Written by Hubert

Creative.  Humorous.   Imaginative.  Powerful and WOW!  This is why Beijing rocks!

 Slowly, we are injecting more WOW factor into our Toastmasters meetings, thanks to the wonderful preparation, performance, and new elements that you have all brought to the table.

 Tim: What a great job as a first time Toastmaster!  I’m sure everyone is cheering when they hear that you are going to be a committed member of CHIC.  As a founder, I have always hoped, but honestly disappointed, when you came once and then disappeared.  After you showed up a few times last month, I still expected that you would disappear again.  But this time, hearing your resolution, my hope has returned, and I have high expectations for and of you.  There is obvious so much you can bring us: not only your experienced communication skills, but also your humor.  I also have no doubt that you will learn a lot by participating more.

 Rita: Thanks for the creative use of music to substitute the bell.  Music is beautiful, but we can also be assertive and firm in its use.  I look forward to seeing it being used in the future.  You can still do better as a timer, when introducing the timing rules, and delivering a report (you didn’t do it).  I want you to take the next available timer role, to make an immediate improvement.

 Ceci: nice to have you back as the ah-counter.  It was so obvious that your enthusiasm was a notch higher tonight.  And it was infectious.  Too bad you’ll be on a business trip again.  I want to encourage you to find ways to connect with the club even when you’re away, even when you’re preparing for a test, even when you’re so busy with work.  There are ways to show that you still care, even when you’re not with us.

 Jeff:  Thanks for taking the Greeter role on behalf of Lawrence.  And I want to say how wonderful it was to see you send out the follow up email to the guests immediately after the meeting.  See how good you are?  See how much you can teach others?  You are a treasure.  I would like to see more even more warmth in your approach.  Perhaps this area of improvement can really make an impact in your life.  Maybe.  Give it a thought.

 Coco:  You are funny.  Yes you are.  Definitely.  We all have low standards?  LOL!  And more talkative now.  And more confident.  Amazing how you are transforming before our eyes.

Ludivine: You and Yucheng are a match made in heaven.  You both have so much knowledge to share.  I know that you don’t feel good with your speech tonight.  But I want to encourage you to find the golden nuggets in your speech, as I had.  There’s some good content in there.  If you can just pull it together under a very focused theme/message, to guide our thinking, then that knowledge would be more useful, and maybe you would feel more confident in what you have to share.  Continue to share with us.  And I have no doubt, the structure and the delivery will improve with practice.

Gale:  When normal people exercise, sweat come out of our pores.  When you work out, you sweat passion.  Keep it coming.  Infect everyone with it.  Channel it with the compassion for others.  Just one thing:  I wished you had shared more of your personal story.

 Vivian: Continue to bring your creativity to the meeting.  I loved the game.  I loved your 痔疮 pillow.  In the past 2 weeks, you have shown more progress than the past 3 months.  Unless I am crazy, I think you’re really trying harder than before.

 Crystal:  You also did something different with your evaluation.  I noticed.  Whenever there is something new, people notice.  Stay with us.

 For our evaluators:  Andrew:  What smile we have to see that you are finally taking your first steps.  Trying even more evaluations.  Terrific.  Don’t stop.  If you want to become a better evaluator, keep evaluating.  Keep listening.  And believe that you can be as good as Lisa and Yucheng.

For Yucheng and Lisa:  Well, you know you’re good.  Yes you are.  Now, how can you be even better?  How can you also inject creative elements into your role, no matter what it is?  Challenge yourself, and don’t let it become too easy.

 Joyce, the Oscar-winning Toastmasters GE:  Now we’re talking.  Too bad you will be taking business trips again in January.  Just after you jumped to a new level of expertise.  I totally love the whole ‘director’ metaphor bit.  If you could even milk even more out of that metaphor, the better.  For example, bring more prop.  Bring an ‘oscar award’;  etc.   And when you are away, please also see the comments I have for Ceci.

Melody: The play with your name was funny.  Really.  I think you can get even more jokes out of it.  You could have switched names with me!  See how that works?  But I didn’t really understand the part about Tim though.  You will need to explain to me next time.   Don’t ever say to yourself that you can’t be funny.  Putting a limit on yourself doesn’t help.

By the way…I would like to have a “DJ”, someone in charge of the music composition that we can use for our meeting.  Music seems to bring a WOW factor if we can use it correctly.  Who is interested?  And I assume Rita is now our official CHIC photographer?  Thanks Rita.

Dare to be different.  Dare to try something new.  That is the charge I want to give to everyone.

We can make this the place to be in Beijing every Wednesday evenings