“Welcome on board, this is Wyo-Life airline.” “Please register here.” “Are you a Toastmasters’ member?” “How do you know about our club?”

Dear audience, have you ever experienced such a situation? Great! Please tell me who is asking these questions? Yes, it is our SAA. The club officer stands for Sergeant At Arms.

It was the first club officer role I was assigned back in 2020. Yes, assigned. To be, or not to be. I was the SAA, a Sergeant At Arms.

At that time, I knew little about Toastmasters. I knew it is a place to learn public speaking, in English. Raise your hands, if you come here for similar reason.

Quite a lot. Congratulations. You are right.

The club president, Amanda, at that time, told me SAA would prepare the meeting room so she needed a man to move the big table. Plus, SAA had the benefit to be the first speaker on the stage in each meeting. Sounds great. Right?

I looked up in toastmasters website and found the script to say on the stage, and also found that SAA needed to clean up the meeting room after the meeting as well. No big deal.

Gradually, I began to like this role. Came early and left late. At least I can say the script loudly and fluently:

Welcome to Yu-Life club, Toastmasters is a non-profit educational organization which teaches public speaking and leadership skills through its world wide network of clubs. blah blah

Many of our club presidents was an SAA. For example, one of the best SAAs in Shanghai, and possibly one of the best SAAs on this planet, our immediate past past past president Peter taught me some about this role. Until Peter became the SAA, until he played the infamous one-yuan-and-wu-jiao game, I didn’t know that SAA should play the warm up game. What a pity!

Raise your hands if you enjoyed today’s warm up game.

Thank you. I could also play some games in the future. Stay tuned.

To be, or not to be. This was a question.

Now I begin to realize that it is the “to be” not the “not to be” that makes me here today. If I had ever chosen the “not to be” I would be one of you sitting there, there and there.

Today I am here to call for your action. I started a project of SAA. This is a projec to make it easy for you to act as the SAA. There is job description, and there are on-stage scripts, and there are many fun games. Any of you can choose the “to be” to practice the role of SAA in this club. You can follow the script, you can play the game, you can add your own script, and you can innovate your own games. I am expecting that after a few months you can act this role in other clubs, in your family, in your school, in your work, and most importantly in your life.

I already have Peter and Joker as project members. They are the mentors of this role. All you need is the “to be”.

To be, or not to be. It is not a problem because I see something in your eyes.

Welcome on board. This is Yu-Life airline.

Back to the greatest SAA, Peter.