🌟 GC Toastmasters Club
Welcome to Meeting #1085! Tonight's theme — "Hidden Pride" — invited members to explore the quiet strengths and unspoken accomplishments that shape who we are. Toastmaster Bing Liu opened with a personal story about spatial imagination inherited from childhood, reminding us that hidden pride is "the quality you don't publicly share, but feel proud of when you think about it." The evening featured heartfelt Table Topics with a creative mix of impromptu speeches and debates, two prepared speeches on giving objects a second life and a retirement tribute, and Warren's innovative role-play evaluation style.
| Role | Member |
|---|---|
| 🎤 President | Sarah FENG IP3 |
| 🎙️ Toastmaster | Bing LIU DTM |
| 👋 VPM / Guest Intro | Lei WANG |
| 📋 General Evaluator | Bella CHEN EH2 |
| ⏱️ Timer | Hunter TU PM3 |
| 🔴 Ah-Counter | Lei WANG |
| 📖 Grammarian | Sarah FENG IP3 |
| 🎯 Table Topics Master | Tina JI |
| 📝 TT Evaluator 1 | Warren YUE |
| 📝 TT Evaluator 2 | Jessie |
| 🎤 Prepared Speaker 1 | Cindy WANG |
| 🎤 Prepared Speaker 2 | Ano WANG PM2 |
| 📝 Speech Evaluator 1 | Julie GUAN |
| 📝 Speech Evaluator 2 | Hunter TU PM3 |
Related noun: Confidence /ˈkɒnfɪdəns/ — the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something
🌟 Yaxin: An English Teacher who has attended Toastmasters meetings 5-6 times before, aiming to improve public speaking abilities.
🌟 Ninan: Former GC club member and ex-VP PR. Returning to the club tonight as a guest speaker.
Bella introduced the evaluation team's mission: helping speakers improve time management, grammar usage, and speaking presence. The GE ensures a high-quality meeting where all speakers benefit from constructive feedback.
⏱️ Hunter TU PM3 (Timer): For speeches over 3 minutes: green card at 2 min remaining, yellow at 1 min, red when time is up. After red, speakers have 30 seconds to wrap up before the bell rings.
🔴 Lei WANG (Ah-Counter): Tracks filler words throughout all speeches — "um," "and," "you know," "well," and other verbal crutches that weaken delivery.
📖 Sarah FENG IP3 (Grammarian): Today's words: "Confident" and "Confidence." Sarah monitors grammar usage and highlights excellent expressions across all speeches.
Tina hosted the Table Topics session with a creative format combining impromptu speeches and impromptu debates on the theme of "Hidden Pride."
🎉 Bella — Celebrate / Own it
- Pride deserves celebration — we worked hard for it
- Even non-Christians celebrate Christmas — why not our own achievements?
- You can announce it to your inner circle, not necessarily the whole world
- You can celebrate alone — order an Uber Eats cake with a cola
- "I don't need audience" — you can celebrate for yourself without anyone watching
- Any accomplishment is worth celebrating
🤫 Yaxin — Humility / Keep quiet
- Let your work speak for itself
- Exploring the meaning of "pride" — is it only pride if others know?
- "Pride is about other people knowing what you have done"
- Trying to distinguish the boundary between "pride" and "humility"
🤝 Consensus: Achievements deserve celebration, but the way can be very personal — you don't necessarily need an audience. Bella closed with humor: "Thank you for agreeing with me!"
🎯 Background: During university, like many students, Julie assisted her professor with research projects to earn credits. The task was to collect 5 years of financial data from listed companies' annual reports.
😩 The Pain Point: Initially done entirely by hand — spending 4 hours a day reading financial reports for months. The repetitive work felt like a waste of time with no personal growth.
💡 The Turning Point: Though her major was Finance, she decided to audit a Python programming course. She learned basic coding and web crawling techniques, then wrote a simple program to automate all the data collection.
"From knowing absolutely nothing about programming to mastering a practical skill — that transformation is my hidden pride."
🚀 Real-world Impact: This skill later proved useful at work — she once used coding to batch-generate hundreds of letters automatically.
🌟 Hidden Pride: As someone from a Finance background, the ability to self-teach programming and solve real problems with code.
🔥 Hunter — Pride is innate / given
- Believes pride can be given — like his passion, it's something he was born with
- "I have it and others don't have that. So I should be proud of it."
- Feels proud even before taking action, because it's an internal quality
- Uses his confidence and passion to lead GC club and inspire members
- "Before this meeting, I also feel proud, because I know I have passion, I will bring my passion into GC and affect all members and my friends."
- Maintains that pride exists inside and you can't avoid it
⚖️ Cindy — Pride is earned through proper action
- Challenges: talent alone doesn't equal pride — you must use it properly
- "If you have the talent and you don't use it in a proper way, why are you proud of that?"
- Provocative example: if you're confident but shout loudly to interrupt a class, should you still be proud?
- Acknowledges Hunter's talent but argues his pride comes from using it well: "You perform well in Toastmasters, you become the president, you create a new club"
- "Pride is also a result of effort, not only happiness about a talent"
- Distinguishes between being "happy about yourself" and true pride that requires effort
🤝 Common Ground: Both debaters found some overlap — Hunter admitted he uses his talent properly, and Cindy acknowledged innate confidence can bring happiness. But they maintained their core disagreement: Hunter insists pride is felt before action, Cindy insists pride requires proper effort. The exchange was lively and humorous.
Ninan shared an extraordinary experience: being selected as the representative to ask a question to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. She was so nervous she repeated her question 20 times beforehand — yet when the moment came, her nervousness made the question so unclear that even Ban Ki-moon couldn't understand it.
"What truly gives confidence is continuous practice. Every time before I go on stage, I tell myself: 'You've already asked a question to someone that important.' Hidden pride is closely tied to confidence — through persistent practice, you can build it step by step."
🎯 Hidden Pride: Sarah takes everything seriously — even when others might not find it necessary. This quiet, consistent dedication to doing things properly is her hidden pride.
📖 Childhood Example: During school vacations, while others might copy from the answer keys at the back of homework books, she genuinely completed every math, Chinese, and English exercise by herself without checking answers. She believed that every word she wrote down would contribute to her future essays and growth.
📝 Diary Writing Habit: Started writing paper-based diaries as a child. When the digital age came, she resumed the habit and now writes down at least 3 things every day — big or small.
"Being serious and responsible for every task has contributed to who I am today."
🌟 Connection to Confidence: She became more confident after joining GC Toastmasters — before GC, she wasn't confident enough. Her hidden pride is this quiet, consistent dedication to doing things properly.
🎯 Hidden Pride: When you strip away all official achievements, Lei's hidden pride is simply: being a mom.
👧 Her 4-year-old daughter: Her daughter always loves her unconditionally. When Lei travels for work for several days, her daughter says "Mommy, I love you" and doesn't want her to go to another city — always wants her to stay.
💝 Small gestures: Her daughter prepares little handmade cards with hearts for her — these small gestures feel incredibly sweet.
🌟 Weekend dedication: She tries her best to dedicate weekends entirely to her daughter.
"My pride comes not from professional accomplishments, but from the pure love and bond with my child."
🎭 Evaluation Style: Role Play — Warren used an innovative role-play interactive format rather than a traditional one-by-one evaluation approach. He engaged directly with each speaker in character.
🎯 Evaluating Tina (TT Host):
- "Tina, you did a really good job!"
- Firm handshakes with every speaker
- Read questions loudly and clearly for the audience
- Explained the questions well to help speakers understand
- After each speech/debate, summarized key information for the audience
- Excellent hosting throughout the session
⚔️ Evaluating the Debate Teams:
- Hunter & Cindy debate: Both speak loudly and have strong personal styles. Hunter uses volume and confidence to make his points. Cindy has a persistent questioning style — she asks questions again and again until you pause and think about what she's really saying.
- Bella & Yaxin debate: They have their own voice styles as well. Noted that everyone has their unique approach to debating — "Ice and fire" contrasts.
- Offered to help Bella improve her presentation materials — making text bigger, using more slides for visual impact.
🤖 OpenClaw Recommendation:
- Warren shared how members can use their personalized OpenClaw (AI) clones to enhance their practice
- Example: Zhang Juan's OpenClaw clone has been helping her significantly with her doctoral thesis
- Suggested members can use OpenClaw to practice debates — it can play the role of an opponent, or act as a teacher to help you learn and prepare
⚠️ Due to time constraints, Warren was unable to evaluate Sarah.
🌟 Opening: Jessie mentioned this was her first time doing a TT evaluation. She thanked Bing (the Toastmaster) for giving her this opportunity, noting the topic was difficult for her and she felt lucky to be evaluating rather than speaking.
🎯 Evaluating Julie:
✅ Strengths:
- Very smart — can formulate responses in a very short time
- Through her story, Julie comes across as a diligent and smart person
- Depicted a very familiar scenario (university experience) that resonated with the audience
- Good delivery with audience interaction: "You may meet with a similar situation" — this creates engagement
- The scenario was very concrete, like a narrative story — very vivid
💡 Suggestions:
- The story wasn't complete due to time management
- "I'm really looking forward to the ending of your story"
- After the narrative, adding personal insight or emotional feelings would strengthen the speech
- Pay more attention to time management to have time for a beautiful ending
🎯 Evaluating Ninan:
✅ Strengths:
- Very elegant and experienced speaker
- Gave a very complete and wonderful delivery on stage
- Excellent pronunciation, smooth storytelling flow
- So engaging that Jessie "got lost" in her special experience
💡 Suggestions:
- Could tie back more clearly to the question
- The connection point: "Even though I have a quiet character — which seems ordinary — I have this hidden pride from this special experience that encourages me to be more confident"
- A small structural improvement could make the already-excellent speech even stronger
🎯 Evaluating Lei:
✅ Strengths:
- Very quick response
- Beautiful, vivid, and emotional story that touched Jessie deeply
- Jessie could resonate personally (also has a young child)
💡 Suggestions:
- Could frame the setup more clearly: leaving aside official titles, being proud of the after-work identity as a mother
- Making this contrast explicit would strengthen the "hidden pride" connection
"Thanks Warren for evaluating more people than me. This is my first evaluation."
🎯 Story Framework: Cindy's father collects items — old cameras, antique books, fishing rods — all gathering dust for years. One day, she decided to sell his old fishing rod on Xianyu (a second-hand trading platform).
💡 Turning Point: The buyer replied: "This is exactly the model I've been searching for — it's the one my father used before he passed away."
"What's useless to one person may be another person's treasure. Objects can carry memories — connections to family and loved ones."
👗 Personal Example: Her sister's white boyfriend-style jacket — every time she wears it, she takes a photo and shares it with her sister, maintaining their bond through a simple garment.
📢 Call to Action: In an era of fast consumption, give objects a "second life." Sort through items unused for a year — gift them to friends/family, donate, or sell on second-hand platforms. Record the stories behind these objects.
"The 'second life' of objects is not just about being eco-friendly — it's a way to connect human hearts."
🎯 Setting: A retirement ceremony speech for Professor Leng at China Agricultural University (CAU), School of Food Science. Ano is a 2009 Master's graduate.
💡 Opening: Thanked Toastmasters for giving her the confidence to deliver speeches. Expressed deepest respect and reluctance to say goodbye as Professor Leng concludes decades of teaching.
📖 Key Points:
- Reuniting 15 years after graduation, filled with emotions
- From the nervousness of first entering the lab to today's composure — every step guided by the professor
- The professor taught both academic rigor and life attitudes
- Professor Leng dedicated years to food colloid and dairy science, earning national science awards
- A flagship figure in the School of Food Science — the highest level of mentor an ordinary person could encounter
- Reflecting on youthful days receiving his care — only appreciating his teachings after facing real-world challenges
- Everyone built a solid foundation for their future career
- Mixed emotions upon hearing the retirement news: glad he can finally enjoy leisure, yet sad to see the "great tree" depart
"Retirement is not the end — it's a new beginning. Wishing you health and happiness; may every day of retirement be filled with laughter and sunshine. You've worked hard all your life — we love you forever."
📢 Closing: This is a speech she is preparing to deliver at the actual ceremony, practicing it at GC first.
✅ Content:
- Excellent speech with touching storytelling
- The fishing rod story: something seemingly useless, when sold on Xianyu, turned out to be someone else's precious memory of their deceased father
- Simple emotions that captured audience attention effectively
- Very touching and engaging
📐 Structure:
- Well-organized with clear elements:
- • Opening: introduced the topic "New Life"
- • Body: two personal stories — (1) the fishing rod, (2) sharing clothes with siblings
- • Conclusion: highlighted the key message — "One person's useless stuff can be someone else's valuable stuff, so we should donate or treat it as passing warmth and building connections with others"
- Structure is very well-organized
🎭 Stage Performance:
- Appeared very comfortable on stage
- Made good eye contact with everyone
- Confident gestures
💡 Suggestion:
- Could deepen the theme further
- The fishing rod story is not only about stuff — it's also about people
- "Don't feel useless or lost. Maybe you are at the wrong place. Just change place and everyone can be high-value and brilliant."
- The metaphor could extend from objects to people finding their right place
"It's a very excellent speech."
🎯 Purpose (Project Goal):
- Acknowledged the project purpose: practicing delivering social speeches in front of club members
- Ano successfully fulfilled this goal
✅ Content:
- Really good at speaking with sincere gratitude
- We all have teachers we're grateful for and want to thank
- Admires that Ano has the chance to deliver this speech at a real event
- Clearly put effort into preparation
💡 Suggestion — Add a Mini Story:
- Needs to add a small, real, detailed, and positive story to connect Professor Leng with the classmates
- "Facts tell, stories sell" — a specific anecdote would make the speech more memorable and relatable
- Not just general praise, but a concrete moment that brings the relationship to life
💡 Suggestion — Delivery:
- Has enough time to prepare, so should use vocal variety to deliver more vividly
- Replay/dialogue to bring scenes to life
- Voice modulation — sometimes speak in a low way to draw audience focus
- Put the audience IN the story, let them feel it
- Make the delivery more dynamic and emotionally engaging
"Facts tell, stories sell." — Add a concrete anecdote and use vocal variety to bring the speech to life.
🔴 Filler Word Statistics:
✨ Zero fillers Tina, Bella, Ninan, Bing — Great job!
• Yaxin: "uh" × 3
• Julie: "uh" × 2, "and" × 2
• Cindy: "uh" × 1, "well" × 1
• Hunter: "uh" × 2, "and" × 1
• Sarah: "uh" × 2
• Warren: "uh" × 1, "and" × 2
• Jessie: "uh" × 2
💡 Advice: Speak more loudly and slowly to reduce filler words.
"I strongly encourage everyone to try the Grammarian role. When you are in this position, you will pay very careful attention to every word others are saying."
📖 Word of the Day Usage:
"Confident / Confidence" — used 11 times total
🏆 Top user: Ninan — 4 times
Also used by: Bella, Cindy, Lei, Julie
😂 Funny Parts
1. Bella & Yaxin debate: Despite Bella trying her hardest, Yaxin said "I still think we agree with you" — debate turned into agreement!
2. Cindy & Hunter debate: One said "Pride can be given, like my passion." The other responded "I feel proud before that" — quick and entertaining exchange
3. Warren in his evaluation: "If you are a teacher, I can be a teacher's teacher" — very witty
✅ Good Language Usages
• Hunter's feedback to Ano: "Facts tell, stories sell" — very powerful and concise
• Ano used sophisticated words like "luminous"
• Cindy's rich vocabulary: "vintage books", "fishing rod", "special bonding between people", "fast-changing and conceptual world"
• Cindy's powerful line: "One person's useless stuff could be others' treasure; we can make idle stuff a second life"
• Ninan: "What makes me confident is practice"
• Jessie has a large vocabulary: "narration", "beautiful endings" — encouraged her to speak more, she has very beautiful language
📝 Improvement Areas
• Lei (Ah-Counter): Should say "our counter" not "I counter"
• Sarah: Overusing "the" before words, though already improving
• Julie: Pronunciation of "repetitive"
• Cindy: "to affect" not "to effect" — different words
"I strongly encourage everyone to try the Grammarian role. When you are in this position, you will pay very careful attention to every word."
⏱️ Table Topics Session:
• Most speakers managed time well
• Julie: exceeded by 10 seconds
• Lei: only used 1 min 30 sec — still had 1 more minute available to summarize
• Warren: exceeded by 5 seconds
🎤 Prepared Speeches:
• Cindy: used 6 minutes out of 7 minutes — had 30 more seconds available
Suggestion: could add a summary, perhaps a replay of key points, slow down and vary voice for better delivery
✅ Overall: Most speakers did great with time management.
🏛️ Meeting Operations: Meeting began on time — good job.
🎨 Theme Appreciation: "Hidden Pride" — very smart, very interesting, very unique theme.
Individual Evaluations
Bing LIU (Toastmaster):
• Smart move: collected Table Topic questions in advance — triggered interest and preparation
• Used each speaker's answers to smoothly introduce the next speaker — excellent transitioning skill
• Ability to collect and summarize key points — requires a lot of effort, all the work paid off
• Opened with a personal story (spatial memory from kindergarten) — filled the room with energy
"We were in the mood, ready to speak, couldn't wait to speak"
Sarah FENG (President):
• Asked open questions about Labor Day — though took extra time
• Excellent at promoting: promoted GC club, the book club, and the Grammarian role
"You are sales, it's your gift" — born salesperson
Tina JI (Table Topics Master):
• First time taking the TT Master role — Congratulations!
• TT Master requires multiple skills: organizing, fast response, transitioning, and summarizing
"You did it well! You showcased your skills!"
"I can see the growth, I can see the pride, I'm so proud of you"
• Well-prepared: interactive activities, prepared gifts, dried apple snacks with perfect sugar level
Warren YUE (TT Evaluator 1):
• "Our AI expert" — not just "AI guy" but expert
• OpenClaw always surprises, never lacks surprises
Creative role-play evaluation style — "like a mini show that we should pay to see"
Jessie (TT Evaluator 2):
Brief mention, saved time due to constraints.
Julie GUAN (Speech Evaluator 1):
• Must know not just Pathway requirements but each speaker's unique needs
• Feedback was very precise, suggestions were constructive
• Suggestion: Add 1-2 summary sentences at the end to re-remind of key strengths and areas for improvement
• Overall: very good job
Hunter TU (Speech Evaluator 2):
• Dramatic opening style — captures audience attention with signature gestures
• Always has a sharp eye for details
• Demonstration of feedback is very entertaining
Lei WANG (Ah-Counter):
• Recorded precisely
• Printed out certain filler words so speakers could see and pay attention — very good way to help everyone improve
Sarah FENG (Grammarian):
• "Born a salesperson"
• Good choice of Word of the Day — practical and commonly used, so members could use it frequently
🎯 Personal Story: Bing shared his hidden pride — spatial imagination. It originated from age 3 when his father, to avoid his crying, kept changing routes to 红旗幼儿园 (Red Flag Kindergarten). This inadvertently cultivated a lifelong habit of memorizing routes and spatial awareness.
"Hidden pride is the quality you don't publicly share, but when you think about it or accomplish it, you feel a sense of pride. It helps personal growth and strengthens your unique character."
📋 Meeting Rules: Four taboo topics (politics, religion, sex, Switzerland); shake hands with the Toastmaster; phones on silent; actively applaud for speakers.