July 3/08 - Success, Energy and Passion

Hello Everyone - Our new president, Brendan Dineen, chaired the first meeting of the new Toastmasters year and chose as the meeting's theme, "The 1-2 punch of success, energy and passion".  Not surprisingly, the word of the evening was "enthusiasm".  It was a fitting word given that in this wonderful season, everyone is enthusiastic about something, whether that be sipping Margaritas on the patio, gardening or just enjoying the sun. 

We welcomed two guests ,Tulla and Elda.  Toastmaster David  from the Talk of Alliston joined us and returned our beloved and some say cute mascot, "Stitch".

There were two announcements.  On June 21, some members of the Bolton Banter executive attended the officer training session held at Newton Robinson.  Eric Solowka facilitated the session held for those assuming the roles of President and Vice President Education.  These training sessions help ease Toastmasters into new roles and are always valuable.  They are open to non executive club members who are considering taking on executive roles but want more information before they do so.  This session concluded with a humorous presentation by Ross Mackay.

On the subject of humour, on the fifth Thursday of this month, July 31, our Past President Eric Solowka will teach us how to write and deliver a humorous speech in a presentation he calls "The Laughter Equation".  The timing is perfect as the humorous speech contest is set for September.  Eric is always a compelling speaker.  You won't want to miss this meeting.

This evening we heard three speeches that were not only engrossing but educational.  In her icebreaker, Corina Simu relayed her memories of the Romanian revolution.  Congratulations Corina.  We look forward to your next speech.  Laurie Stapleton and Val Koncan spoke movingly about their personal experiences with autism and diabetes respectively.  Laurie's speech was her second while Val has only three more to give in order to become a Competent Communicator. 

Val and Carol tied for best Table Topics speaker. Laurie was voted best speaker and Lorraine Van Wagner was named best evaluator. 

Thanks to all who stepped into roles at the last minute with "enthusiasm"  See you on July 17th. 

Lorraine Van Wagner