⭐ GC 1095 Meeting Minutes

Started using WeChat in 2020. In the beginning, people shared real lives. Then it became a picture exhibition during holidays. Now it's full of advertisements.

The problem is not WeChat, it's the boss who contacts you after work. WeChat is convenient — we don't need to remember friends' phone numbers anymore. Even after a long time, we can still connect via WeChat and see their lives through Moments.

Uses Teams for work, WeChat only for personal communication. Only adds colleagues as WeChat friends if they're honorable enough to be friends. This helps maintain the boundary between work and life. Has been absent for more than half a year due to overwhelming workload, very happy to be back.

Two reasons: (1) As we grow older, the desire to share naturally decreases, but offline communication needs remain. (2) With the development of the internet, personal information protection is getting weaker, so people are more reluctant to expose privacy on public platforms.

From Chengdu, studied for a master's degree in the UK. The first time learning to cook Sichuan cuisine, the smoke from lots of chilies triggered the fire alarm in the apartment. Roommates came out to check what happened. Shared this funny moment as the first WeChat post.

Around 2011-2012. Before that, everybody used QQ. Started using WeChat because friends used it and wanted to join group chats. WeChat became so popular that everybody was using it. Even after changing careers and cities, the WeChat group still keeps people connected.

Two wishes: (1) Hope WeChat can help separate contacts more wisely for posting Moments — want some people to see, some not to see. (2) Some WeChat groups gradually disappear if no one speaks. Hope important groups can still be active from time to time, sending messages automatically every three months or half a year.

From Golden Time Club (VP). WeChat's AI auto-translation function is very useful — supports Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and more. Greatly reduces the barrier of cross-language communication. Don't need to spend lots of time memorizing vocabulary or practicing foreign languages.

Strengths: Very well prepared — wrote scripts for opening and transitions, could pick up messages from previous speakers, prepared topic slips for speakers to choose.
Suggestion: After checking the script, raise your head and make eye contact with the audience. You've improved a lot — previously you couldn't dare to move your eyes away from the screen, but today you did.

Strengths: Set a perfect example of what a table topic should look like. Zigzag structure — started with real life, then disliked advertisements, then called back to real life with real friends. Good smile and pace control.
Suggestion: Eye contact is not balanced — focused too much on one side. Unfair to the audience on the other side.

Strengths: Had difficulty answering the question but answered it eventually and very smartly. Redefined the question — from convenience to the boundary between personal life and work usage. Faced the challenge directly instead of avoiding it. Very relaxed, with good variety and ups and downs in speech.

Strengths: Very reasonable speech — mentioned joining WeChat because of friends, which is the power of social media and network effect. Reminded everyone of golden times with friends.
Suggestion: Can learn from Sarah — have a callback at the end to connect with the start for better structure. Can also learn from Summer — add more variety.

Strengths: Very direct and clear, efficiently delivered information.
Suggestion: Can learn from Summer and Sarah — add some storytelling elements in addition to direct information delivery.

Asked the audience: "Who thinks Timer is the primary entry-level role?" Shared her first experience as Timer — very nervous, one hand holding stopwatch, the other holding green card.

Later realized: Timer is not just a signal code, but respect to everyone. Through managing time, ensuring everybody gets equal chance to speak.

Became president after one year. First term, member renewal dropped almost 30%. Realized she couldn't control everything. True leadership is not always about results — it's about the process, how members think, how they feel, how to help others grow.

Heard the word "decentralize". It's very dangerous for a Toastmaster club if there's one or two superstars who do almost everything. As president, decided to help others succeed, help others grow. For every activity, there's a separate leader — not all managed by her or the officer team.

Compared corporate leadership vs Toastmaster leadership:

• Corporate: Top-down, empowered by position, result-oriented
• Toastmaster: Bottom-up, no payment, growth-oriented

Q&A: Asked about leadership growth order — "Service first, then you can get influence. That is called 非职务影响力 (non-positional influence)."

Asked the audience: "What do you think is the most essential trait of a company? What is the foundation of a successful business?" Most people answer profit.

But tonight, want to talk about something smaller yet more powerful — trust.

Shared the case of Pangdonglai (胖东来), a supermarket in Henan:

• Many retail enterprises pursue rapid expansion, use fake pricing tricks
• Pangdonglai insists on not expanding outside Henan
• Publicly marks cost price, selling price, and profit margin
• Food safety standards are stricter than national standards
• Gives consumers trust — no need to worry about food

Q&A: How to gain customer trust? — "Professional ability is the foundation. If you can accurately answer all customer questions, you can gain respect and trust."

Strengths: Used personal stories throughout the speech. Opening question caught audience attention. From Timer experience led to respect, from President experience led to decentralization. Clear structure. Compared corporate and community leadership very professionally. Ending call-to-action was inspiring.
Suggestion: Summarize and repeat core points at the ending. Add a specific before-and-after story of helping others grow to make the point more persuasive.

Strengths: Opening question guided thinking. When didn't get expected answer, quickly adjusted — good stage control. Ending was powerful and left deep impression. Beautiful language, good use of parallelism, very comfortable to listen to.
Suggestion: More deliberately practice voice variation. Try not to bring detailed script, only bring structure outline, reduce the times of looking at script.

On TM Warren: Warren's tradition is very interesting, always makes us laugh. That's wonderful — makes everyone feel different emotions. Keep it on.

On Grammarian Tina: Mentioned some primary mistakes and organized role group well. But forgot to mention who is the Word King/Queen of "evocative". Hope next time to mention it.

On Ah-Counter Jianghua: "At the beginning of the meeting, I think you are delivering a speech — you are really good at pausing. You learned it from Brother Bean, you will be the DTM one day." The southern laughter is a good way to relax. Suggestion: divided members into different groups — who did good, who should improve. Tell each person what their future crutch words are, so they can pay more attention.

On Timer Sharon: "You are the biggest winner tonight — you conquered your fear. You stood here and lived along with fear." Hope next time after the experience, share your feelings and how to improve time management — it will be useful for everybody.

On TTE1 刘兵 (Brother Bean): Rich body language and facial expression — you can feel the energy, you can feel the emotion. Really liked the word "encourage" — every time Brother Bean says "I encourage you to do something", it's not just feedback, it's ahead of feedback. Not just saying what you didn't do well, but encouraging you to do better next time. "I learned it."

On TTE2 Yang: Improving at time management. Reminded everybody to pay more attention to the timer signals — it's not just a card signal, it tells you where you should take control. Noticed the yellow card but the second speaker was still talking. Yang talked about Brother Bean's improvement at the beginning — good way. Talked about structure of speakers. For 李理's part, switched to Chinese — really nice. "You did a great job."

On IE1 Ninan: Mentioned three parts of how to develop a speech: (1) No story, no speech; (2) Key message — why you stand here, you should have a story and a message; (3) Structure. Ninan's suggestion to Sarah about callback was good, but could show Sarah how to do it — how to call back, how to conclude her speech.

On IE2 Cary: Mentioned structure too — different people have different answers at the end. Talked about notes/scripts — try to use main points instead of detailed script. Cary showed how to do it — didn't use a detailed script, just listed main points. "That's a really good way."

Multiple speakers used the word "evocative" today. Collected golden sentences including:
• "Small speaking habits make a big difference"
• "Impromptu speaking is making quick decisions and answering questions"
• "Decentralized leadership"
Corrected two pronunciation errors.

If you want to reduce crutch words, record your own speeches. Slowly you will steadily improve.

18 speakers tonight, most completed on time. This is Sharon's first time as Timer — didn't control the timing statistics well.
Suggestion: Time allocation should be 10% opening, 60% main body, 30% ending.
Applauded speakers who completed on time.

Encouraged everyone to cherish the Toastmasters stage. Announced GC Meeting 1095 ended. See you next week!

VP of Golden Time Club. Came to learn and improve English speaking. Shared that WeChat's AI auto-translation function is very helpful for cross-language communication. Also mentioned a friend who hadn't been seen for half a year but had greatly improved English — proving that continuous practice is the key.

First time attending Toastmasters. Wants to meet new friends, improve English, and enhance public speaking skills. Shared a funny story about triggering fire alarm while cooking Sichuan cuisine.

First time attending Toastmasters. Found the atmosphere very inclusive and supportive. Learned a lot about public speaking and communication. Will come again next time.

Has been absent for more than half a year due to overwhelming workload. Very happy to be back. Plans to resume regular attendance by end of July or early August. Next time wants to serve as Table Topics Master and bring a new, more interesting and effective activity structure.