Toastmaster’s Event, Keynote by Peter Legge and Vancore Meeting Update

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Vancore Toastmasters

The month of February was declared Toastmaster Month by both the Province and City of Vancouver.  District 21 celebrated with a Real Life Toastmasters Event at the VGH on February 25th, in the Paetzold Auditorium.  With membership building always at the forefront, priority seating was given to  members bringing potential members.  Several of VanCore members brought guests.

The fast-paced and timely Agenda featured four outstanding speeches: Shelley Stevenson, 2010 Table Topics winner–acknowledged that TM gave her the voice to get the medical attention her little son desperately needed.  Tom Jones, Immediate Past President of District 21/business executive, spoke about “Toastmasters, Business and Life.”  Current District 21 Governor, Reamick Lo, shared her expertise in media branding–titled “Branding and You.”

The Key Note speaker was Peter Legge, CEO of Canada Wide Publishing,  professional speaker, prolific author and Member of the Speakers Hall of Fame.  Throughout his his riveting address he emphasized the importance of being an excellent speaker and Toastmasters.  Following the event, many lined up to buy his books.


Peter Legge with Christina Howton (PWC Member) and Loa Fridfinnson (Vancore Member)

Rodney Denno/AC was in charge of the highly successful event and John Hopkins/DTM was the Master of Ceremonies.

Our latest meeting was held on February 29th, Leap Year Day.  It was great that we had a such a good turn-out for our Area Governor, Kevin Pendercraft’s visit.  He was warmly introduced by Chair/Sergeant-at-Arms, Mary Lou Miles.  As always, Kevin was approachable, informative and helpful.  He was pleased and impressed by our three manual speakers.

Jonathan did his ACS #7, Connie did her first ACB speech and Theodore did CC#2. and the evaluations they received.

Kevin thinks our Club has a lot of energy, talent and is fun…let’s keep it up.  Guess what?  With three fantastic prepared speeches, we didn’t even have time for Table Topics!

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Mastering the Art of Laughter

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Vancore Toastmasters
With thanks for Toastmasters International for this article.

Mastering the Laugh

You won’t croak if you tell a joke!

Let’s face it. Humor is hard! Even experienced speakers struggle with knowing how to (appropriately!) tickle their audience’s funny bones. We all enjoy listening to a funny speech –the problem is, we typically don’t think of ourselves as being funny speakers. Members of Toastmasters are no different; that’s why we have assembled a wide range of resource material on this topic.

Toastmasters exist to help your audience laugh with you, not at you!

Humor has many benefits. It can:

  • Help establish a bond with the audience
  • Win over a hostile audience
  • Keep the audience interested
  • Emphasize or illustrate a point
  • Help people remember you

Here are some tips:

  • Be yourself. Think about what types of humor you appreciate, then create a library of such items. Don’t like jokes? Try a humorous anecdote or a witty observation from your own life.
  • It’s OK to be mildly amusing, rather than eye–dabbingly funny.
  • Use humor sparingly, like a spice. At first, try using a humorous opener to your speech. A quote or offhand observation can be a good icebreaker.
  • Keep it relevant to your speech topic.
  • Avoid retelling jokes found on the Internet. Chances are good others have already heard or seen them.
  • Keep it clean! Humor is supposed to make people feel good – not embarrassed, insulted or offended.
  • Make it readily identifiable as humor. But in case no one laughs, prepare a comment in advance or just move on.
  • Keep it appropriate to the audience and the situation.
  • Self-effacing humor is safe –a little of it goes a long way. The audience would rather hear about the time you fell on your face than when you won the race.
  • Work on your delivery. Practice using vocal variety and gestures.
  • Timing is everything! Pause before the punch line.
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Three fantastic speakers and welcome to our newest member, Theodore

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Vancore Toastmasters

Greetings Fellow Members and Congratulations to all that came and contributed to a Fantastic Meeting yesterday (Feb 22) –three speeches:Ice Breaker by Theodore N, who only joined our Club two weeks ago; Noel M. ingeniously whittled his soon-to-be-delivered-hour-long speech, in Ottawa, into a CC Manual speech, and Susan’s speech metaphorically equated will power to muscles–it can get flabby, lazy and weak.   All the Roles were exuberantly executed.

Can hardly wait to see our new Web Site, being set up by our junoesque (Word of the Day meaning statuesque) member, Loa, Social Media Expert with a candid camera.   Have you been checking into the Progress Chart that Jonathan sends out along with the Weekly Agenda?

Please note that Connie H. (VP of Education) now has CC alongside her name; she  completed her CC Manual, received the Certificate from Toastmasters International along with Two Free Manuals and now can proudly wear her little gold CC Pin.

Loa, Mary Lou M. (Sergeant at Arms) and President Susan C. (second time around) are on the verge of graduating from their CC Manual.  An extra little push was given by the Chair, Cory F. (VP of Public Relations) who asked each member present, to announce what level they’re at and when they’re going to do their next Manual Speech.  Also, Cory has taken a table  for the big Toastmasters Real Life Event at VGH this Saturday, 2 to 4 PM.  If anyone else would like to attend, let me know and if it’s not to late,  we’ll  get you a seat.

Pleased to say that our dynamic Area Governor, Kevin Pendrcraft, will be paying us a visit on Leap Year Day, Feb. 29th, and checking up on our progress on the DCP Chart.  And also, to remind us about the up-coming Evaluation and International Speech Contests and that we have only four months to go this Term.  Do hope we’ll have a good turn-out to welcome him.

With best wishes for another vibrant meeting next Wednesday.

Susan

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Congratulations on Member Progress!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Vancore Toastmasters

Hello Fellow and Prospective Members,

It`s my great pleasure to announce that both Loa Fridfinnson and VP of Education–Connie Hubbs have just completed their Competent Communication Manual and will be receiving their Certificate of Accomplishment from Toastmasters International, soon.

Each of the ladies will also receive two Advance Speech Manuals of their choice, free.  The Club looks forward to presenting them the Gold CC Pin at their earliest convenience.  HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS TO LOA AND CONNIE!

It’s great to see that other awards are on deck toward our Distinguished Club status.  Heads up everyone–we can achieved it.

See you soon,

Susan Chew
Club President

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Chinese New Years Theme

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Vancore Toastmasters

Morning Fellow Members and Prospective Members,

Hope to see you all at the Meeting  today–don’t forget to sign up for a Role on the sign-up Agenda that Jonathan sent out the other day.

I’ll be the Chair, will be doing CC Speech #8, on being “Comfortable with Visual Aids” and as Luck would have it, it’s about Chinese New Year.  There will be lots of intriguing visuals and Mini Bags of Joyful handouts, presented in the Ritual of Order of Arrival…not unlike to the arrival of the animals on the Lunar Calendar.

Until later, Susan (La Presidente)

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Meeting Cancelled for Wednesday August 31st.

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Vancore Toastmasters

We will be taking a summer break on Wednesday August 31st, 2011 and resume with vigor on September 7, 2011. We look forward to seeing new and existing members for the fall.

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Welcome to the VanCore Toastmasters blog!

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Vancore Toastmasters

Welcome to the VanCore Toastmasters blog; please also visit our website at www.vancoretoastmasters.com.

We meet weekly on Wednesdays from 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in downtown Vancouver. Occasionally, we meet elsewhere at the same time; watch this blog for updates.

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