Monday, February 2, 2026

January 27, 2026 Meeting Minutes

 A big thank you to Maria who took the minutes from our last meeting.  

Also for her membership role in signing up 2 new members  Maria Shneerson and Ravi Mantrala during the month of January.
Welcome to Public Speaking Northwest, Maria and Ravi.  Well done , Maria, VP of Membership!

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

Meeting Minutes

January 27, 2026

 

Announcements:

Nancy (Pres - pro tem) welcomed our guests: Jathin Manne, Ravi Mantrala, and Cindy Jackson.  She also reminded our members and guests of the combined Area contest on February  21, 2026, at the Brightwater Center. Doors open at 10:00 am.

There will be both an International Speech contest and a Humorous speech contest.

Welcomed Maria Shneerson as our newest member!

 

 

Our Toastmaster was Katie with the theme “Community.”

 

Our Sergeant at Arms Katie called our meeting to order.

Our VPE: Nancy went over roles for our next meeting. She also provided our Education Minute: Navigating the Private Member Directory on our website. 

Our President (pro tem) Nancy opened our meeting.

 

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian – Maria

Word of the day was Synergy.

Ah Counter – Sonal

Timer - Maria

General Evaluator – Warren

 

Our 1st Speaker was TK with “TK's Toolbox” contest speech.

Our 2nd Speaker was Alex with “A brother w/undiagnosed mental illness” Speech w/a purpose (PM1).

 

Our Evaluator for TK was the team.

Our Evaluator for Alex was Nancy.

Our Topic Master was Warren.

Our Table Topics Speakers were Maria S and Jathin.

 

Our Humorist We had no humorist.

 

Members in Attendance were Deanna, Katie, Nancy, Alex, Ram, Maria C, Maria S, Turtle, and Warren

 

Guests in Attendance: Sonal Suhane, Ravi Mantrala, Jathin Manne, Cindy Jackson, and Sandeep Raichura.

 

Motion to Adjourn: Warren,  Second: Alex

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January 20, 2026 Meeting Minutes

 Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2026
 
Announcements:
Theresa welcomed our guests Sonal Suhane, Maria Shneerson, Jathin Manne, Ravi Mantrala, Crystal Dickerson, Cindy Jackson, Jay Chen: Theresa also mentioned the Area contest on March 21, 2026, at the Brightwater Center. Doors open at 10:00 am.
There will be both an International Speech contest and a Humorous speech contest.
 
Our Toastmaster was Maria with the theme. “Goals to Get Excited About”
Our Sergeant at Arms Katie called our meeting to order.
Our VPE: Nancy went over roles for our next meeting. She also provided our Education Minute: “20 Second Tricks to Instantly Calm Anxiety” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4zMGleL4Rs
Our President Theresa opened our meeting.
Our Gate Team was:
Grammarian -Deanna, Treasurer
Word of the day was Perseverance
Ah Counter – Sonal
Timer - Amy
General Evaluator – Kelly VP PR
Our 1st Speaker was Ram with “A Slow Blade Pierces the Shield”.
Our 2nd Speaker was Bill with “Begin with a Bang”
Our Evaluator for Ram was Deanna.
Our Evaluator for Bill was Katie
Our Topic Master was Nancy VPE.
Our Table Topics Speakers were: Alex, Jathin, Theresa, and Maria Shneerson
Our Humorist We had no humorist.
Members in Attendance were Deanna, Katie, Nancy, Kelly, Theresa, Bill, Ram, Maria, Turtle, and Amy
Guests in Attendance Sonal Suhane, Maria Shneerson, Jathin Manne, Ravi Mantrala, Crystal Dickerson, Cindy Jackson, Jay Chen
Motion to Adjourn: Deanna Second: TK

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Tuesday, January 20, 2026

December 9 ,2025 OFFICERS meeting minutes

 Officer's Meeting Minutes 12/9/2025

William Hinrichs
Public Speaking Northwest
                       Officers Meeting Minutes
                                                                                     Dec. 9, 2025
I. Opening
  • Welcome
  • Members in attendance: Theresa, Deanna, Bill, Lynne (past President) Nancy and Katie
II. Officer Reports   See page 2
III. Ongoing/Old Business
      
IV. New Business
  • Longer meeting time:  We discussed meeting times for the in person at Brightwater. Katie advised that if we extended our meeting time we would have more time to setup and takedown (and network) after our meeting.  Additionally, there would no additional cost because there is no demand for the room at that extended time. The board unanimously voted to adjust our in-person meeting time at Brightwater Center to:  11:00 am—2:00pm
  • New agenda format: Kelly suggested via E-mail that we revamp our club meeting agenda format. She referenced a link to the D2 agenda with a side bar on the left with a list of  officers.  The feeling was that new attendees should know more about the club leadership.  Kelly was not present at the meeting. Bill discussed some challenges with space on our agenda and all the detail we put into our agenda. He would prefer to keep it simple and keep it to one page (tops).  After some discussion around this we decided to table this until the January meeting.
 
V.  Announcements
 
VI. Adjourn: 
 
Officer Reports  
VP Education/ Webmaster: Nancy
Webmaster:
I can now pull up and log onto our website. It went from not working, to infrequently working, to mostly working, to working. (fingers crossed) Free Toast Host was not helpful at all. My husband, however, was.
Kelly continues to be our website rock star.
VPE: 
In November
Mentoring
Ram has chosen Maria to be his mentor.
Amy has chosen Maria to be her mentor, since Mara is no longer a member. 
Pathways Achievements
Marcus achieved level 2 in Innovative Planning.
Turtle achieved level 1 in Persuasive Influence
Theresa achieved level 1 in Presentation Mastery
Distinguished Program
We have 5 points and have achieved the Distinguished level.
Remaining points to achieve: We need 2 level 2s, 1 level 3, 1 new member (1 point), 4 new members (1 point), and 4 officers trained for Nov-Feb.
Club Calendar has been updated to reflect new contest dates. Thank you, Katie.
Club Calendar and DPR are appended and attached.
VP Membership: Maria
For November we have: 
New Members
1
Inquiries
7
Mtg Visitors
9
Member removals
0
VP Public Relations: Kelly
Holiday Invoice. Sent Deanna the invoice for $25 for Celina’s gift and $125 for the food.
Agenda. I would like to propose a new agenda style. I love our easy, fun agendas; however, someone brought to my attention that it is nice to have the sidebar with the officers and any important information for guests. We can still have fun with it. We can create our own banner, and there is still room at the bottom where the QR code is for fun theme images.
Social Media
YouTube: 51 subscribers•424 videos
Facebook: 526 followers • 2 following
2026 Template/Website Updates
Updated 2026 Welcome Video. Theresa, you have the option of doing a short 30-second welcome to our club as our president. Lynne passed last year; however, Mara and Victor did great videos, which are on our YouTube channel. If you would like to participate, let me know and I will send you simple instructions.
I change the YouTube intro templates and meeting notices each year so we can visually differentiate the years.
Website homepage. I plan to add some new things to the website. If any of you have any requests, please advise.
 
Treasurer: Deanna
1.    Invoice for holiday party (125) and gift for Celina (25) has been received and paid. Total = $150
2.    Upcoming expenses are payments for Brightwater room rental for 2026 ($180). Awaiting the receipt of the invoice from Celina. The cost is for reservation fee, 12x15 = 180. (room rental is free)
3.    Annual ZOOM renewal is upcoming. 159.90. Will be paid in late December.
4.    The PSNW bank account balance is $1150.37 on 102/7/25.
Secretary/Scribe: Bill
Nothing new to report, except to recognize Kelly's Over The Top Holiday in- person meeting Dec. 2. And to note our presentation
of the appreciation gift to Celina at Brightwater.
Sergeant at Arms: Katie
1.    I made a name tag for Ram.
2.    I sewed on a new ribbon to our banner, “Home of the Area Director.”
3.    Suggestion: What if we scheduled an extra hour on our room rental? It would not cost us anything additional, and we could manage a potluck/party more easily with more time.
President: Theresa
Thank you, everyone, for your hard work. This continues to be a healthy, well-run club and I appreciate all of you.


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