Workshop Recap: Communication on Video

Submitted by Cherry Cheung

Our Agenda was jam packed as was our room tonight.  The meeting was attended by Edith, Bob,  Dan, Dave, Rhys, Matthew, Von Eric, Ellen, Melanie, Kerrianne, Eileen,  Peter, Rick and Cherry plus 3 guests:  Barry, Estella and Dresdin.    Total attendance:  17   

This special event was co-chaired by Rick Lebeuf and Cherry Cheung 

Video is part of our daily lives.  Some people videotape themselves on facebook daily, yet others cover their faces, say no comment, just laugh, say nothing at all or run away.  It is very likely that we will appear at least once in our life time on television - perhaps in a news interview, a panel discussion, a talk show, a documentary program, a training program or even a televised Toastmasters club meeting.  Whatever the program format, it's important that you are able to communicate effectively on video. 

Some highlight in our agenda:

Project #1: "Straight Talk" in front of 3 cameras and recorded.  Dan McCosh delivered a 3 minute speech on a subject which is dominating society, but which does not get much exposure:          "Male - Female power balance".  His speech was evaluated by Matthew Mercredi, Matthew said Dan used the word: Mansplain in his speech.  Dan must have watched Premier Rachel Notley as she said another MLA was 'mansplaining'.

Project #2  "The Interview Show" and  Project # 3  "When you are the Host" conducted by Melanie, the host who interviewed her guest Kerrianne Koehler-Munro who's listed as an Environmental specialist and Edmonton's 2017 Citizen of the Year for Sustainable Living.  Tonight's show connected the local community to sustainable resources right in their own backyards, The title was "Living green Matters"   Both projects were delivered within the same interview show, Kerrianne was evaluated by Von Eric and Melanie was evaluated by Ellen.  

Project # 5  "Instructing on the Internet" pre-recorded video by our guest speaker Barry Murphy from Downtowner Toastmasters club,  Barry just joined Toastmasters this Sept 2017 this year, He is passionate and focused on mastering the art of speaking and aspires to use his words, energy and passion for life to help inspire others to reach their full potential,  The title of his video was "Harvest Your mind".  Barry said if you can see things in your mind and you should be able to hold it in your hands.   I was so inspired to try to visualize a million dollars in my mind and ...nothing (I guess I  must have miss-applied his theory)   Barry was evaluated by Bob Barker.

Due to the time restraint and technical issues, we were not able to play Kerrianne and Melanie's video at the meeting but it will be on private youtube for everyone's viewing.

Lingo Meeting Recap - Nov 21 2017 - Post Conference

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki

While "Eight is Enough" was a very good TV show, it was a little skimpy for a Toastmasters meeting; however, we pulled off a very informative and entertaining meeting.  Get well soon to those that could not attend due to illness.

Replacing Melanie as Toastmaster, was Eileen, who also attend the "last" Fall Conference in Prince Albert.  Eileen very competently led our meeting and during introductions, she asked our opinions on attending conferences.  Most said they enjoy them for various reasons like meeting new and old friends, the information obtained, the contests and being able to go to interesting places.  There was one "it depends" and one member (Dave) confessed to be a "conference/convention junkie."

With added information from Dan and Dave, Eileen informed us about the interesting things learned at the "last" District 99 Fall Conference, especially from the 2014 World Champion International Speech Contest Winner from Sri Lanka. Some items mentioned were: want it as much as you want to breathe, make small changes, stand on the balls of your feet, and let go of your ego. Congratulations to Humorous Speech Contest Winner Tom with his excellent speech "Lushes Lips of Winter" and Tabletopics Winner Blaine Zuk who very aptly responded to the question about describing winter to someone who has never experienced snow before.  The future District education development training program was touched on as well.

As well as Tabletopics, our meeting consisted of two advanced manual speeches:

1. Peter gave an entertaining speech (project 1 - Entertaining Speaker Manual) entitled "Journey to the Sunless Citadel" about his role-playing adventures based on a Dungeon and Dragons game.  There was a Wizard and Goblin somewhere.

2. Edith gave an impromptu speech (project 1 - Specialty Speeches Manual) entitled "Being Neighbourly" as chosen by Evaluator Cherry. She gave a chronological and a cross country run down of how she has always had wonderful neighbours "her community" (proof her driveway was shovelled this morning before she got up). Edith won best speaker.

Speech evaluators, Dan and Cherry, and the eyes and ears evaluators were noted by General Evaluator Rick to not have just "whitewashed" their evaluations.  Rick also complimented Eileen on threading the theme of the meeting throughout the meeting.

Tabletopics was led by Edith, who had facilitated  the last workshop on the Specialty Speeches Manual.  She asked questions on the five projects from that manual.  Peter won best Tabletopics speaker and Rhys won best Evaluator for his evaluation of Tabletopics.

A lot was jammed into 90 minutes while building on the last workshop.  Now we look forward to our next workshop December 5th on "Speaking on Video" facilitated by Cherry, assisted by Rick and of course the Spring District 99 Convention in Edmonton May 4-6/18.

Workshop: Specialty Speeches Nov 7 2017

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki DTM

On November 7th, Lingo Advanced Toastmasters, surrounded by poppies, used their last workshop to "remember," not only our fallen heroes but why we joined an advanced club, and in particular, Lingo Advanced Club.  We heard comments such as to get opportunities to learn about the advanced manuals, to give more advanced speeches, to learn from and be evaluated by DTMs (over 50% of members are DTMs), to be supportive to others, to have the opportunity to be creative especially in putting on workshops and because the members are darn nice.  Thus, Lingo has become an advanced manual workshop club. 

Toastmaster/Facilitator Edith B engaged speakers, through lures of winning a million dollars, into presenting the projects in the Specialty Speeches manual. For project #1, Impromptu Speaking, Cherry C explained how touched she was by Robert Munsch's book "Love you Forever" and its meaning to her.  For project #2, Inspirational Speaking, Dan M inspired us with his insights for a successful club with his speech entitled "What is Your Big Hairy Audacious Goal." For project #4, Reading Out Loud, Eileen S read "Danceland" from the late Stuart McLean's 2015 book “Vinyl Café Turns the Page."  It had an interesting and humorous storyline with a surprising twist about a husband and wife voting for opposing candidates.  Just before the break, for project #3, Sell a Product/Service, Wendy L tried to convince the unconverted about the value of a Costco membership by luring them with the evening snacks and telling us about her love of poutine.  Not sure Melanie K was convinced as she gave valid reasons not to have a membership but she enjoyed the snacks anyway. Project #5 Introducing a Speaker was demonstrated throughout the entire workshop and previously during our Open House. All members contributed to the oral evaluations and we all learned by doing and observing.

Our next meeting is November 21st where Melanie K, Toastmaster for the evening, will tell us about the happenings at the last District Fall Conference being held November 17-19 in Prince Albert, Sask.  We will also have opportunities to give speeches.  Our next workshop December 5th is on Communicating on Video facilitated by Cherry C assisted by Rick L.  Stay tuned for details of this exciting workshop.  

Lingo Workshop: Specialty Speeches

Lingo Workshop: Specialty Speeches (Tuesday, Nov 7 at 7pm)
Facilitator: Edith Baraniecki DTM

Speakers are often called upon to give different kinds of talks. This manual contains information about giving the most common ones, and it covers impromptu talks, inspirational speeches, selling a product, reading out loud and introducing a speaker. Edith Baraniecki will be presenting the workshop on the Specialty Speeches Manual, one of 15 Advanced Toastmasters speaking manuals.

Please RSVP at EventBrite

Halloween at Lingo! All Ghosts and Globins!

Submitted by Rhys Davies

The Lingo Advanced Communicators welcomed 9 ghosts and goblins, and one Area Director (Tolu Adelowokan) to the Halloween edition of the Lingo Meeting.

Club President Melanie Kruger led our business meeting, ensuring our budget was on track.

Dan McCosh gave a wonderful story of his latest adventure when he forgot his passport and had it couriered to him in Regina en route to Toronto through the United States.  Despite the chaos, Dan managed to get back on track.

Kerrianne Koehler-Munro cooked up a wonderful serving of Table Topics (even if it was Wendy Lam’s recipe).  Bob Barker was very colourful in is costume, being the resident proctologist.

Edith Baraniecki couldn’t make the club meeting, but she did thrill at the Area C1 Contest!   She won second place at the Area C1 Humorous Speech Contest and will advance to the Division C Table Topics contest, winning first place.  Congratulations Edith!

On November 7, Lingo Advanced Communicators hosts another workshop, Specialty Speeches, hosted by Edith Baraniecki.

Area B51 Humorous Speech and Table Topic Contest Recap

What a fantastic contest!!  Area B51 Contest was held on Wednesday, October 11 at 7:00pm.  We had a full house of contestants, assistants, and guests.  All four clubs had representatives for the contest!  This is what I call a perfect contest!! :)

Golden Mountain - Trudy Boyer      

Lingo Advanced Communicators - Eileen Szakacs

Riverbend Toastmaster - Rizwan Kanji

ToastMapsters - David Reid and Maribel Goshko

LtoR: Edith, Trudy, Eileen, Daniel, and Maribel

LtoR: Edith, Rizwan, Trudy, Daniel, and Eileen

It was an awesome facility that ToastMapsters hosted, it was at their office location, Alberta Pension Services (APS).  The contest started with the Humorous Speech which brought lots of laughters to the room.  Our table topics would be the most nerve-wracking contest!!  The one question that all contestants had to answer was “If you could take anyone on a bucket list adventure with you, who would it be and what would you both do?”  It was great to see the places that contestants come up with and the person they would bring along to the journey!  

Most Importantly,  the winners of the contests are… drum roll please… 

Humorous Speech Contest - Daniel Reid (1st) and Maribel Goshko (2nd) 

Table Topic Contest - Rizwan Kanji (1st) and Daniel Reid (2nd)

Congratulations to all the winners and especially the contestants for putting their effort into this contest.  A contest will not be successful without you guys and a group of assistants helping out:

Contest Toastmaster - Edith Baraniecki (Lingo)

Sgt-at-Arms & Contest Chair - Wendy Lam (Lingo)

Ballot Counters: Nadim Kalim (Riverbend) and Maggie Sun (Golden Mountain)

Timers: Kate Wan (Golden Mountain) and Sylvia Periera (ToastMapsters)

Thank you for all your hard work!

Last but not least, our list of judges, our Chief Judge, Wang Yip, did a tremendous job in guiding our judges and assistants!  Also to the rest of the judges who needs to be remain anonymous.  Thanks again for taking time off your busy schedule to come, your help is greatly appreciated!  

We even finished on time!  The Division B contest will be held at Devon on October 28, 2017.  More information will follow.  I would like to wish all contestants the best of luck as they advance to Division and hopefully District level at the Fall Conference!!! Please cheer on them!!

Speaking to Inform Workshop – Oct. 3 & New Member: Matthew!!

Submitted by Melanie Kruger

Dave Cartledge, DTM (or rather Golfer John Daly) facilitated the Speaking to Inform Workshop, noting that we are already daily do speaking to inform. Dave mentioned there are four reasons for speaking: about objects, processes, events. He had groups break into small groups to discuss and share ideas with the larger group about examples they have seen at Toastmaster meetings they had attended. Dave also provided the audience with a handout on THINKING. Thirteen attended, including guests: Estella, Karen, Kim, Margaret, and Matthew. Congratulations to Matthew Mercredi for joining Lingo and becoming our newest member!

Melanie Kruger, ACB ALB or rather Morticia Addams (too bad we didn’t get a picture) took us through Project 3 – The Demonstration with a visual process complete with some common household items and tips for how we can get rid of too many things cluttering up our physical living spaces and how clutter can negatively impact both our mental well-being and even our weight! Start with not only the intention to declutter, but also take action. Have three bins available to sort your stuff into:  Keep, Toss/Donate and Unsure. Once you’ve identified the items to keep, put them away right away. For Toss/Donate box up and remove from your home right away. For Unsure items, box for 30 days, revisit after 30 days and give away whatever was not taken out of the box. Repeat this whole process again after 30 days. If clearing out your entire house is too much, start in 15-30 minute spurts. Tackle the junk drawer, then a closet one day. Next day, pick another small project. People in generally have a hard time parting with stuff either due to sentimental reasons (guilt) or ‘someday’ the stuff will be useful. Realize that ‘someday’ never comes and you don’t need to feel guilty for parting with items that are no longer useful to you or your family. This speech was based and inspired by Adam Dachis’ weblog De-crapify Your Life! For further details review Dachis’ weblog: https://lifehacker.com/5804927/how-to-de-crapify-your-home.

Rick Lebeuf, DTM provided a verbal evaluation of Melanie’s speech. Edith Baraniecki, DTM promoted her workshop on Specialty Speeches (Item 226E) taking place on November 7^th and successfully recruited three speakers/participants – Cherry, Dan and Eileen.

Rhys Davies, DTM is the next Toastmaster for our October 17 meeting. Area Director Tolu Adelowkan will be in attendance. The theme is Halloween. Please come dressed in your best Halloween costume! Booriffic decorations and Spooktacular treats will be provided once again! All Toastmasters and guests are welcome to attend.

Humourous Speech and Table Topic Contest 2017

What a fantastic contest! For those of you that don’t know, Lingo Advanced Communicators held their Humorous Speech and Table Topic Contest on Tuesday, September 19th.  We had a great turn out despite the bad weather we had.  With Judges, Contestants and Guests, we had around 20 people.  We had Mike Morin started the meeting, Mike is not a current member of our club and am glad that he was able to come out to help with our contest.  We look forward to seeing you more at our club in the near future!! Peter Kolotyluk was the Toastmaster who incorporate humour throughout the contest.  Peter did an excellent job and his Table Topic questions were interesting and yet hard  to answer in my perspective.  I was glad that I wasn’t a contestant!

We had our Humorous Speech contest, both Rhys Davies and Eileen Szakacs gave an exceptional speech and it was tough on the judges.  The winner came out to be the “cat”, I am sure everyone knows who that is.. Rhys Davies.   Both Rhys and Eileen will represent Lingo in the Area 51 Humorous Speech Contest.  As for the Table Topic contest battle.. it sure was a tough one between Rhys Davies, Eileen Szakacs, Bob Barker, and Robin Changarathil.  The winner of this contest was Eileen Szakacs.  Both Eileen and Bob will be representing Lingo in he Area 51 Table Topic Contest.  You maybe wondering why we are sending two people.  The reason is that we have 4 clubs in Area 51.

We wish all the contestants the best of luck in the Area 51 Humorous Speech and Table Topic Contest.  As for the date, I believe our Area Director announced it to be Thursday, October 19, stay tune on the location!!  We hope all of you can come and cheer our contestants on!

How can a contest succeed without a bunch of dedicated assistance and judges.  Thank you to Dan McCosh and Dave Cartledge for being our ballot counter, Melanie Kruger and Edith Baraniecki for being our timer,  Mike Morin for being our Sgt-at-arms, and our Toastmasters Peter Kolotyluk.  Thank you to all the judges who came out, who I cannot name for taking your time out of your busy schedule to help us out.

Last but not least, our contest chair Rick Lebeuf who was unable to attend for all the work you did lead up to the contest!

Our next meeting will be a workshop presented by Dave Cartledge and Melanie Kruger on “Speaking to Inform”.  If anyone is working on this manual, you will not want to miss this workshop!  Bring your manual, ask questions, that may help you come up with ideas you can present!  We will be posting more information on this workshop by the end of this week!! Stay tune!!

How to Judge a Contest Recap

Our September 5th workshop on judging speech contests provided many answers about judging, thanks to Toastmaster/facilitator Rick Lebeuf, DTM. However, it also raised the question "Is sex involved?" Actually the question should  be "Does gender matter?" Since in our group it almost seemed like the women leaned towards the female speaker and the men towards the male speaker. But then, as we worked through the scoring, we realized that being able to hear the speaker clearly made a huge difference. Something judges should consider when selecting where to sit when judging.  Interesting that some participants scored all sections relatively low and others scored all sections relatively high compared to the next judge, but as Rick indicated, there is no right or wrong scoring, it is your score and there is room for subjectivity.  All in all, it was a very enlightening evening for eight Lingo members and five guests, even for this old judge.  Looking forward to our speech contest September 19th.

Organizing a Club Speech Contest Workshop Recap

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki DTM

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, it is speech contest time.  On August 15th, Edith Baraniecki, DTM facilitated a workshop on "Organizing a Club Speech Contest."  The logistics for planning and conducting contests, in particular tabletopics and humorous speech contests, were reviewed. This included the eligibility rules, the forms needed and the roles of chair vs chief judge, timers, ballot counters, and the most important person in a contest, the contestant.  We were fortunate enough to have a real live contestant, Collin Greene, give two speeches at the workshop in preparation for representing District 99 at the International Convention, where he did the District proud.

The number and qualifications of judges for the various levels of contests was touched on but our next workshop "How to judge a contest" will give you everything you ever needed to know on judging contests.  You won't want to miss this September 5, 2017 workshop facilitated by Rick Lebeuf, DTM a former District 42 and 99 Chief Judge.  This workshop will prepare you for your own club contest either as a contestant or in a judging role.

Note that Lingo Advanced Communicators' speech contest is September 19th 7-8:30 pm at the Riverbend Residence by Revera.

Lingo Meeting (July 18) Recap & Membership Induction

We had one of our regular meetings on July 18, 2017.  I know you are thinking regular meetings? Doesn't Lingo Advanced Communicators do workshops?  We do both.  Workshops are usually the first Tuesday of the month.  Regular and other meetings as well as educational are on the third Tuesday of the month.  That way members get an opportunity to do speeches, often based on earlier workshops, and to practice table topics.

The theme of the meeting this week was "culture."  Culture in the sense of social beliefs and norms. Toastmaster Rick L started the meeting with an explanation of the current culture of our club.  For example, fairly unique to our club is having an ears and eyes speech evaluator along with the objectives speech evaluator.  Rick challenged us to explore our culture and roles and responsibilities further in future gatherings.

We had the privilege of hearing a good will speech (Public Relations Advanced Manual) by President Melanie K.  Her speech about self-confidence gave us six points to guide us in developing self-confidence of which Toastmasters is the perfect place to do that.  Peter K entertained us with an almost mythical speech that left us guessing until the very end.  Well done Melanie and Peter.

Robin C asked some very challenging scenario questions concerning guests and club customs.  Perhaps he could be convinced to publish the questions for everyone to ponder. Bob B won the best table topics invisible award.

One of our newest members and most experienced toastmaster, Dave C, led the evaluation team, in giving meaningful evaluations. Something as simple as telling us to consider what our background looks like.  Now it would have helped if the writer would remember to bring the banner.  

Ellen (L) and Eileen (R) got inducted at our Year End Celebration in June 2017

L to R: Dan, Melanie, Dave, and Von got inducted at our Club meeting by President Melanie

President Melanie took the opportunity to present new member certificates to Dave C, Dan M, and Von Eric T.  Two other new members, Eileen S and Ellen S, received their certificates at our year end celebration when we saluted Canada's 150th birthday and had new club officer installations.

We have an exciting year ahead with several workshops and educational sessions already scheduled. Upcoming workshops are listed on Lingo Website

Lingo Workshop Recap: The Power of Ideas - July 4, 2017

Nine members and five guests took the opportunity to explore expanding their ideas.  Thank you to Peter K in leading this exploration.  We learned the difference between "divergent (broader) and convergent (narrower) thinking." We were asked to "develop our imaginations" with a "what if" situation. Then we were able to use "option thinking" regarding several Toastmasters issues. Next we used "opportunity thinking" discussing the things that bug us and possible marketing opportunities to correct the "bug."  "Creative guesswork" gave us several laughs when determining why we may have received a huge shipment of dog food delivered on our doorstep.  One suggestion was a fatigued drone. Using "mental calisthenics" we suggested several alternate uses for a paper clip or a ball-point pen.  When "creating combinations" such as  ice cream writing or blanket computer, we really stretched our thoughts.  Lastly we used "brainstorming" to discuss ways to enhance membership - some very interesting suggestions - one - we will definitely not go with.  All in all, it was a fun and informative workshop.  Well done Peter.  Thank you guests John, Cherry, June, Julie and Tonya for attending.  Our next meeting is July 18th with Rick L as the Toastmaster for the evening. 

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki

News!!! - Lingo Open House, the Workshop, and upcoming Year End Party!!!

Sorry, it has been a while since I had updated the Blog.. Work has got to me and I am exhausted at the end of the day!! Don't worry, if you do want to know more news, should add us to your Facebook group!!  https://www.facebook.com/LingoAdvancedCommunicators/

So what happened at the Workshop?  Everyone loved it!! Due to large demand... We are having our Part II of this workshop on Tuesday, July 4th!!  So stay tune for more information and how to register this workshop.


The Wedding Open House was a SUCCESS!!!  It was a blast.. Everyone at Lingo Advanced Communicators did an awesome job in acting this whole wedding ceremony and relating it with our Advanced Manual.  They just made doing speeches a fun and enjoyable!!!  Yes, every one of them got credit from their speeches!!


As you can tell that everyone had a big smile on their face.  Many photos were taken!! To see video clips of it, please go to our facebook..   https://www.facebook.com/LingoAdvancedCommunicators/

There are still more clips that I will be uploading!! so come back and watch more!!


So the party will continue with the Year End party that will be happening tomorrow at Edith Baraniecki's house.. its a potluck party with a Canada theme.  If you are interested in attending, please send an email to lingoadvtm@gmail.com to enquire the location.  Please bring a dish related to Canada!!  All I can think of is Poutine and Maple Syrup.. I wonder how the two will taste when mixed together!! :)  Also dress in Canadian attire...

On a serious note, we will be doing a Club Executive Installation by our Area 51 governors (Incoming and Outgoing) - Tolu and Dan respectively!  Last but not least, we will have lots of games and I think prizes as well.. so come and enjoy a night full of fun and laughters again.. let the party continue!!

Upcoming Events you CANNOT miss!!!

We have two events happening that you CANNOT.. I mean you CANNOT miss.. its going to be an awesome one!!

May 16, 2017 - Lingo Workshop 

From Success Communication Series

Building Your Thinking Power, Part 1 - Mental Flexibility

Presented by Peter Kolotyluk, DTM

June 6, 2017 - Lingo Open House

Our Theme is "How do Toastmasters Wed"

You and Yours are invited to this one and only one Wedding in Toastmasters.

Who is getting married, what is happening you may ask... come find out yourself!!

Its going to be spectacular!!  We will ensure you this is going great party that will be talked about for a long time!!

Don't miss out!!

Please Register BOTH Events at https://www.eventbrite.com/d/canada--edmonton/lingo/?mode=search

Results from our Elections!!!! Drum roll.......

With much of battle during the meeting, luckily noone was hurt... 
At last, we have the following combat winners... :)

President: Melanie Kruger
VP Education: Rick Lebeuf
VP Membership: Wendy Lam
VP Public Relations: Rhys Davies
Treasurer: Kerrianne Koehler-Munro
Secretary: Edith Baraniecki
Sgt-at-Arms: Bob Barker

Congrats all!!

We will be holding our Officer Installation at our Year-End party in June!

Lingo Workshop/Meeting Switch Up: May 2 - Regular Meeting and Election for the New Executives!!

With a busy weekend at the Toastmaster Convention and marking the end of first year in District 99.  We thought it would be a good idea to switch up the dates on our Meeting and Workshop.  Therefore, for our meeting tomorrow on May 2nd.  We will be having our Regular meeting and Election on the New Executives for 2017-2018!!  It will be an exciting one!

If you are planning to join us at this meeting, please email us at lingoadvtm@gmail.com.  More information on our workshop will following shortly.  I can just say that our "theme" for this meeting will be a lead to the workshop!!! Hope to see you there.

Division B Contest Results!

Division B Contest was held on Saturday, April 22!  First of all, congratulations to Robert Brennan for winning the International Speech contest, with his speech Tick, Tock. He won the District contest in the Fall too. All speeches were very good and I could hear people say it would have been a difficult contest to judge.  They had similar themes, love, time, unified diversity, listening, and creativity.   Thanks to Rhys as picture taker.  Also congratulations to Nayyer Ahmed from Riverbend Toastmasters Club, who won the Evaluation contest and will be competing again at the District 99 Convention.

District 99 Contest will be held on Saturday, April 29 during the Convention.  This contest is the best contest of the year.  Its the best speeches that you will hear and the winners that comes out of this contest will advance to Regional and eventually International.  Please come cheer on the contestants!!  Here is the link for more information:  https://d99tm.org/conferences-and-conventions/spring-convention/

Area 51 International Speech and Evaluation Contest

LtoR: Tolu,Edith,Celia,Melanie,Ralph (missing: Nayyer)

What a Fantastic Contest!!  Area 51 International Speech and Evaluation Contest was held on Thursday, March 23, 2017 at Holy Trinity Riverbend Church.  Area 51 consist of the following clubs:

• Lingo Advanced Communicators
• Riverbend Toastmasters Club
• Golden Mountain Toastmasters Club
• ToastmAPSter

Regret was sent from ToastmAPSter for not being able to be there.  Therefore we had three clubs battling for the winning titles!

We had 2 contestants on the International Speech Contest:  Edith Baraniecki (Lingo) and Nayyer Ahmed (Riverbend).  Both contestants speech was very entertaining and both brought a very deep message which fits in perfectly for an International speech!

As for the the Evaluation Contest, we had 5 contestants:  Melanie Kruger(Lingo), Edith Baraniecki (Lingo), Ralph Winsor (Golden Mountain), Celia Wanderley (Riverbend), and Nayyer Ahmed (Riverbend).  We also had our Test speacker Rocio Granados from New Entrepreneurs and Latino Canadian Entrepreneurs Toastmasters Club.  Rocio was amazing, her speech was funny and her delivery of the speech is so good that it shocked me to find out she is a new Toastmaster!!  Thank you Rocio for being our Test speaker!!  It was at a point that I was glad that I did not participated in the Evaluation contest.  This was definitely a tough one!!

Last but not least... our winners are... drum roll.....

Winners of International Speech Contest was Edith Baraniecki (Lingo)
Winners of Evaluation Contest was Nayyer Ahmed (Riverbend)

Congratulations to both winners and look forward to their competition at the Division B Contest that will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at Radission Hotel (Gateway Blvd) at 12:30pm to 4:00pm ($5 at door)

We had our Division B Governor Dave Cartledge and Area 51 Governor Dan McCosh in attenance to award the ACS and ACG to Tolu Adelowokan.

How can a successful contest without a set of Helpers and Judges!!

Thank you to the following Judges for attending.  Some of them drove all the way from North side of town!!  We are very much appreciate your attendance!  Greg Gazin (Chief Judge), Glynn Williams, Cherly Persson, Matthew Mercredi, Dresdin Archibald, Dave Cartledge, and Kerrianne Koehler-Munro.

Thank you also to all the helpers from the clubs that came out!  Sgt-at-arms - Tariq Chaudary (Riverbend), Ballot Counter - Dan McCosh and Cristina Winter (Golden Mountain), Timer - Walter Mesquita (Riverbend).

Please come cheer on our winners at the Division B Contest!!

Workshop: Public Relations

Public relations can be defined as the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics.

Public relations is not just for companies and other organizations. If you are looking for a job or seeking a promotion, you could benefit from public relations techniques. (Incidentally, there are over 200 public relations/communications jobs currently available in Edmonton). Perhaps you're trying to draw the public's attention to a problem or advance a cause. Maybe you have written a book or created a product that you want people to buy. Are you the vice president public relations for your club or plan to be next year?

If you answered yes to any of these situations, this workshop will be of interest to you.  The workshop is based on the advanced manual "Public Relations," which will help you learn several types of public relations-related speeches. In the first project, you will prepare and present a speech that generates goodwill for a company or organization. Next, you'll prepare a speech for a radio talk show that presents a positive image of your company. The third project requires you to present a speech that will persuade the audience to accept your viewpoint. Then you will prepare a talk to persuade a hostile audience to at least consider your position on a controversial issue. Finally, you will communicate to the media about a crisis in your organization while trying to build and maintain a positive image for the organization.

Please join Lingo Advanced Communicators Toastmasters Club to learn more about managing communications in a fun and supportive environment.

Facilitator:  Edith Baraniecki, DTM

Time: 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Date: Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Location: Riverbend Retirement Living by Rivera, in the Melange Room (103 Rabbit Hill Road, Edmonton, AB, T6R 2V3)

Please RSVP at EventBrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-relations-workshop-tickets-33019557385

International Speech and Evaluation Contest - Area 51

Please join us as we cheer on our International Speech winner Edith Baraniecki and our Evaluation winner Melanie Kruger as they complete with our three other club winners from Golden Mountain Toastmasters Club, Riverbend Toastmasters Club, and ToastmAPSters Club.

The Area 51 contest will be held on

Date: Thursday, March 23
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Holy Trinity Riverbend Anglican Church (1428 - 156 Street NW)

We wish both of them best of luck at the Area 51 contest.
Please help cheer them on!

Ahhh.. Spring: New Beginning!

That is the theme for our next Club meeting on Tuesday, March 21.  Please come join our Toastmaster Melanie Kruger and us on a refresh start of a new season!!  If you are interested in taking on a role at our club or just coming to visit, please feel free to email us at lingoadvtm@gmail.com

International Speech and Evaluation Contest - Club Level

Lingo Advanced Communicators had their International Speech and Evaluation Contest - Club Level yesterday, March 7th. We had the honour of having Cherry Cheung as our Chief Judge also our Judges, Betty, Barry, and Renee. It was a well organized contest with our Contest Chair and Toastmaster Rick, Sgt-at-arms Rhys and Tolu. Last but not least, our timer Peter and ballot counter Kerrianne. We had 2 contestants for International Speech and 4 Contestants for Evaluation Contest. Thank you to Peter Wang for being our Test Speaker in the Evaluation Contest!

Our Winner for International Speech contest was Edith Baraniecki and for Evaluation Contest was Melanie Kruger. Both Contestants will advance to our Area 51 Contest which will be held on Thursday March 23 at 7:00pm. Please come cheer for us as these two finalist brings back the victory award in the Area level!!

Thanks again to all attended!

Lingo Advanced Communicators Meeting - February 21, 2017

Our regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at our new location

The theme for this meeting will include some of the workshop item that we learned on "Your speaking Voice" that Robin presented on Feb 7th. Toastmaster for this meeting is Rick Lebeuf, DTM.  Please come and check out our meeting.  See what you had missed at the workshop, you may be benefit from it for the upcoming Evaulation contest!

Contact us if you are planning to attend.

We look forward to seeing you!

Lingo Workshop: Using a Rating Form to Profile the Speaking Voice

The purpose of this workshop is to become familiar with a form in the Toastmasters manual, ‘Your Speaking Voice’ This one-page form is included in the manual to help Toastmaster members analyze basic characteristics of their voice.

Robin did an excellent workshop on going through each speech profile and showing examples of famous celebrities speeches and discussion with the group.  By becoming familiar with the form, participants should develop more confidence rating a person’s speaking voice.  Those attended the workshop enjoyed it and took home a lot of valuable points.  It definitely will be useful for the upcoming International Speech and Evaluation contest.

We will incorporate some of the item we learned from the workshop at our upcoming regular meeting.  Please come and check us out!

What happened at our Last Meeting? "What Money Cannot Buy"

Our last meeting was on Tueaday, Jan 17th.

We met at Edith's house since our meeting space (Rivebend Library) was unavailable.
We had one guest: Selena.  It was a nice and cozy meeting. Edith baked a Rubarb cake for us with a lot of other snacks.

Meeting theme was "what money cannot buy"

There was a lot of stuff that money can't buy.  Majority of our members feel that Health is the most important one!  Edith was our Toastmaster for this meeting.

We had our Business Meeting where we discuss on the venues that we are thinking of meeting and we voted on the Riverbend Retirement Community by Rivera. This will be the location we will meet from now on and we are ecstatic that we finally have a permanent place to meet without moving around town!

We had two speeches from Kerrianne and Melanie.

Kerrianne was presenting from her HPL manual.  She did her HPL on her term as an Area Director.  She wanted to be able to provide support to her clubs and be resourceful to them.  Her clubs are lucky to have her as their Area Director.

Melanie was presenting from the Storytelling Advanced Manual.  She did her story on a book called "  Living with a Black Dog:  His Name is Depression" by Matthew Johnstone.  She even have props.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc

It was a great meeting, looking forward to our upcoming workshop presented by Robin on Your Speaking Voice!

We've Moved!!

Our New Meeting Location starting Tuesday, Feb 7, 2017 will be at

Riverbend Retirement Living by Revera, 

(103 Rabbit Hill Rd, Edmonton, AB T6R 2V3)

Melange Room

Workshop:   Using a Rating Form to Profile the Speaking Voice

Presented by Robin Changarathil, CC

The purpose of this workshop is to become familiar with a form in the Toastmasters manual, ‘Your Speaking Voice’. 

This one-page form is included in the manual to help Toastmaster members analyze basic characteristics of their voice.

The workshop will go over the form by taking the perspective of an evaluator who has been assigned the task of rating another member’s voice during a Toastmasters club meeting. 

By becoming familiar with the form, participants should develop more confidence rating a person’s speaking voice.

Please Note: New Meeting location!

Date: Tuesday February 7, 2017

Time: 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Location:  Riverbend Retirement Living by revera, in the Melange Room

Please RSVP to EventBrite at  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/using-a-rating-form-to-profile-the-speaking-voice-tickets-31514337231

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year

Lingo Advanced Communicators are looking forward for a year of challenges!
As TI's Photo suggested, we will be having our Executive Meeting on Monday, January 9th to discuss our plan for this year!  Here is an article from TI that I thought would be perfect to be posted at the beginning of the year!

Lets all set our goals too, both Toastmasters related, Work related, or personal related!!

How to Plan for a Successful Year

Learn the Keys to Effective Goal Setting

Now that the New Year is here, it is the perfect time to set goals for your club or district. If you’ve had difficulty achieving membership or other goals in the past, maybe it was because you tried to accomplish too much at once and were overwhelmed. This year, use these goal-setting tips, and map out a successful step-by-step plan you can easily follow:

1. Focus on one or two main goals – Choose just one or two larger goals to pursue this year. This can be difficult, but narrowing your focus is essential and will allow you to better concentrate on whichever goal(s) you choose.
   
2. Create subgoals – After you’ve settled on your main goal(s) for the year, it’s time to break it down into monthly subgoals to make the larger objective more manageable. Think of the most important tasks you need to accomplish to reach your main goal, and assign those tasks to each month of the year. Segmenting the process this way will help you visualize what you need to do every month to stay on track.
   
3. Create microgoals – Make your monthly goals more manageable by breaking them into four microgoals, which can be thought of as weekly goals. This will help you avoid the temptation to procrastinate and leave all your subgoal duties for the end of each month. You can also segment your weekly microgoals into daily tasks so that you’ll know each day what you need to do to stay on schedule.

Remember, the key to goal setting is staying organized. Take the time to understand what you need to do every month, week and day this year in order to reach your larger goals, and then get started. Good luck!