UMMasters-December 14 meeting

Hello all,

Today we had a “Once in a Lifetime” meeting!

Bev, our Toastmaster, focused on today’s memorable date  12-12-12

Our Grammarian Selena, challenged us to use the word “illuminate”  whenever we had the opportunity to speak.

Charith completed speech #6, titled “You Don’t Know Your Beautiful”,  he was funny and sincere while he talked about inner beauty and the importance of  taking better care of our health.

Deb graciously accepted the role of Table Topics Master and was very bright and cheerful as she illuminated her audience about the benefits of practicing impromptu speaking.

Deb asked her contestants to speak about 12.

Shia did a great job of explaining 2 of her favourite foods and after speaking for over 2 minutes drew a laugh from the crowd by saying “Well that was only 2!”  Shia kept within her time and didn’t talk about 10 others to make that 12 J

June was our other Table Topics contestant and did a great job of summarizing some difficulty she has juggling all the different gifts for her many grandchildren.

Laura and Dianne gave succinct evaluations, and Nicole our timer, has it down to an art!

Remember every time you attend a Toastmasters meeting you are improving your life by challenging yourself to do something that isn’t easy, to those that attended today you can always associate 12-12-12 with strength and courage as you stepped outside your comfort zone.

Way to Go Fellow Toastmasters!!

Blog by  Cathy  Plouff

Meeting November 15

Hello Fellow Toastmasters!

Nov 25 Meeting - Today we had a wonderful meeting full of happy thoughts and altruistic ideas.

Ehsan was our Toastmaster, for the first time,  and our meeting’s theme was Happiness.

Ehsan was a master multi role tasker, as not only was he TM he was also SAA and provided some humour as well.

We all went around the room and had to answer 2 questions 1) What makes us happy and 2) Do you think it’s okay to let your mind wander

The answers as we went around the room were very interesting, happiness comes in all shapes and forms, whether it be walking your dog (Kelsey) Coffee in the morning (Cathy) or coming to class only to find that it’s cancelled (Nicole) it was great to hear everyone’s definition of happiness.  Dianne also shared some beautiful news and that was the birth of her granddaughter Violet!! Welcome to the world Violet!

Dianne delivered a speech that pulled at our heart strings, titled the Blue Ribbon, and she encouraged us all,  through this touching story,  to  share our feelings of thanks and gratitude to those around us, we not only feel better for doing so, but we could also be making a huge difference in someone’s life when we do.

Table topics was exciting, Nicole came up for the first time and handled a difficult question very well.  She took her time and held her composure quite confidently. Next was our guest Hilary who didn’t shy away from the podium, she talked about where she would travel and why.  Hilary was confident and well organized in her delivery.  (even used the word of the day) We look forward to hearing from Nicole and Hilary again!

I personally loved the quote at the end of our agenda from Henry Schweitzer that read “Success is not the key to happiness, but rather, happiness the key to success” That is my shortened version!!

Take care everyone, think Happy thoughts and hopefully we’ll meet again next Wednesday!-  Cathy P.

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.