Meeting of June 8, 2024
For the first meeting of the new committee, led by new president Peterson, we had two speakers, table topics, and a special Business Session. Graham was Toastmaster of the Evening. A special guest was Division director Penny. (In the website, we should use only forenames.)
Penny was Grammarian, and chose as Word of the Day the term sagacious, meaning wise. It was often used, also in the forms or sage (wise person) and sagacity (wisdom).
Benedikt presented a Presentation Mastery pathway speech for project #1-2, “Writing a Speech with Purpose”. The topic was “Five Steps to Constructing a Basic Speech” and he spoke on digitally writing according to the following steps:
1. Define the title, something to arouse interest, interesting to the audience, focusing on your speech goal
2. Create the opening, describe a departure point
3. Plan your route, with keywords defining the thread of your presentation
4. Start writing, traversing the points in your route, considering especially the transitions
5. Create your ending, a summary leading to a finale with your message
Alexandre explained the Montessori educational techniques, which was an eye-opener to most of us. He compared traditional teaching methods to a factory, with rigid control of students and material.
Maria Montessori based her method on three qualities.
1. Independence, self-learning where a student learns own mistakes.
2. Social interaction, allowing cooperation and choices within limits
3. Preparation, a special learning environment including mixed ages and hands-on physical work, and time without interruption
Teachers do not instruct, but help children find their own solutions to tasks.
Table topics were presented by Julian.
- Have you done anything lately worth remembering? (Graham)
2. Would you break a law to save a loved one? (Benedikt)
3. If your life span was 40 years, how would you live differently? (Peterson)
4. Would you rather have less work or more work in a field that you like (Janet)
5. Which is worse, failing or never trying? (Ruijia)
6. Do you ask questions, or settle for what you already know? (Florian)
7. What do we all have in common beside out genes? (Alexandre)
8. What does your join look like today? (Stefan)
Finally we had the reports of Ah Counter Daniel, Grammarian Penny, Timer Janet, and General Evaluator Graham.
A good meeting, followed by drinks and meal for 7 of us at the Casa restaurant.