A Cheerful Winnipeg Toastmasters Meeting at the University of Manitoba

Today we had a bright and cheerful meeting despite our dull and grumpy weather.

Charith was our Toastmaster, and his topic was “Challenge Yourself”.   Charith was smooth and confident as he lead our meeting in a timely way. One large challenge during the role of Toastmaster is to keep our meeting on time and Charith was successful.

Dianne enlightened us with a joke about the behavior and language of crows! …….And Bev Doern gave a moving speech about her daughters and how the challenges of being a mother has molded her into the adult she is today. Bev was very animated as she talked about her experiences and really drew her audience into her speech with candor and the love she has for her girls.

Tiffany took on the role of grammarian and Table Topics Master, word of the meeting was “arouse” and her questions posed in our Table Topics session were quick and concise and we were privileged to hear from Christian and Jordan, who both spoke for over 1 minute. Way to go!!

Nicole evaluated Bev and was very courageous as she challenged herself to stay at the podium while she collected her thoughts and delivered a thorough evaluation for Bev.  Nicole also provided Bev with a growth point and suggestion. Way to Go Nicole!!! We were all so proud of her.

Dianne was our Table Topics Evaluator and was encouraging and positive as she shared her suggestions for Jordan and Christian to grow as confident speakers.

We had 3 guests who explained that they were very happy to attend our meeting and that they would be back next Wednesday. I look forward to seeing them all next week, when I will be your Toastmaster.

Have a wonderful week and remember to create your own sunshine and never stop challenging yourself.

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. 

UM Masters Boot Camp

                                               

Club 4866 UM Masters

Speechcraft Bootcamp 2013

This year, UM Masters was given an opportunity that seemed too good to pass up. We were approached by the Internationally Educated Agrologist Program and asked if we could run a program for their students to help them with their public speaking skills.

15 students came to 2 of our weekly meetings to see what Toastmasters is about and 8 of them were really keen to learn more. The students have all come to Canada within the last couple of years from across the globe and have a range of experiences. All are searching for jobs in the agriculture sector.

With District 64 encouraging us to run a ‘Bootcamp’ and with a ready prepared program we felt we should seize the chance to really test ourselves. A willing team of five club members made it happen taking on multiple roles each week (Coordinator, Table topics master, Table topics evaluator, educational speaker, speech evaluators and Timer), and developing their own skills – particularly evaluating. We ran the bootcamp over 6 weeks in a 2 hour session in early evening, following the session plan set out in the Speechcraft manual. The timing has been tight, but we have kept to time each week.

And what fun it has been. Our students have all worked hard on their assignments and have delivered the most interesting array of speeches – usually without notes, which has been really impressive. Our Toastmasters have all developed their own skills and they too have worked hard each week. Our students ‘graduated’ last week and we had a guest speaker and a well-earned celebration.

Selena Randall

VP Membership

UM Masters