Author Archives: Vancore Toastmasters
Toastmasters Contests: Training for Challenge
Vancore is an amazing club. It’s a wonderful warm public bath, full of cheerful and highly supportive fellow Toastmasters who’ll serve you delicious compliment sandwiches once a week. But, strangely, that can also be a problem. To really speed your … Continue reading
This is Us: Becoming Confident Speakers
After our Open House Meeting last week, we gathered at the Lion’s Head pub for the annual VanCore Open House / holiday party. And raised a glass to a stellar year. Just look at those faces. Those are the expressions … Continue reading
Building Your Speaking Skills as You Move Through Life
At some level, we all knew Louis who joined Vancore this year, was only lent to us. Today we learned that today’s speech would be his last. He is leaving the club. Because he is leaving the country, to punch … Continue reading
What’s The Most Valuable Commodity? Stage Time!
What’s the most valuable commodity in the world? Diamond? Gold? Palladium? A Toastmaster might answer: None of the above. The most valuable commodity in the world is … stage time. When you get it, you jump. Whether your presentation is … Continue reading
Community Connection with Public Speaking
Public speaking is all about connection, and that’s hard enough when your audience is right there in front of you. It’s crazily more difficult when they’re also online, as the pandemic taught us all. Vancore Toastmasters — and many other … Continue reading
Should You Attend Hybrid Meeting Virtually or In-Person?
Hybrid meetings are a post-Covid innovation that’s clearly here to stay. Show up in person or tune in from home in your pajamas. Always good to have options! Vancore has been experimenting with hybrid meetings for a few weeks now, … Continue reading
How We Grow and Expand With The Seasons
Spring is a time for renewal, growth, and expansion. We have that extra energy and focus to get active, take action, and create change. We are fortunate to lean on the Toastmasters platform of support and education system to … Continue reading
Impromptu Speaking Helps You Grow
“Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.” — Michael Scott, The Office. Now you know why the head of Dunder Mifflin paper company is … Continue reading
Stepping Into the Future with Hybrid
The Covid era taught us something about the future of meetings: they’re going to be hybrid — part live, part online. Some folks will be there in the flesh, and some won’t. Last week Vancore stepped into that future, with … Continue reading
Icebreaker: What Great Stories are About
Great stories are all about the “telling detail,” a specific little observation or description or scrap of dialogue that SELLS it. Lori gave her icebreaker speech at the last meeting. Around 20 years ago, Lori told us, she found herself … Continue reading
VanCore Toastmasters 