How to Say It

July 25th brought  another fun and successful meeting.  The theme of our meeting was Games.  Shuquing's word of the day was Olympic.  We had good fun incorporating the theme and the word into our introductions,speeches table topics and evaluations.  Our area Governor  Vijay paid us another visit.  You would never know that it was July and summer holiday season , most of the club members attended the meeting. Two guests, Owen and Anita came to visit.  We enjoyed having you and hope that you return!

There are 10 speeches on the path to becoming a Competent Communicator.  As it happened, at our last meeting July 25th we had 2 speakers giving the 4th Speech from the Toastmasters International Competent Communicator Manual, How to Say It. The objectives of this speech are to examine sentence structure, word choices and rhetorical devices. 

Our first speaker, Melissa gave us a lot of insight and food for thought when she spoke of Hospice Care in Saskatoon.   As her speech concluded, Melissa let it be known that volunteers are needed.  Training is provided to volunteers.  Melissa is available for inquiries.
Rathan, our club's Vice President of Education combined his 4th speech with his executive duties and spoke on SMART goals (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Tangible).  Although at the end of his speech he gave us sheets return to him with our personal Toastmasters Goals, his speech applied to goals in every situation.
Tanya did a great job filling in at the last minute with our Table Topics.  Her topics were related to the theme of our meeting, Games and were ably answered. All in, a lot is accomplished in 50-55 minutes at our meetings.

Our next meeting is August 8, room 436  at the Saskatoon Square, the corner of 22nd Street and 4th Ave. Guests are always welcome. 

Summer Schedule

Well the last few days the temperature has shown us it is summertime and Prairie Schooners are still meeting over the summer but on a more relaxed schedule. 

We are having quality meeting on the second and forth Wednesdays of the month.  Quality meeting like the one on the 11th.  Not only did our new Area Governor pay us a visit but we had an Ice Breaker speech as well as a (monkey) Business session.



Shuquing

 Shuquing's Icebreaker was very interesting.  We found out that she is originally from Beijing China and moved to Canada, specifically Regina, to full fill two of her goals.  One of Shuquing's goals was higher education.  This was attained at the University of Regina with a Masters in Environmental Engineering in 2005.  Her second goal was another child.  A second child if frowned upon in China with their one child policy.  This goal was achieved with the arrival of a healthy baby girl who is now 5 years old.  Shuquing's son is now 12.

Shuquing went back to Beijing with her family, but was reminded of the fast, hectic pace that the education system expects for the students.  She didn't want that for her children so back to Regina she moved and is now working in Saskatoon.  She is looking forward to moving to Saskatoon and eliminating the commute.



All in favour?

Our Business Meeting was entertaining as well as educational.  A few meetings back there was a motion on the table that the club member who works at the company that hosts our meeting, should provide a beverage for our toasts that was something other than water.  Some how this motion was amended to replace their name with the Treasurer.  Unfortunately, I was the Treasurer at the time.  This amendment was passed but the amended motion was never dealt with because of time restrictions.  Somehow this unfinished business came forward to be dealt with again..  I am no longer the Treasurer so I was all for the motion.  However it was amended twice more before time came to our rescue.  It was interesting to see those in the group try to keep track of which part we were commenting and voting on.  Was it the main motion or the amendment?  And if it was the amendment was it the amendment to the main motion or the amendment of the amendment?  With the help of a few members with parliamentary experience, the business was handled in a fair and respectful manner.  More importantly the motion and resulting amendments are still on the table to be dealt with.  I look forward to their resolve as it might mean a different beverage at our meetings.



Area 47 Governor



One of our honoured guests was our New Area Governor,  Vijay Kachru.  She in new in the role, taking on this position July 1st,  but not new to Toastmasters.   Her comments at the end of the meeting were encouraging as she though she would learn more from us than we would from her.  She liked the club atmosphere as well as our manual presentations and business meeting.  This wasn't her "Official" visit and plans on returning after the summer to complete that one.

The club welcomes her feedback and looks forward to her coaching and resourcefulness as we pursue our individual educational and leadership goals.

If you want to see more picture of our meeting check out our facebook page, or come for a visit.  You never know what we may be toasting with.

Have a great summer.

Happy Canada Day and Happy New Year

Here it is July 1, Canada Day.  It is also the beginning of a new Toastmasters year.  All the club offices from last year were discharged from their responsibilities and the new officers have been installed. 

This all happened on Wednesday at the Senator Hotel.  The crew from Prairie Schooners conviened their noon hour meeting at Rembrantds Resteraunt (http://www.rembrandts.ca/).  The lunch orders were placed the day before, so within 5 minutes of arrival, we were presented with our meals.  This allowed some extra time during the noon hour to conduct a little club business.

As I mentioned above, last year's officers were discharged and the newly elected executive installed with their new duties.  We had the pleasure of dining with our Area Governor, Joan,  With her help we were able to finish the year with a President's Distinguished status, achieving 10 of the 10 Distinguished Club Plan goals. 

The Club Rookie of the Year and Toastmaster of the Year awards were also presented at lunch.  To qualify as a rookie you must have joined Toastmasters within the last 18 months and to be considered for the Toastmaster of the year you need to be a member in good standing. 

This year the Rookie award was presented to Melisa, our club secretary and next year's Treasurer.  Melisa joined Toastmasters last January and quickly jumped into an executive position and let her name stand again for the next year.  Increaseing her family with the addition of a beautiful baby girl in Febrary, didn't slow her down (much).  She completed a number of manual presentations as well as continue her duties on the executive.  Congratulations Melisa.

The Toastmaster of the year was presented to Jane.  Without a doubt the most energetic member of the club.  With her infectious smile and attention to detail, she kept the club on track making sure the goals we had set for our self were realized through out the year.  Jane also represented our club at contests and conventions and dealt successfully with the change of club website and a new way to assign club meeting role.  Great job Jane, we all appreciate your efforts and look forward to your leadership as our President for the coming year.

As you can see we had a great year, a great lunch and met all of our club goals.  If you are interested in seeing some pictures of the festivities, head on over to our facebook page and look at the our album (http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.404745789561029.80918.251844318184511&type=1).

See you in the new year.
Stop by for a visit and check us out.