Pay It Forward

We had another great meeting this week.

Brad lead the meeting with a "pay it forward" theme and our Grammarian introduced the word of the day "Empathy"  We all tried to use the theme as well as the word of the day in our introductions.  Some were even were able to use them in their presentations.

Speaking of presentations, Mark lead us into a round of Table Topics.  This is the part of the meeting where we practise our impromptu speaking.  Members are asked a question and have to come up with a 2 minute answers, all with no preparation time.  I am glad he didn't call on me.

Our prepared speeches were very interesting.   Both speakers were working through the Competent Communicator manual.  This is the basic manual in the Toastmaster Communication program.  It contains 10 projects where the member develops such skills as using descriptive words to paint a picture, body gestures that enhance your presentation and how to organization your speech .

Malene was our first presenter.  She is working through project number 8 in the Competent Communicator manual.  Her objectives were to get comfortable with visual aids.   She expertly used a power point presentation to express her thoughts on what issues a freelancer should consider if they want a presence on the Web.  The information she presented was interesting and very informative.  The use of a data projector and slides added to her presentation and cemented the information she wanted the audience to take away.





Our second presentation was given by Brooke.   Brooke is a fairly new member who delivered her "Ice Breaker"  This is the very first speech in the Competent Communicator manual.  Her objective was simple, get up in front of her audience and talk about herself.  A self introduction of sorts.  During the introduction section at the beginning of the meeting Brooke asked for our Empathy as she was very nervous about giving her first speech.  Well we couldn't see any nervousness during her presentation.  In fact she seemed so cool and collected she didn't use her notes.  Just look at those pointed fingers at the lectern to see what I mean.  We learned a little about Brooke's family and her education.  We also heard of some humorous and not so funny hiccups in her life.

With all the different backgrounds and work experience of our members, you never know what you are going to learn or how you will be entertained at a club meeting.  So why not stop in for a visit.  There is no obligation to join.  Just came and see for yourself how Toastmasters can help you in your communication and leadership skills.

See you next Wednesday.

Our Harvest Autumn Meeting

Good day fellow Toastmasters,

Prairie Schooners Toastmasters Club had an exciting meeting Wednesday, October 1. Our theme of the day was Autumn. We had a great round of introductions and we all shared our thoughts and feelings about Autumn. Some embraced autumn while others viewed Autumn as the end to Summer and the soon to be arriving cold Winter. The word of the day was "Harvest" and this was tastefully used.

Our Toastmaster Mark introduced one of our newest members Brenda, who did her first speech as we call the first speech your "Ice Breaker". Brenda's humorous ice breaker took us all on journey about her career progression by starting her career working at a food store, then lounge then moving to a larger city. As Brenda mentioned, "I went from Country mouse to City Mouse". We then learned about Brenda's two children who thought their first names were "my" as that is how she introduced them "My Alex, My Sam". Brenda did an outstanding job with her ice breaker and our club looks forward to more speeches from Brenda.

Our VP of Education, Mel, was the topics master for our impromptu table topics. She asked 4 members at random (Brooke, Johnnie, Jeremy and Julia) about autumn related questions, ranging from if you agree or disagree that Autumns is not an enjoyable time of year to your best memories about autumn. Table topics recipients are to speak for 1-2 mins right after they their question. This is a fun process and helps Toastmasters with thinking on the fly.

The October 8 meeting will be another exciting meeting, it is a goal setting meeting and we will discuss our current accomplishments and what we want to achieve in this new Toastmaster year.

By: Johnnie Fong

We SWEEP the Area

It was great to see all the contestants at the Toastmasters contests this afternoon.  Prairie Schooners swept the Division E, Area 47 fall contests.  Hands down they are the best in the Area.

Malene  had some stiff competition in the Area Table Topics question and came out the victor representing Prairie Schooners. Jinzhe was also competing but for another club also did very well.

Marloes also had some stiff competition from Owen who has only been a toastmaster for 3 weeks.  With only three weeks experience Owen was phenomenal but Marloes emerged the victor of the Area Humorous Contest with her "Build A Bear" experience.

You might be thinking "How does that rate a SWEEP?" Well let me tell you.

Prairie Schooners also walked away with the Area Rookie of the Year award because of the efforts and involvement of Zinzhe has had in the club and around the city.

We also took home the Area Toastmaster of the Year award.  This award was presented to Jane for her involvement within the club as well as the city.

There are a few pictures on our Twitter feed (@PrairieSchoonTM) and there are also some posted on our Facebook page "Prairie Schooners Toastmasters #6372).  Why not check it out?

If you want to know more about our Club, what these ladies did to deserve the recognition or why we are so successful why not stop in for a visit.  We would be glad to tell you all about it.

Instant Feedback

Remember back in school, you would write a test or submit a paper and have to wait for your results?  Sometimes it was only a day or two but sometimes it might have been weeks.  This doesn't happen at Toastmasters.

One of the key elements at all Toastmaster clubs is the evaluation portion of the program.  The whole meeting is evaluated before the meeting is adjourned.  With this immediate feedback, we can implement changes that put us on a path for continual improvement.

This week's meeting was an excellent example of how to deliver feedback.  Our first presenter was Johnnie,  a fairly new Toastmaster.   His presentation was a humorous account of how to repair and maintain your lawn.  It seems that after Johnnie brought home a black labrador puppy, he was in a position to learn all about lawn care and presented his finding to the club.  Johnnie then received a written as well as an oral evaluation.  Johnnie's evaluation focused on the things that he did well as well as identifying areas that could have been changed to improve his presentation.

Our second presenter was Jane, who delivered an educational speech from the Toastmasters Successful Club Series entitled, "Evaluate to Motivate".  We learned specific techniques that could be used to effectively give feedback, all while motivating people to improve.  After hearing  these techniques, we also learned they can also be used outside the Toastmasters meeting.  In fact they are just as effective in the workplace.

Our third presenter was a very special guest at the meeting.  Our Area Governor dropped in for a visit,  She told us about incentives that Toastmasters is offering clubs and individuals that fulfil their goals.  This turns out to be a very effective way to motivate, especially since she presented our president with lapel pins for her executive team.  When worn, these pins will identify the leaders in the club.  They are something that should be worn with pride as we are all trying to develop and improve our leadership and communications skills.

If you are interested in learning what other aspects of Toastmasters can help you in your personal and professional life why not stop in for a visit.  Give us a no obligation, test drive.  You might be interested in our feedback.

Our First August Summer Meeting

Hello fellow Toastmasters and future Toastmasters,

We had a great summer meeting on Aug. 6th. Even though many of our regulars were on summer vacation, we still had a great turn-out.

For one, we had two new guests join us. We always have an open-door policy for our guests, so if you are interested to see what we do, please show up to one of our meetings.

The theme of our meeting was friendship; we had a great introductory round, where we all shared our thoughts on friendship. The word of the day was "honesty," so we got some great stories and opinions about the importance of honesty in friendships.

Shuqing introduced our two speakers. This week, we heard from Sharon who talked about the role of organic foods in her life. She had conducted some research to see if organic food was really the best choice for us. We were all convinced at the end that organic is not necessarily the healthiest option.

Our second speaker was our guest and area governor, Carol Harrison. Harrison told us a story about a girl, who was forced to take care of her family after her mother had suffered a stroke. We were all captivated by the story. It turns out that the story was indeed a true story of Carol's own mother and grandmother.

These two speeches were very different, but both were well executed. There was a tie in the votes for best speaker, so both ladies got the honour of walking away with the title. This just shows how speeches can be great, no matter what you talk about or the method you use to executive them.

Our Table Topics session was eventful. We were asked questions about friendship from Johnnie, who asked Brooke about her remaining friendships from High School, asked Jeremy about the advice he would give a 10-year-old about friendships, and asked Malene about techniques or rules she uses to evaluate friendships as an adult.

Our evaluations were done by Jane and Kris. The speeches were great and the evaluations were positive in feedback.

We look forward to meeting next time on Aug. 20th. If you are interested in joining us, check out our website on http://prairieschooners.toastmastersclubs.org to get directions, meeting hours and much more.

Our Summertime-Themed Meeting

This week’s meeting was the last before the summer vacation, so if you plan to stop by our club as a guest, please know that we are meeting on July 9th, July 23rd, August 6th, and August 20th. We will resume regular Toastmasters meeting hours on September 3rd.

And this last meeting was both fun and serious. Richard took charge as our Chairman, making sure that all roles were filled. We had the joy of listing to Jinzhe’s speech, as she stepped out of her comfort zone and do a humorous speech. During the speech, she pointed out that humor is not her strong suit, but it was clear that she felt comfortable trying something new in our Toastmasters club. She even did a Mad Lips reading as our club’s mission statement, which had us all laughing.

Our second speaker was Meg, who was wrapping up her CC manual this week. And she did so with a powerful speech about sexism. She captured our attention with a powerful introduction and she continued to keep us engaged with personal examples, sexism on social media and inspired us to do something about it when we see sexism happen against women.

Our Table Topics event was focused on summertime and highlighted Sharon’s favourite vacation spot, Jeremy’s worst vacation experience and Julia’s opinion on “stay-vacation.” They all did a great job answering the questions that were asked of them.

And as part of our weekly ritual, weekly awards were given out for “Best Speaker,” “Best Evaluator” and “Best Table Topics Speaker.” Meg won “Best Speaker,” so she has two things to celebrate this week. Sharon won “Best Table Topics Speaker” and Tony got “Best Evaluator” for giving feedback to Meg.

Come join us on July 9th for our next meeting!

National Splurge Day

This week's theme was National Splurge Day, and we had lots of fun with the topic!  The word of the day was 'budget', and we went around the room introducing ourselves and talking about our fiscal restraints (or lack there of).....lol.
Our only speaker was Malene, who presented her 2nd speech in her Competent Communicator manual.  Her speech was very well done and quite interesting.  She spoke about the world of self-publishing and how to get your book published.  Very informative for our club, as I believe many of us did not know these options existed.
Next, we moved on to the Business Meeting portion of the agenda, led by our Chairperson Johnnie.   Our fearless leader Richard was able to demonstrate how to properly run a business meeting, according to 'Robert's Rules', or something like that.  Anyway, he showed how to make a motion, amend a motion, etc.
Finally, our business meeting was over and we moved on to a very exciting club event- Club Executive inductions!  Our incoming Area Governor Carol was gracious to join us and complete the inductions.  Congrats and welcome to the new 14-15 Executive:  Marloes, Melissa, Johnnie, Jinzhe, Sharon, Malene, and Brad.
A great meeting all around- hope to see everyone next week!

Toastmasters at Home at FCL

Wow, What a Meeting

We had another great meeting this week.  It was nice to see all our banners up and displaying the fact that Toastmasters was meeting in the Federated Co-operatives main boardroom.  And the boardroom was full of members, new as well as seasoned.

We had two great speeches.  Abbas delivered his Ice Breaker speech.  This is the first presentation a new member makes and some people can find it a bit of a challenge.  Abbas’ presentation shone as we witnessed some of his existing communication skills.  He told of the twists and turns in his life journey.  From being born at home in a deserted village, starting work at the age of seven and starting his own business in Iran.  He concluded by explaining how he immigrated to Saskatoon with his wife, their son and five pieces of luggage.  It was a very interesting story.  I am sure we will hear many more from Abbas as he develops his communications skills

Our second presentation was given by Jinzhe.  She gave us an introduction to meditation.  It is an important part of her life and she wished she had discovered it earlier.  It is something that her and her husband participate in daily.  We were informed of the benefits of daily meditation and how it has changed her life.  Jinzhe concluded be leading the group through a short meditation session.  I am not sure about the others, but I felt more relaxed and more aware of my surrounding when she was done.  It was very interesting.

We also had fun in our impromptu speaking session as the answers all included the theme of the day’s meeting, “Pets” and the word of the day, “Treats”.  The meeting concluded with effective and useful feedback for those that made presentations. 

The one-hour meeting was a great learning and entertaining opportunity.  Why not check us out and come down for a visit next Wednesday.  You never know what you will learn of how much you will laugh.

Breaking the Ice!!!

Wednesday's meeting was, as always, a lot of fun! We heard a funny Icebreaker speech from Johnnie Fong, who explained that was possible to have both a Polish and Chinese background. We laughed as he told us his typical family supper consisted of both perogies and sweet and sour pork! Then he told us about his family life and his successful career with Federated Co-op. Our club looks forward to more speeches from Johnnie in the future. And then....on to the new member inductions! Marloes led the inductions of 4 of our new members- Abbas, Johnnie, Malene, and Brad. Finally, we had our Club Officer elections. Our Executive for next year is as follows: President- Marloes VP Ed- Melissa VP Membership- Johnnie; Sargent at Arms- Brad ; VP Public Relations- Malene; Treasurer- Jinzhe Secretary- TBA Sadly, it was our last meeting with the Galloping Gavel as Richard, Jane, and Marloes presented it to Innovative Club on Wednesday night. Boo....lol. Marloes