Dear Toastmasters from all around the world,
We made it! The INgolSpeakers celebrate their 1st birthday! – and we continue to grow, just like a healthy child does!
It took a long time, from the start in April 2018 to the charter in September 2019. Just when the switch to Pathways came, we had our first demo meeting, which was enthusiastically organized by a small, inexperienced team. We had a lot of guests, but the yield was zero. Nevertheless, we were willing to learn and received great help from Karla Viebahn from Munich, who was our mentor and took us under her wing. She supported us in not giving up and in becoming an effective team with a heart. That is why MENTORING is particularly important to us.
And then in September 2019 the time came: The INgolSpeakers were chartered!
We graduated as a Select Distinguished Club in our first year, although we were barely 10 months old.
During the competition season, our club had a strong presence on both the area and the division level: 4 INgolSpeakers took part and Deepak Nagaraj, our president at the time, won 2nd place in the evaluation speech contest for us! This is definitely a great success for us in the first year and it makes us want more. In addition, we managed to grow and gain new members – even during the Corona lockdown!
A particular highlight at the end of the Toastmasters year was a special: “ROASTS instead of toasts”! The actors in our club were lovingly “grilled” – recommendable new format – there was a lot to laugh about. From March onwards, we successfully held online meetings, with many guests also from outside of Europe. Of course we hoped that we could meet again in person soon.
This is now possible because our Sergeant of Arms, Katharina, managed to rent the large lecture hall at the Technical University of Ingolstadt for our club evening, with all the great technical possibilities this offers, while keeping a great atmosphere.
With our hearts pounding, we held there our first meeting with online presence on September 8th. One could participate in person or online. The theme was “Crossing borders” and that’s what we did. Almost all members attended plus 10 guests, of which 1 guest signed a membership application right at the beginning – Welcome! The meeting succeeded with some technical learning experiences and all the guests wanted to come back.
We are very happy that we have created such a good foundation that is capable of using crises in order to survive them well. Feedback from our guests confirms that they can feel a lot of inspiration in us and that the chemistry is right, which is why they all like to come back. We are working to ensure that it stays that way and would be delighted if this article inspires you to pay us a visit. You are always welcome!
