Liberty Village Toastmasters Toronto

The theme of our October 27 meeting was “People”. Toastmaster Jay introduced the meeting by reminding us that no man is an island − we need people and it’s essential to interact with others. A strong mechanism that Jay uses to deal with people is his humour. We witnessed this first hand when he provided some really funny comic relief between sessions to break things up.

The format of our meeting was different from the way we typically follow meetings. The first part was dedicated to the prepared speech and the second part was a workshop.

Our first and only speaker, Priya gave us a great interpretation of “The Dream Lives On”. Many may be familiar with Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “The Dream Lives On” is actually the original speech, which is much longer. Priya scaled the speech down a bit to 10 to 12 minutes. It was entirely memorized and her deep appreciation of the speech was immediately recognized by all.

After a short break, we had our own version of TED Talks. Advanced speaker and Liberty Village Toastmaster founder, Ted provided us with a great workshop on networking. It was engaging, interactive and very informative. People were genuinely intrigued by Ted’s expertise, humour and his ability to answer some really thought provoking questions on his feet with ease and back them up with logical facts. The workshop was free, but a lot of Ted‘s advice was quite valuable. Ted recommends that if you want to make a good impression when networking, it’s a good idea to control your alcohol intake. His suggestion what to do with a glass filled with non-alcoholic drink to get out of a tight spot is priceless.

Overall we had a great representation of guests at our meeting and we even had a new member inducted – congratulations Natalia! Overall everyone agreed that the meeting contained a lot of interactivity and there was a positive vibe and high energy level.

Hope to see everyone at our Open House on November 3. Don’t forget to pass on the invitation to your friends!

Michelle

The theme of the October 20 meeting was “Mentorship, the gift that keeps going”. Our Toastmaster Andreea gave us food for thought when she explained that mentorship isn’t something available to the rich – we can get it if we look for it.

There was no shortage of excitement during the speech portion of the meeting. Those familiar with John’s speeches know that he’s big on style and drama. John was direct when he delivered the speech “How to Kill a Vampire” with flying colours. It covered the requirements of “Competent Manual 7 – Research Your Topic”. He certainly demonstrated great depth of research that would make a veteran like Buffy the Vampire Slayer sit up, pay attention and take copious notes. Well done John! Looking forward to your next speech!

Our second speaker was Bing, whose speech was from “Storytelling 2 – Let’s Get Personal”. In her speech, Bing paid tribute to her grandmother by sharing a personal perspective. Bing’s speech was raw, genuine and had some humours moments. It was packed with a lot of vivid feelings. Bing, you really demonstrated tremendous depth in your speech. Keep it up!

Our Table Topics Master Sean put speakers on their toes when he announced that they needed to respond to job interview questions. Our speakers did quite well with their responses. Special congratulations to Vivian who provided a wonderful explanation why being very social are her strengths and weakness.

Overall we had a handful of guests at our October 20 meeting and the feedback was really positive.

Here’s a good news follow-up to last week’s summary – Ram was elected to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Diabetes Association. Congratulations! In an e-mail to members of the club, Ram praised his Toastmasters experience and the lessons from the 10 speeches in the “Competent Communicator” manual. Well done Ram! You have demonstrated what we can achieve by doing one speech at a time.

Looking forward to the October 27 meeting – Ted, one of our advanced speakers will be conducting a workshop on networking. Lots more to learn!

See you next time!

Michelle