January 17, 2013 Theme: Speech Craft

Meeting attendees were; Heidi Menzi, Jane Stoltz, Val Hummel, Tony Galvao, Vern Noseworthy, Brent Jemmett, Leo Brisebois, Keith McCluskie, Keith Stoltz, Audrey Orth, and Apryl Browning.

Speech craft participants were; Horst Dankewitz and Daniela Tremlin.

Vern Noseworthy called the meeting to order.  Tony Galvao welcomed everyone and had everyone participate in introductions.  Audrey Orth served as Toast and Timer for the evening.  She explained her role then read a short story from a Chicken Soup for the Soul book before her toast to Canada.  Brent explained his role as Grammarian and identified the word of the evening as “Tenuous”.  Tony provided a short session on the importance of public speaking in everyday life.  Jane gave an education module called “Selecting Your Topic” for the benefit of the Speechcrafters and as a refresher for regular members.  She encouraged attendees to talk about what they know, and identified many potential speech subjects including hobbies, jobs, trips, health, pets, home renovations, social activities and TV shows.  Speech topics can be found in everyday life, you can Google topics, and use books and magazines for inspiration.  Religion and politics are to be avoided.

Apryl and Vern gave demonstration ice breaker speeches.  Table topics followed with Apryl starting the group off with a story and each person added to the story.  The final outcome was humorous.

Speech evaluations were next with Leo evaluating Apryl and Val evaluating Vern.  Tony then gave the Speechcrafters their assignments for January 24^th.  They must read Chapters 1-3 in the Speech craft manual and prepare a short ice breaker speech for next week.

Keith Stoltz was the general evaluator.  He noted that the Speech craft participants will need mentors assigned.  He suggested the introductions be repeated at the next meeting but with people introducing someone different.  He encouraged members to help out with the Speech craft program as much as possible.

Submitted by,

Val Hummel

January 10, 2013 Theme: Favourite Sports Teams

Meeting attendees: Apryl Browning, Audrey Orth, Jane Stoltz, Tony Galvao, Vern Noseworthy, Leo Brisebois, Keith McCluskie, Wayne Stoltz, Brent Jemmett and George Nichol.

Wayne called the meeting to order and introduced Keith Stoltz as the chairperson of the meeting. Keith asked for each person in attendance to stand, introduce themselves and explain the importance of the sports clothing that they were wearing and the significance of them to everyone else.
Brent provided us with the Joke of the day (a funny joke about Habs fans). Vern provided the loyal toast to Canada, described his role and told a very funny story about his hockey experiences in his younger years. Jane was the grammarian/laugh counter for the evening and she provided us with the word of the day "Assertive". Assertive means to become very determined, to write down your goals and achieve them.
Literary corner was presented by Apryl who read a great baseball poem entitled "Casey at the Bat".
George Nichol presented a eulogy praising the life of a long term friend/co-worker/mentor named John. This was project # 2 - Speaking in Praise from an advanced manual.
Keith Stoltz presented the results from his High Performance Leadership project - Area 65 Humorous speech and Table Topics contest in Hanover, Ontario on October 19, 2012. He highlighted the pro's and con's of the project and reflected on some suggestions for improvements if he does it again.
Table Topics master was Jane. She provided an envelope containing strips of paper with names of hockey teams and an explanation of how they received their name. Each member was encouraged to use the word of the day in their Table Topics presentation as well as use an opening, a body and a conclusion.
Leo evaluated George's speech, Apryl evaluated Keith's presentation and each evaluator provided glow and grow points to the presenters.
The word assertive was used 6 times during the meeting. Table Topics winner was Keith McCluskie.
Tony was the general evaluator and provided his thanks and comments of parts of the meeting that went well and suggestions for improvements for the next meeting. Brent Jemmett has us all thinking/remembering as he provided us with snip-its of phrases and conversations spoken during the meeting.
Keith provided his closing remarks, anything for the good of toastmasters (club officer training coming up, speech craft program starting next week, roles for the next week's meeting required) and adjourned the meeting announcing snacks and social time for the members.

December 20, 2012 Theme: Christmas

Meeting attendees (club members); Vern Noseworthy, Heidi Menzi, John Van Meeteren, Marie McCutcheon, Brent Jemmett, Keith McCluskie, George Nichol, Keith and Jane Stoltz, Valrie Hummel, Marg Van Donkersgoed, Audrey Orth, Leo Brisebois, Jill Wagemans.
(Guests); Ralph and Jane Dwarika, Harriet Noseworthy, Marilyn Nichol, Hank Van Donkersgoed, Holly Brisebois, Andrew Wagemans.

The meeting was called to order by Keith McCluskie and he introduced Tony Galvao as the chairperson of the meeting. Tony welcomed all of the guests and members to the Christmas meeting. George Nichol provided us with the loyal toast to Canada and kept the timing for the meeting. Pastor Ralph Dwarika provided the invocation for the meeting and catered meal by Thyme & Again with Andrea.
Audrey provided us with an interpretive reading. Vern presented his speech entitled "A New Beginning".
Lots of fun and laughter resulted from the gift exchange/Table Topics portion of the meeting. Marie McCutcheon was the Table Topics master and had three male "elves" sit in chairs by the Christmas tree. Each person had to receive a gift from one of the elves or Marie and then sit on the elf's knee to open the gift. If the person choose not to keep their gift, they could "exchange" their gift with someone else that had opened theirs and wanted to keep it. With all of the gifts opened up, a second round of gift exchanges occurred and most everyone that picked a gift they wanted originally went home with a different gift due to someone exchanging theirs for someone else's (Note: gifts were limited to a $10.00 value ....and re-gifting of last year's presents for exchange was encouraged as well).
Reports for the meeting were heard and anything for the good of Toastmasters was discussed.
A very big thank-you to the caterer's, the decorating committee (Jane and Heidi), and Heidi for the gifts of poinsettia's and glass ornaments for all.
Tony Galvao provided closing remarks and wished everyone a merry Christmas and happy holiday season.

December 13, 2012 Theme: Dr. Seuss Quotes and Stories

"Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened."

In attendance:  Heidi, Marie, Leo, Tony, Brent, Audrey, Vern, Keith Stoltz, Marg and John.

Heidi brought the meeting to order, with what promised to be another evening filled with fun and laughter.

Marie, our Chairperson for this evening, gave her opening remarks.  Following this, she then went around the room and gave her "Dr. Seuss" to everyone present and finished this segment with a history on Dr. Seuss.

Agenda changes were next and the agenda was adopted.

Joke of the Day was done by Leo, followed by Tony who was our Toast and Timer.  Tony gave a compelling short statement on the rights that we have as a free country.  These rights include the privilege on reading books such as Dr. Seuss stories.

Marg was our Grammarian and Laugh Counter.  The word she chose for this evening was "imaginative", a fitting choice for the theme.

Literary Corner was done by John who read a short narrative called "Dr Seuss explains a computer".

There were no speeches this evening but the next part done by Keith.  It was called a Fun Break and he had the members come up in pairs to the front.  Once there, one would be an adult Santa and the other member would tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  Something new to a lot of the members but a lot of fun was had in this portion of the evening.

Brent led the next section which was Table Topics.  Each member got a slip of paper with the title of a  Dr. Seuss book.  When it was their turn, each member got to speak at a "press conference" on the release of their new book.  The twist was that the other members then got to ask questions about the book.  Kudos to Audrey for handling all of the questions asked of her so well. 

Vern was the General Evaluator this evening.  He first called for the reports.  Tony gave his timer report, followed by Marg with the Grammarian report.  The word of the evening had been used 12 times and Marg had counted 51 laughs.  Brent was next with his Table Topics report.  The winner this evening was Audrey.  Vern then gave his General Evaluator remarks on the evening.

Wrapping up, Anything For the Good of Toastmasters was next, followed by assigning roles for the next week.  Marie then gave her closing remarks and ended the meeting for this evening.

December 6, 2012 Theme: Adventures of a Lifetime

Meeting attendees were; George Nichol, Vern Noseworthy, Audrey Orth, Leo Brisebois, Keith McCluskie, Brent Jemmett, Jill Wagemans, Marg Van Donkersgoed, Val Hummel, Tracy D'Arcey and Heidi Menzi.

Vern called the meeting to order and introduced our chairperson Heidi Menzi. Heidi provided opening remarks and reviewed agenda changes. Jill provided the joke of the day and Brent provided the loyal toast to Canada and kept time during the meeting.

Keith was the grammarian and provided the word of the day "adventurous" which was used 17 times during the meeting. Marg kept track of the number of laughs during the meeting which totaled 30 good laughs in all. Keith had the role of literary corner and read an article about a young boy's struggles waiting for a kidney transplant.

Tracy did a great job presenting her first speech (The Ice Breaker speech) which was entitled "Just About Me". Vern practiced a toast that he was going to present during a lunch celebration for 25 years of success in business.

Leo presented an educational module about finding new members for your club. Val was the Table Topics master and she kept everyone on their toes in anticipation as she called out their number and the corresponding topic that they had to speak for 1 minute about.

Vern evaluated Tracy's speech and reflected on what she did well during her presentation. Audrey was the general evaluator and reflected on what went well with the meeting and some suggestions for improvements for the next meeting. Audrey also happened to be the winner of Table Topics.

George had us all thinking/remembering as he provided us with snip-its of conversations during the meeting with his role as Quiz Master. Heidi had her closing remarks and adjourned the meeting with an invitation to enjoy snacks and some social time following the meeting.