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!

Elections Time

It's Elections season in Toastmasters!

Meridian Toastmasters hosted it's yearly executive elections meeting. As the past President, Christine chaired the Nominations committee. Karen and Geofferey helped out with the nominations. I am so glad that we had a full slate of executive officers for the up coming year. And I am excited to be elected as the Club President for the next year! You can watch our Elections part of the meeting here.

Keep it Simple

Anil opened the meeting today with the theme, 'Keep it Simple'. He emphasized about the importance of simplicity and narrated a story about how we tend to complicate things in our life. It was a small meeting, maybe because the weather was so gloomy! But, we compensated for lack of members by doubling our energy! Our grammarian, Karen, added an interesting twist to her role. Instead of the usual filler words, she suggested implementing more pauses during our speaking roles today. I thought it was clever and added another dimension to the duties of a grammarian.
I completed my Storytelling manual today by delivering the project #4 - A Touching Story. I recently read a book 'Five Seconds at a Time' by Denis Shackel. I was deeply inspired and motivated by the message conveyed by the author. The language of the book was very simple and conveyed the message very well. Naturally, I was inclined to use the story of Denis and share his simple mantra to overcome obstacles in our life - 5 seconds at a time. He used his own example of surviving a tragic mountain climbing accident to elucidate the concept. See my speech here. Since our second speaker had to cancel due to a work conflict, Anil made a prompt decision to show the speech delivered by the 2014 World Champion of Public Speaking. I think it was an intelligent move to use up the extra time. It was also a helpful to watch and learn from the speakers of an international caliber. You can view his speech here.
Anthony conducted the Table Topics session. His energy and enthusiasm are quite infectious. Even though I was distracted by work emails, I was drawn to the Table Topics session. He used everyday phrases and encouraged members to add their own twist to the meaning of the phrase. Everyone participated, including our guest! It's always fun to see our guests brave it out and speak during Table Topics! Marcia, our General Evaluator, provided feedback on how we ran the meeting. She made an important suggestion to move the Meridian Toastmasters banner so that it's in the 'view' of the speakers, especially when we record videos to be publicly displayed.
After the long weekend, we will return on Tuesday... And, it's Elections time again! New year, new executive!

Respect

Karen, our Chair, started the meeting narrating an experience she had last week at the local ravine. A local citizen 'disrespected' the boundaries that the City had marked out for a construction project. Karen shared her thoughts about how it's important to respect the boundaries. If we don't, we could end up hurting ourselves or someone else in the process. I could see that she was passionate about this topic. Maybe this could be a speech we could hear from Karen in the future. We had 1 new guest attend the meeting.
Our 2 speakers today, Melrose and Marcia, delivered their speech #8, Get Comfortable with Visual Aids, today. Both of them have unique styles that help them shine in different ways. Melrose talked about ANTs. I was expecting her talk to be about how ants are so disruptive and it's difficult to remove them. Her speech was all about that, however, the ANTs were Automatic Negative Thoughts that plague every one of us now and then. Her speech was inspired by a book she recently read. I thought it was very clever. With her effervescent personality, Melrose makes difficult topics quite fun to learn! Since this project was about getting creative with visual aids, I would've liked to see Melrose be more creative with the visual aids in their speeches.See her speech here. Marcia has a very professional style of speaking. She seems confident and in control of her topic. Marcia shared her experience volunteering at various organizations and encouraged the audience to consider volunteering to make a difference. She brought one of her T-shirts and shared a booklet where her name was displayed in the list of volunteers. See her speech here.
Pam conducted the Table Topics session. She posed questions to the audience keeping the meeting theme in mind. Tie added his own humorous twist to the idea of mutual respect. He shared how it's important not to have respect all the time because many jobs (e.g counselors, lawyers) make their living out of this! Needless to say, he won the Table Topics session today! Anthony rounded up the meeting as the General Evaluator. Christine and I will be speaking next week, both from our Storytelling manuals! Better get going on that!

Emergency Preparedness

Today's meeting was all about last minute emergencies. So, when I was called in Monday to be the Chair, I stepped up the game and chose the theme of 'Emergency Preparedness' for the meeting! It was one of those meetings where both the speakers cancelled and the meeting notifications weren't sent out. Despite all the 'emergencies', Meridian Toastmasters members came together as a team and pulled off another successful meeting. We had 2 new guests show up and it seemed like they had a good time.
As the Chair, I opened the meeting talking about the importance of preparing for emergencies. In the wake of the Nepal earthquake, the world was reminded that natural disasters can occur anytime, anywhere. I believe it's important to be practical about the situation and prepare your home and families for any situation.
Emergencies can happen in our Toastmasters meetings as well! Today's meeting was a good example. However, Geofferey stepped up last minute and delivered a dramatic speech about an accident from his childhood. See his speech here. To fill up the second speaker slot, Pam and I approached Anil to see if he is willing to deliver an impromptu speech. As his mentor, I am very happy to see the remarkable progress he has made in a short span of time. It can be nerve wracking for any experienced speaker to talk with such a short notice. Anil handled it very well and narrated his story about his recent travel expedition. See his speech here. Tie conducted the Table Topics session with an interesting twist. He asked the members to choose first whether they will speak 'pro' or 'con'. Once they decided their side, he then gave them the topic. I have to admit it was a clever way to keep everyone on their toes! Pam rounded up the meeting as the GE. You can view the speech evaluations here. 

You can if you think you can!

What a positive start to the meeting by introducing this quote from Henry Ford, I found this quote to be simple, yet quite powerful. It was just the right amount of pep talk needed to start the meeting. I like how our weekly Toastmasters meetings also include tit bits about motivation and self-improvement every now and then. Our members have diverse life experiences and I am often inspired when they share their stories.
Today was another special meeting. We hosted a speech marathon and our schedule was filled with 3 speakers. Azura is half way through her journey to the CC status. She kicked off the speech marathon with Speech #5, Your Body Speaks. I felt she was clever in her topic selection and speech writing. She used her cat as an example to display how to communicate with your body. I am proud to be her mentor and she continues to show improvement in every speech. See Azura's speech here. I completed one of my projects from the Storytelling manual. I decided to adopt a classic folktale story (The Hare and Tortoise) and add a twist to it to teach a very important management lesson. See my speech here. Geofferey finished the speech marathon with a very entertaining speech about laughter. During his speech, he mentioned he is not a funny guy. But I happen to disagree respectfully! I thought he had excellent punch lines, especially with stories about his cat. I hope he is able to recycle his speech and use it to compete at the net Humorous Speech Contest. Check out his speech here. Looking forward to hearing your opinion on all three speeches.