Toastmasters Kraków

Due to flood alarm and many obstructions in transport we’ve decided to cancel the meeting. The meeting will take part at 26th May. If anybody cannot fulfil his role at 26th May please let me know, or mark it at EasySpeak.

Regards,
Piotr Leszczyński

So here it is. Politics has got into Cracow’s Toastmasters as well. I hope our Officer’s Board applicants will show us why we should choose them, not why we shouldn’t choose their opponents. Craig, our Table Topic Master has decided that because of the elections we should prepare ourselves to making choices just by talking about Politics.

Radek will deliver his 9th speech (Persuade with power) and he will be talking about “A Polish Driver”. I have no idea what does it mean, but I’m sure it will be interesting. We won’t have second speech, but we will hear short Officer’s Board applicants presentations instead.

Hope to see you soon.

Piotr Leszczyński
Toastmaster

When I hear the phrase “The Devil’s Advocate” I think about a movie from 1997 with Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. The Devil’s Advocate was an office of someone who had served to reduce a number of canonizations in Roman Catholic Church for almost 400 years. What kind of questions will Radek M. , our TableTopics Master, is going to ask us ? I have no idea, but I am sure it will be challenging.

We will have two speeches this evening. Łukasz B. will tell us something about recycling in project 9 and will be evaluated by Maciek Ż. . Agata B. will present herself in an Ice Breaker and will be evaluated by Mateusz G.

Can’t wait to see you all there !

Patryk Dondziak
Toastmaster

Did you have a nice long weekend? I certainly did. I cannot believe it has already ended… Which is one of the reasons this post is sent so late.

Anyway, the long weekend has ended, and we have to get back to reality. So I’d like to invite you for the tomorrow meeting. Thanks to our Table Topic Master, Lukasz, we’ll have a chance to talk about our adventures during our holidays and weekends, where have we been, where we would like to go, and what we would like to do. This time the topic is really nice, and I’m sure that everyone loves talking about his Leisure Time.

Then we’ll listen to one Ice Breaker speech, delivered by Wojtek and evaluated by Hubert. Also, we’ll have a chance to listen to a special speech, delivered by Maciek, in which he’ll introduce us a great tool, which I’m sure you’ll find invaluable in your future career as a Toastmaster.

Hope to see you all on the tomorrow’s meeting!

Your Toastmaster of the Day,

Radek

There’s and old controversy regarding the matter of luck and skills in life, and people still debate which is more important for success (*). However, if our life has been prepared for us upfront and everything we do, was just meant to be, then either luck and skills are the same thing, or don’t exist altogether… or maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about. Let’s leave it as is.

It will be better to find out what are Your views during the TableTopic, where our new member Ewa G. as TableTopic Master, will challenge us with questions regarding this theme.

Other fresh member Łukasz W. will perform his icebreaking speech, and luckily for him, skilled speaker Maciej Ż. will give him professional evaluation.

No less experienced member Kasia O. has prepared her 6th speech (Vocal variety), and we’ll hear about her experiences from the field of recrutation (sounds scary!). I’m sure it won’t be luck and she will show off some skills, but let’s leave the conclusion to her evaluator Radek M.

Some other roles for the meeting  are already distributed: Ah counter (not to be mistaken with accounter!) is Michał M., useful tips about the use of English language will come from Grammarian Agata B., and Łukasz B. who recently has been missing, will come back as General Evaluator.

I won’t specifically encourage you to come to Toastmasters meeting this Wednesday at 6:30 pm to room 102 of AGH bulding B-1, since if it was planned for you, then you will appear no matter what. Otherwise no invitation will have an effect since it was written in stars that you will miss this opportunity to have fun and learn at the same time ;)

Anyway, all the best and good luck!

Your Toastmaster,
Hubert Rutkowski

(*) for me, I noticed that the more skills I have, the more lucky I get

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but  wish
we didn’t.”
~Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life, 1977

Toastmasters:

What was the best advice you ever got?  The worst?  What advice
would you give your younger self?  Do you give other people advice?
Do they listen?

Giving advice is one way we share experiences and share expertise.
Less glamorously, perhaps it’s also a way in which we try to show
other people our superiority, or to use other people as human guinea
pigs, giving them suggestions we wish we could do ourselves, but
perhaps are too risky or scary.  In any case, it is an undeniable
piece of the human experience.

To get into the topic spirit, I advise you to come to Toastmasters
meeting tomorrow, Wednesday April 21 at  6:30 pm in room 102 of AGH
bulding B-1.

As you may have guessed, our Table Topic for the week is “Giving
Advice”.  Our esteemed member Michal will conduct our Table Topic
session.

I have been advised that the experienced and dignified speaker Patryk
will be presenting his project, “Getting Comfortable with Visual
Aids.”  I advise you to all come, as we can all gain from a speaker
like Patryk…including Patryk himself-Maciek Z. will help him to that
end as his evaluator.

I hope to see everyone there!

Your Toastmaster,

Craig

Tragic headlines look at us from every news stand, every information website, every TV programme in the last several days, reminding us of the catastrophe of Saturday, April 10th. In these circumstances it’s hard to find the joy in announcing the next meeting of our Toastmasters club.

This meeting will be different. Our club was invited to participate in the BOSS festival - B.O.S.S. being the abbreviation of “Very Responsible Step into Independence” - organized in many Polish cities by Student’s Forum of Business Centre Club. The meeting will take place in different location and slightly different time - we were invited to Klub Prominent The Original Lounge Bar, located at ul. Kamienna 17, room no 2. The meeting will start at 15:30 and will last the usual hour and a half.

That’s not the only reason this meeting will different than our previous ones. In the light of recent tragedy I’m sure the mood will be much less fun-oriented and much more contemplative. Ewa J. is preparing a Table Topic related to news headlines and I’m sure her questions will be challenging and will invoke lots of thoughts. We will also hear two speeches from our experienced members - Przemek and Craig, and they will be evaulated by no less experienced Michał and Grzesiek respectively.

I hope to see many of our regular members along with many guests of the BOSS Festival who will come and taste the Toastmasters experience. I’m sure we’ll gather together in this dark time and present our usual professionalism despite the circumstances.

Remember - Wednesday, April 14th, 15:30, Klub Prominent, ul. Kamienna 17, room no 2.

“The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of
truth, wisdom, is dying out.” - Walter Benjamin

Storytelling is really the kind of art. I love to hear plenty og them. Even if we are born to do that, we can practice to be even better. A well-developed and presented story can cut across age barriers and will hold the interest and reach its listeners.

Maciej Ż. will get you to tell the story during Table Topics. The fisrt will be about your everyday life, since the warm-up question is:

“Anything interesting happened to you today?”

Grzsiek B. will have his Ice - breaker speech, with Łukasz B. as his evaluator. We will also have an opportunity to hear Tristan performing his next project and Patryk D. will provide him with an evaluation.

Come join us this Wednesday at 6:30 pm  in room 102 of AGH bulding B-1.

I hope to see everyone there!

Your Toastmaster,

Michał

What would you do?  How would you react in an extreme situation?  That is what we will be exploring at our meeting this week, as our table topic master Hubert will be probing us for the answers.  The word of the day is something we hope to avoid, ‘calamity’. 

Michał Oczko will be our lone speaker for the day, with Maciej Żywioł as his evaluator.  While we will be short one speech, this will allow more time for everyone to participate in a warm-up session and the table topic session.  Come join us this Wednesday at 6:30 pm  in room 102 of AGH bulding B-1.  We hope to see you all there.

This week’s toastmaster,

Tristan Buser-Molatore