spirits in us.

When Leslie Chen, Deeka McDaniel, Steve Chen arrived, we began our demo meeting timely. Trini was the Toastmaster of the Evening, Scott Fu was the Joke Master, Leslie Chen was the Tabletopics Master, I was the prepared speaker, Scott was my evaluator, Deeka McDaniel was our language evaluator.

Deeka came to Taipei with her mother Leslie to attend her cousin's wedding. It was the first time Deeka joined a Toastmasters meeting, she did an excellent job serving as a grammarian. She pinpointed the grammatical errors made by each of us. Deeka is 18 years old. She will go to university in Colorado after the summer vacation. Hopefully she will become a toastmaster soon.

At the Q&A, Steve Chen, the member-to-be, proposed a better venue for us to meet in August. Starbucks Cafe' is convenient, but it is noisy. Heidi Ding, Trini's younger sister joined us at the last minute. Among 8 participants this evening, three were from the States. How lovely it was to have friends from afar to join our first demo meeting Friday evening!

After I got home full of excitement, I noticed that there were more than ten phone calls on my mobile phone requesting about the toastmasters meeting. A few of them even came to Starbucks Cafe' on time, but missed our gathering. What a pity!

In my prepared speech this evening, I talked about my dream to bring people together in Hsin-tien, in Taiwan, and in the world. While exerting my full energy to charter a toastmasters club in Hsin-tien, I solicit your help to spread the good news to your friends in Hsin-tien. Let's make Hsin-tien part of the big Toastmasters family together.