Welcome to the new Toastmasters year!!

Happy fall to my fellow Toastmasters out there!! We have been a bit remiss at updating this blog, so from now on; we will do a better job of keeping up. First some updates:
The club officially chartered in June 2010! Southern Dutchess Toastmasters is official. Many thanks to everyone who helped get the club off the ground. We made it just in time to count as a new club for the 2009-2010 Toastmasters year and we were the club that helped District 53 meet it’s growth goals for the year! Very exciting stuff!
Since the beginning of the 2010-2011 Toastmasters year, we have hosted many guests and we already have two new members. Welcome Tim and Sandra!!
For the record, we are still meeting at the VFW Post in the village of Wappingers (8 School Street) on the first and third Mondays of the month at 7 pm. We would love to see some of prodigal members come back…and we have just the thing to bring everyone in!

Our next meeting, Monday oct. 18th is our
Halloween themed meeting booo!!!


Come one, come all and hear entertaining Hallween tales, enjoy tasty Halloween treats and share Halloween themed table topics!! You don’t want to miss this! Hope to see everyone there!

March 15th Meeting

Sanjeev graciously stepped in to be our Toastmaster, filling in at the last minute and doing a fabulous job. Swarna was back (we missed her) and filled the role of timer, expertly. Lisa, visiting us for the second time, participated as the Ah counter/word master. She challenged us with the word Bumpkin, an awkward, simple rustic, yokel. We had some trouble working it into our speeches. Our guest, Ron, participated by telling us a joke about chicken coups, but he was prepared to give us a mini-stand up session.
We had two advanced speeches. Janice P. gave speech from the Humorous Speaking manual about her crazy weekend. Janice B. read Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax for the Read a Story speech from Interpretative Reading Manual. After the speeches, Bill got everyone fired up with a table topics session on favorite foods or foods with special meanings. Nine people in all got up to tell us about their favorite foods, including our first time guests Dave and Ron. Bill kept trying to wrap things up but people really wanted to talk about food! Our speech evaluators tonight were Rob and Tim, both evaluating for the first time. Rob evaluated Janice’s humorous speech, pointing out how the audience could relate to the story. Rob did an excellent first evaluation which touched on both the positive aspects of the speech with minor suggestions for improvements. Tim evaluated Janice’s Interpretative Reading and also delivered a first rate evaluation that covered the positives and constructive criticisms. Well done to both of our new evaluators! But wait, there’s more! The meeting was well attended, so we had a General Evaluator for the first time in awhile. Not just any General Evaluator, an advanced Toastmaster visiting the club. Richard B. gave us an overall meeting evaluation that we can be proud of. He is tough evaluator, so he gave us some good feedback and even said he had fun!
After the meeting we enjoyed some snacks brought by our snack master Rob and welcomed our two newest members Markly and Dave!
Our next meeting will be on April 5th at 7pm at the VFW in Wappingers.

March 1st Meeting

Our March 1st meeting featured Janice P as our Toastmaster, who helped us get going and stay on track. Trishla took the role of timer and let us all know how we were doing. Jane introduced the word of the day; equivocal, which means having several meanings or deliberately ambiguous. One of our new members, Ranjit, amused us with a joke about a cop waiting to catch a DWI outside the bar. Instead he ends up with the designated decoy.
We had 3 speakers tonight. Bill dove right in and gave us Ice breaker which focused on the importance of friends and family. Rob gave speech #4, How to say it, and told a story about the untimely death of a co-worker. Jean-Marc delivered speech #2, Get to the point, giving more history of brick making in the Hudson Valley. Tim took over as our Table Topics Master and challenged everyone to tell either a story about recent blizzard or your most embarrassing moment. There was great participation and stories ranged from heartwarming to hysterical. Then we moved on to the evaluation portion of the meeting. Janice P evaluated Bill’s Ice breaker and complimented his stage presence and choice of content. Sanjeev evaluated Rob’s speech with a well rounded combination of praise and suggestions. Janice B evaluated Jean-Marc’s very passionate brick making speech, with some advice about keeping on time.
After the meeting, we gathered for snacks provided by Trishla and Rob.
We also welcomed our two new members Ranjit and Abhal!!!
Our next meeting will be March 15th.

February 15, 2010

February 15, 2010 Meeting

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Janice B.

Our word of the day was vitiate – meaning to make faulty or defective or to impair someone or something. It can also mean to make ineffective.

Julie was our timer for the meeting.

Rob gave us the joke for the day.

Our first speaker was Tim P. doing speech number 3 from the Competent Communication manual entitled “Getting the Bull out” a speech that discussed taking responsibility for your own actions.

Our second speaker for the evening was Neal Marsh who did a speech from an advanced manual called “Interpretive Reading” – he read to us the story of Corrie ten Boom and how she felt when she met one of the guards from a concentration camp where she had been held during World War II. It was a powerful story.

In honor of President’s day Janice P. brought us presidential table topics for us to practice our Impromptu Speaking skills on – including the following one as an example – “Which of the founding fathers do you like best? Or least? And why?”

Karin then gave Tim some pointers on his speech on how to make it better and what skills he already was using that were used well.

Ruth then evaluated Neal’s reading with some pointers on how to make the reading more effective to an audience in the future.

Julie then gave us our timing report on how well we had kept to the times allotted as well as where we could improve.

Yvette helped us to know about those verbal crutches as well as any areas where she felt we could have “said it better” with a better use of vocabulary.

The meeting then adjourned to enjoy the snacks that were available and have some time for socializing.

Our next meeting is March 1 at 7 p.m. and we hope you can join us then!!

February 1, 2010

Rob was our toastmaster tonight and opened our meeting with a quote from Benjamin Franklin “We are not guaranteed happiness – just the pursuit of it.” Something to consider when we are all thinking what we are entitled to in this life.

Swarna was our timer and kept our meeting on track.

Janice P. gave us the joke about the Elephant and three blind men – perceptions matter.

Emancipation – the act or process of freeing someone from the restraint, control or power of another. A very appropriate word considering that February is Black History Month. The word of the day was brought to us by our word master and grammarian – Yvette.

Trishla was our first speaker of the night and it was her first speech – the icebreaker from the Competent Communication manual – it is always a great thing to get to know our new members and learn about them. Trishla spoke on her hobbies and her favorite books.

Tim P., our second speaker, doing his second speech from the Competent Communication manual spoke on goals and how to achieve them – reminding us to be specific in the documentation and pursuit of our goals.

Neal Marsh gave us a speech from the Better Speaker Series that Toastmasters created and it was entitled “Take the terror out of Talk” – Neal’s speech reminded us of all the things that we can to do help ourselves remain calm and focused while speaking in front of people. The speech also reminded us that practice in any endeavor makes that endeavor better and public speaking is no exception.

Our Table topics master was Dave Wheeler – he challenged us with interesting questions meant to help us to learn to handle impromptu speaking challenges better. The table topics were amusing and helped everyone to have an opportunity to practice our fast thinking and speaking.

The evaluation portion of the meeting progressed with Janice P. giving Trishla some pointers on how to improve her speech. Janice B. gave Tim P. some important feedback on the content and presentation of his speech. Finally, Dave Wheeler reviewed Neal Marsh’s presentation of the Better Speaking Series Module with some suggestions for Neal for the next time he presents this speech.

Swarna then gave us our timing report so that we all knew how we had handled each section of the meeting.

Yvette let us know where our verbal crutches came into play and how to improve them by making us aware that we were using them.

The meeting then adjourned to the snack table for some after meeting discussions and enjoyment of the snacks provided by Rob.

Our next meeting is on February 15, 2010 and we hope you can join us!!

January 18, 2010 Toastmasters Meeting

Jean-Marc took on the role of Toastmaster for the first time and explained that our theme for the meeting was Unreal/Real and suggested that on Martin Luther King day we consider how his achievements made the Unreal/real – by taking that idea of inequality and worked to make it a reality.

As an artist, Jean-Marc stated that part of his job is to make the Unreal/Real, by taking a concept and bringing it into reality.

Tim P. was our joke master and told a golf joke to get us all laughing.

Janice B. was our Ah/Grammarian and shared a special word to help expand our vocabulary – Neophilia – and while it sounds a little odd, it means “a love of novelty and new things”.

Jane gave her first speech and shared the history of the St. Cabrini girls home the new focus and the work taking place there to help the girls lead normal lives. The speech was very enlightening and helped us to know of the good work that is going on there.

Rob R. was our second speaker and discussed the value of time – he challenged us with the question – if you had only 86,400 seconds left – how would you spend your day? Consider this question on a daily basis in order to live your life to the fullest. Why is it that we think that we have unlimited time at our disposal? In light of the tragedy in Haiti, make the choices of how you spend your time with more thought and consideration.

Swarna was our Table topics master – it is at this point in the meeting that we all get an opportunity to practice our impromptu speaking skills.

The questions that Swarna challenged us with were:

What has been the biggest challenge you have ever faced – how have you faced it – and how have you overcome that challenge?

Many people spoke on the challenges of parenthood or education and other personal challenges that they have faced – it was an excellent question which not only helped us to practice our speaking, but to get to know one another better.

We then moved on to our speech evaluations for the night.

Janice P. evaluated Jane’s speech and offered her insight on what strengths she already has as well as what things can be improved in her future speeches.

Karen vK. Evaluated Rob R.’s speech and offered him suggestions for making the speech even better.

We then heard our reports from the timer Julie – who helps us to keep our meetings on time and then from our ah/grammarian Janice B. who helped us to recognize those verbal crutches we used during the meeting.

Then we all got to enjoy the snacks that the snack master brought for the meeting.

We were all happy to have Trishla join us again and happy to see Saul back after the holidays.

We look forward to our next meeting on February 1, 2010 and we hope that you will join us!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! January 4, 2010 Meeting

HAPPY NEW YEAR – and Welcome Back to Southern Dutchess Toastmasters

We began our year with a familiar face as Toastmaster – Janice B.

Swarna kept us on time for the evening

Jane was our Ah/Grammarian and shared with us a very interesting word to help us expand our vocabulary:

Hebitude – meaning lethargy or dullness – suggesting mental dullness or torpor and comes from the Latin.

Tim P. – provided us with a joke to make us laugh and relax before we began the formal portion of our meeting.

Our speaker this evening is Rob R. whose speech was entitled “40 pounds – goals and how to meet them”. His speech dealt with looking at a goal and deciding how to break it down into manageable pieces. He chose to follow the book 8 minutes in the morning as that seemed reasonable. Rob reminded us that looking at and beginning a quest for a goal requires that you set up a specific way to measure those goals and if you are not attaining them or moving towards them with the object to reevaluate your quest if you are not moving towards them as you feel you should be.

It was a very inspiring speech and timely considering most people have just completed making their resolutions for the New Year. We all enjoyed it.

Our table topics master was Julie C. and she had some great questions for us to practice our impromptu speaking skills.

Janice P. provided Rob with feedback on his speech and provided some suggestions to help him improve his speeches in the future.

We then had all of our reports including our Ah/Grammarian and timer.

We had a special visitor who was visiting the club for the first time named Trishla, we all had a nice time meeting her and getting to know her better and look forward to seeing her again in the future.

Our meeting ended with a nice time catching up after the holidays and enjoying the snacks provided by our “snackmaster”.

Our next meeting is on January 18th at 7 p.m. and we hope you can come and join us for another exciting meeting!!