What kind of Pet do you Have?

What is your pet peeve? Do you have one? The theme of Prairie Schooners' meeting today was "Pet Peeves" and Club members were asked to share their most detested annoyances as part of our Introduction section.  No one had any issues with sharing at least one if not more of their pet peeves. We heard everything from driving woes to people taking up too much space on the sidewalks to grammatical faux pas. If nothing else, it was a fantastic therapeutic session.

We had one speaker step up to the plate today at the last minute.  Jane presented a mini-educational on Public Speaking Etiquette which included the purpose of applause and handshakes.  We even learned of the health benefits of hand clapping! Thanks, Jane, for sharing some insightful tidbits on the various aspects to public speaking events.

This was our 2^nd meeting in our new location at Federated Cooperatives Ltd. We had a low turn out of 7 Club members and I hope that wasn't because the other members couldn't find us! J Hopefully everyone can make it to next week's meeting @ 12:05pm. Guests are always welcome to check us out. See you there!

Crazy Busy

What a crazy week it has been for Prairie Schooners Toastmasters.  Even though it was a short work week, it was still crazy.

The week started of with our Area Speech Contest, Tuesday Evening.  Both Jane and Richard were up against stiff competition and were successful in their efforts to represent the club and Area 47 at the next level of competition, the Division Contests.

Wednesday happened to be our regular club meeting at noon.  It was a bit of a panic as we had moved most of our club material over to our new meeting location at Federated Cooperatives LTD.  Which is just across the street from our previous space.  Mark did a wonderful job with is second speech all about our relationship with food.  It was a good thing we only had one speaker as we needed the extra time to get ourselves organized at FCL.  I am sure next week will go smoother and we all like the extra space in the new digs.

Saturday afternoon was also a bit of a blur as the Division contests were on.  There was even stiffer competition for Jane and Richard.  The best speakers from six Areas were there trying to take home the hardware and bragging rights of being the Division E Table Topics winner or Humorous Speech winner.

Congratulations to Jane who placed second in this tough field with a tough question.  Unfortunately Richard didn't place in the top 3 spots.  But he did represent Prairie Schooners and Area 47 well and provided the audience with a few laughs at his brothers expense.

Now that the contest season is almost wrapped up our club will be getting back to quality meeting with an aim to help the members meet their individual goals.

Hopefully I will see you next Wednesday when you visit.

Jokes All Around!!

What a meeting we had at Toastmasters today! It was our Humorous Speech contest and we had 4 laugh-worthy contestants: Richard, Marloes, Jane, and Rathan. Richard spoke to us about a recent fishing expedition with his brother, Marloes spoke about running her first half-marathon, Jane talked about making a 'splash' in the pool, and Rathan discussed the different ways in which people get married. Everyone did a great job and it was a fun hour of laughter. We had a fantastic turnout from our membership and were lucky to have visitors from other clubs to help facilitate the judging. Richard Jackson was the well deserved winner of our speech contest, narrowly defeating Marloes in what was likely the closest contest voting in club history. Come and support Richard in the Area Humorous Speech contest on Tuesday, October 15th!!! Just contact an Executive Member for more details. See everyone next week!

Bustin' at the Seams

Wow, yesterday's meeting saw 21 people gathered around for our fall Table Topics contest.  The room is comfortable with 12 chairs.  We were at standing room only capacity.  It's a good thing the fire Marshall wasn't around, we might have had to move our contest out into the hall.

We had 5 contestants from the club.  Some were seasoned members and some had joined within the last year.  We also had a number of Toastmaster guests from other clubs that were helping in other capacities like judges, timers and ballot counters.  The winners of the contest will go on to represent Prairie Schooners at the Toastmasters Area 47 contest that will be held in a couple of weeks.

But before we get to the Area Contest, Prairie Schooners has another contest scheduled for next week.  Next Wednesday we will be holding our Humourous speech contest.  I understand from our Vice President of Education, there will be 4 members competing.  I have heard some of them and let me tell you, they are funny.  So why not stop in for a visit next week and be entertained.

This week we also saw some returning guests and I believe one of them joined.  So you see our little club is expanding.  More members create a diverse group with the presentations varied and interesting.   Actually we are expanding beyond the capacity of the meeting room Tetra Tech is providing us so arrangements have been made to change locations.  We are not going far, just across the street to Federated Coop.  We will be expanding into their main floor boardroom in a few weeks.

So if you want to hear accomplished speakers, why not stop in at our Humour Contest.  Then stop by on another Wednesday to see what a regular Toastmasters meeting looks like and see what Toastmasters can do for you.  Remember, Toastmasters, where Leaders are made.