March 23 2010 Welcome to our Home

A full house and a full agenda set the stage for our March 23 meeting.  The theme was "Weclcome to Our Home".  Each member was asked to bring a guest, and we were fortunate enough to see 7 new faces around the table.  We also gained one new member!  Welcome Roseanne.

The word of the night was: fick·le /ˈfɪkəl/ [fik-uhl] Show IPA

–adjective
adj.  Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious.


[Middle English fikel, from Old English ficol, deceitful.]
fick'le·ness n., fick'ly adv.

1.  likely to change, esp. due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable: fickle weather.

2.  not constant or loyal in affections: a fickle lover.

---

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME fikel, OE ficol deceitful, akin to fācen treachery, fician to deceive, gefic deception

—Related forms

fick·le·ness, noun

un·fick·le, adjective

Visit dictionary.com for more information and to hear the pronunciation of fickle


The Table Topics: Led by our resident auctioneer Theresa Taylor, 7 participants took to the lectern to speak on various topics centred around our home theme.  John told us what he thinks of when he thinks of home.  Earle spoke about the home his family lived in when he was younger and how the town was not like it used to be. Brigitte shared some traditions she started in her home and remembered some that her mother had when she was young. Ven talked about food from his ancestral home, and our soldier, Chris told us how he would respond to children reading him a welcome home poem after returning home from a tour of duty. Our church minister, Malcolm let us know his point of view on the prodigal son who returns home.  And Harry, our club President told us what the line from our national anthem, "Our home and native land" means to him.  All of our speakers did an excellent job of engaging the audience with their "homey" thoughts and the result was a 3 - way tie for best table topics.  Congratulations to Brigitte, Harry and Earle.

Practice Table Topics at Home

The Speakers:  We had a full speakers showcase; three speakers in total, two of which were PowerPoint presentations including mine.  I was up first and gave the audience a tour of our newly developed website.  Unfortunately, I went over time and got the bell.  It's funny how when I looked at my speech on paper I  thought, "how will I even make it to 5 minutes?"  Then, once I started practicing it, I realized it needed quite a bit of editing to keep to the time limit.

Denise Paquette, who took the best speaker ribbon, followed with a presentation on square foot gardening.  Denise is a great speaker with a relaxed and laid back delivery style that makes it so easy to listen to her.  And what a fascinating topic.  I had a garden last year, and I extended it for this coming season because I felt I needed more space.  Well apparently, the concept of square foot gardening is getting higher yields with less space. I was surprised to learn that 80% of a traditional garden is what we walk on and grows nothing!  Some of the benefits Denise pointed out were: we can save water, there's less weeds, yields are five times the harvest of a traditional garden layout and it's less work.  Apparently, the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a great resource.   I'm definitely going to look into adapting my plot to this new way of gardening.   Or I guess not so new.  Denise made it look so easy.  And this from a woman who claims she hates gardening, weeding, bugs and dirt. :-)

Our final speaker for the evening was Teri Kingston DTM. Teri renamed her Music as Medicine speech The Rhythm of Life and reworked some of the content in preparation for the area contest which was held in Morrisburg on Sunday March 28 2010.  In the end Teri decided on a brand new speech and won the contest with it.  Congratulations Teri.

I have a new video camera, hopefully we will be able to post some video footage at the next meeting.

Your VPPR

Introducing a Guest 09 03 2010

Our guest blogger is John Anderson.  John is the Sargeant at Arms for the Seaway Toastmasters Club of Cornwall.  This was John's first time as Toastmaster for the evening and from all accounts he did a great job.  Bravo John!

Our meeting theme was an educational on introducing a guest to a meeting. 

The word of the night was: im·bro·glio /ɪmˈbroʊlyoʊ/ Show Spelled[im-brohl-yoh] Visit dictionary.com to hear the pronunciation of this word
 
1.a misunderstanding, disagreement, etc., of a complicated or bitter nature, as between persons or nations.

2.an intricate and perplexing state of affairs; a complicated or difficult situation.

3.a confused heap.

Also, embroglio.

Origin:

1740–50; < It, deriv. of imbrogliare to embroil

I was not able to go the meeting, but John's summary helped me to feel like I was part of it. 

Thanks John.

Your VPPR


The meeting last Tuesday March 9 2010 turned out to be really good. It started at 3.30 in the afternoon when I went to the Armories to do my setup as is my wont on a Toastmasters meeting night. I have struck up a really good relationship with the Security Commissioner and he opens all the doors for me upstairs. Therefore, imagine my surprise to find the room where we normally have our meeting to be full of tables and chairs from the Sgts’ mess next door; they had been removed from there so that the floors could be refinished. Well there was no way we could have our meeting there and I made an "executive decision" to setup in the officers lounge next door. It turned out that this was a great idea as it created quite an intimate atmosphere for the twelve members and two guests who showed up.


This was to be my first time as toastmaster. Earlier, I had sent out a pleading email for help in pulling a good meeting together. Chris was first in as Grammarian and in the next couple of days Carole Anne had come aboard as table topics master. When she called and agreed to do this, I had that gut feeling that a really good meeting was shaping up and trust me it really did.


Harry, our President, was slated in to give an outline of how the upcoming meeting for March 23rd was going to be really special because we were on a mission to get the word out about Seaway Toastmasters as the place to become a member if public speaking was one of a person’s life objectives. Each member of Seaway Toastmasters has been asked to bring a guest to this upcoming meeting. I am really looking forward to this one.


Denise came in as an evaluator. She asked to be the ballot counter, but I did something incorrectly on TurboBase and she came out as an evaluator. It really is amazing where mistakes can sometimes take you. That was all pre meeting. From my point of view things were hopping right from the get go.


Vincent who was scheduled to give his #10 CC Speech was forced to withdraw as work commitments connected to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver had imposed on his preparation time. This was where the members of Seaway Toastmasters rallied. Mac Robertson stepped up to the plate and gave a brilliant speech about a very sweet tiny lady he had met in Africa. This lady had started from a very poor and humbled background but ended up being revered within and out of her community for her unflinching service to her people. But I am ahead of myself. I must tell you that Carole Anne is an outstanding table topics Master, and used an improv style to conduct the session by using clues from the audience to dictate the questions; this and Mac's speech really pulled the meeting together. Vince was not left out in the cold as we asked him to give us an insider’s view of the Olympics from a security view point. This could have been a speech in its own right because he left us with a feeling of pride that we were Canadians and that we had shown the world not only our unity as a people, but that we could pull off a feat like the winter Olympics flawlessly regardless of some media sniping from the sidelines.


Harry put us all on notice that our next meeting was vital and if each member were able to do their bit by bringing a guest this may well prove to be the tonic that our club needs at this time in her life cycle.


Our delightful Terri Kingston wrapped it all up beautifully as our General Evaluator for the evening. Terri is a master with the velvet glove when she is fulfilling her role as an evaluator. She always leaves the recipient of her comments feeling inspired and motivated to do well. Young Isaiah was great in the role of Ah Counter and Brigitte as timekeeper did not miss a beat. Chris as Grammarian came up with a word of the day that was a real tongue twister and Ian as ballot counter showed that he would probably make a very good judge! Denise of course was not to be left out of this fast paced enjoyable meeting. She did an excellent evaluation on Mac's speech, and I know that in years to come she will be glad I made the "mistake" I did. all in all a great meeting that enlightened me as a toastmaster and I look forward to the next one.


Regards,


John


Practice Table Topics at Home

International Speech & Table Topics Contest 23.02.10

The International Speech and Table Topics contest was held at the Seaway Toastmasters Club of Cornwall on February 23, 2010.  The meeting was well attended and the contest was a great success.  There were two participants in the International Speech contest; each with great life lesson speeches.  Harry Kingston, DTM who took first place with his speech The Kitchen of Life, gave insight into how we can better our relationships with each other.  Another great life lesson was given by Teri Kingston, DTM who showed us how we can use Music as Medicine. 

The Table Topics contest followed with five contestants taking part.  Table Topics offers participants the chance to practice their quick thinking skills through impromptu speaking.  Each contestant was asked to complete the sentence: If I were Prime Minister of Canada, I would. . .

Taking first place was Teri Kingston, DTM followed by Harry Kingston, DTM. First and second place winners for both contests will move on to the Area competition.

Contest participants from left to right: Contest Chair Earle DePass,  Participants: Harry Kingston DTM, Teri Kingston DTM, John Anderson, Kimberley Thompson, & Chris Semchuk

 

Practice Table Topics at Home