Liberty Village Toastmasters Toronto

Here is what happened on the last meeting of 2011…

Written by Mark K.

As if having Distinguished Toastmaster and speaker extraordinaire Ram open our meeting was not captivating enough, his message to all of us to “pay it forward” was a rousing call in its own right! Ram described the concept of paying it forward as asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead of you. Ram persuaded us all that Pay it Forward Day is a brilliant initiative which embodies the power of giving. It is amazing the difference a simple idea can have in changing the world – one good deed at a time. It is borrowed from the book by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The hero of her story is young Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old whose idea is deceptively simple: do a good deed for three people, and in exchange, ask each of them to “pay it forward” to three more. “So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven…. Then it spreads out.” The Pay It Forward Movement is the real-life reaction to the release of the novel in early 2000.

Our first speaker was the always-informative Maria Lalla who was taking on her third Toastmaster speech. Through her speech (entitled ‘Running Prepared’), Maria provided the club with key insights and lessons on taking up running. For all of those considering taking up the activity (perhaps as a new years’ resolution, anyone?), Maria’s preparation points included the need for folks to be well-stretched for the activity, well-clothed (for the winter running conditions) and well-secured, in terms of running in well-lit areas, running with a buddy and cautioning the use of Ipod’s while running outside.

Our second speaker of the night was by the long-time member and advanced speaker, John Krissilas who shared a timely and fitting message in his speech ‘The Postmark’. Timely and fitting because ‘The Postmark’ referred to the unique stamp which Christmas Island (small island off the coast of Cape Breton) post office applies to all of the postcards that people from around the world send to Christmas Island so they can get the Christmas Island post stamp.
Our third speaker, was Mark Keating who continued his torrid career in Liberty Village Toastmasters by doing his 2nd speech at his 2nd meeting as a member. After having shared his background and experience in his ice-breaker, this week Mark provided the group with his keys to professional networking. He described how we can build a brand for ourselves through developing a biography. He followed this idea up with an interactive look at his resume and how this ‘static’ form can be refreshed and renewed through the active use of social media (such as LinkedIn). Lastly he connected these two ideas by reminding us that they are only good as so far as we can grow and nurture these networks.

Veteran Liberty Village Toastmaster Ian took the reins on facilitating this week’s table topics. Taking his cue from Ram’s wonderful introduction on Paying it Forward, Ian asked Table Topic participants what they would do to contribute to, or solve a problem in today’s society. We had a wonderful display of not only the oratory skills of Liberty Village’s members, but also of their immensely rich ideas of what they would do to pay it forward. Ted, Cleaver, Vanessa and Sean outlined their thought-provoking ideas for improving world hunger, banking, food banks and public transit, while Francisco provided ac a little levity in suggesting we watch bad television to relieve the stresses of the day! In the end, guest (and soon-to-be-member) Vanessa took home the honours of table topics master through her beautiful call to Liberty Village toastmasters to contribute money, time or perishable food items to our local food bank.

Well-conceived and constructive speech evaluations were then provided by Andrew, Sean and Rene then we heard reports from the Ah-counter, the Grammarian, the Quizmaster followed by John Kjarsgaard’s General Evaluation of the meeting, in which he called for all Liberty Village members to take advantage of the Easy-Speak link to confirm their roles and/or participation at the upcoming meeting.

Just before the meeting concluded, Club President Sean took the opportunity to wish everyone a happy holidays and new year and reminded all that the next meeting would be held also at the Centre for Social Innovation on Wednesday January 4th.

Meeting Minutes November 23rd

The theme for the meeting was introduced by Toastmaster Andrew and dealt with the issue of Time. Andrew shared how we all have a love hate relationship with time. And used colourful examples of this relationship with time when we rush to the bank and it’s closed and the frustration you experience when you are late for an engagement.

He noted that some cultures have no concept of time. In fact the Prara Tribe have no concept of past or future what so ever. And the Hobbe tribe perceive time in terms of sooner & later not future or past. In conclusion Andrew’s suggestion for the holidays was that we relax & enjoy time with family and friends – don’t rush around, do your best to be organized and if possible buy gifts in advance. Let time work for you not against you and to be realistic in what you can accomplish with the time available.

First Speaker: Esther Chung Speech #5
Title: Sew Be it

Esther shared the her personal story about the practical aspects of sewing. She spoke about the sense of pride and freedom you get from being able to do your own alterations and not having to pay a seamstress or a tailor to sew things for you or having to ask a family member to help.

She talked about how she took a course to learn to operate a sewing machine because she always had to hem her jeans and she decided to learn how to do it herself. She shared that it isn’t as hard as you think and that there are many advantages to doing it yourself including saving money, time and hassle. She urged all of us us to give it a try and learn to sew.

Second Speaker: Ram Kirshna Speech #4 Speaking to Inform
Title: Occupy

Ram shared that the Occupy movement started in Spain with the group know as the Spanish Indignance – a semi political group. They set Oct 15th as Occupy Day as a means of bringing attention to the nations youth unemployment rate of 20-30%. Then a Canadian media company called Adbusters globalized the movement by creating a wider proposition that the worlds 1% hold 99% of the wealth, a very real inequality.

The movement was organized in 290 cities around the world and each occupy site featured a general assembly that meet each evening at 7pm. At these assemblies anyone may bring a topic to the group for discussion.

Ram then offered examples of countries that have managed to avoid the crippling effects of unemployment through various means. Sweden has succeeded by taking a very socialistic approach where everyone pays a substantial tax rate to support the common good. And there is tiny Estonia a country of 1.3 million people that has avoided the unemployment problems associated with Occupy through innovation. Estonia has created well know software platforms Skype and Picasso and is a strong knowledge based economy.

Ram concluded his presentation with a Q&A session.

Table Topics by Luke

The speeches where followed by a very creative table topics session lead by Luke. His idea for the session was based on the premise of “a penny for your thoughts” where Luke had each participant pick a single penny and based on the year it was minted offer up a personal story from that time. Renee talked about 2011 and all that has happened. Andrew a guest this evening talked about the heat wave of 2005 and his university graduation, Mark talked about the year 1996 and his birthday party in Chicago when he partied with Dennis Rodman of NBA franchise Chicago Bulls. Jay spoke a bout a fantastical hijacking on a trip to Florida and unbelievably ending up in Brazil. Natalia spoke about 2000 and her trip to Jamaica with her family and how they were marooned on the island for a month due to a massive hurricane.

The meeting concluded with a strong evaluation session including weekly reports on our use of English, filler words, questions regarding the content of presentations and meeting timing. Helpful and insightful speech evaluations were deliver by Jay and Ted and focused on encouraging the speakers and offering special suggestions for improvement.

The meeting concluded at 8:15pm

The Liberty Village Toastmasters Group is one of Toronto’s premier public-speaking groups. Join us as a guest at our next meeting! Guests are always welcome and no appointment is necessary.