Category Archives: Posts

13 Dec

Season’s Greetings 2020/2021

Dear fellow Toastmasters and Guests

Our last meeting in 2020 will be different. At the Online Christmas special event on 14 Decenber, we are going to unwrap our virtual Christmas gift, take a look into fellow members’ fridges and listen to an inspiring speech given by dam McConnaughy, President of Ramstein TM club. For those accepting the invitation, we kindly ask you to provide pictures of your (virtual) Christmas gift and your fridge inside & outside (yes!!)

For the start of 2021 we will firstly meet on 11 January.

Please note that these online meetings will be conducted on Skype. Have a peaceful holiday season and a happy new year!

Sincerely Yours
Officers 2020/2021 of BASF Toastmasters

21 Nov

Three Reasons Why

Are you looking for reasons to spend your Monday evenings virtually with us? Now, look no further.

Reason #1: Sharpen your virtual communication and leadership skills. Covid-19 has triggered a paradigm shift towards virtual meetings. Business trips, which deemed indispensable just a year ago, now look superfluous. Experts reckon that virtual meetings are here to stay. Without the luxury of body language to accentuate your message, your new tools for effective communication will be, among others, your facial expression and vocal variation. Also, explore digital tools with us and start impressing your colleagues at work.

Reason #2: Network virtually. At BASF Toastmasters, social distancing means socialise distantly. We are part of the global BASF Toastmasters network which consists of 13 clubs in Asia, Europe and North America, the Area F1 family (Rhein-Neckar) and the Toastmasters International. Whether you are a seasoned networker or networking newbie, our virtual meetings offer you a unique opportunity to polish your virtual coffee-break skills.
P.S. Join our Yammer and MS Team groups if you have not done so already!

Reason #3: Because you want to have a fun evening with fun people. Really, that goes without saying.

21 Nov

Stay connected with Toastmasters!

The COVID-19 global pandemic is challenging us. Actions used to be harmless – handshake, hugs or just being in a group, now have potential to make us sick and spread the virus even further. In order to follow the government order, our club decided to move our Face2face meeting back to Online.

However, social distancing does not need to mean social disconnecting. Thanks to the Internet and today’s modern technologies, we don’t have to stuck at home alone, feel lonely and isolated. We can still keep seeing each other every two weeks via Zoom/WebEx to check on everyone and to keep our sprites light. We can even consider volunteer efforts to provide needed services in order to stay together, while keeping ourselves and others safe at the same time. As a team, we believe we can overcome this hard time easier together than alone. Thus, please come to join our Online Toastmasters meetings.

Please stay safe and stay connected.

06 Nov

Global Open House 13 Nov 2020

BASF’s Toastmasters Clubs all over the World organize an online “Open House” on Friday 13 November 2020. The events will start 11am CET in Malaysia, transfer to Germany (1pm CET) and finish in North America (3pm CET). The whole event will focus on Leadership – Communication – Networking – Education with speakers of diverse cultural and professional background sharing their perspective on these topics.
Four speakers will represent BASF Toastmasters Ludwigshafen. Listen to Rolf’s speech about “Connecting with People”. Learn with Martin “How to Conduct Productive Meetings”. “Get Better at Impromptu Speaking” by joining Melanie. Or find out with Jan Lukas “Why Al Won’t Take Over the World (Yet)!“.
All of the speeches and discussions can be found here. The “Open House” is an online event conducted on a WebEx platform. Please contact Weng Khong or Martin for access details!

30 Sep

Happy together!

This last Monday we had the opportunity to retake on site meetings again in BASF Toastmasters. After more than 6 months performing online meetings it was time to meet our fellow Toastmasters again.

Online meetings have its own advantages because they provide an easy access for other toastmasters around the globe to connect and interact with our recurrent team in LU. Connecting from home also implies a decrease in personal contact which given the current situation can be beneficial to avoid the transmission of Coronavirus.

This was one of the main reasons why several members of the club still requested the possibility to participate online (together with our on-site members) so that they would not miss the opportunity to continue improving their public speaking skills.

For this reason the club conducted the first hybrid meeting, connecting people from home with our members from Ludwigshaffen that were sitting in our meeting room. The meeting went effortlessly and the feedback received from our online-members was very positive and reinforced the idea that hybrid meetings are indeed a great opportunity to connect both worlds and facilitate that everyone feels included wherever they want to be.

Mondays meeting started with a short round of introductions and later continued with one of our members presenting a very nice well done speech about  happiness, having in consideration that the topic of the day was “HAPPY TOGETHER”  😊

We later continued with a short break and the “On-site” members got the opportunity to get to know a little bit better all new faces attending while also drinking coffee together.  Afterwards we performed a TABLE TOPICS session where impromptu speaking took place and members needed to create imaginary stories at the same time they were given different pictures about totally different unrelated topics. Many funny crazy stories happened there! It was a great evening and a happy reencounter for all our members in BASF Toastmasters!

07 Sep

BASF Toastmasters returns On-Site!

Since Covid started, our meetings have been affected and we haven´t seen each other as wanted! Now that the summer is ending, we are foreseeing a possibility to start our F2F meetings on-site again! We would be very happy to see your beloved faces again, taking the existing Covid requirements into account!

According to a TEDEx guys (they seem to know what they are doing), effective presentation skills reduce miscommunication, which is likely the biggest cause of work-related stress. That means better presentation skills lower the stress on presenters which means the successful delivery of the message we are trying to transmit, so let’s improve all together and show off what are we capable of!

Next meeting will be held on the 14th of September in Ludwigshafen (BASF) and we are really looking forward to welcome you all again.
Since BASF Toastmasters could not meet personally for so long we also plan to have a picnic at the beginning of September. Join in to see members and guests and spend a few hours outside at the end of summer!

06 Sep

Summer Picnic 2020

We invite you for a picnic outside at the Rhine river bank on 07 September 2020. To us it is high time to meet personally again, you are also welcome to bring a friend or colleague who is interested in Toastmasters. Following these guidelines to us it should be possible in the current situation:

health

  • we will keep the recommended distance of 1.50m to each other
  • the names of everyone attending will be noted
  • install and activate the Corona App on your smartphone

food & drinks

  • though bringing and tasting food is definitely a fun factor at a picnic we ask you to bring and consume your own food,
  • sharing may be ok, if food portions are separetely packed
  • bring also drinks and your own glass / mug, nevertheless sharing a glas of cola or wine by pouring from the bottle should be ok

other equipment

  • blankets, pillow etc to make it more comfortable are highly appreciated
  • bring a frisbee or another outdoor game — it can be fun also to be a bit acitve

You did not receive a personal invitation by e-mail! Get in contact with us for details!!

31 Jul

Webinar: Spontaneous Speaking & Table Topics®

Are you the one on the stage to answer the Table Topics® Master’s question?
Sweaty hands and a hot head?
No words in mind?
No idea how to fill the next two minutes?
You’ve got the chance to find out more about Table Topics® and how to approach the successful delivery of an entertaining speech. Have a look at some strategies and methods that help you to find the right words. Overcome the scary ideas in your hot head that are slowing you down in being an excellent impromptu speaker!
Join our Toastmasters’ ONLINE Meeting on 10 August 05:45 pm! You can register directly on easySPEAK for this event and will get online access to this meeting.

29 May

Wherever you are in June — join our BASF Toastmasters meetings!

Dear fellow Toastmasters and Guests

on the finishing line of the Toastmasters’ year 2019/2020 we welcome you to participate in our meetings in June

  • Mon 8 June https://tmclub.eu/view_agenda.php?t=146197 Taimur’s speech about “Being a 90s kid” is already on the agenda, another speaker slot is open for volunteers.  Besides the meeting will consist of all “classic” elements of a Club meeting. We will finish with the Election of Club Executive Board 2020/2021.
  • Mon 22 June  https://tmclub.eu/view_agenda.php?t=146198
    We are curious who will provide an entertaining, thoughtful or informative speech. Furthermore some members will be challenged in impromptu speaking. After the feedback part of the meeting it’s “Time To Say Goodbye” to our Officers who have lead the Club in the last 12 months. And then let’s welcome the new crew!

Meetings will open on 17:45 and last until ca. 19:30 including a small break. Using the mentioned links to easySPEAK you can already enroll for your favorite role. Especially we are looking for people who want to proceed on their paths to better communications and will prepare a speech J .Invitations for each meetings will be sent out separately in advance.  

You don’t believe online presentations can be fun?! Then you simply must participate!!

Yours Club Officers, BASF Toastmasters

22 Apr

Characteristics of Effective Leaders


On 04 May 2020 Toastmaster Lei Du-Cuny will conduct an online workshop on her way to achieve Advanced Communicator Gold status. In this workshop, we will look at the definition of leadership, discover our present leadership skills, see how our skills are perceived by others and learn how we can become better leaders.

You are welcome to register through easySPEAK https://tmclub.eu/view_meeting.php?t=142293 .