Dec. 16th Theme: Book/ CD exchange party

Today we had our end of year open house event- a book/ CD exchange party. Members brought in yummy food and special decorations to celebrate this delightful holiday season. Jim was our toastmaster.

 Lynne was our speaker today. She completed the 7th project from the Competent Communication Manual. Her topic was "Songs of The Season". During her speech, Lynne presented five well known Christmas songs and their interesting origins that many people are unfamiliar with. For example, the song "Jingle Bells" was originally created for Thanksgiving and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" was an advertising venture.

We had a round robin of table topics today. Jerry was our table topic master. Members brought pre-owned CD’s and books for other to choose. Each person had a great time picking one and telling everyone why he or she chose it.

We had three guests today, Justin A., Terry Schuler, and Hee Kim. They enjoyed our meeting very much and said they’d like to come back and join our regular meetings in the future. We welcome them and we hope everyone will have a great Christmas!

Dec. 9th Theme: Christmas Tidbits

Lynne was our toastmaster today and she picked "Christmas Tidbits" as the theme. Throughout the meeting she introduced the history of Christmas in the United States and some critical events, such as the recognition of Christmas as a national holiday was not until 1870. Christmas was first celebrated by Louisiana in 1838. 

Jim was our first speaker. He spoke from the Competent Communication Manual, speech #6. His topic was "Getting to Know Yourself Better.” Jim, in his previous speeches, touched upon knowledge about brain activity and psychology. This time, he taught us the benefits we will get and the tools we can use through self-examination. He also demonstrated a "metric exercise" to help us get a baseline on our emotions. With that information we can work on becoming more positive in our lives.

Alice was our second speaker. She gave a talk from the Competent Communication Manual, speech # 5. Her speech was entitled, “Choice of Life.” She told us the story about a single mom she met at a company's Christmas party. Alice was touched and surprised by the lady's upbeat attitude. The woman served others coffee as she told Alice about her autistic child.  Alice concluded, "We are what we give back to life.”. We were moved by Alice's powerful speech about love. 

We had two guests today, Anisha and Amritha Imandi. They enjoyed our meeting and Amritha decided to join after the meeting. Welcome Amritha! We're very glad to have her. Anisha signed up to give a speech in January!

Dec. 2nd Theme: Interesting Animals

Alice was our toastmaster today and she chose "Interesting Animals" as the theme. Throughout the meeting, Alice shared interesting facts about many lovely animals. For instance, the skin of the flamingo is pink due to its diet of shrimp. And the gobble sound made by male turkeys is to attract female mates. 

Pauline was our first speaker today. She completed her second project from the Competent Communication Manual. Her topic was "Volksmarching for Fun, Friends, and Fitness". Volksmarching is a non-competitive walking event that developed in Europe. In her speech, Pauline dressed up in her volksmarching outfit and demonstrated different types of volksmarching. Along with telling the history of Volksmarching in Europe and U.S., Pauline shared her experiences volksmarching in Finland, Russia, and Hawaii. She encouraged us to explore this interesting sport.


Barb was the second speaker. She gave a talk titled "Swimming is Much More Fun When You Start in the Shallow End of the Pool". Barb talked about her journey toward getting her Advanced Leader Si.ver Award at our toastmasters club. She also told us the three important lessons she learned from hosting the Area's Humorous and Table Topics contest in September. It was through this event Barb earned her High Performance Leadership Award.

We were very happy to have Emery visit our club again. As a long time member and having served as our club president, Emery was very glad to see the growth of the club and would like to donate to our club for the District’s Presidents’ Breakfast. We appreciate his contribution and help in the club!

In January, we’ll have a new slate of club officers. May our brand new year as toastmasters be even more successful than this year!