“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail – Benjamin Franklin”

Mr. Toastmaster of the Evening, fellow toastmasters and guests – a warm good evening to one
and all.
We all at some stage of our life, do engage in planning activities and today I will describe one
such instance where I was given an opportunity to plan and execute a Themed Toastmasters
meeting.
Three weeks before, on May 07 upon completion of my 2nd level, I contacted our VPED to
discuss on the next level wherein the first project was to practice developing a small-scale plan
and bringing that plan to fruition. He suggested to go ahead with a themed meeting the
following week on May 11 and start planning for the same wishing me good luck.
“A goal without plan is just a wish”. So, I went through the preparation process – initial one
being, selecting a theme for the meeting. I shortlisted a few and consulted 2 charms of the club
– VP PR & VPED. First it was VP PR – TM Manaz, who really encouraged to go with the
suggested theme, as everyone could relate the theme to themselves. Then I took this up with
our VPED, he was elated, being a peripatetic, immediately accepted the proposal for the theme
– To Travel is to Live and even confirmed the Word of the Day as Peripatetic – meaning a
person who travels from place to place.
When the Theme and the word of the day were decided, I decided to analyze the other aspects,
however, our VPED had completed the agenda, meeting leaders, speakers and the evaluators.
I connected with all speakers & their respective evaluators requesting them “which place would
you love to visit next?”
All the speakers & except for one evaluator provided their choices and these were compiled as
a power point presentation including pictures of places our leaders preferred visiting whilst they
were introduced before their project presentations. Also, efforts were taken to keep all the
meeting leaders informed on their meeting role and the script which was shared personally to
each leader.
On May 11, 2020, evening 0700PM the stage was set to witness meeting # 48 of Taj
Toastmasters Club. The zoom master and few leaders reported on time for checking the
system functions and finally the meeting started on time as planned.
Now despite successfully planning and implementing a great meeting, I encountered few
challenges & shortcomings that could have taken care of for the meeting to be a great one.

 A Meeting Leader & an evaluator did not turn up in the last minute, that made us scout
for replacement.
 The meeting had few technical glitches, that was not normal for a Taj Meeting, that led to
disruption with one speaker and an evaluator getting disconnected in between.
 The Timer too made a slight error with one speaker’s timing criteria.
 The VPED had set the agenda whilst I presented the idea of a themed meeting, and I
was offered the TOE role, which could have avoided to have a better plan implemented.
Nevertheless, the plan that was set for a successful meeting was put forth to the best of my
ability and the Prepared speeches, Table Topic & Evaluation went off well as planned. Even
the General Evaluator commented on these in a positive manner.