Thursday, April 7, 2011

          Hello Toastmasters Family and Guests,

          We had a record number of first-time visitors at this meeting! We had about a dozen guests, majority of whom were Public Speaking class students from Thomas Nelson Community College. They attended our meeting on the recommendation of prof. Jacqueline Slaughter. Thank you for visiting our club and we do hope you had a positive experience.

We had 13 members in attendance. Stacey Wallace was Toastmaster of the Evening. John Harman was General Evaluator. Victor Lopez was Table Topics Master. We heard 3 prepared speeches.

          Curtis Lassiter presented project # 3 from Competent Communicator manual. Curtis's speech was evaluated by Christy Gardner. In his speech, "To Roll or Not to Roll Your 401k", Curtis, a financial advisor, convinced us that we should always transfer our retirement accounts if we no longer work for the company where they are held.

           Lauren White presented project # 2 from CC manual. Her speech, "Travel Tips for Toastmasters" was evaluated by Bonnie Parker. Lauren, a seasoned traveller,  gave us some invaluable advice on travel. Here are some tips:

• always be aware of vaccine requirements when travelling out of country; some of the vaccination processes need to be started several months prior to travelling
• check your passport's expiration date and whether it has enough pages  for visa stamps
• there are no hard rules to booking flights; however, do not book them more than 3 months in advance
• start packing a couple of weeks ahead
• check the weather of your destination
• always carry some necessities in your carry-on luggage in case your main luggage is delayed (or lost!)

These were great tips, Lauren!

          Frank Connelly's speech was evaluated by Wade Miner. Frank educated the audience about the benefits of attending a Toastmasters International 2011 District Conference.

          Victor Lopez, Table Topic Master, used very fun and creative ideas for his table topics. The topics varied from promoting a new line of shower curtain apparel to inventing new recipies to improv group story-telling. The participants included several first-time visitors, who did exceedingly well. Everybody was quick to think on their feet and very witty. Wonderful job, all!

Word of the Day: "ubiquitous" (adj.); existing, being everywhere at the same time; widespread; e.g. "ubiquitous fashion", "ubiquitous billboards"

Ribbon Awards went to:

Lauren White for BEST SPEAKER

Bonnie Parker for BEST EVALUATOR

and

 Melynda Roberts, First-time visitor,  for BEST TABLE TOPICS

Congratulations, winners!

See you on Thursday, April 21!

Magda Brugos

OPS Club Secretary

Thursday , March 31, 2011

Hello Toastmasters and Visitors,

Club President gives out "First-Timer" Ribbons to our Guests

         Thank you all for coming to this out of ordinary meeting! It was devoted entirely to Icebreaker speeches. We heard speeches from "veteran" Toastmasters to the newest members of our Club. 

We had 13 members present and 2 first-time visitors. Cheryl came by invitation of Janet Krenn's. Mark was invited by Danita Fox. All in all, we heard 11 Icebreakers. Speakers were: Rick Boyer, Tim Tonkovic, Danita Fox, Magda Brugos, Juan Martinez, Wade Miner, Christy Gardner, Stan Dalziel, Stacey Wallace, Curtis Lassiter, and Janet Krenn. Toastmaster of the Evening was Nancy Hogg.

It was a great opportunity to learn a little more about fellow Toastmasters, their past and their visions for the future. Some things to remember from the speakers are: 

• Discover and develop your strengths; do not focus on growing in your weak areas.
• Do what you're supposed to do; find your calling.
• Face adversity even when you feel afraid.
• If you believe you can do something, great things will happen!
• Face fears of public speaking! You can only get better.

The audience cast ballots on Best Speaker of the evening.

Christy Gardner's Icebreaker was voted BEST!

Congratulations, Christy!

See you next time!


Magda Brugos
OPS Club Secretary

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Hello Toastmasters and Guests, 

My apologies for a very brief update. Your loyal secretary was absent at the meeting...

Here's the summary of what took place: Danita Fox was Toastmaster of the Evening. Rick Boyer was Table Topics Master. Christy Gardner was General Evaluator. We had two guests: Christina and Janice.

Due to changed contest policy, OPS will be sending the top two contest winners onto the Area 12 contest on March 15th. Scheduled Table Topics contestants are Linda Williams and Magda Brugos. Competing in International Speech contest will be Victor Lopez and Stan Dalziel.

Lauren White presented her Icebreaker speech. Congratulations, Lauren!

Ribbon Winners:
Best Speaker: Janet Krenn
Best Evaluator: Nancy Hogg
Best Table Topics: Stan Dalziel

Congratulations, winners!

Thank you,
Magda Brugos
OPS Club Secretary
http://ops.freetoasthost.info/

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hello Toastmasters and Guests,

          This meeting was devoted entirely to the International Speech Contest at the club level. Contest Master was Nancy Hogg and Chief Judge was John Harman. The contest was held in two categories: Table Topics (2 minute impromptu speech) and International Speech (5-7 minutes long). We had five contestants in table topics, and three in international speech. Our attendance at the meeting was 16 Toastmasters and 2 guests, Nita and Sami.
          Table Topics contestants were Juan Martinez, Wade Miner, Magda Brugos, Linda Williams, and Michael Brugos. All contestants were given the same speech topic: "Good fences make good neighbors".
International Speech contestants were Wade Miner, Stan Dalziel, and Victor Lopez. Each contestant delivered a previously prepared speech.
         Wade Miner presented a speech titled "Be Thankful for the Handicap." Wade gave a personal account of his journey towards conquering a speech impediment. His stuttering seemed like a huge obstacle and a handicap when he first realized he had this challenge. However, it turned out that this handicap was sometimes a blessing in disguise. With courage, determination and a strong desire to win, Wade eventually conquered his stuttering. In his words, a stumbling block can become a stepping stone. Wade's question to us was "What is your "handicap" and what are you going to do about it?". He urged us to look for a seed of opportunity in every obstacle we face.
          Stan Dalziel's speech was titled "What are you going to do when you grow up?". Stan's message was that it's never too late to pursue our dreams and visions. Stan spoke about how the choices we make daily shape the life we live. We need to discover what it is that we truly want in life and go after it. Stan wants to become a farmer after he retires from a career in engineering.
          Victor Lopez delivered a speech titled "Me, through the pages of my life". Victor challenged us to conquer the biggest fear most people have, the fear of not truly living life. Our life is like a blank page and we're the authors who write on it. If you don't like your life, change it. You need to work towards change. Victor gave us this acronym to remind us:
W : be willing
O: be optimistic
R: be  ready
K: have knowledge

The speeches seemed to have a common thread. They all challenged us to conquer our handicaps, go after our dreams and work towards creating the life we want. All three speakers performed extremely well. Winners at the club level move to Area Contest held on March 15 at ODU Hampton Campus. 

The Winner of Table Topics Contest

WADE MINER

The Winner of International Speech Contest

VICTOR LOPEZ

CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK AT NEXT LEVEL!

Thank you, 
Magda Brugos
OPS Club Secretary

Thursday, February 3, 2011

         Hello Toastmasters and Guests!

         It was great to see everyone. We had a great turnout, fantastic guests and great speeches! Magda Brugos was Toastmaster of the Evening. Sandy Peterson was Table Topics Master. Adam Gold was General Evaluator. 4 guests and 17 members were present. Our guests were Sami Ki, Lauren White, Charles McLead, and Joel Reid. Thank you for visiting our club! We hope you had a great experience.

          Tim Tonkovic presented the Professional Tip of the Day. Tim gave us some advice on what  information not to include in a resume and what not to say during a job interview. One of the tips was to always use a spell check so that spelling mistakes such as  "seeking a party-time position" are caught in time. Tim's segment was not only informational, but also very funny.

          We listened to 4 prepared speeches. Curtis Lassiter presented his first speech, the Icebreaker. Curtis was evaluated by Nancy Hogg. We learnt about his background and his reasons for being in Toastmasters. Curtis has an impressive athletic background - his track team once represented the USA in Chile.

          John Harman was evaluated by Danita Fox. John spoke about his adventures of looking for new employment. He decided to actively pursue it as opposed to just staying home and filling applications online. John attended numerous networking events, joined professional groups and read books on how to improve resume-writing skills. This strategy worked great for John as he is now successfully employed.

          Juan Martinez was evaluated by Victor Lopez. Juan spoke about how to prepare for an emergency such as a hurricane. Remember to have water, batteries, battery-operated radio, candles, nonperishable food. In Juan's experience, best quality time he ever spent with his family was during hurricanes. He also once learnt how to play the guitar during a hurricane.

          Christy Gardner was evaluated by Bonnie Parker. Christy's topic was "Conversing with Ease". Christy gave a great speech on how to improve one's conversation skills. She spoke about 4 progressive levels of conversation: small talk, fact disclosure, personal opinion, personal feelings. She gave us some conversation advice: stay abreast of current affairs, ask open-ended question, always ask the other person about themselves and listen attentively.
         Table Topics participants included Charles McLead, Michael Brugos, Stan Dalziel, Curtis Lassiter, and Wade Miner. John Harman gave a rundown of upcoming contests and contest rules. The meeting was wrapped by with a few words from Area Governor, Danita Fox, about officer training.

Ribbon Winners: 

Best Evaluator: Victor Lopez

Best Table Topics: CharlesMcLead, Guest

Best Speaker: Christy Gardner

Congratulations!

Next meeting: Table Topics and International Speech contests

P.S. Word of the day was "Eclat" (noun): brilliance of success, reputation; showy or elaborate display; acclaim. E.g. "I am hoping for an eclat from every one of our speakers tonight."

Thank you,
Magda Brugos
OPS Club Secretary

Thursday, January 20, 2011

        Hello Toastmasters and dear Guests!

         Thank you for visiting the club and joining our Toastmasters meeting. At  this meeting 19 members were present. Tim Tonkovic was Toastmaster of the Evening. Danita Fox was Table Topics Master. Juan Martinez was General Evaluator.

          We had the opportunity to hear 4 prepared speeches. 

Stacey Wallace was the first speaker and was evaluated by Wade Miner. Stacey's topic was multi-tasking. She gave examples of multi-tasking and her research showed that multi-tasking was not an efficient was to do things. Second speaker was Matt Phillips, evaluated by Cristina Stoia. Matt's speech was about an incident that led him to be in the safety/fire response career field. Rick Boyer's speech was evaluated by Janet Krenn. Wade Miner was evaluated by Sandy Peterson. Wade's topic was about the struggle a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. Wade related that to people having to struggle to achieve their goals.

          We would like to officially introduce new club members: Robyn Roberts and Curtis Lassiter. Congratulations and thank you for joining us on this journey towards developing excellent communication and leadership skills.

VP Education Stacey Wallace performed the new member induction.

Ribbon Winners

Best Table Topics speaker : Wade Miner 
  Best Evaluator : Janet Krenn

Best Speaker : Juan Martinez 

Congratulations!

Thank you, Christy Gardner, for taking your time to prepare these notes.


P.S. Word of the day was  "pulchritudinous" (adj.), which means "physically beautiful".


Thank you,
Magda Brugos
OPS Club Secretary

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Club President, Stan Dalziel, and Guests

Happy New Year Toastmasters and Guests!

         We are back in the working mode! After a month-long break from club meetings, we are ready to start fresh. We had a great turnout! Welcome back, everyone. We had 16 Toastmasters present and 5 guests: Heather Brown, Lauren White, Robyn Roberts, Curtis Lassiter, and Sumit Arora. Thank you for coming! We hope you had a positive experience and will visit us again. Victor Lopez was Toastmaster of the Evening. He did a superb job, considering it was his first time in that role. Adam Gold was General Evaluator. Magda Brugos was Table Topics Master.

          Cristina Stoia presented  Professional Tip of the Day. She gave us very valuable advice on how to  feel reenergized in one's (stale) career and how to land a great job, even in a depressed marketplace. Here are some of her ideas: dream big and focus on long-term results; acquire new skills; attend social networking events; mentor someone; take time off work to regain focus.
          Juan Martinez was the first speaker. His 5th speech from Advanced Communication Series was evaluated by Christy Gardner. Juan's assignment was to deliver a speech after receiving an award. He spoke about his experience in Toastmasters International where he learnt how to properly speak in public. He also mentioned how attending training sessions helped him network and learn from top-notch speakers.Great work, Juan, and congratulations on your perseverance in the Toastmasters program.

          Second speaker, Danita Fox, was evaluated by Janet Krenn. Danita's project came from The Entertaining Speaker Advanced Communication manual. The title of her speech was "Danita's Meanderings" and just like the title suggests, we got a glimpse into Danita's mind and her "meanderings" on leadership, personal fitness and pet-peeves. It was very captivating. This speech was Danita's final step towards achieving Advanced Communicator Bronze level. Congratulations, Danita!

         Table Topics participants included Frank Connelly, Rick Boyer, Nancy Hogg, and guest, Curtis Lassiter. The meeting was followed by our Annual Gift Exchange party, led by Wade Miner. It was lots of fun! Final words of the meeting came from Area Governor, Danita Fox.

RIBBON WINNERS:

Nancy Hogg: BEST TABLE TOPICS  

Janet Krenn: BEST EVALUATOR

 Danita Fox: BEST SPEAKER

Congratulations!

Danita Fox has reached Advanced Communicator Bronze level . CONGRATULATIONS, Danita!

Thank you, 

Magda Brugos

OPS Club Secretary