January 31, 2024

The theme of our January 31 meeting was “Star Power.”

Abhijeet Joshi and Lindy MacLaine conducted an interactive workshop on “Evaluate with Empathy” to prepare our Toastmasters for the upcoming evaluation contest. They emphasized the importance of “Radical Candor” during evaluation, which stimulates the maximum desirable change in the speaker. The workshop persuaded evaluators to express opinions rather than judgments and provided tips on how to convey them with simple yet powerful “I statements.”

The presentation was followed by a humorous speech by Preetha Menon, who graciously volunteered to be the test speaker for the evaluation workshop. Her speech, titled “60 Seconds on Skis,” shared the value of mentorship and her experience in getting coached and mentored to achieve a successful minute-long firm stance on skis. This speech was then evaluated by seven members based on insights from the presentation. The evaluators also received additional feedback on their evaluations from the presenters, making it an illuminating workshop for everyone in the meeting.

— Akila Nagamani