Winnipeg Toastmasters on the Power of Positive Thinking

Our meeting today was exciting and full of laughter with Toastmaster Selena taking full control of a smooth run, bringing the meeting to a timely end.  Selena showed her leadership skills once again with charm and confidence.

First speaker Trevi gave a dynamic speech on the power of  “positive thinking”.  She  emphasized how important it is to think positive taking control of  one’s thoughts, words and actions which can have a tremendous impact on who you are.   Trevi said this state of mind was influenced at the early age of 15 and has remained a part of  her life ever since.  She  is now assisting young adults to deal with peer pressure.  Trevi left her audience with the  message to always think and take positive action in all areas of  their life.    

Second Speaker Bev gave a rich and informative speech titled “How long do they stay”.   She began with the history of the Toastmaster organization, how long it have been established, 87 years in 117 countries says Bev.   Surprising results from a well researched information showed  that  47% of members leave the organization after the first year, why?  because their original need had  been met.   Bev left her audience with the encouragement  to stay on seeking help from other members, working with a mentor and going on to other leadership skills that the organization has to offer.  It is important says Bev to set one’s own pace in achieving goals. There is no hurry.

Kudos to Ehsan for taking on the role of speech evaluator for the first time.  Ehsan did an excellent job evaluating Trevi’s speech.   He used what is known as the sandwich method very smoothly giving Trevi lots of  positive feedback,  a point to grow on and ending with more positive feedback.  It was a pleasure listening to Ehsan.

Overall another inspiring 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 have currently “moved house” for the summer to room 125 St. John’s in the University of Manitoba but 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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

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

Winnipeg Toastmaster on Taking Leadership

Our President, Andrea, opened the meeting with an inspired pitch for taking a leadership role on our club’s executive.  It’s time for elections and everyone is encouraged to consider taking on a role.  June reinforced the theme by using the word Leadership for our word of the day.  Members used the word of the day in their introductions by telling the group about the leaders who had influenced them in their lives. 

We were treated to an icebreaker speech which is always a great way to get a peek inside a new member.  Matt delighted the group by telling us about the three areas that would help us to get to know him the quickest:

• he likes to help others
• his habit of procrastination
• why he joined Toastmasters

Matt’s speech offered all of us something to think about and helped us get to so much more about him!  Congratulations, Matt on doing your icebreaker speech!

This meeting was a special meeting because we had time for two speeches and our second speaker was Bev Doern.  Doing the Research Your Speech project from the Competent Communicator manual, the title of her speech was Stress 101.  Bev’s work mission is to help people sail through life without capsizing so this speech topic was definitely one that she is an expert in!  She sited statistics that indicate that stress is the #2 reason for long term disability in Canada and mentioned that stress is now a socially acceptable form of mental illness.  Fortunately for the members in the room, Bev also gave us a few ideas for helping our bodies stand down from the stress response:

• become aware
• create rituals around relaxation
• take charge of your life

Our evaluations and reports were supportive, effective and well delivered.  Tiffany demonstrated great evaluation technique by reminding the audience that evaluations were the opinions of the evaluator only.  Selena gave excellent, succinct examples of what she liked about Bev’s speech.  Both of them used the sandwich technique very well.  Vicent did a great job of the ah counter role even though he was not even a member yet and it was clear that June was listening very closely for colorful language and phrases.  She gave us all some great examples for future grammarians to emulate!

Andrea ended with the quote for the day by J.P. Morgan – “ Go as far as you ca see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.”

If you are in Winnipeg and are interested in dropping by and visiting our club, we meet Wednesdays from 12:05 – 12:55.  We have currently “moved house” for the summer to room 125 St. John’s in the University of Manitoba but 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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

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

Winnipeg Toastmastes at UM Masters talk Fireworks

Our Toastmaster this week was Andrea who chose the theme of Victoria Day.  During introductions we were asked to share how we spent the holiday.  We had 9 regular members out and 3 guests.  We were also excited to have Bonnie, our Area Governor visiting our club.  June was the Grammarian and she chose the word  “Fireworks” as the word of the day to go along with the theme of Victoria Day. 

Charith entertained us with his speech number two entitled “Why we use Technology”.   He shocked us when he explained that the first time they sent a man to the moon there was less power in their computer then there is today in a cell phone.  Wow, that is amazing.

Cathy challenged Trevi with an interview question.  She was asked “what mistakes have you made in your job and what did you learn from them”.  Trevi sparkled as she told us about three mistakes and gave us examples of what she learned from them.

One of our guests was brave enough to answer the second question “tell us about one of your most rewarding experiences on the job”.

Bonnie, our Area Governor was our General Evaluator and she awarded the gold star award to Cathy for her innovative interview questions as Table Topics Master.  The gold star is awarded to a person who the General Evaluator felt contributed the most to the meeting or challenged themselves the most.  A trophy is awarded and you can enjoy it for the remainder of 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 have currently “moved house” for the summer to room 125 St. John’s in the University of Manitoba but 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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

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

Winnipeg Toastmasters Are Happy for No Reason!

Today's UM Masters Toastmaster's meeting was a challenge for our new members who might have been tempted to sit back and observe on another day. With many of the more experienced members absent, newer members seized the challenge of the unfilled roles - and boy did they do a good job to give us another fantastic meeting.

Dianne was Toastmaster and she introduced today's theme 'Happy for no reason' inspired by a course she and her daughter are following with dramatic effect. She encouraged us to think about what makes us happy.

Charith in his first time as grammarian introduced the word of the day - capricious and encouraged us find ways to tell us about times when we have acted on impulse or done something unexpected. Charith is always so cheerful, and this always rubs off on me!

Matt, a new member introduced humour to the meeting with a clip from a paper that showed how differently men and women approach problems - which had us all laughing and relaxing, before we introduced ourselves and told the other members what makes us happy. There was definitely a sub-theme in today's meeting as everyone seemed to be happy outdoors and enjoy the natural world.

Speeches followed, and we had 2 today. First, Selena gave speech number 7 with a speech titled 'What's wrong with Lake Winnipeg anyway?', telling us about the water quality problems in the lake, work going on to solve it, and giving us all some hints and tips to take away on things we can do differently. This was followed by Mike, who gave an awesome ice-breaker speech on 'the road travelled' to explain how he got to where he is now.

Dianne did some juggling of the Agenda to give Mike time to prepare his first evaluation of Selena (multi-tasking), and Charith gave his grammarian observations with a smile of course. Mike's first evaluation was great. He used the sandwich method to great effect giving Selena positive observations from his perspective with a point or two to grow. Then Matt gave his first evaluation of Mike's ice-breaker and did a fantastic job for a first time - two excellent evaluators in the making.

Matt was also trying to time everything - truly multi-tasking, what a volunteer! He fully deserved the Gold star from Dianne who filled in as general evaluator.

We had two guests today in our Winnipeg Toastmasters Club, who gave their feedback, and I hope they will come back and join in the fun next week!

If you are in Winnipeg and are interested in dropping by and visiting our club, we meet Wednesdays from 12:05 – 12:55.  We have currently “moved house” for the summer to room 125 St. John’s in the University of Manitoba but 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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

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

A look into a Winnipeg Toastmasters Class

It was another exciting meeting at UM Toastmasters this week.  The word of the day given by Matt was ‘procrastinate’ which is definitely a word I can describe myself for doing all the time.   

Our humourist for the day was Charith, and instead of the standard quick joke, he delivered a full on stand up act describing the woes of the English language at the airport.  “Why do they keep telling me to get on a plane when I would be much more comfortable in a plane, it is less windy there.”  Charith showed great observations into how funny and contradictory English can be at times when we speak.  

After many laughs, Bev provided the group with a very informative speech on how to use the stage we are given in the form of a timeline.  She described to us that we can move across a stage as a form of visual transitioning through the past, present and future and even demonstrated the impact it provides in a speech.  Even if we don’t have room to walk around, Bev told us a simple hand wave to the right side, in front or left side of us can also direct our focus and association to the past, present and future.   

After Bev’s speech was first timer Table Topics Master Trevi who did a great job in using the meeting theme of ‘watershed’ and asked the members of the meeting what we thought of public and private information.  

The meeting went by in a flash today but for good reasons.  Today was also the day we voted for our new executive.  A great round of congratulations and applause to our new executive team for the upcoming year!   

I myself truly enjoyed the role of Sergeant at Arms this year and had lots of fun trying to come up with new ways of opening and closing the meetings.  

A final shout out as well to our two newest members who joined today and last Wednesday, a warm welcome to our club from me to you. 

If you are interested dropping by and visiting our club, we meet Wednesdays from 12:05 – 12:55.  We have currently “moved house” for the summer to room 125 St. John’s in the University of Manitoba but 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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

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

Toastmasters in Winnipeg Challenge Obstacles

What a wonderful meeting we had today – February 22nd, 2012.  We had 10 members and 1 guest in attendance.  Our Toastmaster Deb chose the theme Creating Challenge and she shared with us how she challenges her clients to enter into the 100 day Challenge where you pick something you will do everyday for 100 days. 

Our speaker Selena was working on her fifth speech in the Competent Communicator manual.  The objectives of this speech were focused our body language and using effective gestures.  The title of Selena’s speech was “Why I came to Canada”. Selena is originally from England and it was fascinating to hear what enticed her to come over to Canada.  Apparently she came for the snow in the winter and the excitement of canoeing in the wilderness of Canada in the summer.

Julia led us in an intriguing session of Table Topics where Andrea shared what the color green in her mood ring meant.  Tom did an excellent job of explaining all about the color burnt charcoal, relating it to a winter fishing expedition.

I found the quote on the bottom of the agenda to be interesting.  It read:  “Most people rust out due to lack of challenge.  Few people rust out due to overuse – unknown”.

The gold star was awarded by June our General Evaluation.  Selena was the recipient this week. 

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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

UM Masters Are Sweethearts!

Toastmaster Andrea gave us the theme of 'Sweethearts' for the meeting, which gave us all a warm friendly feeling, as she asked us to think about friends/colleagues/family members who were good to us and who we considered sweethearts. Cameron entertained us with his humour which was so enthusiastically delivered, and Deb encouraged us to speak in a 'cogent' manner.

This week the meeting was a mix of seasoned members, those who joined in the last year, and a couple of really fresh members, and under Andrea's encouragement almost everyone had soon volunteered for a role (or two).

Cathy delivered Competent Communicator speech number 6. Her challenge was to use data and information in a way that informed us. She told us about how the scheme for learning English as a second language works. Cathy demonstrated why it helps to choose a topic you know a lot about or are passionate about. As a trainee TESL teacher, Cathy showed her enthusiasm and interest in helping others learn English. It was a pleasure to listen and learn.

Selena walked to the podium as Table Topics Master carrying a black tin, which created an air of mystery in the room. The tin was passed round and Toastmasters helped themselves to cookies with messages on them - Selena had been inspired by the topic of the day, which had reminded her about candy called 'love hearts', which come with messages. 

Everyone had a cookie, and they waited in anticipation to see who would be called. With everyone taking a role, Selena's choice of 'victims' was limited, but she persuaded just enrolled Charith, and new member Sharon to talk about the topic on their cookie, or not - rules of Table topics allow for participants to choose their topic if they can't think of anything to say on the topic provided. Charith did this confidently and to good effect.

Our evaluators Julie, Tiffany and June did a fine job of evaluating all aspects of our meeting, and Sharon and Deb showed they had been listening hard as they fed back on 'ah's' and use of grammar, and Cameron gave a through breakdown of our use of time.

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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca, phone 204-256-7550.

Winnipeg Toastmasters: Striving to focus on the present

Well we are very happy to welcome back our wayward traveler Dianne Winser, who was missed for sure!

She had a lovely time in Hawaii and came back looking well rested and dare I say Mindful?

Actually Dianne was our Toastmaster and she choose a very fitting theme in light of how busy January and February can be.........Dianne reminded us to be "mindful"

I loved to hear the stories as we went around the room during introductions. June and Bev shared some helpful strategies as to how they stay mindful. June takes a few minutes everyday to just sit and clear her head, I believe the word she used was contemplate.

If it is wrong I can guarantee June will correct me at our next meeting! 

And Bev shared how her family adopted an introductory phrase when speaking to each other after a busy day....the Doern's begin with a question, so the speaker knows right from the get go, if their questions is answered they know they are being heard and will continue....I like that!

I love coming to Toastmasters as there is always a surprise...Bev was a talk show host today and asked me to come up and be her guest. Wow, that was FUN!! She had it videotaped by Haley and I'm hoping it will appear here on our Toastmasters Blog.

Bev put me, the guest,  right at ease by asking me questions about my own blogging experiences and then turned up the grill by asking me some tougher questions with regards to security etc. etc...so then it was my turn to practice composure.

Andrea's Table Topics was great, she went "off the cuff" in light of our segue on security, and Haley and Tiffany had no problem speaking for 2 minutes.

I also have to congratulate Haley for "kicking it up a notch" by being our General Evaluator, which I believe can be the toughest job!! She was organized, relaxed and had great voice volume matched with thorough content. Way to go Haley!

With all the activity and interesting topics of yesterday's meeting I didn't get a chance to chat with Dianne and hear about her trip to Hawaii...hmmmm maybe I'll get to hear about it in a speech???? (just a

thought)

Have a great week everyone, see you all on the 22nd.

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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca

Join us at UM Masters!

UM Masters, a Toastmasters club located in the University of Manitoba, has a long and celebrated history of helping people develop confidence in their speaking and improve their listening, thinking and speaking skills. We continually encourage and support one another to be the best that we can be.

With a dedicated executive, I am confident that our club will once again excel in achieving the highest status as a President's Distinguished club.

Ralph Smedley, founder of Toastmasters International once said "we learn best in moments of enjoyment". I always come away from our noon meeting inspired and full of enthusiasm. I have made many friends along my journey in Toastmasters and look forward to many more moments of enjoyment.

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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca

A Toastmasters Winnipeg Club Celebrates The Season!

For those of you who missed the last UM Masters meeting, our local Winnipeg Toastmasters club, this is only a recap of the meet and there is no replacement for being present. Merriment filled the room starting with Mike’s joke “Where does a Penguin do its banking?” He stumped us on this one! “Where” someone asked? “In a snow bank!”

Today our Table Topic Master Dianne Winser dazzled us with her table topic selections and kept our Winnipeg Toastmasters Club on our toes with creative approaches to improv speaking.

Andrea’s Toastmasters theme “Celebrate the Season” fostered hilarious anecdotes for Table Topic Speakers.

Cameron bestowed “Diffident” as Grammarians Word of the Day upon us mere mortals to challenge our depths of spontaneous and creative speaking. Put all these together and mix well with several Table Topic Speakers and “Presto” you have hearty festive soup for all. 

Our group was definitely in the festive spirit today. We each disclosed holiday musings we anticipated at this time of year. 

Notable mentions are: the night I found who’s actually Santa, the year I got the ultimate gift I ever wanted. It was the huge Black Beard Lego Pirate ship with all the gizmos, it had just come out on the shelves that year, it was the best gift ever! 

Great presentations, thank you to all and to all a good night. Don’t forget to share a little joy to those who need a little extra help this holiday.

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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca

Winnipeg Toastmasters Talk Mentorship

“Ninety percent of the world’s woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves.”

This quote by Sydney Harris set the stage for another intriguing meeting by UM Masters - a Toastmasters Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The theme was Unforgettable Mentors and Dianne, our Toastmaster, got us thinking of who in our lives have left an impact.

The word of the day was appreciate – a fitting word to use as we shared in our introductions the mentors we valued in our lives.

Our club President, Andrea, presented an educational on Mentoring and how integral it was to the toastmasters program. We enter as new members and are guided by mentors.  We in turn pass on our knowledge to others.  The Toastmaster way is to pay it forward!

In our impromptu speaking segment, our Table Topics Master Cathy got us thinking of what advice we would pass on as Dear Abbey (or Albert).  Our new member Julien and our guest Julie had excellent advice to share!

The meeting wouldn’t be complete without evaluations. Our evaluators, Deb and June, gave insightful feedback on what they liked and where they would encourage members to try something different.

Our meeting closed with a thought from John Crosby, “Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”  If you need a push in the right direction, try UM Masters

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 Dianne Winser at dianne_winser@umanitoba.ca

A Winnipeg Toastmasters Club and Remembrance Day

Our meeting this week  in our WInnipeg Toastmasters club, UM Masters, was an innovative hit thanks to creative ways to master roles starting with Jessica as Toastmaster for her first time. She spoke confidently throughout her role. Her chosen theme of “Animal Companions” prompted pet experiences shared by each member and most welcomed guests. We could all relate to animal companions. Tom shared a most memorable literary experience during his travels in Swahili which helped him choose a name for his family pet. They chose Jambo Piki-Piki which translates into English as Hello Motorcycle. Who would have known? Thanks Tom.

Our enthusiastic speaker of the day Cathy P. once again astounded us with humor to convey the importance of fulfilling Toastmaster Role Projects. She described Competent Communication as the Soup and Competent Leadership as the Sandwich which make a complete wholesome lunch. Leadership without clear communication means “No soup for you”. She encouraged us to challenge our projects to progress through the steps to confident leadership. “While you have your soup remember to take a bite of your sandwich.”

Table Topics Master of the day Dianne creatively prepared notes ahead of the meet listing five unrelated words to challenge the Table Topics Speaker of the day, Mari-Ann. In response Mari-Ann successfully crafted a masterfully expressive speech on the fly including both as animal companion theme and “Remembrance” word of the day.

Bev’s speech evaluation for Cathy P. noted Cathy’s clever ending “Now that you’ve all has lunch how about dessert?” It left us with thoughts of food. After all we meet at lunch. Bev finished her evaluation ingeniously phrasing “Sharing food gives us something to dig into.”

This week’s meeting was well presented, creative and intuitive. Our Grammarian of the day, June, left everyone in our Winnipeg Toastmasters club, UM Masters, with one last thought about “Remembrance”. November 11 is Remembrance Day and “Lest we forget”.

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 Tiffany Lui at  tpylui@hotmail.com