Companionship Over Drones

A city celebrating, a club meeting

August 26 was the 45th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, and the city put on a spectacular drone light show at Civic Center. Members had a choice to make. They chose SZTM. As someone put it after the meeting: “今晚大家在大型无人机表演和 SZTM 之间选择了后者.” When Stella stepped out of the venue and found the metro packed with drone-show crowds, she joked: “深圳头马开个例会，全城同庆.”

The evening opened with a birthday celebration for Tracy, Ivy, Mike, and Becky, covering three months of summer birthdays in one go.

Prepared speeches

Lori delivered “How Leadership Shapes Us,” her Pathways 1.4 speech, and the group chat lit up afterwards. “Lori 姐 slay 全场.” “痞帅痞帅的有木有 爱看.” “今晚台风最佳，舞动全场.” The hand-in-pocket swagger clearly left an impression.

Mayme also took the stage. “Mayme 好上镜,” someone noted after seeing the photos.

Table topics and guests

Brent prepared eight questions around the theme “How will you help your friends?” exploring how to respond when someone close to you is struggling.

The meeting drew presidents and past presidents from three sister clubs: Gary from CBD served as General Evaluator, Sammi from CBD as Moment of Truth, Gianna from SHIP as Table Topic Evaluator, and another Gary from ACME as Individual Evaluator. “CBD Gary 的点评教科书级别,” Lori said. Anna summed it up: “两个 Gary 都好厉害.”

Behind the scenes

Brownie juggled multiple roles on the night, handling both TME and meeting coordination duties. “今晚最辛勤的，MM 工作，主席工作，TME 工作。晚饭都没时间吃.” Stella stepped up last-minute to run a four-minute warm-up game as SAA before the meeting kicked off.