Jan 4, 2022 Educational: Leadership Development

Lingo Advanced Communicators Blog for the first meeting of 2022. Our January 4/22 meeting was similar to a western movie showdown without the saloon.  We were a six pack of members “integrating” leadership and negotiation strategies in our discussions. TM Rhys D was the Sheriff without a badge, but with an “apt for numbers” as introduced by Sgt at Arms Cherry C. We did as asked, and introduced our roles and ourselves by mentioning our New Years resolutions. Among the resolutions mentioned were “to stay or be healthy, be more organized and the usual, continue or be more physical” but this one threw us - eat more chocolate, ha. 

Cherry was our speaker for the night. She gave a Dynamic Leadership L3 speech on “Negotiate the Best Outcomes” re Styles and Strategies. She spoke about a real life example of buying a vehicle. Her speech evaluator, Eileen S, emphasized the value of a strong opening. e.g. "Have you ever needed to negotiate and didn't know where to start? Today, I am going to provide you with some tools for successful negotiation". Chery's slides not moving was an issue but her message came through loud and clear. 

Then the showdown began as Deputy Craig B Tabletopics Master asked us leadership questions. It became a duel of D/D  versus  E/E (Timer Dan, TM Davis, Speech Evaluator Eileen and TT Evaluator Edith B) with the duo of E/E winning the best Tabletopics speakers, yah. Some of us were happy with the first E/E win on the season. Grammarian Edith, while noting that “integrate” was used in some form by all but there were also several “informal” words used. The Ahs were not tallied because the numbers guy may have disputed the math for his count. 

Just as the meeting ended, a lone rider strode into the meeting. Richard M, D99 Program Quality Director, was timely in further discussing our next educational event (always the First Tuesday of the month). Thus on February 1st at 7 pm we will host Judges Training, as organized by Eileen S. See D99 Event postings. However, before that we will meet January 18/22. Stay tuned for details of both.

(Submitted by Edith, picture from Edith/Morris' trip to Deadwood, South Dakota) 

Dec 21, 2021 Christmas theme: Are the holidays only about food and wine?

Are the holidays only about food and wine?  You might think so. Our glasses were charged as we toasted Toastmasters within our club, our guests Toastmasters Jessica M, Karen T, and D99 Program Director Richard M, who dropped in, and Toastmasters everywhere. Sgt at Arms Cherry C got us started by introducing Toastmaster Edith B, who in turn asked everyone to tell us about their favourite food/wine pairing.  Some “commemorated” people, places or events. 

We were treated to two speakers: 

1) Shiao X working on Dynamic Leadership L4 Elective - Manage Projects Successfully Part 1 - planning the project and Part 2 - executing the plan regarding “Create a kitchen garden.” It was certainly a family affair. According to Speech Evaluator Jessica, the speeches and her produce were well done, but wished we knew what dishes Shiao would make with her produce.  2) Eileen S gave her ice breaker speech under Visionary Communication “So this is Christmas!”  Eileen doesn’t seem to be phased by the Covid limitation of this Christmas again. I suspect it is because she is a grandmother, as is her speech evaluator Karen and this blog writer. We liked the “visionary” of seeing the toys she was giving to her grandkids. I guess it really is true “Who needs Santa when there is grandma.” 

Rhys D was Tabletopics Master asking some challenging questions related to Christmas, for the most part. Tabletopics Evaluator Craig B noted all the important parts were there in the responses. Cherry C won best Tabletopics  when she told us about her pursuit of finding a Christmas Eve church service in Hong Kong. 

Grammarian/Ah counter Cherry was not as busy with her grammarian role as she was with her Ah counter role or as Timer Dan Mc was. His red light was blinking as much as Rudolph’s red nose. 

We all wish everyone a very, merry holiday, regardless of how you celebrate it, and all the best in the New Year. We look forward to what Toastmasters has in store for us in 2022.  What Will it be? Perhaps leading a workshop in February on Judges Training. See you back on Zoom on January 4/22. 

Happy New Year from us to you, as our picture shows “Cheers.” 

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki, DTM

Dec 7, 2021 Workshop: Training vs Facilitating

We had a good discussion on Training and Facilitation at the Lingo Advanced Toastmasters meeting December 7/21.  Dan Mc with TM Cherry C’s assistance facilitated the discussion in referring to club officer training, Toastmasters Leadership Institute presentations, Pathways, etc as training and facilitating opportunities. While some of the discussion was done through chat, there were some takeaways.  Clear directions at the onset to set the stage, stick to the timing allocated and ask clear questions. The theme was a favourite of Speech evaluator Xiao X so she appreciated the whole discussion as it increased her “sagacity” on the subject.  There was time for only three Tabletopics and while we heard three good responses as they all acknowledged TT Master Cherry, had an opening, a body using an example and a conclusion, they each excelled in emphasizing one of these areas: Rhys D, the opening - a surprise, Doug K, a TM guest from Athabasca, the conclusion - get better by 5% each day, and Xiao, the body as she most directly answered the question.  Doug won Best Tabletopics. Thank you for joining us Doug. Timer Eileen S, Grammarian/Ah counter Xiao and Sgt at arms/Tabletopics Evaluator Edith  B all fulfilled their roles as experienced TMs.  Our next meeting is December 21/21 where we will end our TM meetings for 2021 talking about wine and food for the holidays. Stay tuned for enhanced Tabletopics, a toast (hopefully Dan will have his voice back by then) or two or more and fun. See you via Zoom at 7pm. Festive wear or props are encouraged as is your favourite libation/drink.  Submitted by Edith Baraniecki, DTM

Nov 16, 2021 Theme: "Idioms"

“It takes two to tango” and that is what Lingo Advanced Communicators and Fabulous Facilitators Toastmasters Clubs did on November 16/21 as we introduced ourselves with our favorite “Idioms.” Toastmaster of the evening, “Action Hero” Cherry C, announced a three way tie for the best idiom:  Oksana N, anything to do with time, e.g. time flies; Gary T, with “a Piece of Cake” which was also the word of the day, because he likes food; and Cam B, with “Raining cats and dogs” which may have been preferable to Edmonton’s weather then.

There were two speeches: 1) Gary’s L2 re Effective Body Language and its importance (don’t shrug your shoulders unless you really mean it) and 2) Xi X’s L4 elective: Managing an Online meeting re “Unconscious Bias” which I am sure everyone has either experienced or has been guilty one time or other.  It was a great discussion complete with breakout rooms and reporting back. Speech Evaluators Eileen S and Lochlan K gave good suggestions to enhance the speeches.

The evaluators, lead by General Evaluator Edith B, were diligent in fulfilling their roles: Peter H as grammarian/Ah counter, although speaking of body language, we saw him cringe when members said “Back to you.” Lynn B, who was flashing timing lights (although this time she was not sitting in the dark) as we tried without success to pack a lot into an hour, and Oksana as Quizmaster, who tried without success, too, to stump us.  All in all this joint effort had lots of “Food for thought.” It was “a piece of cake.”  

Fabulous Facilitators meets again on November 23/21 at 7 pm MST and Lingo Advanced Communicators on December 7/21 at 7 PM MST.  Zoom in for one of these or both. Peter H, DTM, Division C Director and 👑👑👑 award recipient reminded club officers of the first winter COT on Saturday November 20/21. 

Blog written by Edith B, VPPR for both clubs

Nov 2, 2021 Workshop: ReEngage, ReDisscover and ReIgnite

It was not all fun and games like our Halloween meeting, nor was it meant to be.  Lingo Advanced Communicators zoomed into our ninth(9th) year by presenting a workshop entitled “ReEngage, ReDiscover, and ReIgnite” your Toastmaster (TM) energy. Every member of the club and guest Violet were present to “rekindle” their TM juices. Sgt at Arms Edith B introduced our TM for the evening, Cherry C as a living example of how TMs helped her in her career to go from an accounting clerk to going after deadbeats.  Throughout the evening, besides “ReEngage, ReDiscover, and ReIgnite”, these words were heard several times and attributed to Toastmasters: “confidence and competency.”

We had three presentations to further connect the dots: Eileen S talked about “Why Toastmasters?”, Dan Mc, gave a presentation on the overall value of the TM program, and Estella M spoke on setting and achieving goals. These presentations were of varying lengths but Eileen won best Speaker with her 5-7 minute speech.

It was a full evening so we did not have Tabletopics but the evaluations were thorough as led by General Evaluator Xiao X. Rhys D evaluated Eileen’s speech, Craig B as grammarian kept track of the word of the day, and Edith was kept busy as timer. I do believe many were “reEngaged,” did “reDiscover,” and became “reIgnited.”  And with that we look forward to our next event on Tuesday November 16/21 at 7 pm where Eileen will lead the discussion on “International Day for Tolerance.”  Encourage a friend to zoom along with us.  Zoom link 858 0729 3647 Pass Code 342694.

Sent from my iPad. Edith Baraniecki (vacation at Orlando, Florida)

October 19, 2021 Why are Thanksgiving and Halloween fall in the same month?

Well discussing Thanksgiving and Halloween in the same Lingo Advanced Communicators meeting did not throw anyone off. However, if we could have “indulged” in Pumpkin Pie, it would have notched the meeting up even more.  TM of the day, Xiao X, set the stage asking us what exciting things happened to us in October, bringing out various responses.  🦃 🎃 🥧 

We had a full meeting with a Pathway Dynamic Leadership L3E speech: creating effective visual aids (white board and PowerPoint) by Cherry C. As her evaluator and since it was her second round doing this speech, I looked at where she had improved and she had. TM Xiao set up a great Kahoot.it game for us re the theme. New member Craig B came in first, Edith B second and Eileen S third. We won’t mention who came in last, but his initials are DMc. President Dan led the one agenda item business meeting, the induction of Craig B to Lingo. Welcome Craig, so happy to have you join us. 👏
TTM Edith B led two rounds of table topics with a variety of Thanksgiving and Halloween topics. Winners were: Eileen - round one and Dan - round two. All this kept Timer and Sgt at Arms Eileen really busy. Other key roles were Cherry, (grammarian and Ah counter),  Craig (TTE) and Dan (GE).  Now everyone, except the purple lady (EB) needs to get their costumes ready for Halloween, although, they have been wearing 😷 for months. 
Our next meeting/workshop is November 2/21 at 7 pm MST - be ready to “ReEngage, ReDiscover, ReEnergize.” See you on Zoom 

p.s. Happy 8th Anniversary 🎉 Lingo Advanced Communicators chartered October 23/13 and to Edith B and Rhys D Charter members for hanging in and the other six members joining us for the great ride.     Submitted by: Edith B, DTM           

   

                                                                        

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