Icebreaker and Officer

I am very proud of my fiance. Tonight she stood up and did her icebreaker speech!

I had given her some ideas of how she could connect a bunch of thoughts about her life for her first speech, taking bits of stories she has told me and others. Her first few drafts basically followed my suggestions.

However, in the last week, she turned it around, and really made the speech her own. I am really glad and impressed that she was able to come up with a version that was really her own speech. Yes, I did offer an idea or two and some minor tuning, but it was her speech.

For an icebreaker, I thought she did really well. Yes, she was mostly on notes, but I know many people are for their first speech - I certainly was. She has lots of the right things going on in her speech. She can learn to enhance them as time goes on. Good starting body language and gestures. Decent eye-contact when not looking at notes. She moved around, not being rooted to one spot. Her facial expressions and vocal variety shows she has a good amount of the foundation of Toastmasters. I can not see any obvious gaps in her abilities, so I really look forward to seeing how she continues to grow.

However, not only did she do her first speech tonight, she also was up for an officers role in the club: secretary! I too was up for a role: president. I went up and told them I wanted them to pick one of the 2 other people, as I was already taking on a lot. Deb stood up and told the club that she was comfortable with the role of secretary, having filled it before with our Geocaching hobby.

I overheard the voting as they were counting for the secretary position. It sounded pretty promising. We waited for the counting of the votes. There was a delay in that the Sgt. at Arms position ended in a tie, and the other roles did not solve the tie. The club had to re-vote for the 2 people that had tied before we heard all the results.

In the end, Deb did get secretary. I am very proud and happy that she is already taking on a bigger role in Toastmasters! Way to go Deb!

I also got some nice thoughts from my 20yo son who managed to join us for the first time at a Toastmasters meeting. He complimented me, and indicated he was willing to visit again. I am not sure if he is hooked yet, but it was nice to have him come along to see a little of what it is about.

Family time at Toastmasters - what could be better?! :)