Area 71

Last Thursday the newly forming St. Thomas club held an evaluation marathon. What’s an evaluation marathon you ask?

Six speakers from other clubs visited the St. Thomas club to support some new evaluators while also taking the opportunity to speak outside their usual club environment.

Three of the six evaluators gave their very first evaluations.

Here’s how it worked:

- Chairperson warms up the audience.
- Six speakers provide speeches after being introduced contest style with their name and speech title only
- Timer provides speakers times
- Mentors are assigned to the brand new evaluators and asked to help them prepare during break
- 10 minute break occurs
- Evaluators provide evaluations
- Timer provides evaluation times
- Speakers formally introduced in full
- Mentors sit down with evaluators and provide/receive feedback

The end result was six wonderful speeches and six great evaluations. The added bonous was seeing the looks of surprise and excitement when the evaluators realized who the speakers were. We heard speeches from six club officers representing four other division clubs. Among them were a Division speech champion and four Area speech champions. It’s kind of hard to worry about your next evaluation when you’ve already evaluated that caliber of speaker eh?

All in all it was a great night. Our guests seemed to really enjoy themselves too!

Last Monday London Western hosted a Parliamentary Procedures workshop led by Steven B.

The workshop started by discussing what is meant by the word quorum and how it is used during a business meeting.

The next section included a copy of the club constitution and a lively discussion of several areas was held.

Next came the practice motions starting with a very simple one with no amendments. This was followed by a much more complex motion.

The evening ended with a discussion of several procedural things that you could do including recalling a question.

Overall this workshop was well done and included several pieces of information that I would have found useful at a recent business meeting that I attended.

This weekend, at the District 86 conference in Collingwood Ontario, I was recognized as the District 86 Toastmaster of the Year for my accomplishments during the 2008 – 2009 Toastmasters year (July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009).

At the conference I was provided with two minutes for an acceptance speech. In actuality my speaking time was likely under 30 seconds. What I had to say was heartfelt and to the point. Here’s my best recollection of what I said:

Standing here I am reminded of something that Craig Valentine, the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, said during our last spring conference. He said that the person you become is largely controlled by the people who you surround yourself with.

Looking out at the audience I see many of the people who chose to invest in me during my time in Toastmasters and they, in turn,  have helped me to become the person that I’ve become.

THANK-YOU very much!

It’s a very short acceptance speech and yet it does reflect very clearly how I feel. Becoming a Toastmaster has helped me to unlock my potential more fully then ever before. As people mentored me I grew. I also developed a need to repay the kindness of others by following their lead and also investing in others. Everything else grew from those simple acts of kindness and support. They were the spark that started the fire!

After the acceptance speech I received an unexpected standing ovation. As I walked through the audience to return to my seat I felt like I should be the one standing and clapping for them.

Thank-you to all my mentors, club members and fellow Toastmasters.

~Jamie N

Division S was very well represented by two toastmasters.

Gail Gustin, Lambton Toastmasters and Charismatic Communicators Advanced Club, won third place at the Humorous Speech contest with a delightful speech “Welcome to the mom’s club”. Gail had mentioned to me in the past that only the year before she was amazed at the quality of speeches that people give at the district level and she never saw herself giving a speech at that quality level. Well this weekend she successfully gave a great speech in front of at least 300 people. Her speech provided laughter and a real message that the audience connected to. Congratulations!

Lance Mercer, Toast of Queens and Podium Pros, won third place at the Table Topics contest with his impromptu speech about “Heroes”. His thought provoking speech based on the topic gave us all something to consider along with a number of opportunities to share some smiles and laughter.

Congratulations to Gail and Lance for representing themselves and their division so well at the district.

~Jamie N
Governor, Area 71
District Toastmaster of the Year