Thursday, August 19, 2010

New Members: Adam Gold, June Montgomery, Cristina Stoia

Dear Toastmasters and Guests,

 

         What an honor it is to announce that Oyster Point Speakers Toastmasters Club  is a President's Distinguished Club for the year 2009-2010. We are one of the best in Virginia!

         The highlight of our meeting was induction of new members. Adam Gold, June Montgomery and Cristina Stoia  are now new Toastmasters. They have already brought so much positive to our Club.

          We had 21 in attendance, including Jean Smith and her daughter Jasmine. Toastmaster of the Evening was Lois Boyle. Tim Tonkovic served as General Evaluator. Wade Miner was Table Topics Master. 

We heard 4 speeches:

          Cristina Stoia, evaluated by Stacey Wallace,  gave an Icebreaker speech. Cristina has such a great story to tell. She was a university student in her native Romania when she applied and got accepted into a summer program at Yale University. She was the first Romanian to have ever done it. While at Yale, Cristina made many international friends. As she put it: "we all spoke with different accents, but we all learnt how to dream in English".  She also completed an MBA Degree at William and Mary despite the fact that it took her twice the time to read and write in English, as compared to her American classmates. Cristina encouraged us to fight for our dreams and not be afraid to fail. Failures will only make us grow in ways we never thought we could.

          John Harman, evaluated by Matt Phillips, gave us a Club Contest Review. John spoke about the upcoming Humorous Speech Contest on September 2.  Contest takes place only twice a year so this is your chance to dazzle your audience with humor! John reminded us that speeches have to contain all original material.  Remember: how effective you are in making your audience laugh will determine your chances for winning the contest. We still need volunteers to fill in roles and contest evaluators will receive leadership credit for their work. Please speak to the Contest Master, John Harman, or Stacey Wallace, VP ED, about volunteering.

         Rick Boyer, evaluated by Nancy Hogg, presented the final speech from Advanced Communication Manual, which fulfilled his requirement for achieveing the title of Advanced Communicator Silver. Congratulations, Rick! His speech, "From Deep Space to Personal Space", took abstract concepts of physics, astronomy and meteorology to convey an important yet clear message.  There are billions of galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy contains millions of stars. To bring it into prespective, the neighborhood we live in has only one star, the Sun. We are but specks! The universe we live in is so vast that it makes us seem utterly insignificant in its great scheme. However, Rick's speech challenged that concept. He showed us how our seemingly insignificant self can have a huge impact on the world.

Using the concept of the "Butterfly Effect", Rick showed us  that our lives are so intricately connected that every single action we take has worldwide implications. Our words and our actions matter. What we do on a daily basis affects everyone who comes in contact with us and who comes in contact with them. Even if it starts with one person, we can make a positive impact on the world. It is only up to us to do it.

          Stan Dalziel, evaluated by Danita Fox, presented his third speech from Persuasive Speaking Manual. Stan's speech touched on a subject most of us are familiar with: we can't find time to do all the things we would like to do. Stan, already very busy,  recently volunteered to help with Children Ministries at church.  He realized that he somehow managed to find the time to fulfil all his voluntary duties. He did that by giving up activities that were time suckers in his day. Stan's advice is to evaluate all activities in our day. Think about what adds positive value to your life? What drains and subtracts from your life? Make a list. Which negative activities could you replace with positive ones? Sometimes a simple act of switching off the TV will free several hours a day for you to start making a positive change in your life. 

         All the speeches were fantastic!

Tim Tonkovic, General Evaluator, provided us with this acronym that aptly described the speakers:

I for Inspirational Cristina

D for Developmental John

E for Extraterrestrial Rick

A for Amazing Stan

Very clever, Tim!

Wade Miner, Table Topics Master, chose a summer vacation theme for the speakers. Participants (Grayson Williams, Lori Hobson, Juan Alvez, and Adam Gold) were asked to highlight their best vacation memories, talk about vacation plans that never went through, and fantasize about perfect get-aways. Adam's tip: live out your day enjoying it to the fullest. Each day is supposed to be like vacation.

KUDOS TO THE WINNERS:

Grayson Williams was BEST in TABLE TOPICS

Stacey Wallace was BEST EVALUATOR

and 

Cristina Stoia was BEST SPEAKER! 

Rick Boyer is new Advanced Communicator Silver. Congratulations, Rick! Thank you for all the hard work that led to your achievement.  

Congratulations! 

Sincerely, 

Magda Brugos

Club Secretary