October 5, 2021 Workshop: Presentation Mastery

Our monthly Workshop on Oct 5 was all about Pathways: “Presentation Mastery” as in how to better master our presentation skills.  This time not only did we advertise this workshop on D99 fan page and Eventbrite, we also invited Fabulous Facilitators Club to join us.   Our numbers remained small but we were mighty as always. 

Sgt-at-arms Shiao X opened the meeting with positive energy & housekeeping details for Zoom meeting.  Toastmaster Edith B. asked everyone to give a mini opening speech with one tip to improve presentation, perhaps thinking back to a presentation or speech they may have given well or not at one time.  Then, she asked everyone to vote for the best opening speech speaker.  

Prepared speeches: Our first prepared speech speaker was a guest from Fabulous Facilitator Gary T. with his speech “Climate Change: An overview” filled with his thoughtful and effective power point slides along with his descriptive narration, it was very educational.  2^nd speaker Cherry C. gave us some hands on learning on Zoom Whiteboard using annotation key under view option and how to save/add new pages.   3^rd speaker Dan M. showed us how to use power point effectively, Dan asked questions and audience commented on Chat, not only was it interactive but it also connected to the audience, his session followed by an exercise in three breakout rooms. One person to handle creative writing, one to search internet for pictures and another person to get TM template. Then, they were reported back to the big group.   Lochlan K commented on chat that he loved the breakout room experience.  

Evaluations: Cherry evaluated Gary, Edith evaluated Cherry, Eileen evaluated Dan’s session.  

Winners: Best opening speech speaker was Peter H.,  best speaker Gary T., best evaluator Eileen. 

Again, it was a fun, learning experience, but that is what Toastmasters is all about. 

Our next meeting will be on Oct 19, our theme will be: "Why Thanksgiving & Halloween in the same month?"   It is between Thanksgiving and Halloween also it is another “Day After” municipal elections.  Wonder if Toastmaster Shaio will change the theme or not.  

Submitted by Cherry C, DTM 

 

Sept 21, 2021 Theme: The Day Aftere

This is “The Day After” after a great meeting of Lingo Advanced Communicators Toastmasters Club.  TM Eileen S. in her usual professional manner led the meeting and performed the grammarian duty. We had two DTMs gave speeches in the Dynamic Leadership Pathway: Cherry C with “Attributes and Styles” (L2) and Estella M with “Disagree agreeably using the Applied Principles of Dale Carnegie” (L1). Evaluators Dan Mc and Rhys D gave non-“ominous” evaluations. Tabletopics Master Edith B gave several scenarios where members were asked to describe how they felt the day after if they were in that position.  There was a tie between Rhys, speaking about the day and time after their twins were born and Eileen, gave her day after thoughts on winning a silver versus gold medal at the Olympics. We were happy to have Craig B join our club and do TT evaluations. Best evaluator for the evening was Rhys. 

Our next event is a workshop on the Presentation Mastery Pathway to be held on Tuesday October 5/21 at 7 pm MST. If you are working on this Pathway and wish to present, let Cherry C know and if it is a pathway you are interested in doing in the future, you won’t want to miss it.  

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki VP PR

Sept 7, 2021 Workshop: How to prepare Humorous speech

Well members weren’t falling out of their computer chairs but hopefully they were enlightened on how to prepare and deliver a humorous speech. TM Cherry C started the evening with humour and then asked us about a funny thing that we experienced. What stories! Edith B then gave an Engaging Humourous speech about “Miss Edith’s Neighbourhood” followed with a presentation derived from a session on the Magical Power of Humour which was presented at the 2021 TI Convention (notes available). This was followed by a video shown by Dan Mc of Craig Valentine, past World Champion, who recommended using these approaches 1) character dialogue, 2) inner dialogue, 3) projected dialogue, and 4) actual audience dialogue. Eileen S asked four members a variety of Tabletopics (TT). Cherry won best TT with her response as to whether she would rather be the funniest or the smartest person in the room. How do you think she responded?  Evaluators Rhys D (Speech #1) and Xiao  X (TTs) both demonstrated good listening skills and offered advice for improvement. The biggest deficit was that there were no guests. That needs to improve. Our next meeting theme on September 21/21 is “The day after…”. What do you think this is all about? Come and find out  

Submitted by Edith B VPPR 

 

Aug 18, 2021 Last Joint meeting this summer

What a great idea! (thanks Cherry Cheung) This summer four Toastmasters Clubs, Lingo Advanced, Fabulous Facilitators, Riverbend and Golden Mountain, combined their meetings to have better attendance (a full screen of 16 tonight), experience different clubs, speakers and evaluators, meet new friends and have an enjoyable time. Check on all of these. 

Tonight Golden Mountain, with Harry P as Toastmaster, hosted our meeting on “Animal Rights and Wrongs.” There were no “scruples” (WOD) in naming our favorite wild animal. Many animals were suggested from huge elephants and giraffes to tiny snakes and turtles. The two speeches were on opposite spectrums. Kal S gave an insightful speech about managing “depression” and Katie W enthralled us about her “exciting but short vacation.” These speeches were evaluated by Rhys D and Craig B. Trudy B Tabletopics Master asked some challenging TT questions. Cam B was voted as giving the best response to his question about hunting. However, we heard about snakes climbing drapes, a princess yorkie and a Tasmanian Devil plus more. Edith B won best evaluator for her evaluation of Tabletopic responses. Dan Mc led the evaluation team, who were all attentive to their roles. Thank you to our two guests, Alisse and Rani, for joining us on this fourth successful adventure. See you next Tuesday at 7 pm. MST. Let’s all strive to gain more members so we will need two screens to accommodate all next year. 

Submitted by: Edith B VPPR (Lingo/Fab Fac)

July 6, 2021 Joint Meeting Extravaganza

In discussing our Theme: ”release from captivity,” 15 of us gathered from four toastmasters clubs: Lingo Advanced Communicators, Fabulous Facilitators, Riverbend and Golden Mountain.  What a release!  led by TM Cherry C.  We had two new and improved speeches (their repeat speeches in Level 1 Pathways project 3).  Anisha R (Riverbend) spoke with a good strong voice on “Why Diversity and Inclusion matter now?” and Gary T (Fabulous Facilitators) spoke with humour on his trifold “Second Shot” (vaccine, video game, and TM). This is actually the second shot at toastmasters for both of these speakers, you could tell.  

With being released, we were challenged by Club Growth Director Dan Mc to personally contact 25 of our acquaintances to tell them about Toastmasters, much like you would tell a friend about a good book and a fantastic restaurant that you like.  Best Tabletopics was won by Hope in discussing what she missed the most this past year, of course friends/family. While all the evaluators had suggestions for improvement with speeches and Tabletopics, we were to “deter” (WOD) using the term “back to you" & "without further ado"  these pet peeves as per Division C Director Peter H.  General Evaluator Rhys D (also Area B51 Director) commented on how we did “gel” as a group within the meeting, it would have been useful with Zoom to come early and informally introduce ourselves.  There were lots of lessons learned from these trio and the rest of us. 

Our next joint summer venture will be hosted by Fabulous Facilitators on July 20th 7 pm MST when we will be discussing “a new skill.”  Do you have a “prowess” (WOD) in a new one learned this past year? 

Written by Edith B (Lingo and Fabulous Facilitators)

3rd Annual Pecha Kucha Night

On May 4, 2021 Lingo held our 3rd Annual Pecha Kucha Night.  Toastmaster Estella M opened the meeting explaining what Pecha Kucha was about.  Welcoming all guests and introduction around the room.  1st speaker Dan M., Title: Together We Will Build Back, 2nd speaker Cherry C., Title: 17 Science-Based Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, 3rd speaker Austin K.(guest from Northern Light) Title: How not to get burnt out and 4th speaker  Edith B., Title: What the Heck.  All four speeches were followed by Evaluators: 1st Eileen S, 2nd Estella M,  3rd Shaio X,  4th Dan M,    General Evaluator: Rhys D.   Best Speaker fell into the hands of our guest speaker Austin (so professionally done) Best Evaluator  Eileen S.    Tonight, we had 16 participants and 2 guests had to excuse themselves prior to the end of this Japanese Pecha Kucha game.  Our hand gestures symbolized 20x20 (20 slides x 20 seconds each) in the picture.

Submitted by: Cherry C

March 2, 2021 And the Nominees are...

Toastmaster Estella opened the meeting with a question about what we liked about the Golden Globes Award. Comments varied from attire (ladies colour of the year appears to be pink or yellow), the introductions, how the awards inspire us to either prepare by watching the nominated shows ahead of time or putting them on our to watch list. There was even a bit of envy for JLo’s dress. Accolades (word of the day) goes to Eileen for doing triple roles (timer, grammarian and ah counter) and to Rhys for his quizmaster questions and ballot counting. 

And the best nominee is ......”Mamma Mia” as presented by Edith. While the movie was a hit, the technical glitches failed big time; however, speech evaluator/Sgt at Arms Shiao was dancing in her seat. Other nominees were Dan’s Canadian production “Trotski.”  His passion for the movie was felt by his evaluator Yeshu, who won best Evaluator.  Bonnie brought the movie “To Kill a mockingbird” back to life in pointing out the positives and negatives of this movie, which Estella evaluated. 

We all enjoyed the evening and suggested that we do this again, opening the program to guest movie presentations - wonder if Meryl Streep or Pierce Bronson are busy that night. 

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki