⭐ GC 1094 Meeting Minutes

Shared her journey of changing exercise habits. Previously did gym and Taekwondo for 10 years to meet workplace expectations — became a KPI and burden. Three years ago, decided to quit and switched to standing meditation, a more peaceful way suitable for her body. This decision was purely for herself, not for others' approval.

Julie (Parents should shape): Children are not mature enough to make correct judgments. Parents have responsibility to guide them toward success. Parents can leverage children's advantages — if good at math, guide to be a scientist; if good at social skills, guide to be in sales.

Jessie (Let them choose freely): Times change, parents' experience may not apply to current society. Children need their own social circles and independent understanding. Over-shaping will limit children's growth. Children must have their own friends and opportunities to know society.

A thoughtful debate with real-life examples from both sides.

Shared her choice after university graduation. Everyone thought she should continue studying for a master's degree, but she chose to work first. Took a part-time job in Beijing, learned a lot, and later continued studying when she felt ready. Walked her own path.

Had terrible experiences at work recently, came to the club to release emotions. Combined the theme and created an adapted song for GC, inviting everyone to sing together. The lyrics included:

The whole club sang together, creating a warm and energetic atmosphere.

Before joining Toastmasters, was very afraid of making mistakes and cared deeply about others' opinions on her appearance. Now doesn't change for anyone else. Dresses up only to make herself happy. Her own mood and happiness are what matter most.

Being the star of your own life means following your wishes and hopes. But living in your own world means only caring about yourself and not caring about others. Life is about relationships with people around you. So to be a star, you should care about yourself AND care about others — family, colleagues, and even strangers. The world is a whole, you shouldn't live only in your own world.

Evaluated Sarah, Xuan, Lei, and TT Master 张娟:

• Sarah: Very beautiful today, dressed up for herself. Speech had clear before-and-after contrast, vivid details (high heels + Starbucks), strong ending about considering herself. Very inspiring with clear structure.
• Xuan (guest): Very brave to stand on stage even though English is not fluent. Shared her journey of choosing work first then studying later. Language is just for expression, she expressed herself well.
• Lei: Strong point — won't change for anyone else, just wants to be herself. Observed she wears beautiful makeup and accessories, but does it for herself, not for others. Very inspiring for modern women.
• 张娟 (TT Master): Elegant standing on stage, beautiful dress. Called back with Yang to describe the theme clearly. Prepared many challenging questions and debate topics. Used a cute package — very creative.

Evaluated the debate team, Eva, Untie, and TT Master 张娟:

• Julie & Jessie (debate): Both very thoughtful, gave many stories leading to detailed situations. Suggestion: speak louder, look at all of us not just at each other.
• Eva (free style): Obeyed timing rules even though it was free style. Had abundant body language, showed energy. This kind of freestyle is welcomed as long as everyone obeys timing rules.
• Untie: English speed improved this time, a little faster than before. Content about not living in own world but caring for others is a good thought. Pity time was too limited to express all deep ideas.
• 张娟 (TT Master): Much more relaxed than before, could speak more freely from the bottom of the heart. Suggestion: today's questions were a bit hard to answer in 30 seconds, next time find easier debatable questions.

Opening: Do you have this moment? You don't want to get up and go to work. You get angry when you are thinking of your boss or colleagues. How many people truly want to go to work? How many people are going because they have to?

Personal story: Chased a project past April, thought it was very important — if finished perfectly, would get promotion and more money. Worked very hard, usually past midnight, even on weekends. Son often asked: "Mom, can you stop working to play with me?" Always replied: "Sorry, I need to finish this work first, I will play with you after this project." Family asked to have meal together, always replied: "You can have meal first, I will eat after drawing this chart."

Worked hard like this until had pain in chest. Remembered teacher Zhang Xuefeng passed away due to ineffective rescue after sudden cardiac death. Felt afraid. One night, laid in bed and thought: Is it so important that I need to sacrifice my health? Is this kind of life meaningful?

The wrong story: We grew up believing one story — meaningful life means success. Success means good school, good job, good money, good life others envy. This story is so loud, no one questions it. We just question ourselves: "Am I not good enough?" "Am I not working hard enough?"

The awakening: Saw the moonlight outside, saw son sleeping peacefully beside me. Suddenly felt that story is not my story. Can't spend whole life paying the price for someone else's rules.

Core message: If you feel this matters — it matters. If you feel this person is important — he is. If you feel this afternoon sun on your face, warm tea, one word with someone you love — is meaningful, then it is.

Let yourself go. Let go of the story that says "only success counts." We can choose a new ruler. Let happiness be our measure.

Core thesis: "Knowing is not the same as seeing, and seeing is not the same as doing. The best teaching is not telling, it's showing."

Opening: Have you ever had a problem and someone told you exactly how to fix it — they're clear, patient, give you every word — you nodded, said thank you, and walked away just as lost? Like learning to cook: you have the recipe, understand every word, but in the kitchen you have no idea what "medium heat" means or how much is "a little bit of salt."

Why she chose Sarah as mentor: Sarah is former president, gives warm and professional openings. Whenever she takes a role, she gives her very best. Once as grammarian, she competed with AI and wrote two full pages of notes. As timer, Tina noticed Sarah allocates almost equal time to every speaker in evaluations — this requires not only skills but genuine care that everybody deserves the same attention and respect.

The old dog story: Many people told Tina to add acting to her speeches, be more expressive. She tried but didn't understand what it means. Until one day in table topics, Sarah was given the task to act like an old dog. Sarah didn't hesitate — her body changed, she crunched forward carrying the weight of age, her eyes became tired and soft, her voice gentle. She even pretended to have a long beautiful tail and cared about it very much. At that moment, she was no longer Sarah, she became the old dog — vivid and completely believable.

Closing: You don't need a title to become a mentor. If you're diligent, push yourself, and care about people around you, they're watching you and learning from you. You're already impacting them. So bring your very best every meeting, every role, every time. Because somewhere nearby, someone is hearing a voice inside saying: "I can do that too."

Delivery: At first slightly nervous, but after interaction with audience became more relaxed. Good eye contact with the whole audience all the time. Spoken language easy to follow, convenient for audience to get the point.

Structure: Very good structure. Opening asks a powerful question "What is the meaning of life?" Body draws from own story — working too hard, health issues forcing him to stop and reconsider. Ending answers the opening question very well, whole speech well structured.

Project completion: "Write speech with purpose" — did very well. Topic is touching, many people ask themselves the same question. We're too busy chasing so-called success that we forget to ask what we really want.

Three points:

1. Structure: Very clear PREP structure (Point-Reason-Example-Point). Very good storyteller, stories are vivid. The old dog example — even though Ninan didn't see it, can still feel the soft eyes of the aged dog. Points are very clear through PREP.
2. Sound: Most progressive part. Last time gave a somehow monotonous speech, but this time improved a lot on intonation and pulse. Even the silence/pause is very powerful. "The best teaching is not telling, it's showing" — Tina showed how sound makes the point.
3. Sincerity: "I can do that too" — learned from Sarah's genuine care for everyone and responsibility to herself. It's care and sincerity that make her win this time. Inspires others to pay attention to how they are, can inspire people.

Thanked backup partner Sharon for great support. Analyzed recordings and found one common grammar mistake many members made:

Error: Putting a noun right after an intransitive verb and forgetting the necessary preposition.

• ❌ "I care my appearance" → ✅ "I care about my appearance"
• ❌ "I focus myself" → ✅ "I focus on myself"

Reasons: Thinking in Chinese and translating word by word; only memorizing word meanings instead of word pairs; speaking too fast and easily missing small prepositions.

Noticed several people did very well using pause instead of filler words — Toastmaster Yang, Tina (second speaker), and others. Their speaking pace is very steady with lots of pauses between, overcoming the temptation to use filler words. Very good demonstration.

Most used filler word tonight: "Yes" — Sarah (second speaker) used several, Ninan (second evaluator) used more than ten, Julie (first evaluator) used about ten.

Good news: Tina in her prepared speech almost didn't use filler words, only used several in Q&A session. Suggestion: next time in impromptu situations, slow down and use pause in between.

Used AI tool to help count time for each person correctly. Reported times for all 26 segments of the meeting.

Key findings: Most speakers were within time requirements. A few slightly overtime. The meeting ran about 66 minutes total.

On agenda: The typing on the agenda is a little bit small. Need to expand the agenda to completely fill the whole page so people can see roles clearly. High priority item.

On venue: The temperature in the room gets hotter and hotter as time goes by. Need someone to regulate temperature.

On SAA (Tina): Very good as a speaker, but SAA's most important job is to set the tone of the meeting. Need to have high energy as SAA, carry the energy until the Toastmaster takes control.

On Toastmaster (Yang): Remember he is not an evaluator. Don't give extra feedback as Toastmaster. The role is to give everybody an overview of what to expect and make sure everything flows.

On theme: Likes "be your own star" but "life has no audience" is a little irrelevant to Toastmasters' mantra of becoming better speakers in front of an audience. Suggest changing to "you are the star in your heart" — more positive energy.

On table topics: Likes the bag approach — retro, haven't seen it since 2014. But don't allow speakers to change questions — creates time management problems. Debate topic "should parents shape children's dreams" is a classic good topic.

On TTE 1: Calm style of speaking, paused a lot to contemplate thoughts. Suggestion: don't pause too much or take up too much time.

On TTE 2: Really good abundant body language, more opening. Ended with feedback for TT Master: more relaxation. Very good evaluator.

On evaluation skills:

• Slow down and give more pauses for meaning before important points
• Don't use acronyms (like PREP) — people will think about the acronym more than what you're saying
• Find your sweet spot on stage, don't stay in one place or sway all over