I say zee, and you zed. Toastmaster Cara noted a few differences between Americans (including her) and Canadians. Although there are differences in our language, and behaviours, we are more similar than we think. And, remember what unite us is far more greater than what divide us.
With such diversity in our club, we certainly have lots to celebrate about. This week is no exception.
Continuing our active schedule, we had an induction. We welcomed our newest member, Catarina!
We had 3 speakers: Alex, Sarah and James.
Alex spoke about having engaged employees. It is time for companies to stop wasting money in snack bars and ping pong tables and start investing in something that matters. GROW employees in a way that will improve the individuals and companies they work for. This will make companies more productive and successful.
Sounds like it is also time for spring cleaning. After realizing that she has so many things, Sarah decided to declutter. She shared us her experience of decluttering. From it all, she learned that less is more. She has gained back space, money and most importantly, her freedom.
While in the topic of decluttering, why not get rid of our cars? James persuaded us to stop parking cars in the busy streets. Share a car, rent one, or choose an alternative transportation. But don’t just park our cars in the already congested streets. There is no such as thing as free parking!
Catarina led our tabletopics based on the theme of celebrating our differences. It was Olga who won the table topics session. Congratulation Olga!
As Alex would say, wow deserves wow. This meeting was full of wows in many ways. This is because of our wow-derful and enaged members. So lucky to be part of this club.
Next week, Sarah will be leading the meeting with 3 speakers.
Cara persuaded us to seek for the truth versus accepting ‘alternative facts’ or ‘truthfulness’. When it comes to truth or facts, there should not any alternatives. Alternative facts are especially dangerous in areas such as medicine, science, and justice, where truth and principle matters. We agree completely.
James spoke about forming habits, using a nerf gun, a bag of chips, and apples as demonstration. Cue, action and rewards! After his speech, we assimilated his speech by devouring the chips (cue: everyone was hungry, action: bag was easy to open and rewards: tasty!) I guess his experiment worked! But remember, we can use the same process to form good habits.
Andrew gave us a workshop on how to give speech introduction. Introduction is like first impression. Nail your introduction and you give yourself a head start. His workshop was full of vivid languages, vocal variety and humor. Relating to Martin Luther King Jr’s speech, ‘I have a dream’, to his own speech about hair and bacteria, Andrew showed us how to give powerful and memorable introduction.
Our meeting, as it always does, ended with a fun table topics. This time, led by Luke, asking us questions on dealing with big changes. It was our guest Saad who won us over, with a discovery of his cooking skills. Congrats Saad!
James Tran, our Area Contest Chair.
Mark Pilkington, a lucky Canadian and speaker.
Our Area Director Gunarajah and John Krissilas (Evaluation contest winner!)
Voluteers (Alex, Bina, John, Be, James, Mohan, Olga, Wes and Luke). Other volunteers were hiding behind the camera.
Our relocated meeting went off without any issues. Thank you Lillian H. Smith Library! The meeting was as wonderful as ever. Our first time Toastmaster Sarah Yang gave a great speech to start things off, and made sure the meeting had quick and smooth transitions, which ultimately made for a very productive meeting. Well done Sarah!
Our first speaker was Luke Talaba, shedding light onto the interesting topic of driver-less cars. Luke captured his audience with key phrases like “send a car to Ikea to pick up your order”. Thanks Luke for blowing my mind!
Next we had James Tran, giving us a speech about, and demonstrating, body language and both verbal and non-verbal language. Lots to take in with this one, thanks James.
Lastly in formal speeches, Bob Stewart gave a rousing speech on NOT waiting for life, and making things happen! You can’t wait for all your ducts to be in a row, you have to trust that they will fall in line, just like a Mother Duck. In a speech with life lessons and analogies, Bob was operating on all cylinders. Great work Bob!
Liberty Village Toastmasters Toronto 