A Day with The Like-minded

I  gave a prepared speech to my fellow Toastmasters this morning. This is the third speech I have delivered so far this month. 

Overall, I felt comfortable with my own style of story telling today, as the saying goes: practice makes perfect - indeed!

Then, we moved to a place nearby to have our group lunch, as usual, with our like-minded friends, new and old, all mingling together. 

It's another fulfilling and joyful day.

Here's the script of my speech today, titled: Speech Roster for Sandwich.

"Do you want to improve your public speaking skills? Do you want to improve your English?

Good morning everyone!

As recommended by Pathways, I'm communicating with you a hypothetical change that will be implemented in our club soon.

It is about the scheduling of prepared speeches, which is related to our public speaking skills and English proficiency, as the questions I asked in my opening. And, because the concept of the change comes from Roster 工作排班表 , I came up with my speech title: Speech Roster for Sandwich.

To start with, let me tell you why we need this change. Per the current mechanism, members are to select a date for delivering a prepared speech, on a voluntary basis. But because it’s all voluntary and the slots are limited, not every member has the same opportunity to deliver a prepared speech, which, as we all know, is the most effective way to improve both our public speaking skills and English proficiency.

To this end, we agreed at our previous meeting that we will have 3 prepared speeches as the standard agenda of our regular meetings. This new agenda will provide us more opportunities to deliver prepared speech.

Accordingly, we have planned our speech roster for the next 5 months: August through December, 2024, during which we will have 10 regular meetings, but the last one is reserved for Christmas party, so we will in fact have 9 regular meetings, with 27 slots reserved for prepared speeches. And, currently we have 14 active members, so each active member can choose 2 slots from the schedule. 

With everyone selecting his or her slots, our speech roster for the rest of 2024 will be completed, and it will benefit us all in a few ways.

First and the foremost, it provides us more slots and more equitable opportunity in delivering prepared speeches – 27 in total and 2 for each member by the end of 2024! This is a big deal because, again, prepared speech is the most effective way to improve ourselves.

Second, it’s scheduled long ahead, so it gives the speakers plenty of time to prepare their speeches. That’s important because we can then deliver a better prepared speech.

Third, with the 5 month speech roster done, the overall meeting preparation should be simpler, and the heavy workload of our VPE may be reduced somehow.

On the other hand, there may be some concerns arising, but no worry because we already have a plan in place.

The first concern is that some members may be worried about delivering 2 prepared speeches by 2024, out of fear or whatever reason.  It's understandable. However, No Pain No Gain - this is necessary pain and better experience it sooner rather than later, if we really want to improve ourselves. To this end, their mentors or experienced members are always available and can help them prepare for the challenge.

The other concern is there’s always something unexpected coming up, with that the roster will have to be changed. But no worry, because we have experienced members, myself included, who are flexible and are happy to support necessary roster adjustment, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

The third concern is with 3 prepared speeches scheduled for every meeting, we may need supporters from other clubs. But it’s relatively easy for other clubs to support us if we request anything other than prepared speech speakers, so it won’t be a big issue, either. 

On the other hand, through frequent mutual supporting, we can expand our networking with other clubs, and it’s good for Sandwich in the long run, too.

Now, let me conclude: I just shared with you the upcoming change called Speech Roster, with the objective of providing more slots of prepared speeches for us all - a total of 27 and 2 for each member for the rest of 2024. 

We’ll benefit from it in an effective, better prepared and simple manner. Though there may be some concerns, we have a good plan in place to deal with them.

So, are you ready for the change? 

Thank you for your attention. Toastmaster of the Day!"