Dear friends
 This night, we had a smaller meeting, but it was exciting nonetheless, for the following reasons:
1. We had Phil and Connie and Ivy Cheng and Carole back!  Great to see you again!
2. Improved speech delivery from Crystal, and a wonderfully well-rehearsed, thoughtful ice-breaking speech from our first-comer Gale!   Congratulations to our prepared speakers.
3. A DYNAMIC team-evaluation discussion (which I'll elaborate)
4. First role taking by our new members Joyce (evaluator) and Vivian Li (ah-counter)
5. Efficient and humorous Table Topics session (got in 8 speakers!)
6. A short 'live-coaching' session.  Hope it has given everyone pointers in their future speeches.
7. Coana joined us!

This is what happened during our evaluation discussion, which I think was effective in forcing the participants to reflect their authentic feelings on the speech.  As the facilitator, I tried to ask a lot of why's and what's and how's.   A participant said that the speech was touching.  I asked, what made it touching?  He replied, it's his facial expression.  I asked, what about his facial expression?  He said, "It's the way that I saw pain and regret in his face"  Bingo!  A participant said that the opening story was good.  I asked, in what way?  He said, it is touching.  How?  He said, even though we didn't necessarily experience that situation, we can picture what's happening and relate to it.  I asked, You mean, it was told in a way that allowed us to visualize it?  I didn't ask how the 'visualization' was achieved, but the participant continued:  It was the dialogue that made it come alive.  
As you can see, the value of the team discussion and the leader facilitation is enabling us to evaluate a speech based on its effect we feel, and uncover what were the techniques or characteristics in the speech that made us feel that way.  This type of recommendation can better help the speaker repeat the process.   I want our club and our discussion leaders to continue focus in this area.

For those of you who missed it, we had a live coaching session, something that I had only done at the Beijing Advanced TM Club.  Today, because we're doing so well on time, because of our wonderful Timer Lisa, I thought we can spare a few minutes.  I gave three pointers in the live coaching.  I hope that tonight's attendees had benefited from it.  Nobody knows when the next coaching will take place.  So, if you don't want to miss out, come to the next meeting!

Hubert

President of CHIC Toastmasters Club Beijing