November Member Inductions

Area 62 Contest

Humorous Speech Contest:

1st Blake Kurisko

Stone Road Toastmasters

2nd Steve Noonan

Royal City Toastmasters

3rd Isabel Bellamy

Co-Operators Club

Table Topics Contest:

1st Walter Ritchi

Agvantage

2nd Kristy Erickson

Town and Gown

3rd Mark Gemmill

Royal City Toastmasters

Humorous Speech & Table Topics Club Contest

Humorous Speech

1. Blake Kurisko

2. Linda Neff

3. Michael Brenchley

Table Topics

1. Marion Ridel

2. Adnan Cheema

3. Linda Neff

Congratulations everyone!

SRTM Member Profile

From my experiences with Toastmasters over the last three years, I have found it exciting to watch fellow members progress through the program. In becoming a Toastmaster, each member has the unique opportunity to practice and obtain feedback with skills that are challenging for most people - leadership and communication. I have noticed a definite change in my confidence, assertion, and ability to build relationships on both a professional and personal level since becoming a member . Each member of our club has a similar story. This post will highlight how one of our members is putting her leadership and communication skills to work in our community.

Wendy McDonnell has been a valued member of our club for just over two years. In this time, she has also been working steadily on a unique project - developing a weekly radio show - Family Matters - for our local community and campus radio station CFRU 93.3 FM. The show airs live every Sunday morning from 8 to 9 Eastern. This show explores the joys and challenges of family life through interviews with a variety of guests. Wendy says she took up this challenge because people continuously recommended that she record her voice because they liked hearing the sound of it. She also manages a personal coaching practice, Compassionate Solutions (www.compassionatesolutions.ca), where she was already engaged in the work of helping families overcome relationship and communication challenges.

Developing her radio show took a year of planning and another year of training. Wendy acknowledges Toastmasters' role in helping her be successful with this project. Specifically, Toastmasters is helping her develop her impromptu speaking skills, preparing topics for the show, and organizing herself when speaking. Interestingly, the most challenging aspect of community radio is not the talking. It is the multi-tasking! Wendy is both the host as well as managing all the technical aspects of live radio and editing - quite the challenge indeed! We would like to thank Wendy for allowing us to share her story with you. It is an inspiring story of where our voices can take us.

Michelle Munroe, VP Public Relations

Club Speechathon

On May 9^th, 2011, we held our first Club ‘Speechathon’. It was a great success. This night we had four prepared speeches, compared to the usual two or three. They ranged from an beginner’s speech by Kathryn Ssedoga, which featured some stand-up comedy and a moving poem, to an Advanced Communicator’s ‘dramatic speech’ by Alan Cook, C.C., about some of his adventures in India. New member, Kerri, gave a well-structured speech on the joys of mountain-biking, and Blake Kurisko, focusing on body-language, gave a lawyer’s interpretation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, who, far from living happily ever after, it seems, were suing the heroine for $1.5m in damages!

Our Toastmaster for the evening, Isabel Hershaw, D.T.M., led us smoothly through this unusual meeting, which also featured voting for the best speaker (Blake) and the best evaluator (Michelle). Further novelty came in that we had two rounds of Table Topics, led by Terri Millar C.C. on the theme of ‘Your Super-Self.’ This got four of our six guests speaking for the first time at the club, one of whom jointly won a prize for her efforts.

Finally, this meeting saw the culmination of our membership drive. Rebecca Anstett, A.C.G., A.L.B., was by far the most hospitable of our members! All the guests and those who had brought them, qualified for the prize draw of a season’s free membership. This was won by Ricaldo Ward, who was with us as a guest for the second time. Congratulations to him, and to all those who took part in making this meeting such a success.

Alan Cook, C.C.

Spring Membership Drive and Speech-a-Thon

There was an announcement made at a recent club meeting about two events planned for our members and guests this spring. The first announcement is that there will be a special event run on May 9th, 2011. The club will be hosting it's first ever Speech-a-Thon! Instead of our usual meeting, as many members as possible are challenged to write and deliver a speech. More details are to follow, but expect a fun-filled night listening to well-crafted stories and information, enthusiasm, and helpful speech evaluations in the Toastmasters spirit of positive self-growth.

The second of these announcements is that a membership campaign is now in progress and will run until May 9, 2011. Campaign organizers Shawn Weldon, VP Education, and Wendy McDonnell, club member, have put forth a challenge to both members and guests and here is how it will work:

• If a SRTM member brings a guest, they receive two points, and their guest, one point.
• If that guest joins before the end of the campaign, they both get another point.
• At our Speech-a-Thon, all points will be converted into tickets and there will be a draw for a free six-month membership to Stone Road Toastmasters!! Guests will need to be in attendance to win, members will not.

Over the next month make an extra effort to talk up Toastmasters by encouraging friends, family, neighbours, co-workers...any one you can think of to visit our meetings - the challenge is on!

Michelle Munroe, VP Public Relations