October 18, 2012 Theme: Harvest Time

V.P. of Education (Val Hummel) congratulatesVern Noseworthy with a certificate for completing his 6th speech from the Toastmaster Competent Communicator manual.

 V.P. of Membership (Tony Galvao) is the Table Topics Master for the meeting.
Club members had to speak for one minute about three random topics (one topic from each paper bag).

 Val Hummel waits for her three Table Topics.

October 18, 2012 Theme: Harvest Time

Another fun filled evening filled with laughs for the Listowel Toastmaster's.

The meeting was called to order by Heidi.  With a brief introduction, she handed the lectern over to the Chairperson for this evening Keith McCluskie.  This evening's theme was Harvest Time.  A fitting choice for this time of year.  You can hardly take a drive out into the country without seeing the farmers busy at work in the fields.

There were no guests and no agenda changes this evening.

Joke of the day was done by Brent.  It turned out that the joke was linked to the theme which, according to Brent, was by coincidence.  Toast and Timer was Keith Stoltz.  After saying a few words in regards to how technology has changed farming.  Machinery, with the use of satellite, can virtually drive themselves up and down the fields.   The Toastmasters then raised their glasses for the ritual Toast to Canada. 

Audrey was the grammarian for the evening.  The word she chose was "reap", a verb meaning to harvest.  Literary corner was next with Jane reading a harvest related story from "Country Women".  Although a USA magazine, the article itself was written by a lady from Guelph by the name of Theresa Pitman.

Vern was next with his sixth speech from the CC manual.  The title of this speech was "Growing Up On Welfare" with Vern doing an excellent job of describing his childhood years.  A minute was taken for written evaluations after the speech.

Val was up next and presented Vern with his 6th Speech Certificate from the CC manual.

A roundtable discussion on the Murder Mystery Evening was next.  The evening had been a huge success with many compliments.  There were many glow points, as well as several grow points.  However, the glow points far outweighed the grow points.  The cast has been asked to perform again by Brent's mother at another function in Holstein.

Leo did an Educational Corner titled "Keeping the Commitment".  Using a projector and handouts, Leo went over point of the Toastmaster's Promise and the Club Members Pledge.

Tony added a twist to the ever popular Table Topics.  For this evening, he had 3 bags, one containing slips of paper with names, one a food item and the third as random item.  As each Toastmasters turn came, Tony would pick one slip of paper from each bag and you had to use all three in your speech.  The added challenge to this is that, while you waited your turn, there was no chance to think of what to say since you had no idea what was coming your way.

Val was the General Evaluator for this evening.  She first introduced Apryl who gave her evaluation of Vern's speech.  Next, Val asked for the reports from the Timer, the Grammarian and fro the Table Topics Master.  There was a tie this evening between Val and Jane for the Table Topics challenge.  Val then proceeded to give her report on the meeting.

Drawing to a close, Heidi was next with the Quiz Master's Report.  Following this was Anything for the Good of Toastmasters and assigning roles for the next meeting.  Keith officially ended the meeting with a few closing remarks.

October 13, 2012 Twentieth Anniversary Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre

Bo Derelict (Tony Galvao) - Circus Clown

Alfred Snitchcock (Brent Jemmett) - Circus Manager

Mustang Sally Wilson-Pickett (Diane Bender) - Star Equestrian

Madame Clair Voyant (Val Hummel) - See all, know all, palm and card reader

Tip Wilson (Vern Noseworthy) - Tight Rope Walker and Aerialist

Dolly Dingling (Audrey Orth) - Big Top Circus Owner/Operator

Scarlet O'Roara (Marie McCutcheon) - Lion Tamer

Justice Law (Keith McCluskie) - Attorney for the Big Top Circus

Master of Ceremonies (Keith Stoltz) - Toastmasters Area 65 Governor

October 13, 2012 Twentieth Anniversary Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre

Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre guests and performers.
Located at the Listowel Golf and Country Club Clubhouse.

Also in attendance were three of the original Linguist of Listowel Toastmaster members.

October 13, 2012 Twentieth Anniversary Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre

Bo Derelict and Scarlet O'Roara prepare balloons before the show.

Scarlet O'Roara and Bo Derelict work on balloon preparation and Alfred Snitchcock and Keith Stoltz greet guests while Jane Stoltz works at the registration table all at the Listowel Golf and Country Club Clubhouse.

Tip Wilson, guest greeter.

October 11, 2012 Theme: Grab Bag Meeting

The Linguists of Listowel held a "Grab Bag" meeting where everyone picked a slip of paper and opened it to find what role they were handling.

Val called the meeting to order and, much to his surprise, Brent chaired the meeting.  
Jane provided the Joke of the Day that Brent had brought to the meeting.   
Diane was Grammarian and presented the word "impromptu".   
Keith McCluskie read an educational piece for Literary Corner on the importance of breathing deeply to calm nerves.   
Vern led the Loyal Toast and timed the meeting.   
Marie gave an excellent impromptu speech with a topic suggested by other members; she spoke of good things to see and do in Vicoria, British Columbia.   
Keith Stoltz led a 30-minute impromptu Table Topics session, leading the group in several icebreaker exercises, and burned nicknames for each member into Val's memory for eternity.    
Tony was the General Evaluator and had Val evaluate Marie's speech. He also called for reports.  Roles for the October 18th meeting were filled.   
Keith reminded members of the upcoming Area Contest that Tony will be participating in.   
Brent closed the laugh-filled meeting at approximately 8:20 pm

October 4, 2012 Theme: Humorous and Table Topics Contest

Guests for the evening, including members from the Saugeen Toastmasters and the Mount forest Motivators, were Dorothy, Marge S, Dorothy D and her husband Gordon, Teresa D, Trudy B, Jason W, Greg S, Gemma and Hank.

This evening was the Humorous speech and Table Topics Contest.

The meeting was called to order in time by Vern, our Sergeant at Arms for the evening, and introduced the chair for this evening, Keith Stoltz.

Keith welcomed everyone to this exciting evening with a few words and witty comments.  He then had our guests introduce another guest sitting beside them.

Up first was the Humorous Speech Contest, Keith asked for the rules to be read by Audrey, our Chief Judge for the evening.

The contestants were Vern, Tony, Apryl and Brent.  Apryl went first with her speech title "Till boating or death do us part", a fun account of her and her husbands' boating experience over the years of marriage.  A new word learned was "onefootitus".....a nautical term referring to the need to always upgrade your boat to a bigger size.  Next up was Vern with his "Animal Antics" speech.  Always full of humor, Vern's facial expressions and animal mimics had the audience laughing throughout his speech.  "Size Does Matter", the title of Tony's speech, was next.  An excellent explanation, with real life examples, that it is the smaller creatures of the animal kingdom that can strike fear in people.  Up last, but not least, was Brent with his speech "I Cannot Take It Anymore".  A fun tale about the trails and tribulations of being a Toronto Maple Leaf's fan.  Not to worry this year Brent.  Like you said in the end, with the NHL strike, the Leaf's may actually tie for first place (with all the other teams).

After the contestants were finished, the judges completed their ballots, which in turn were collected by the Chief Judge and assistants.  In closed quarters the ballots were reviewed.  All the ballots had been filled in correctly and signed.  As well, there were no time disqualifications.

While the Chief Judge and the assistants were working, the contestants were interviewed.  

A fifteen minute refreshment break was taken before the second half of the evening.

Next up was the Table Topics contest.  The rules for this were outlined by Audrey. Contestants for this event were Jane, Tony, Apryl, Keith M and Brent.  The contestants were taken out of the room and one by one were brought in when it was their turn to speak.  The topic for this event was "I Wish I Could" and each contestant did a wonderful job speaking on the topic.

The ballots were collected again, as with the speeches, all ballots were signed and there were no time disqualifications.  The contestants were interviewed again while the ballots were tallied.

Finally, the results.  For the humorous speech Tony came in first and Brent came in second.  For the Table Topics it was Tony again for first, Apryl in second and Keith M in third.

Keith S asked if there was anything for the good of Toastmasters, after which he officially ended the evening.

September 27, 2012 Theme: Anniversaries

The Linguists of Listowel joined together tonight to celebrate the club's 20-year anniversary and the theme anniversaries was very fitting for the meeting.
Audrey Orth called the meeting to order at 7:15 pm with 13 club members in attendance and also introduced our chairperson Jane Stoltz.
Jane's opening remarks included the meaning of the word anniversary and Jane also gave some very interesting history of the various club presidents, club members and places that the meetings have been held over the past 20 years such as the Listowel Mennonite church, Harvey Krotz Ford and now St. Paul's Lutheran church (not including some club members hosting meetings at their own residences at times). One of our existing club members, Marie McCutcheon, was one of the club's founding members back in 1992 and she joined in on the evening's celebrations.
Keith M provided the Joke of the Day to add some additional humour to the start of the meeting.
Over the course of the meeting, Jane Stoltz challenged each club member to share one of their personal memories about an anniversary relating to the Linguists of Listowel. There were some very funny anniversary memories.
Leo Brisebois was the loyal Toast and Timer for the meeting and he provided a patriotic toast to Canada and explained his role of keeping the meeting on time by using the timing lights to notify speakers when their speaking time is up.
George Nichol provided the Word of the Day and challenged all in attendance to use this word during the evening. The word was "fractious" which means easily irritated or bad tempered. George also counted the number of laughs during the meeting.
The Literary Corner role was filled by Val Hummel. Val provided everyone with a reading from the book "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul" and the story was entitled "When Snowball Melted".
Our only speech for the evening was presented by Apryl Browning and it was a very emotional and moving speech about her pet dog. The speech was entitled "Chauncey".
Brent Jemmett was the Table Topics Master for the evening. Table Topics kept with the theme of anniversary and Brent sent around an envelope with little pieces of paper in it. On the pieces of paper were two bits of information; a number and a description. The number represented the anniversary year and the description referred to what gift was significant for that specific anniversary year. Lots of laughter erupted from this segment of the meeting with very humourous anniversary stories.
Keith Stoltz was the General Evaluator and he introduced Tony Galvao as Apryl's speech evaluator and Tony gave a great evaluation of Apryl's speech presentation.
Reports were given for the evening; The word "fractious" was used 9 times, there were 35 hard laughs and only 2 filler words used during the evening (great work!). Table Topics winner was Vern Noseworthy.
General Evaluator's comment highlights were; Audrey did a good job setting the tone for the meeting with her opening remarks during call to order. Jane did a very nice job with her "walk" down memory lane with all of the history and information flashbacks about the Linguists of Listowel over the past 20 years.
A grow point would be to extend Table Topics from 1 minute per person to 2 minutes per person during the months of September and October in preparation for the Table Topics competition where 2 minutes is required.
Vern Noseworthy was the Quiz Master for the evening and he challenged everyone in attendance to tell him who said certain phrases or words during the meeting. Vern did a very good job listening because he was able to "stump" the whole group on a few words and phrases that we didn't know who said them.
Anything for the Good of Toastmasters - The Linguists of Listowel Toastmaster Club was mailed a 20th anniversary certificate from Toastmasters International in recognition of the clubs achievement. This certificate will be proudly displayed at the upcoming Murder Mystery Dinner Theater on October 13th.
Next week, October 4th, will be the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest for our club.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm and everyone enjoyed the delicious homemade anniversary cupcakes courtesy of Jane Stoltz.