Volume 2 – Issue 2
Greetings Toastmasters
We welcome Cathie Lefebvre and Kiran Ati as our latest newest members. Cathy is an experienced and awesome Toastmaster so that is a score for us. She jumped right onto the saddle and gave an outstanding job as General Evaluator. Kiran took on the role of Timer for the meeting, he is a real gentleman and a software engineer; and will fit into our club really well. Kiran is new to Toastmaster and is keen to get going on his speeches.
We had another great week for our club a super meeting and we are growing our membership. We had five guests out. Membership is now up to twenty-six with about four more new members pending. We are clearly on target to meet our membership goals.
We appreciate the help we received in getting the club up and going. Of special note; is Joan Winter who is not only a member but is also our post charter club mentor. Her six-month term as mentor is up on March 30th. Due to her active involvement in the club and its meetings, she has been an inspiration to the members. We thank her for her participation and mentorship services. She is off enjoying the sunshine in sunny Florida. I expect we will see her again sometime in May. There are many other Toastmasters that have helped us along the way and we thank them for their support.
This week’s meeting was the theme of “The power of now” and the word of the day was “Kvell.” The meeting was chaired by Julie White, who set the tone with a smile and enthusiasm. Pamela Norbraten was our Toastmaster who was her usual professional self and performed with great Kvell. Florian Czinszky was the Table Topics Master and bent our minds with the origins of the Cat’s Pajamas. (E.G. the origin of sayings such as the “Cat’s Pajamas.” Pamela won the award for the best Table Topics. Mitchell Notarangelo was the Table Topics Evaluator and gave great reviews. The speakers were Dan White speaking on mentoring and Terry Lynch delivered a hilarious speech on getting older. Charles Hamilton delivered an educational speech on Robert’s Rules of Order, the speech was well done and showed he had a good grasp on the many aspects of motions. Speech Evaluators were Nick Iliopoulos and Mitchell Notarangelo, who delivered insightful evaluations. Cathy Lefebvre was the General Evaluator, it sure did not look like she has been away from Toastmasters for a few years, she did an outstanding job. The meeting started 2 minutes late and ended 4 minutes late, we were close to being on time.
We have had to reschedule the Humorous Speech contest to March the 4th, due to it being in conflict with the time frame for the International Speech and Evaluation contests throughout the area and district.
We decided we needed to not participate in the International and evaluation contests due to us being a new club with a need to look after all our new members. That being said if any of our members which to participate in the contest, they still can because a club can simply appoint a delegate to compete in the Area Contest on Feb 24th. If you would like to compete let Dan or Julie know.
In the meantime, names are coming for those wanting to compete in the Humorous speech Contest. Be sure to put your name in the hat for this Contest. This is going to be a blast!
For information on Contests, check out TI’s info at https://www.toastmasters.org/leadership-central/speech-contests
Our social committee has arranged a winter social at Dan and Julies for Saturday Feb 1st. It is a country home with wood stoves and a country flair. There is room for everyone indoors. The social is a pot luck and BYOB. Snow permitting there will be a tractor pulled sleigh ridge. We will have a bon fire in the fire pit and enjoy the country side. The chicken house makes an interesting visit with all the different birds. Let Pam know that you are coming and what you will bring for food. Her email address is; wp.norbraten@gmail.com
We are doing well with Pathways; most members have signed up and are working on their goals. We now have three level 1 achievements, and one Level 2. There are lots more in the works. There is no doubt we will achieve the status of a Distinguished Club.
The membership renewals are coming due with the deadline being March 31st.
The deadline for our six-month membership renewals is March 31st. Please plan on sending in your renewals. If you renew by March 1st the renewal fee is $60.00 CAD (The renewal of $45 is USD)
At this point in time all fees go to Toastmasters International.
The executive committee has recommended that the members subsidize the club’s hard costs by $15 per member on renewal. That will be put to the members to vote on in our club meeting. Up to now TAS (Tax Audit Solutions) has been paying all the costs including the cost of food for the breaks. The $15 will contribute towards the costs, if voted in favor of, by the members. Otherwise TAS will continue to cover it. If approved by the members the $15 will kick in after March 1st, at which time the renewal fee will become $75 every six months. This is still less than most clubs. We recommend that members renew early before March 1st to save the $15.00