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

1st workshop of year 2021 - Engaging Humour - Your Royal Invitation

 

Lingo Advanced Communicators aka the Queen’s staff and a guest engaged in humour the evening of January 5/21 as they were acknowledged by her Majesty the Queen/TM Edith virtual style at Buckingham Palace. Before this occurred, each member and guest Sandy Z from Toronto were asked “what made you recently laugh out loud?” We heard that all appreciate a good joke and were willing to share one. The evening concentrated on “engaging humour” as we heard what makes this Pathway different from the others, basically incorporating humour into each project.  Estella M in her speech “Are you born with humour?” noted why humour is important.  

 

Using WOD "witticism", Majesty/Edith addressed her Royal subjects saying a few words about this past year and their dedication to her. She then invited each staff person starting with guest Sir Elton John aka Dan, in fashionable glasses, to say a few words about what he wishes for the future before the two minute bell rang. Then “improv” style each staff person continued with the story. This included: Press Secretary - Cherry, noting how early she has to get up, Private Dresser - Yeshu, revealing some royal secrets, Royal Chef - Xiao, commenting on the number of meals she has to make and the staff needed, Royal Butler - Eileen, English accent and all with her loyalty, Royal Hairdresser- Estella, in maintaining the Queen’s perfect hair, Royal Dog groomer - Bonnie, noting the number of dogs the Queen has had and the Royal Historian - Sandy making notes on all.  Unfortunately guest, Boris Johnson was not available. 

 

Speech Evaluators Cherry and Xiao, Table Topics Evaluator Eileen, having dropped her English accent, and General Evaluator Dan, without his glasses, gave helpful evaluations. Timer Yeshu, using technicolor, had lots to keep track as did Bonnie as Ah Counter/grammarian but not so regarding the use of the word of the day “witticism.”  Yeshu and Eileen won best Tabletopics, Why? They both have the ability of making us laughing in tears but they themselves were as calm as cumcubers.

All in all we had a humorous and Royal time and look forward to our next meeting January 19/21. 

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki, DTM