UM Masters Meeting - 21st May 2014 - Kindergarten

This week’s meeting was quite a cheerful one, considering the gloomy weather. The Toastmaster for this week’s meeting was Cathy, and her theme was kindergarten.   This theme lent itself very well to our introductions, as a lot of the stories shared of kindergarten experiences were quite amusing.

Our speaker for this week was Amy, who did her icebreaker speech   and educated us all on landscape architecture.  Congratulations to her   on taking the plunge, and thanks for letting everyone know that there is more to landscaping than having the perfect backyard.

Charith was Table  Topicsmaster for this week, and, in addition to providing challenging questions as he usually does, also turned it into an exercise in role playing by having 2 people come up at the same time and have a conversation.  Who knew that asking someone to let you take their picture could be so awkward!  The four participants- Ali, Laura, Mohsin and Moonah- did very well considering.

Dinesh was the grammarian, and gave us the word of the day.  Danielle filled in as ah-counter and counted all our crutch words- apparently we use a lot of crutch words in this club. Bev, our speech evaluator, and June, our Table Topics Evaluator, both did very well in evaluating their respective areas (the General Evaluator was me so I can’t comment on that part).

Overall it was a good meeting and  I hope we  keep getting this many people- members and guests- attending our meetings in the coming weeks.

Blogged by Nicole


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

If you would like to take part in a UM Masters meeting, we’re located in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba. Our meetings are held every Wednesday from 12:05 –12:50 PM in Room 111 at St. John’s College (which is part of the University of Manitoba).

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 Catherine Plouffe at Catharine.Plouffe@umanitoba.ca

UM Masters Meeting - 7th May 2014 - Leadership Excellence

Dianne was our Toastmaster today, and her theme was Leadership Excellence.  She used the theme to be an enthusiastic proponent of Toastmasters, explaining and praising the program for the leadership and speaking skills we are all working to achieve.  Her timing was excellent, not only to remind us of the upcoming elections to the executive committee next week, but also to explain to our guests what Toastmasters is all about.  We had three new and two recurring guests this week, all of who managed to find us despite our meeting being slightly harder to find due to a breeze in the hallway blowing over our standard several times.

As grammarian, Charith chose the word “illimitable,” meaning “without limits”.  This encouraging word fit in nicely with the theme of the day and was willingly adopted by many in attendance.

Randy, too, as our speaker for the day, incorporated the theme of the day.  His speech, “Give It Back,” was an impassioned call for every one of us to find the time to give something back to those people or organizations that give so much to us.  With the upcoming elections, this was another excellent reminder to step up and take on an executive role in the club.

Bev introduced humour to her Table Topics opening, suggesting that our timer, Nicole, would alert speakers to their rime being up by throwing the red light at them.  Nicole showed remarkable restraint, given the opportunity for mild violence, in not actually following through.  Bev’s two questions to her speakers were about leadership, and she opened the floor to volunteers to step up and take on the challenge of answering.  Mohsin talked about the importance of coming to a consensus within a group, while Mouna stressed learning from experience and always being willing to listen to feedback, because while we are all born with certain abilities, we can most effectively develop through doing.

For stepping up to participate in table topics during her first meeting, Mouna was awarded the Gold Star this week.

Again, elections will be next week, May 14

Blogged by Amy Whitmore

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

If you would like to take part in a UM Masters meeting, we’re located in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba. Our meetings are held every Wednesday from 12:05 –12:50 PM in Room 111 at St. John’s College (which is part of the University of Manitoba).

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 Catherine Plouffe at Catharine.Plouffe@umanitoba.ca