Dear Fellow members, Distinguished guests,

Good morning.

Toastmasters International is an educational organization. Some of you come to improve your English. Some of you come to get tips for public speaking. Some of you come to become leaders.

What’s your purpose in Toastmasters, Grace? …

Toastmasters International has an educational system, called Pathways. I know all of you started your Pathways, right?

What’s your Pathways level, Wing? Congratulations, Wing. You have finished Level 2. Great job.

I want to share with you a secret, Wing. When you finish level 2. You will get a mini pathway - the mentor program. You can open your curriculum and you will see it.

I have been a mentor for a while. Now I have 9 proteges. Some of them just join our club. Some of them are already mentors themselves. Mentoring another individual is a rewarding and challenging experience.

Grace is one of my proteges.

I still remember on November 14th last year. Grace and I sat down at the table here in the club.

“Congratulations, Grace. You have done your Ice Breaker.” “Thank you, mentor, for the evalution.” “You can take my evaluation and prepare for your next speech.” “Alright, mentor.”

We set the goal and plan that Grace could finish her level 2 in February.

Since then I care this goal seriously.

Dear fellow members, you know there are various kinds of people. Some move fast, some move slowly. Guess what kind Grace is. She was fast at the beginning, really fast. She finished level 1 before the new year

• in 2 months. I was very glad, and also learned much from her.

Afterwards, you know what happened? Holidays, right? Spring Festival, no meeting, OK. We communicated during this long break about what she could do. For example, she could practice her speeches and be ready to deliver. But there was little progress in her pathways for months.

I was worried. However, I could not push too much. The lessons I learned here is that I should listen more to her ideas and encourage her to make the independent thinking. I can advice that she could write some of her own stories as a speech, and she can also decide to write about something that she feels more comfortable.

As long as we care about our goal, we are fine. Yes, fellow members, care is the key word here. When we are here, and we care, we will keep the communication going regardless of the pandemic, regardless of the on-line meetings. When we are here and we care, we will see our goal and move forward.

On 22nd of May, Grace delivered her last speech of level 2. She finished level 2. Even though we are 3 months behind the original plan, we are finally here and we still care.

Dear fellow toastmasters, do you still remember the four values of Toastmasters? Integrity, Respect, Service and Excellence. Here we have a fifth value from the mentor program - what is it? Care! Yes, care.

To care means when we tell people Toastmasters is good, and people join, we should take care of them. Everybody is part of the mentor program. We are all here and we should all care.

Thank you.