Toastmaster Traveler

Associated Speechmasters Indianapolis, IN Meets noon Eastern Time Fridays Attendance: 6 members and 3 guests Many clubs shy away from hot-button topics, but not Associated Speechmasters on the day I visited their club. The theme of the meeting was Black Lives Matter, which is certainly polarizing our society today. Since everyone at this meeting fell on the same side of the issue, there were no fireworks at the meeting. It would have been interesting to have heard a differing viewpoints on the topic and watch people discuss those in a civil fashion. Civility!!! That's what is missing in many of the conversations about the issues of the day. This is a small club of 12 members and it appears that they've had some membership churn over the last 12 months. They've added eight new members in that time, so they might have some issues retaining members. With so few members, some people have to double up on meeting roles. For example, the Toastmaster of the Day, Stefanee, also did ...

Riverbend Toastmasters Henderson, KY Meets 1 PM Eastern Time Wednesdays Attendance: 8 members and 2 guests Riverbend Toastmasters in Henderson, KY, is one of those gems that I enjoy finding as I travel off the beaten path of online Toastmasters clubs. Now Henderson is not a bustling metropolis, but this Toastmasters can hold its own and more against clubs in larger cities. The energy and friendliness of club members were palpable as soon as Cynthia and I arrived at their Zoom meeting. Seven people were already logged on 15 minutes before the meeting, which for them started at noon. That tells me that these people are excited to be at  Toastmasters meeting. Debbie, the outgoing President of the club, provided a recap of the last year. We learned that the club fell on hard times last year as several members left for various reasons. The club started 2019-2020 with 14 members and lost eight of those members. The club rebounded to end the year with 12 members. Its members also remained...

St. Augustine Toastmasters Washington, D.C.  Meets 2:30 PM Eastern Time 1st and 4th Sundays Attendance: 6 members and 2 guests One of the advantages of visiting other Toastmasters clubs is picking up new ideas to improve my own club. I was fortunate to reel in a couple of keepers at St. Augustine Toastmasters on July 5. The first thing I liked was that VP Education Stacey had created an informal award certificate for Elisha's completion of Level 1 in the Presentation Mastery path. Stacey then shared her screen and we all could the see the award and celebrate with Elisha. That was a great idea. I also really enjoyed what Tom, the Table Topics Master, did. He found unusual names of Toastmasters clubs from around the world and asked three people why the club should change its name. Elisha responded that Radiant Rhetoric would be a great name for the club because Toastmasters has a way of "shedding light on the darkness of public speaking." Aguu opined that Toastbusters would...

Let's Talk Club Oklahoma City, OK Meets 7 PM Eastern Time Thursdays Attendance: 14 attendees Often the Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD), or the emcee, sets the tone of a meeting for the rest of the members and Sonya certainly did that at Let's Talk Toastmasters on July 2. I don't know if Sonya was a cheerleader in the past or an inspirational speaker now, but her pep and spark really energized me throughout the meeting. She also took the opportunity at different points of the meeting to play snippets of pop songs that we in the audience swayed and danced to, albeit in our seats.  That surge of happy brain chemicals -- serotonin and dopamine -- continued during Wiline's speech. She did a toast to the trio of members in the club who earned the Distinguished Toastmasters award in the last Toastmasters year, which ended June 30.  Members of this club were friendly and greeted us very warmly. The took the time at the beginning of the meeting to explain all the roles, which is h...

NEA Toastmasters Jonesboro, AR Meets 7 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays Attendance: 16 attendees We had a blast at NEA Toastmasters on June 30. They had a Toastmasters meeting that felt like a beach party because they altered their format for their theme of "Summer." When we logged on to the Zoom session, my wife Cynthia and I immediately knew something was afoot when we saw Tanya on screen wearing a lei and a floppy beach hat and she had a virtual background of tropical beach. After she confirmed that island attire was indeed encouraged, Cynthia and I rushed to find our leis and pineapple drinking cups so we could also be a part of the party. Since this was supposed to be a fun night, the club dispensed with the usual reports about time, filler words, and grammar, as well as verbal evaluations. Instead they had five 3- to 5-minute presentations about summer. We found out that Sheila despises summer, while Ashley loves it for time with family, travel, and barbeques. Brian and Brad te...

Tundra Talkers Toastmasters Fairbanks, Alaska Meets 4 PM Eastern Time Thursdays Attendance: 8 members and 3 guests Sometimes the "meeting before the meeting" can be just as fun, or even more fun, than the regular meeting when you go to Toastmasters. That was certainly the case during our online visit to Tundra Talkers in Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 2.  The people in Tundra Talkers are very friendly and my wife Cynthia and I had a great time just chatting before the meeting started. We learned that attendance tends to fall off during the summer months because there's 20 hours of daylight at during the summer season in Alaska. When Eric was building a house, he mentioned that it was not uncommon for him to be working on the roof at 1 AM and he could hear others in the neighborhood doing work outside too in the wee, yet sunlit, hours of the night. This club does a couple things that I haven't seen during my Toastmasters travels. First, the Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD) do...

Last Chance Toastmasters Club Helena, MT Meets 2 PM Eastern Time Thursdays Attendance: 10 members and 2 guests My faith in the state of Montana has been restored! I had previously reached out to two clubs in Montana about visiting them virtually and couldn't get any meeting information from them. In desperation, I posted on the Toastmasters International Facebook page and asked about clubs to visit online. I'm so glad I did. Kent from Last Chance Toastmasters in Helena, MT, responded and I had a grand time at their meeting on July 2. Members of the club were very friendly and they engaged us in conversation before the meeting started. My wife Cynthia and I were invited to participate in Table Topics, the impromptu speaking portion of the meeting, and we readily accepted.  I enjoyed Tolly's speech about "what's for dinner" (it's beef, by the way) and Kent had some excellent feedback for her speech. He suggested that she display more of herself on screen so ...

Top 5 Toastmasters Club Rapid City, SD Meets 2 PM Eastern Time on Third Sunday Attendance: 9 members and 2 guests Oops! That was my overall reaction after my online trip to the Top 5 Toastmasters Club in Rapid City, SD, recently. For the first 15 minutes of the meeting, club members had a business meeting to discuss whether to meet in person or online next week. That's an important discussion that needs to happen, but, in my opinion, that's not appropriate during a regular meeting. I can only imagine the unfavorable impression that could make on someone visiting a Toastmasters meeting for the first time. I have to admit that I'm against having business meetings in general during the regular club meeting time.  But the oops didn't stop there. It took another 15 minutes for the scheduled speaker Myra to work out technical issues. First, we couldn't hear her. Then we couldn't see her on the screen. Finally, Myra was able to start her speech at 2:30 PM, 30 minutes i...

Once Upon a Time Toastmasters Lewisville, TX Meets 5:30 PM Eastern Time on Third Sunday Attendance: 12 attendees This is a specialty Toastmasters club which is also a book club. They do speeches, evaluations, and Table Topics like any other Toastmasters club and then reserve the last portion of the meeting (15 minutes when we visited) for a general discussion of the book. The Table Topics questions revolved around themes pulled from the book, which was Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The club members were very welcoming and Cynthia, my wife, had the opportunity to answer a Table Topics question. We always enjoy participating in meetings when we can.  The evaluations in this meeting were interesting.  The first evaluator, Andres, who's the incoming area director, used what he called roses, thorns, and rosebuds as his feedback structure. Roses are the things the speaker does well. Thorns are things the speaker needs to work on. Rosebuds are suggestions to take the speec...

Blue Nile Toastmasters Club Memphis, TN Meets 4 PM Eastern Time on Sundays Attendance: 12 attendees Toastmasters royalty abounds in this club. Eight o f of its members are Distinguished Toastmasters, some multiple times over. Toni has five DTMs. Two of their members end their terms as area directors on June 30 and a third will start her term as area director on July 1. This is a club that is obviously dedicated to the Toastmasters educational program and to higher-level service outside the club. From what I can see, this is a club that takes the Toastmasters tagline to heart: "Where Leaders Are Made." I really enjoyed this meeting -- and to think we almost didn't make it. About 30 minutes before the meeting, I realized that I didn't have a link to the meeting. First, I emailed Nedra, the incoming club president, for the link and then Cynthia, my wife, called her. Nedra immediately texted us the link, but, alas, it didn't work. She must have realized that too becau...

Toastitarians Rochester, NY Meets 12:45 PM Eastern Time on 2nd and 4th Sundays Attendance: 5 members and 3 guests Murphy's Law -- if something can go wrong, it will -- was in full force at the Toastitarians meeting on June 28 and one of the speech evaluators pointed that out.  The listed start time for this meeting is 12:45 PM, so Cynthia and I logged into the Zoom room around 12:35. Samir greeted us when we arrived and then told us that the meeting really didn't start until 1 PM, because people didn't show up until then. Because of that, Toastitarians and I didn't start out on the right foot.  Then when the meeting started, none of the speakers were there. Two of the speakers had canceled because of family emergencies and the third was a guest that no one had heard from. So I volunteered to speak, because I had a speech ready to go. They eventually were able to contact the third speaker and she was able to join the meeting and do her speech. The club did display adapta...