February 24, 2011: International Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest Events

Preparations are underway for the Linguists of Listowel International Speech and Speech Evaluation Contests.
Top left: Linguists of Listowel club members and guests from the Mount Forest Motivators finalize preparations before the Speech Evaluation Contest begins.

Middle: Area Governor, Keith Stoltz is finalizing the list of competitors for the International Speech and Speech Evaluators Contest. Club president, Brent Jemmett is shown looking on and helping out.

Bottom left: In the foreground is George Stevers shown reading up on the finer points of evaluating a speech. Both Richard Boertien and Marie McCutcheon are shown greeting our guests from the Mount Forest Motivators club.

February 24, 2011: International Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest

Fellow Toastmasters and Friends

This past Thursday, the Linguists of Listowel held their International Speech and Speech Evaluation contest. It was an excellent night filled with lots of great speeches and lots of guests (Eight). We had 13 members in attendance with everyone taking a part in the contests. We also had lots of help from our guests from the Mount Forest Motivators who helped fill in roles such as judges and counters.

Our Chairpersons for the night were Leo Brisebois for the Speech Evaluation Contest and Keith Stoltz for the International Speech Contest. They both did fantastic jobs as chairpersons. Our chief judge for both contests was Audrey Orth and Richard Boertien was the Sergeant of Arms. The timers were Marilyn Miller and John Ridgeway from the Mt. Forest Motivators. The target Speaker for the Evaluation contest was Ron Hills from Top Talkers, who gave a very entertaining speech called "Is Anybody Listening?".

The winners of the Evaluation Contest were:

1st - Jane Stoltz, 2nd - Keith McCluskie 3rd - Brent Jemmett

The winners of the International Contest were:

1st - Sharon D'Arcey (What Really Matters), 2nd - Brent Jemmett (Mackenzie's Figure Skating Career), 3rd - Leo Brisebois ("Perceptions")

The first and second place winners will compete at the Area contest on March 9th in Listowel.

This Tuesday, March 1st, is the Mount Forest Motivators contest and if you are able to make it there to support them like they did our contest, it would be good to help them out.

Hope to see you all this Thursday at our meeting with the theme of "What Season Are You?"

Brent

February 17, 2011: Additional Club Point

Club president, Brent Jemmett is shown holding the Linguists of Listowel club point chart.
Club secretary, Marilyn Miller will add another point to the club chart for completing her 10th speech of the Competent Communicator manual.

February 17, 2011: Competent Communicator Speech Number 10

Congratulations to Marilyn Miller for completing her 10th speech from the Competent Communicator manual.
Club president, Brent Jemmett is shown presenting Marilyn Miller with her certificate of achievement.

February 17, 2011: New Member Induction

Karen Bott is being welcomed into the Linguists of Listowel Toastmaster's club by Keith McCluskie.

February 17, 2011 - Theme: Favourite Destinations in the Summer

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

We had a lot of fun at Thursday's Linguists of Listowel's meeting with the theme of "Favourite Destinations in the Summer". It had all 13 members in attendance thinking of the warmer weather. George Nichol called the meeting to order and named many favourite summer destinations. Keith McCluskie did a great job as the chair for the evening and opened the meeting by telling everyone some of his favourite things to do in the summer.

Lorna Vanderploeg with Inspirational Thought gave us a quote from Bob Marley. Next, Richard Boertien got the laughs going with Joke of the Day by telling us some summer jokes. Our newest member, Karen Bott tackled the role of Toast and Timer for her first time. She gave a timely toast to Canada with all the things that we are able to do in the summer. Leo Brisebois with the role of Literary Corner shared an entertaining reading from William Safire's book - "Lend Me Your Ear". The Grammarian role was done by Richard Boertien and he challenged everyone to use the word "Conundrum" and it was used 6 times.

The first speaker was Marilyn Miller, who did speech number 10 out of her CC manual. She did a very entertaining speech called "Enthused - A Journey Through Toastmasters". Our second speaker was Jane Stoltz and she gave us an Educational Corner on what it takes to reach all the levels (ie. Competent Communicator, Advanced Communicator Bronze, etc) at Toastmasters. The speech and Educational Corner were evaluated by Lorna Vanderploeg and Wayne Stoltz respectively. They both gave great feedback to our speakers.

Then we had an Awards Ceremony where I presented Marilyn a certificate for receiving her CC and also helping us reach another point towards our Distinguished Club Program. Next, we had an Induction Ceremony by Keith McCluskie where we inducted our new member Karen Bott to our club.

Heidi Menzi was our General Evaluator and she reviewed with us how the meeting was going. I was the Table Topics Master for the meeting and had everyone pick a summer destination out of the envelope and tell us why it was there favourite thing to do in the summer. The winner was our Chairperson, Keith McCluskie. Keith Stoltz was our Quiz Master and he challenged everyone's listening skills with some of the good phrases for the night and also tested us on the agenda.

Hope to see you all on Thursday for our Club's International and Evaluation contest, so get those speeches all polished up. Also, we will need people to fill roles of judges and counters.

Brent

Club Contest Dates

Linguists of Listowel Thursday February 24^th

Talk Talkers Saturday February 26^th

Mount Forest Motivators Tuesday March 1^st

Area 66 Contest Wednesday March 9^th

Division W Contest Friday March 25th

February 10, 2011 - King of Spades and Queen of Diamonds

Table Topics - Depicting Famous Couples for Valentines Day.
Top Left: Clarke Kent (Keith M) and Lois Lane (Marie McCutcheon).
Middle Left: Romeo (Audrey Orth - on right) and Juliet (Heidi Menzi).
Middle Right: Gracie Burns (Jane Stoltz) and George Burns (Richard Boertien)
Next Left: Robin Hood (Leo Brisebois) and Maid Marion (Lorna Vanderploeg)
Bottom Left: Blondie (Lucy D'Arcey) and Dagwood (George Stevers)

February 10, 2011 - King of Spades and Queen of Diamonds

Marie McCutcheon presents an oratory speech from the courtroom segment of the book entitled "To Kill a Mocking Bird".

February 10_2011 - King of Spades and Queen of Diamonds

Marilyn Miller - Chairperson (Her majesty, the Queen of Diamonds)
Marilyn displays the gifts of her treasury, complete with royal crowns for the King and Queen of Table Topics.

February 10, 2011 - Theme: King of Spades and Queen of Diamonds

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

This past Thursday's Linguists of Listowel's meeting was the second night of our Open House for the month of February and what a fun night it was! We had 13 members in attendance and 1 guest (Karen Bott).

The theme for the night was "King of Spades & Queen of Diamonds". Lorna Vanderploeg called the meeting to order and introduced her royal highness “Queen of Diamonds – Marilyn Miller”. Marilyn took on the role of chairperson for the evening and did a great job outfitted with her royal attire, props that complimented the theme of the meeting and introductions of all the roles.

Keith McCluskie filled the role of Joke of the Day and presented a giggle for the evening entitled “My Dad Scribbles”. Audrey Orth held the role of Toast and Timer and gave a toast to Canada, the land that we can all be kings and queens without being born with royal blood.

Literary Corner was done by Heidi Menzi who read from a newspaper article entitled “Small Business” written by local columnist Raymond Canon. The article consisted of businesses such as Happy Foods Group – inventors of Holy Crap Cereal and also a company located in Hensall, Ontario called Ice Sculpture – makers of ice sculptures that are sold world wide.

The Grammarian role was done by Keith McCluskie and he challenged everyone to use the hyphenated word "gung-ho" and it was used 9 times. It was noted that “ah’s” and “so’s” were the most common filler words used during the evening.

Our first speaker was George Stevers with his speech titled "Achieving Food Sovereignty". Our second speaker was Richard Boertien and he presented his speech called "Abstract Concept". The third speaker was Marie McCutcheon with her oratory speech entitled “To Kill a Mocking Bird”.

Leo Brisebois acted as Toastmaster/General Evaluator and introduced all of our speech evaluators individually. The speeches were evaluated in sequence by Lucy D’Arcey, Keith Stoltz and Jane Stoltz respectively who all gave each speaker instant feedback.

Diane Bender did a great job as Table Topics Master. Diane paired us up to portray famous acting couples and proclaim our Valentines love and wishes to each other. The couples were; Clarke Kent and Lois Lane, Blondie and Dagwood, Maid Marion and Robin Hood, Fred and Wilma Flinstone, George and Gracie Burns and Romeo and Juliet. The winning couple was Clarke Kent and Lois Lane that played by Keith McCluskie and Marie McCutcheon.

Leo Brisebois, as general evaluator, gave us feedback on the overall meeting with glow and grow points.

A Challenge from the President to the Linguists of Listowel - I will give a prize to the member who brings out the most guests for the month of February during our Open House month.

Brent

Toastmaster Calendar Dates

Thurs Feb 17: Linguists of Listowel, Regular Meeting, Favourite Summer Destination

Club Contest Dates

Linguists of Listowel Thursday February 24^th

Talk Talkers Saturday February 26^th

Mount Forest Motivators Tuesday March 1^st

Area 66 Contest Wednesday March 9^th

Division W Contest Friday March 25th

February 3, 2011 - Theme: The Good Ole Days

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

This past Thursday's Linguists of Listowel's meeting was the start of our Open House for the month of February and what a great start! We had a full house with 15 members in attendance and 3 guests. Sharon D'Arcey, our V.P. of Public Relations brought out the media to show them what we are all about. We had Andrew Smith from the Listowel Banner and Gary Moon who is the Vice Chair of the North Perth Arts and Culture Council and was taking pictures for Snap Perth. Also, Heidi Menzi brought out her friend Karen Uhler.

The theme for the night was "'The Good Ole Days" and Audrey Orth called the meeting to order with her thoughts on the theme. Sharon D'Arcey took on the role of chair for the evening and did a great job with her introductions of all the roles.

Richard Boertien started the laughs going with some Bar room jokes for Joke of the Day. Wayne Stoltz held the role of Toast and Timer where he gave a toast to Canada where we are free to speak. The Grammarian role was done by Marie McCutcheon and she challenged everyone to use the word "Cliché" and it was used 10 times. She also challenged everyone to use their favourite cliché during the meeting.

Leo Brisebois acted as Toastmaster and introduced all of our speakers. Our first speaker was Marilyn Miller with her speech titled "Just my Thoughts". Our second speaker was Richard Boertien and he re-presented his humorous speech called "Acronyms". The third speaker was Keith Stoltz and he gave an entertaining speech called "5 days". The speeches were evaluated by Rich, George Nichol and myself where we all gave the speaker instant feedback.

Heidi Menzi did a great job as Table Topics Master and had us all describe our favourite thing that we picked out of the envelope. Some examples were; favourite type of tree or favourite road trip. The winner was Marilyn Miller. George Stevers gave our second Joke of the Day with a funny joke about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson camping. Diane Bender was our Quizmaster and she challenged everyone's listening skills with some of the good phrases for the night. Jane Stoltz took on the role of general evaluator, where she introduced all the speech evaluators and gave us feedback on the overall meeting.

A Challenge from the President to the Linguists of Listowel - I will give a prize to the member who brings out the most guests for the month of February during our Open House month.

Brent

Toastmaster Calendar Dates

Thurs Feb 10: Linguists of Listowel, Regular Meeting, Queens vs Kings

Club Contest Dates

Linguists of Listowel Thursday February 24^th

Talk Talkers Saturday February 26^th

Mount Forest Motivators Tuesday March 1^st

Area 66 Contest Wednesday March 9^th

Division W Contest Friday March 25th

January 27, 2011 - Theme: Jokingly Speaking

Hello Fellow Linguists of Listowel and Friends,

At Thursday's Linguists of Listowel's meeting with the theme of "Jokingly Speaking", we had 11 members in attendance. Diane Bender called the meeting to order and challenged us with some trivia. I was the chair for the evening and opened the meeting by telling everyone my favourite comedians and some of their jokes.

Lucy D'Arcey held the role of Toast and Timer where he gave a timely toast to Canada. Heidi Menzi got the laughs going with a funny Joke of the Day. The Grammarian role was done by Jane Stoltz and she challenged everyone to use the word "Gobbledygook" and it was used many times. Gobbledygook means jargon or hard to understand. Audrey Orth took on the role of Literary Corner where she read a very entertaining story from the magazine Country Woman.

The first speaker was Lucy D'Arcey, who presented speech number 3 out of her CC manual. She did a very informative speech with a good message called "I'd Rather Be Fooled" and it was about random acts of kindness. Our second speaker was Richard Boertien, who did speech number 4 in the Advanced Communication and Leadership Program which was "The Demonstration Talk". He told a very entertaining speech called "Filler Words". The speeches were evaluated by Diane Bender and Sharon D'Arcey. They both gave great feedback to our speakers.

George Nichol did a good job as Table Topics Master and had us all try to finish the punch line to the joke that he started telling. The winner was Rich Boertien. Keith Stoltz was our Quizmaster and he challenged everyone's listening skills with some of the good phrases for the night and also tested us on the agenda. Leo Brisebois took on the role of general evaluator, where he went over how the meeting went by telling us what we did well and what we could improve on.

Remember - Challenge from the President to the Linguists of Listowel - I will give a prize to the member who brings out the most guests for the month of February during our Open House month.

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

Brent

Toastmaster Calendar Dates

Thurs Feb 3: Linguists of Listowel, Regular Meeting, Ground Hogs -OPEN HOUSE

Thurs Feb 10: Linguists of Listowel, Regular Meeting, Queens vs Kings - OPEN HOUSE

Club Contest Dates

Toastmasters of Hanover Monday January 31^st

Linguists of Listowel Thursday February 24^th

Top Talkers Saturday February 26^th

Mount Forest Motivators Tuesday March 1^st

Area 66 Contest Wednesday March 9^th

Division W Contest Friday March 25th