Our Open House was a full house. With well over 40 people in attendance, there were a lot of new faces in the audience. Priya, our Toastmaster made everyone feel at ease by providing a step by step account of what to expect at typical Toastmasters meeting. General Evaluator Ted introduced his evaluation team who familiarized new people the function of their roles.

The theme of the evening was “Conquer your fear”. Our first speaker, Eric delivered a speech from The Entertaining Speaker – 5 – Speaking After Dinner. Eric was candid about the first time he raced his bike, purchased a home and engaged in rock climbing. A lot of people were able to relate to his speech.

Ram provided food for thought when he made the statement “your handicap may be your best asset”. He told the inspirational story of Byron, whose experience with Toastmasters helped him in life. Those looking for innovative ways to develop their speeches will be interested to learn that Ram’s speech was inspired by a story in the October issue of Toastmaster. Great use of available resources Ram!

The evening’s workshop was led by Jay. We were introduced to Jay’s doppelganger, who was painfully nervous about speaking in front of a large audience, and apologized profusely about his mistakes and slinked back to his chair due to severe stage fright. A lot of us recognize his behaviour in ourselves. A few minutes later, a confident Jay strode to the podium and entertained us with a personal account of his public speaking disasters. He credits Toastmaster for helping his public speaking skills. He also gave us some really valuable tips on how we can get over our fear of public speaking. Thanks Jay!

To view Jay’s Workshop, click on the videos, below:

In a tribute to the popular game broken telephone, Table Topics Master, Andreea started narrating a story and invited Table Topics speakers to continue the story where she left off and passed it on to the next person to continue their story. Special recognition goes to Bing for creating a short succinct narrative quickly on her feet.

Overall the meeting got rave reviews from our guests. Congratulations to all members who helped make this event a success. We hope to see many of the new faces at future meetings. Guests can come as often as they like.

See you next time,

-Michelle