Liberty Village Toastmasters meeting summary – November 09th, 2011

In tonight’s meeting, Toastmaster Andreea discussed EFFICENY. She told us about the Parado Principle often known as the rule of 80/20 and how we can increase our efficiency by putting in 20% effort and getting 80% results and in some cases upwards to 200%. She also mentioned that there are many fine books on the topic.

Our first speaker, Rose, completed her fourth speech from the Competent Communications manual. She talked about the joys a warm cup of tea would bring on a cold winter night, and the history/believed origins of tea, the many health benefits it reaps, and the various types of tea. She also incorporated our senses with a box of pu’er tea and fresh made shortbread style cookies featuring the bergamot flavour of Earl Grey tea.

Our second speaker tonight, Francisco, presented his seventh speech from the CC manual. In this speech, he talked about the believed end of the world, which is said to occur on 12/21/2012. He shared with us the origins of this belief – the Mayan calendar and it’s unique numbering system based on a 20 base set and discussed that after 12/21/12, there will be no more days in this calendar. However, he believes that, like the Y2K scare, the calendar will reset itself, and the world would (hopefully) not end.

Our last speaker Vivienne also spoke from the CC manual giving us her ninth speech. She began her speech by reciting a poem that spoke to the change of language in our society. She shared with us her observations that our language seems to be disappearing, and is seemingly being replaced by text speak and colloquial language. Vivienne persuaded with power that we should be aware of our use of language and grammar when speaking to others, especially new English speakers.

Table Topics Master Ted created five questions based on the theme for tonight, Efficiency. Jay was the winner tonight. When asked how he would efficiently complete his long list of tasks on Saturday, he responded unexpectedly that he will drop all planned tasks and watch the UFC match instead.

………Until next time 🙂

– Rose

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.

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Join us for our November 9th meeting on “Efficiency”

Have you ever put a lot time and effort in doing something but the results turned out to be far from what you imagined?
Do you think that only with hard work you can achieve more? Do you think laziness and achievements can’t coexist? Our Toastmaster Andreea will introduce us to an interesting principle meant to help you become more efficient with less effort.

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Liberty Village Toastmasters meeting summary – November 02nd, 2011

Have you ever given advice that wasn’t well received? If that’s the case and you had attended this week’s meeting you defiantly got some great advice on this topic. Toastmaster Ian and workshop leader Jay spoke on this subject and hosted a workshop dedicated to “Constructive and Destructive Evaluations.”

Toastmaster Ian kicked off the meeting with a speech describing the importance of giving and receiving evaluations. The key take away being, done correctly evaluations are extremely useful. As Ian underscored, how else would we know where we need to improve? Next up Jay shared with us seven excellent keys to giving a constructive evaluation. They are as follows: be sincere; critique specifically to the person’s speaking shill level; consider the project objectives; listen carefully; personalize your language (example: “I feel…” rather than “you should…”); give positive reinforcements by recognizing the speaker’s strengths; and last but not least, always give a fully developed suggestion for improvement with an example. Also, he explained the no-fail Toastmasters International sandwich technique for evaluations: start off by saying something positive, what you liked about the speech, then follow this with a helpful suggestion for improvement, and the finish on a positive note by commenting on what the speaker did very well.

To test our evaluation skills, Mark presented his ice breaker speech to the group. Speaking on his passion for sports and how this relates to his current government job and his interest in political and social justice Mark did a great job presenting. Evaluating Mark was our advanced evaluator Ram, a DTM, and evaluating Jay’s workshop was another experienced evaluator John K. Both gave model examples of helpful, encouraging evaluations following the sandwich technique.

Congratulations to Mark who performed his very first speech, and to Andrew, who took on the role as general evaluator for the first time at Liberty Village Toastmasters Club. Combined with the great insights provided by Ian and Jay, I’m sure we’ll all be better evaluators the next time we’re called on. Well done, everyone!

– Rose

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.

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Liberty Village Toastmasters meeting summary – October 26th, 2011

Francisco was our Toastmaster at the October 26 meeting. He shared with us the scary tale of the “Screaming Lady in Black”, a desperate wife who killed her husband by mistake in the early days of Liberty Village. According to Francisco, the ghost of this old lady still haunts the area and appears if you whistle her song. Spooky!

Rene was the speaker for the night, and presented 325 reasons why he is proud to say he’s a Canadian. It turned out he was fined $325 for failing to stop at two red lights when driving his bike. Rene took it to court and that led him to finally realize he was part of a community: there was a huge line of people in this same situation – as Rene put it, fighting for their freedom!

Table Topics Master Jay brought the Halloween theme to Table Topics. Everyone was given a question that kick-started the sharing of fond personal experiences. And the different approach led to an unusual result, with both Nick and Andrew tied as winners. The first shared his “Scariest Halloween Moment”, and how he ended up being beaten due to a not-so-correct costume; while the second shared some stories on his “Favourite Halloween Memory”, which turned out to be two: an extremely well-produced costume, and how he freaked out the neighbourhood by pretending to be a monster at his friend’s country house pond.

Until next time!

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.

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Join us on October 26th for a Mu-hahahahalloween Adventure!

Witches flying past on broomsticks,
Black cats leaping here and there,
White-robed spooks on every corner,
Mournful moaning in the air

Join us for a special Halloween themed meeting! Toastmaster Francisco will give us a brief history of the Liberty Village area and chill us with a spooky tale called “The Screaming Woman in Black”.

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