April Fool's Day

Geofferey Chen almost fooled us all today with his April Fool's Day prank! What a smart way to set the tone of the meeting! In case the members were feeling a little lost about the theme, Dragana talked about the history behind April Fool's Day and shared one of the classic pranks by Burger King. You can listen to her Thought of the Day here.



Pam, our first speaker, is quickly progressing on the Competent Communicator (CC) ladder. She completed her third project by talking about 10 reasons why we should sign up to be AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) members. Her passion about art was visible during her speech. Click here to see Pam's speech. I am considering sending it to AGO to see how they feel. I'll update our readers if anything comes out of it. Afshan, our second speaker, is close to finishing her CC manual. Afshan shared a lot of information about the characteristics of different generations. With such a diverse age range of our member base, I am confident all audience members found the information very valuable. At the end of the talk, Afshan left us with handouts with more comparative info about each generation. See Afshan's speech here.
As the Table Topics Master for today's meeting, I was inspired by the theme and decided to put my own spin to it. We converted our club meeting room to a newsroom and our members were news correspondents. Each of the members were asked to report on a news item, which is 'odd' but still true. You can see our Table Topics session here.
Christine conducted the General Evaluation section She used the sandwich style approach and offered useful tips to improve our roles. Christine also reminded us about the upcoming Elections and the importance of serving on the Executive Team. Keep reading to find out how we conduct our Elections!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Q. Why don't you iron the 4-leaf clover?
(see answer at the the end of of this article...)

Sundeep, our Chair for the meeting, chose an appropriate theme for the meeting today! We had a small crew at the meeting, but that didn't dampen our moods. Sundeep took control and started the meeting on time. Sundeep shared facts about the origin of St. Patrick's Day and Wendy informed us about the significance of the color 'green'. See her Thought of the Day here. I was the only speaker listed today, which worked out well since my speech was 12-15 min long. I completed the final project of my Interpretive Reading manual by delivering a 12-15 min Play. I chose a segment from the book 'What was She Thinking?' by Zoe Heller. The book was also release as a movie in 2006 where Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett portrayed the characters, Barbara and Sheba, respectively. I chose the segment from the book where Sheba invites Barbara for a casual Sunday lunch with her family. The segment touches upon how a casual invite takes unprecedented significance in Barbara's life as a single woman with no friends. The choice of words in certain passages is ever so haunting. I encourage you to watch the movie as well. Judi has done an incredible job at portraying the character of Barbara.
Though I've completed my Interpretive Reading manual, I feel I haven't done justice to this last project. I felt it became more of a Monologue than a Play. Maybe a segment from one of the classic plays might have been more relevant to the project. Oh well, I might re-do this project at another time! This particular manual has been quite exciting. See my speech here.
Pam concluded the meeting as the first time General Evaluator. I like how she opened her role by saying that her goal is to give power to what we have done well and feedback on how we can improve. She is also the Chair of the meeting next week. Hope to see another full house!

Oh.. and I almost forgot... Here's the answer to the question above --

Q. Why don't you iron the 4-leaf clover?
A. Because you don't want to press your luck!
(Courtesy: Sundeep, our Chair!)

Freedom of Speech

We were back to a 'full' meeting today and I was glad to be be Chair for the day. I selected the theme about 'Freedom of Speech'. I was moved, shocked, terrified and embarrassed by a recent documentary released by BBC, India's Daughter. It displays the horrific rape culture prevalent in India. The Government of India imposed a ban on the documentary stating the reason that it portrays a negative image of India. While that it true, but the image displayed by the documentary is not far from reality. This, along with the recent killings of Charlie Hebdo, inspired me to begin the meeting by talking about the right to freedom of speech.
We had a few last minute role switches, but our members gladly stepped up. Makes my job very easy! We are now 25 member strong!!! Woohoo....!
Jefferey Zhao was our first speaker. He completed Project #3 from his CC manual and talked about the importance of maintaining a calendar Jefferey has a subtle way of introducing humor in his speeches. You can watch his video here.
Our second speaker, also the President of the club, was Geoffery Chen who is working on his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) designation. Read more about Communication Tracks here. Geoffrey presented an entertaining speech about 'Kill the K-Cup' and the shared valuable information about the harmful effects of the K-cups.
You can watch his speech video here.

Marcia, our TT master, embraced the meeting theme and added her own creative spin to it. She encouraged the members to voice their uninhibited opinion about topics such as TTC, Justin Bieber, Mayor Rob Ford, etc.! All members participated with much enthusiasm. Tie Feng, our General Evaluator (GE), offered his feedback and supportive statements to improve our meeting structure. The Area 5 Spring Contests are scheduled for tomorrow evening. Wish us luck!

International Speech Contest

Today, we hosted our second set of Spring Contests, the International Speech Contest! Christine was the Contest Chair while Tie served as the Chief Judge. In the past, we've had some trouble recruiting and encouraging members to compete at these contests. I was really happy to see that we had 5 contestants today, one of which decided to compete from the floor and deliver an impromptu speech! I wish I can get to that level of confidence as well...!
Because many of our members decided to compete, we struggled a little bit to organize the judging team. But, our members helped out by doing double duty.
The International Speech Contest requires members to have completed minimum 6 projects from their speech manual. It doesn't require speech to have a specific theme, except that it should leave the audience inspired/motivated. The contest started on time. I went first and spoke about my experience as a volutneer at a hospice few years ago. I re-purposed this speech from last year because I didn't think I did justice to it. Marcia went in next and spoke about the defining moments in all our lives and the significance of it, whether big or small. Anil inspired the audience to respect the 'gold nuggets' in our lives. Melrose spoke about what 'home' means to her, and that would be Jamaica! Anthony delivered an impromptu speech and shared a story about how moms know the best. I was so proud and happy for all contestants. We all have come a long way in our journey as Toastmasters. These speech contests further polish our speech capabilities. I am sure the judges had a hard time with the results. Melrose placed first, I placed second and Marcia placed third. Melrose will now represent our club at the Area 5 Contest!

Please click on the contestant name to view their speech:
Aanchal
Marcia
Anil
Melrose

Mardi Gras

Today's meeting started with the introduction of 'Carnival' theme! Sundeep (a first time meeting Chair) shared more info about Carnival and how it's also celebrated as Pancakes Day. Ummm, I want some Pancakes right about now...! I guess the winter blues got to some of our members. We only had about half of our members attend the meeting today. But that didn't let our spirits down. We participated in the meeting as if we were sitting in New Orleans or Rio amidst the Carnival festivities!
Azura finished her project # 3, Get to the Point, by talking about the benefits of Watching your own speech video. As her mentor, I might be biased in saying this, but I truly believe that she has come a long way with the 3 projects she has already completed. Azura paid attention to the feedback she received and implemented it in this current project by slowing down her pace and adding more of body language. She emphasized that being a Toastmasters members is a journey and that we should implemtent gradual changes for a long term improvement. She also stressed that we all have our 'shining' moments that we should continue to polish while building ourselves as a better speaker and communicator. See her speech here. Since we had 1 speaker today, Anthony expanded the Table Topics session so that everyone was able to participate. It's always fun when Anthony is behind the lectern as he brings a lot of fun and entertainment to his sessions, an extension of his personality! Marcia and Jefferey tied for the Best Table Topics Speaker for today. Afshan conducted the General Evaluation section of the meeting and Sundeep wrapped the meeting just in time.
Looking forward to the International Speech Contest next week... But before that, don't forget to LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!

Meridian Toastmasters - Speech Evaluation Contest

We kicked off the Winter Session of the contest season today with our Speech Evaluation Contest. Running a contest is a great example of showing team work and leadership skills. Our Chair, Tie Feng, and Chief Judge, Anil Lad, made sure the team was picked out well ahead of time. However, the weather got to Anil and he fell ill the day before the contest. Our President, Geoffrey Chen, stepped up the plate and filled in the role of Chief Judge at last minute's notice. Now this is what I call leadership and team work!
I always have fun competing at the contests, I guess I've become a default face! That's a good and bad thing!  :P We had 2 first time contestants and new members, Pam and Sundeep, join in and be brave to step up to participate! Jerako, our Target Speaker and Division A Governor, was a tough one to evaluate. But hey, what's the fun without a good challenge!
The remainder of the contest ran smoothly. I guess I'm going to be representing Meridian Toastmasters at the Area Contest in March. :)

Seeing is Believing

Geofferey Chen, our club President, opened the meeting today with the theme Seeing is Believing. We had 1 new guest and 2 returning guests at the club meeting. Tie Feng added an interested spin to his Thought of the Day. Tie questioned the validity of the theme and talked about the importance of questioning the status quo and curiosity, in general. He went on to say that 'seeing' should not directly translate to 'believing' without proper investigation! I guess he put on his hat as an Information Security Analyst!

Pam and Sundeep presented their second speech from the Competent Communicator manuals. Sundeep talked about conquering acrophobia, the fear of heights. Her speech was based on her recent trip to Blue Mountain where her family forced her to try Ziplining for the first time! She used an interesting set of visuals and articulated her feelings throughout the journey very well. Interestingly, Pam opened her speech by talking about her experience in Costa Rica. Her opening slide was also a shot of her ziplining through the hills. What a coincidence! Pam went on to describe her other exciting adventures in Costa Rica. She teased the travel bug in me through the vivid imagery on her presentation!


Katrina hosted the TT session and encourage the speakers to talk about generic topics about belief. Our guests participated as well! Marcia took over the General Evaluator role for the first club. She was very specific in her feedback providing opportunities of improvement as well as complimenting the individuals for their roles well done.

The contest season begins next week! Watch out for the summary of the Speech Evaluation contest on Feb 10!

See Pam's speech here.