Thursday, January 24, 2013

UMMasters Club




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

We had a very successful meeting today with the theme “For the love of pets”. Everyone shared little stories about their own pets at home.

Dianne as always did a great job as our toastmaster of the day. She offered toastmasters pins to 3 new members. Congrats Christian, Eranga and Laura!

Al was our Grammarian. He explained the word of the day and also some correct use of English grammar.  He is a student in linguistics; many members were interested in talking to him even after the meeting to learn proper use of different terms we speak every day.  Al will definitely be a great resource for our club.

Eranga,a new member who joined this month did his Ice Breaker speech. He was courageous enough to do his very first speech without using notes and explained why he joined Toastmasters and, explained details about his interests and personal  background. Tiffiny evaluated Eranga’s speech and gave some valuable growth points for his future speeches. 

Laura was our Table Topics master. She asked a question regarding pets. She called me and our guest Durdana  to answer to her question why ….? Oh, I forgot her question so I ended up talking about answering questions :) Durdana  was very enthusiastic and answered to her point very well.

Ehsan as Table Topics evaluator explained how he enjoyed the table topics session, he also gave tips for each speaker – points to grow.

Nichole had carefully counted Ahs and Ums for each member during the meeting. Our timer Christian did a great job as Timer for the first time. 
Cathy did the general evaluation of the overall meeting and offered the Gold Star award to Eranga for his Ice Breaker speech.

3 more weeks to our 15th Anniversary Celebrations. Hope everyone will join hands to make this event a great success!

Blogged by Charith Gunasekara

Wednesday, January 23, 2013




Wednesday - January 16/13 - meeting
UM Masters had a great meeting on Wednesday, January 16th.  June was the Toastmaster and her theme was “Put to the Test”.  June chose the word “Persistence” as the Word of the Day.  Nicole did her Ice Breaker speech (my favorite speech to listen to).  She shared with us three aspects of her life that have shaped who she is today.  There are school, music and skiing.  Dianne as her evaluator was impressed with Nicole’s organizational skills and improved eye contact and encouraged her to present a speech in the near future.  Dianne presented Nicole with her Ice Breaker ribbon.  Kelsey led us in an exciting Table Topics session where she asked Dianne to speak on one aspect of 2012 that was challenging and how she over came it.  Dianne talked about her new business and how she was attempting to put together her website.  She has decided to hire someone to assist her.  Kelsey then challenged one of our many guests to speak and Durdana gave a very inspiring talk on how she overcame asthma by turning to meditation and spirituality.  We all wanted to hear more so we are hoping that she joins our club in the future.  Al, one of our guests took on the role of ah-count and showed us that he has good listening skills.  Christian, who just became a member at our meeting, did an excellent job as Table Topics evaluator.  We are thrilled that Eranga, who joined last week will be doing his Ice Breaker speech next week – so exciting.  Eranga received his Toastmaster’s pin at the meeting.

If you are in Winnipeg and are interested in dropping by and visiting our club, we meet Wednesdays from 12:05 – 12:55. We meet in room 111 St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba; please do drop by and see what our members are up to next week.

If you're in Winnipeg and interested in sitting in on a club meeting to see if Toastmasters is right for you, please feel free to contact Selena Randall at 204-891-1287 or email randall@umanitoba.ca.

Toastmasters – the proven way to grow your communication and leadership skills.

Dianne Winser
Vice President of Education
UM Masters Toastmasters Club