December 16, 2010 Theme: Christmas is a Feeling

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

At our annual Linguists of Listowel's Christmas Potluck dinner/meeting, we enjoyed great food and had lots of laughs with our theme of "Christmas is a Feeling". We had 13 members in attendance and 3 guests. Keith Stoltz called the meeting to order with a great introduction of chair Richard Boertien. Rich opened the meeting by explaining to us how "Christmas is a Feeling" and told us the history of St. Nick.

The joke of the day was done by Keith McCluskie, who had us all laughing. Jane Stoltz was our Toast and Timer, who gave a toast to the spirit and feeling of Christmas in Canada. George Stevers gave the Grace.

After the great meal that we all enjoyed, we had some very special entertainment. Leo and Holly Brisebois showed us their dance moves by demonstrating the Cha Cha. The Grammarian role was done by myself and I picked the word "Yen" to challenge everyone to use. It was used 13 times. Next, Heidi Menzi for the role of Literary Corner shared some personal Christmas stories and memories.

Marie McCutcheon did the Table Topics/Gift Exchange. She had a couple of elves give out all the presents. Then through her instructions, we were passing the gifts back and forth till we finally ended up with a gift in front us. With that gift, we had to explain to everyone who had re-gifted the gift and had brought it to the meeting for the exchange. It was a lot of fun and filled with many laughs.

George Nichol tested all our listening skills with Quizmaster and Audrey Orth shared a very interesting story for the Inspirational Message.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to see you all at our next meeting on Thursday January 7th.

Brent

Dates to remember:

Jan. 7th - Sports night

December 9, 2010 - Theme: Secrets of Speaking

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

At this past Linguists of Listowel's meeting, we had lots of laughs and a very informative meeting with our theme of "Secrets of Speaking". We had 13 members in attendance. Sharon Diehl called the meeting to order with a great introduction of chair for the meeting that included a quote from Dale Carnegie. Richard Boertien was our chair for the evening and he opened the meeting by giving us all some excellent tips on improving our speaking.

The joke of the day was done by Leo Brisebois, who gave us a very funny joke involving President Obama. Keith Stoltz was our Toast and Timer, who gave a toast to Canada and our opportunities to be able to speak in public. The Grammarian role was done by Keith McCluskie and he picked the very fun word "Humdinger" to challenge everyone to use during the meeting that was used a whopping 15 times. Next, Diane Bender explained her role for Literary Corner and read a story from Albert Cuthery called "Future Tells of Christmas Eve".

When our first speaker wasn't able to make it to the meeting, Wayne Stoltz stepped up and gave a very funny off the cuff speech about his Uncle Willy's adventure of trying make a salami sandwich late one night. Next George Nichol did his first speech out of the Special Occasion Manual where he gave a great wedding toast to his son and daughter in law which included personal stories and excellent humour. George's speech was evaluated by Leo Brisebois, where he gave great feedback.

I did Table Topics with the theme of "Secrets of Speaking", I gave everyone a chance to work on their toasting. Everyone gave an instant toast to whatever they picked out of the envelope. Some were serious toasts and some not so much. Everyone did a good job with it and the winner of table topics was Leo Brisebois. Marie McCutcheon took on the role of general evaluator, where she gave us all some help on how to evaluate a meeting and a speaker. She asked for some our newer members to come to the front and help evaluate the meeting.

Hope to see you all on Thursday for our next meeting and our Christmas Potluck. Everyone is to bring something for the potluck, their plates and cutlery, a gift for the always fun gift exchange. This year we have decided to bring some food to support our local food bank. You can also bring a guest to our always enjoyable Christmas meeting.

Brent

Dates to remember:

Dec. 16th - Christmas Potluck - Christmas is a Feeling. Bring a guest, plates and cutlery, a gift for the exchange and some food for the food bank.

Jan. 7th - Sports night

December 2, 2010 - Theme: What's Your Best Ideas for Someone Who Has Everything

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

On Thursday night, we had very fun and enjoyable meeting with our theme of "What's Your Best Ideas for Someone Who Has Everything". Keith McCluskie called the meeting to order with an introduction of myself as chair and he told everyone what he would get me for Christmas. I opened the meeting by going over how hard it is to find that gift for some people and I was going to give them some ideas throughout the meeting.

Keith McCluskie was our Toast and Timer, who gave a timely toast to Canada. The Grammarian role was done by Richard Boertien and he picked the word "Expropriate" to challenge everyone to use during the meeting. Next, I presented Leo Brisebois with an award for getting his Advanced Communicator Bronze and he used it to do his Accepting Award speech.

Our first speaker was Diane Bender and she gave us a very informative and entertaining speech called "Where's the Cache". It was about Geocaching. Then Heidi Menzi did her speech out of the Interpretive Reading Manual where she read a poem from Archibald Lampman called "In November". The Speeches were evaluated by the round table format where everyone gave great feedback to our speakers. Leo Brisebois for Point of View spoke about the always increasing price of electricity and Richard Boertien had to Counter the Point.

Lorna Vanderploeg presented a very enjoyable Table Topics where she gave everyone an object that she had in her gift bag and we had to try to sell it to another toastmaster. Everyone did a good job with it and the winner of table topics was Keith McCluskie. Sharon Diehl filled the role as Quizmaster and challenged our listening skills. Keith Stoltz took on the role of general evaluator and he gave a review of a recent Education module that Marie McCutcheon did on Toastmaster etiquette. He went over some of the ways that we can improve our etiquette during the meeting. After the meeting, everyone enjoyed refreshments provided by Heidi Menzi.

Hope to see you all on Thursday for our next meeting.

Brent

Dates to remember:

Dec. 9th - Secrets of Speaking

Dec. 16th - Christmas Potluck - Christmas is a Feeling

Jan. 7th - Sports night