Lately, I’ve spoken a lot about giving and this time I would like to speak about giving back. Last week, I hosted the election meeting of my International Lunchtime Toastmasters club (ILTM) (1). The committee consists of the President, a number of Vice Presidents handling education, membership, public relations, Treasurer, Secretary, Sergeant at arms and an Auditor.
Each of the candidates had up to two minutes to speak about why they were the best person to take on the role. Quite a few of the candidates were relatively new members, having joined in the last year. Whilst they spoke about their individual qualifications, many of them talked about how they had already learnt and gotten so much out of the club and how they wanted to give back as well. It was very touching to hear them speak.
Recently, a friend asked me “Why are you still part of Toastmasters?”. I answered, “Oh my god, so many reasons, I’m always learning there, I get to speak about anything I want, it’s my gym, the people are great and I want to give back to the club and the members”.
I choked up at the end as I thanked the members for showing up, recognized what a wonderful job the old committee has done, how I believe the new committee will continue strongly and how important the club is to me.
Where can you give back in your life?
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