Family

The Toastmasters club is like a family unit. We meet every week, share laughter, talk about each other's lives and most importantly, support one another when required. And sometimes, important decisions need to be made and there is a need for a family meeting. Today, we conducted a club business meeting to discuss a potential membership fee increase. Since Toastmasters International (TMI) has headquarters in the US, all the fees/expenses need to be paid in USD. Due to the weak exchange rate and poor CAD/USD conversion, we have been going under deficit which would worsen the situation with the impending renewals in October. As a result, I teamed up with the Treasurer and created a detailed presentation discussing the need for an increase, the potential impact on the financials and the next steps. The members were supportive, there was a spirited discussion and we voted on the increase.

Yang Sun, our newest member, delivered her first speech, the Ice Breaker! Yang has been actively participating at our club meetings and volunteering for new roles each week. I have to admit that the energy shown by our newer members has quite infectious! It helps infuse positive energy and renew the commitment to the Toastmasters journey!

Summer Social!!!

It's that time of the year when we transition to the new executive, thank the efforts of the past year and share the goals for the upcoming year at the Meridian Toastmasters Club! As the Chair for today's meeting (and as President of the Club), I decided to host the Member Appreciation Summer Social! To keep it interesting, we set the meeting theme such that everyone was required to wear their favorite summer hats!

 This is the third summer of hosting member appreciation lunch meetings. We started the meeting 20 minutes late to allow everyone to get something to eat. I was a bit disappointment to see a very low attendance. It's always a struggle during the summer time. However, we continued the meeting with our high spirits. I delivered a short talk about the history of our club, shared the achievements in the past year, and discussed the goals for next year.

Sundeep took over the next session as the Table Topics masters. She projected a few creative images on the screen and asked members to provide a caption and interpret the image in 1 minute.
As part of the 'member appreciation'. we gave out 2 raffle prizes, a favorite Table Topics speaker and favorite Hat! Christine took away the 'favorite hat' prize with her hat made from coke cans!!!





At the end, I made everyone stand up, do a little stretch using a self-hug and thanked them for their contributions in the past year! I truly believe that the members are our biggest assets and I feel proud to be part of Meridian Toastmasters.

But first, let me take a #selfie! :P

 

Dreams

It was yet another beautiful day in the city. Warm summer sun with a slight chill in the wind! As I was crossing the street to go to the club meeting, I wondered how refreshing it would be to host a meeting in one of the parks! Ahhh... wishful thinking.. or 'dreaming'! Melrose chose an interesting theme for the meeting today. She opened the meeting by talking about two different interpretation of dreams. One that we have while we sleep and another about future and aspirations! Anil presented the Thought of Day by encouraging everyone to dream about the future and shared some motivations tips. He also talked about Martin Luther King and his famous speech, "I have a dream" that has inspired many people around the world. You can watch his Thought of the Day here.

We had a full house today. Sundeep and Pam delivered their Speech #3 from the Competent Communicator (CC) manual - Organize your speech. Sundeep talked about the 'selfie stick' and the much buzz around it. I thought it was very clever to bring a selfie stick and provide a demonstration. Being a selfie addict myself, I have been tempted to get one! She also showed a few photos she took with the stick and how easy it was to capture the background. Pam followed Sundeep and took up on a bike ride along the city. Her vivid descriptions allowed me to visualize as if I was taking that bike ride. An effective technique, especially for storytellers. Pam had just made a visit to the dentist and told me her face was frozen. Kudos to her for delivering the speech without any issues. You can view Pam's speech here.

I was tasked as the Table Topics master. I find the concept of dreams very interesting and have read a bit about the interpretation of dreams as well. I decided to do round robin style Table Topics where I started out by narrating the beginning of a dream I had recently and everyone else continued the story. It was impressive how all the members participated enthusiastically and I noticed a lot less usage of filler words. Somehow there were a lot of zombies in the story that finally developed!
I wish I would've recorded it view it later... But, oh well! I can tell you that our members had wild imaginations and there was a lot of laughter.

Fun in the sun!

The Gods of Sunshine have been blessing up with a lot of Vitamin D these past few weeks. I was scheduled to Chair the meeting today. However, we did not have enough prepared speakers. So we decided to host an Easy-Speak refresher course. Pam agreed to take on the role of Chair and did a wonderful job holding the fort! Christine forgot she was supposed to prepare the Thought of the Day, however he did a fantastic job delivering an impromptu 2-min speech!

Then I delivered a refresher on Easy-Speak. I'm slowly getting comfortable with the 'training' set up. Being behind the lecturn seems so easy now. Today, as I was talking about Easy-Speak, I could see myself getting used to it. It is going to be a learning curve, but it was quite rewarding to share your knowledge and see that someone else learnt something new because of you! 

Marcia conducted the Table Topics session and asked all members to share one of their memorable moments in the sunshine! Karen told us about a Christmas many years ago when she made an impromptu day-trip all the way to Atlanta with some work colleagues. Now that's a memory worth creating! Sundeep rounded it off as the General Evaluator. She was encouraging in her feedback and acknowledged everyone. My favorite part was the way Pam ended up the meeting with a poem. I borrowed it from her so I could share it with you. Here it goes -

" It holds its heads up with pride in the morning,

But flees into the dark by night,

Its beauty shines each day without warning,

Brightening the day in warming light,

Capable of burning us to ashes,

But also able to sustain all life,

Looking at its constant flashes,

The sun gleams with certain rife."

Source: unknown

Collaboration

Our meeting today was an excellent example of advance planning, collaboration, and leadership. As our Chair, Anil was proactive in ensuring that all the roles were filled. A week before the meeting, he sent out an email reaching out to our club and older guests asking for volunteers for unassigned roles. Our meeting began on time and we had new guests join us. Anil opened the meeting and talked about the importance of collaboration in our daily lives. I doubled up as the SAA and Grammarian.
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Sundeep is back from her vacation in Europe and she was smart to use her experience as a topic for her speech. Sundeep talked about her trip to Italy. Being a travel and food enthusiast myself, I am tempted to plan a trip, more so after seeing all the scenic images of Italy and the hearing about the Italian delicacies. You can watch her speech video here. I wish Sundeep also brought us back some pastries and chocolates! You know, it's all part of effective presentation skills! :P


Our Division Governor, Jerako, joined us as our second speaker. Jerako selected a speech on the Advanced Manual and it's always a pleasure to watch her speak. Katrina followed as the Table Topics master today. She shared two envelopes. One of them contained a list of activities and the other one contained name of famous people. We had to pick one item from each and share our thoughts if we want or did not want to share the activity with that person. I thought it an excellent idea for Table Topics and everyone seemed to have had fun with it. Even our guests participated! I had Dolly Parton as my famous person, but I didn't get a chance to speak. Oh well, maybe next time! But any activity would have been 'interesting' with Dolly! :)

As we get closer to the transition to the new Executive, I am excited to take up the role as the President. Today's meeting theme reminds me of the importance to collaborate and ensure successful team work. I am lucky to have an excellent team and I am excited to see what the new year brings to Meridian Toastmasters.

Summer Solstice

I have to admit at the very beginning that today was very interesting for me in a weird way. And that doesn't happen to me very often... Read along!

I am so happy to see our new members stepping up to leadership roles not just within our meeting, but also executive leadership. Pam, our newer member, stepped up to Chair the meeting today. She conducted herself with such aplomb and confidence that it didn't even seem like it was her second or third time chairing a toastmasters club meeting. Pam share information about the summer solstice that was smoothly continued by Karen during her Thought of the Day. Instead of repeating what Pam said, Karen added a personal story about her childhood and how her mother would ensure the kids went to bed by 9 pm, even though it wasn't dark yet! Karen is a long time  member of our club and its a always a delight to watch her speak. I noticed there was a slight twinkle in her eyes as she fondly shared memories from her childhood. See her speech here.
Then we started with the prepared speeches section of our meeting. This is where it got really interesting! One of our members, Marcia, is always amazing us with interesting speech topics. Marcia is just 2 speeches away from achieving the Competent Communicator designation. Today, she delivered speech #9, Persuade with Power. Her title was 'They do exist'. Marcia's used her speech to convince us about the existence of supernatural powers. She used the stage and her voice extremely well to illustrate her points. With the use of personal experiences as well as stories in Toronto, Marcia laid a strong foundation to prove her hypothesis. I could sense that everyone was paying attention. I have to admit that I was left fascinated and a bit scared, since most of her Toronto stories were about buildings in my neighbourhood!!!! I don't want to give away too much, so you see Marcia's speech here.

I have one more speech to complete to finish my Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB) designation. I decided to utilize the time today to deliver a speech from the Successful Club Series (SCS)  manual. I always encourage my fellow members to explore opportunities outside our home club, so I chose the same topic from the SCS to deliver a speech today. I have benefited a lot from stepping outside our home club. I've learned about leadership, developed my speaking abilities, dared myself to go beyond my comfort zone. And I wanted to make my fellow members aware of such opportunities as well, especially since we've had many new members. You can view my speech video here.

Another day, another successful meeting. Lessons learned and laughs shared. 

Canadian Weather

What an appropriate theme selected by our Chair, Afshan, for the meeting today. Are we back in time? Is it January again? Did we skip the entire summer and roller-coastered our way to wintery times again... I am so tired of this schizophrenic weather...!

Ahh... it feels good to rant about the weather in Canada. One of the many things I enjoy as a new Canadian... I guess I forgot to mention. Last week, I took an oath to be a Canadian citizen. I am sad to lose passport of my home country, India. But, I am also excited to be welcomed as part of the Canadian family. :)

Enough about me... let's get back to the Toastmasters meeting! Our 2 speakers cancelled, but would that deter Afhsan? Absolutely not! Anil and Afshan teamed up and found alternatives to fill up the time for prepared speeches. Afshan was calm, composed and confident as the meeting chair. We did have lesser attendance than usual. However, our members double up the energy and fill the room. I was tasked to present the Thought of the Day. Instead, I converted it into a trivia of facts about Canadian weather. See my talk here. Anil showed up the video of a contestant at the 2013 World Champion ship of Public Speaking. I am always inspired to watch advanced speakers and secretly jot down tips for improving my speaking abilities! I am glad Anil shared the video with us. To add a twist, Karen suggest that we all put on the Evaluator hat and share our evaluation at the end. All our members provided valuable tips. You can view the group evaluation here. It was nice to see Terry after a long time! He was 'voluntold' to be the General Evaluator (GE) at the last minute. Pam added an interesting layer to the role of the Grammarian. She noted and shared interesting uses of the English language she observed during the meeting. Another successful meeting today, looking forward to the next one!