Holiday Party: Good Time Was Had by All
Warner Center Toastmaster's annual Christmas Party brought a boisterous
group of club members and their spouses to the Calabasas home of Tess
Asiala on Saturday, December 2nd. Club members exercised
their eating, drinking,
schmoozing, and general partying skills,
ushering in the Yuletide season with all the panache for which WCTM is
known. Tess’s son provided the evening’s piano accompaniment which
included a rousing sing-along version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”
featuring new, “original” lyrics created on the spot by the party goers
(“And a Partridge in an Exotic Tree!”). In recognition of her
extraordinary generosity, Rose Lane presented Tess with fine,
cut-glass platter.
Toastmasters: The Friendliest Place on Earth
The Pearls Room at the Marriott was the site of Warner Center Toastmasters (WCTM) November 20th meeting as 26 members and two guests enjoyed an evening of Table Topics, four Prepared Speeches, and Evaluations. The theme of the meeting was Bring a Friend. Toastmaster, Loan Carrison, ATM-B, provided vivid illustration of this topic in her opening remarks. Recalling how fellow club member, Maya Debus, CTM had brought her to a meeting some twenty years before, Loan shared with the group how her involvement in WCTM has changed her persona from that of being so “painfully shy, I couldn’t even say my name,” to the outgoing person she is today. “I’m really glad that Maya brought me here. Toastmasters will be an amazing experience for you all of you,” she concluded
Table Topics: You “Gotta” Have Friends
Dan Marzec, ATM-B
served as Topics Master for the Table Topics
segment of the evening’s program. Speaking of the many benefits of
friendship, Dan told the group that if they wanted to do something nice
for one of their friends, that they should invite them to a
Toastmasters
meeting. “WCTM is really a show piece. Here friends give each other
valuable advice,” he said. “This is most important – it’s easier to
speak in front of friends.” With that the amicable Mr. Marzec questioned
the following WCTM members on a variety of topics related to friendship:
Alan Reveles,
Mohnish Sharma, Larry Blackford,
Art Hugon, Norm
Dornfest, CTM, Tess Asiala, CTM,
Susan Mayberry, ATM-B,
Bill Anderson,
John Graves, CTM / CL, and Soraya Deen,
ATM-B. The Best Table Topics
award went to Bill Anderson for his answer to the question, “Who
is the best friend you ever had?”
Prepared Speeches: An Eclectic Foursome
The Prepared Speeches portion of the meeting program was comprised of three offerings from the Communications & Leadership Manual (CLM) by Cate Bramble (speech #4), Colin Giles (speech #5), and Don West, whose talk (speech #10) fulfilled the requirements for the Competent Communicator (CC) designation. Chick Saffell, the segment’s fourth speaker gave a speech from the Advanced Manual.
Leading off for the third time in the last four meetings was Cate Bramble with “The Fountain of Youth.” Using audience participation to drive home her point, Cate spoke of how exercising the imagination is the key to keeping ourselves young at heart. “One thing that separates us from children is a sense of the ‘newness’ of the world,” she said.
Colin Giles was up next with a speech entitled, “God” in which he explored the various ways in which people relate to the deity. From simply exclaiming, “Oh God!” to prayer to church attendance, religious communication is a highly individual choice according to Mr. Giles. However, he added, “When God talks to us that is what we fear!”
In “How to Find a Soul Mate,” Don
West
related the story of how a trip to the movies two weeks
after the Northridge earthquake led to a second chance at wedded bliss
at age 46. His formula, “Next time there is a 6.7 earthquake in
Northridge, go to the Mann Theatres in Agoura, and (most importantly)
ask God for help. I did and it worked!” In addition to achieving his
Competent Communicator designation, Don was also voted the evening’s
Best Speaker.
The evening’s final speaker, Chick Saffell, used his speech, “Don’t Leave out the Details” to illustrate how to make a talk more interesting by including specifics that provide color and emphasis. Starting with a bare-bones account of having a flat-tire while on his way to work, Chick then re-told the story adding a variety of descriptive items. “By using details you can take a story and make it more memorable,” he advised. “If you do that you will find that your talks will come to life.”
Evaluations: Friendly Suggestions
Maisie Lee filled the role of
General Evaluator
for the meeting’s final segment, Evaluations.
“Suggestions are important, especially when we get them from friends,”
she told the group. Describing the meeting as “enjoyable”, Maisie also
commented, “A Monday meeting – I like it!” Individual evaluations were
done by Lois Coburn (Cate Bramble),
Carolyn Goldman, CTM (Colin Giles),
Rose Lane, DTM (Don West), and
Shelly Bright (Chick Saffell) who
was voted the meeting’s “Best Evaluator.”
Announcement: Workshop Available
Susan Mayberry, ATM-B announced that she would be happy to offer the workshop she taught at District 52’s Annual Educational Conference on November 18th, “Speechless to Speech Full: Ten Terrific Topics,” to interested WCTM members. The session is designed to help people plan the ten speech sequence from the Communications Manual required for the “Competent Communicator” designation. WCTM members who would like to participate should contact Erin O’Neill or Carolyn Goldman.
New Members
WCTM is pleased to welcome Audrey Forte to its membership ranks. Originally from Rockford Illinois, Audrey has been employed as an IT systems analyst at Well Point for the past ten years. With this fine addition to the WCTM family, our total membership now stands at 49.
Achievements / Awards
WCTM is proud to announce that with the completion of his tenth speech from the Communications Manual (see “Prepared Speeches” above); Don West has received his Competent Communicator (CC) designation. Congratulations Don!
Letter from the President
Dear Warner Center Toastmasters,
2006 is quickly coming to a close! Now is the time to look back on the past year and assess our accomplishments. It is also the time to look ahead, to set our goals for next year.
We belong to one of the best Toastmaster clubs in District 52, if not the very best! Please make it a goal to be involved as much as possible over the coming year. You will find that the more often you come to meetings and the more often you are on the program, the more you will grow both as a speaker and on a personal level.
Wishing all of you the very best for a Happy Holiday Season and a very Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
Your President,
Carolyn
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