This was the question that our Toastmaster of the Day, Teresa, had asked all participants while preparing the first meeting on February. She used the answers to introduce members with roles. Therefore we all were able to remember our first bikes, skates, dolls and “mecanos”…

And, not only we discovered Anselmo’s favourite toy as a kid, but he also shared with us his favourite book; because, the meeting agenda contained a first short talk known as “Book of the day”. Anselmo related how “Our Ancestors” by Italo Calvino made a long-lasting impression on him, since the first time he read the book: “I thought what Don Quixote must have thought”. Prepared speeches are always the core part of every Toastmasters meeting, and on February, 4th we recorded them for the first time.

Two of our youngest members of the Club, Alex Alves and Pilar gave their projects number 5 and 6 from the Competent Communication Manual. Alex conveyed a speech full of passion when he related his experiences as a volunteer in Ethiopia with the NGO “Living Meki”. We learnt that we can make this world a better place, that volunteers receive much more than they give. But, when Alex fulfilled his body language objective singing and dancing “A ella le gusta la gasolina”, we learnt and we will never forget that Ethiopians are really fond of reggaeton music.

Music, music was in the title of Pilar’s speech “What music means to us”, but mainly in the content: she explained her feelings towards this artistic expression, scientific facts related to music, she played the guitar and she sang, even including the Word of the Day: Fringe. Our Grammarian José was shocked.

The Table Topic session is always the funniest and most creative part of the meeting. The Table Topics Master, Aline, had announced on her Twitter account, she felt especially creative when she was preparing the questions.

Feeling creative this morning. Perfect time to prepare my #TableTopics questions for tomorrow.

— Aline Casanova (@CasanovaAline) February 3, 2015

We were delighted when Mario, a first time guest, acted as if he were a tennis ball.

But this meeting had something new too. Toastmasters Madrid held a short Awards Ceremony for those members who show commitment and have done 5 speeches or more. This recognition will become a tradition in our club. But beyond celebrating our past success, we are focused on the future. As an incentive to keep on learning and improving, Alex, Pilar, Alberto, Lilian, José and Aline received a homemade Certificate and a Toastmasters International pin. Our Club President, Jaime led a warming and friendly presentation, in which members who could not attend (Guillermo, Ana V., Javier and Irene) were also recognized for achieving such an important milestone in their Communication Track.

Written by Raquel