Toastmaster Traveler

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...

Living Truth Center Toastmasters East Cleveland, OH Meets 7 PM Eastern Time on 2nd and 4th Fri days Attendance: 13 attendees Debates, when they are civil, can be loads of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the debate we had at the Living Truth Center Toastmasters on June 26. I was even able to chime in with my two cents worth. Jake, who facilitated the debate, did a good job of presenting the topic of the day and then guiding the conversation that followed. Apparently it wasn't obvious to most member than the scenario that he had posed was all made up. So he could have made it clearer that we were discussing a strictly hypothetical situation.  When we arrived 15 minutes before the meeting, there were members already in the Zoom room and they greeted us. That's always a plus. At some clubs, all the members show up at the last minute. To me, that does not make a good impression on guests. This meeting did go a little long. This club asks for volunteers to answer Table Topics questions (th...

Macatawa Club Zeeland, MI Meets 6:15 PM Eastern Time on Thur sdays Attendance: 14 attendees The French have a term "je ne sais quoi" for something that you can't quite explain. That phrase came to mind after my visit to the Macatawa Toastmasters club in Zeeland, MI, recently. The meeting was okay, but I didn't really feel jazzed after the meeting.  This club checked off many of the boxes for a successful Toastmasters meeting. They started on time and they ended on time. They kept the meeting moving. They engaged us, the visitors, in conversation before the meeting and explained meeting roles at the beginning of the meeting. They even used the Chat box in Zoom to post meeting roles, which is really good. Few clubs do that. Lois did a good job in her speech evaluation. She pointed out that the speaker, Amanda, started with a question and engaged audience members by name during her speech. Lois also offered helpful feedback in telling Amanda to turn down the brightness o...

Aero Achievers Toastmasters Club Wichita, KS Meets 5:45 PM Eastern Time on  Wednesdays Attendance: 4 members and 5 guests Technology can be a blessing and a curse -- and my wife and I experienced both sides of the equation on our recent visit to Aero Achievers Toastmasters Club in Wichita, KS, recently.  First of all, we tried to enter the Zoom meeting 15 minutes before the meeting and were greeted by a message that the host was in a different meeting. When we finally entered the Zoom room, we were there maybe a minute or two before the system unceremoniously kicked us out of the meeting. I have to admit I felt like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" as I looked over at my wife and said "Cynthia, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." The good thing is that the club members hosting the meeting were working on this several minutes before the meeting started. They were able to work out the kinks and, after everyone logged in once again, we had no more technical is...