Great Kick-off Meeting for 2020!

 

Well! What a kick off for the first meeting of the year. A fantastic meeting and would you believe it… 10 Guests. Of which some have already committed to becoming members.

 

Mitchell chaired, Nick was Toastmaster, and Jesse was Table Topics Master. Nick won the award for best Table Topics. He had a fantastic idea to do more reading, he suggested turning on subtitles on movies, so you can read what is being said. The word of the week was “Humdinger,” and that certainly was a humdinger of a word. Julie gave an Educational speech on the foundation of Toastmasters and the benefits of being a Toastmaster. Sharon captivated the audience with her Icebreaker… sharing some of her personal journey. Joan spoke on her journey as a Toastmaster, a beyond awesome speech for our 10 guests. We will miss them while they are away in Florida.

 

At the end of the meeting the guest’s comments were very flattering… especially in terms of the speeches.

 

We have a number of members away, Joan, Egon, and Lisa will be away until May. Michelle will be away until March 10th, and Collett will be away until Feb 14th. Fortunately, we have a solid enough number of members overall, that some members being away, does not pose a problem when it comes to having awesome meetings.

 

We are now entering the contest time of the year for Toastmasters. There are club level contests and the above club level contests. Our club is having our International Speech Contest and our Evaluation Contest on January 22. If you are thinking of entering one or both of these contests, please let us know so we can complete our plans. Winners in this contest move on to compete with other clubs. We need speakers and judges. We will also have to find a target speaker from another club.

 

We will have our Humorous Speech Contest on February 5th. This is a time to polish up our funny bones and join us in a fantastic night of fun and laughter. Except for the International and Evaluation contests the contests won’t be going on past the club level this year, as there are no plans from area or district to do so. It is quite easy to understand why not, as contests are a lot of work to facilitate.

 

The Whitby Intrepid club is holding their International and Evaluation Contest on January 20th. Yours truly will be their target speaker and also a judge. Feel free to volunteer as a volunteer or simply come out to meet some of your fellow Toastmasters. Let me know if you are interested.

 

Speech contests are a Toastmasters tradition. … Region quarterfinal winners advance to the International competition, where they will compete in the semifinals for a chance to take part in the World Championship of Public Speaking® and have a free trip to Paris France to compete.

 

Check out https://www.toastmasters.org/leadership-central/speech-contests to learn all about the contests.

 

Toastmasters International and the Rotary Club International have formed a strategic alliance, this is an opportunity to share speaking engagements. Rotary will be adopting some of Toastmasters training programs. This will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

To find out more about Rotary Clubs, click here:

 

Please refer to the schedule for your role this week!

 

 

Please everyone; confirm your attendance.