The month of July brought many wonderful speeches, learning experiences, and laughs in our well-knit and quickly growing group. But there’s nothing like the president letting it all hang out to really keep things — hairy? See the Table Topics prop (a wig) and club president Joanna Knott’s accompanying storyline of the wild and flailing hair from her teenage days!
Joanna the Rock Star!
Parker Toastmasters would like to extend it’s heartfelt gratitude to Rich Hopkins for giving a great speech to help him prepare for the International Speech competition in Las Vegas in two weeks.
Rich taught us a great and humbling lesson. Rich is at the top of his game as a speaker. He just delivered for many of us one of the best speeches we have ever heard. Many were brought to tears. Yet Rich humbly asked us all for feedback so he can improve even more.
Thanks also to Byron Embry for being our honored guest.
It was an honor to meet both gentlemen who are both great and inspirational speakers, and who both took valuable time out of their busy days to speak to all the club members and guests tonight. Thanks Rich and Byron!
The last meeting of July 2011 provided opportunity to meet several new people–we welcomed Debbie Hall’s nephew Tyler, Darin (who spent 10 years in Minnesota, so Jodi had instant respect for him since she is a MN native!), Joanna’s friend Steve, and Krupa (who goes by John.) We also got to hear some very engaging speeches. The Parker “Talk of the Town” Toastmasters really are the “talk of the town” in that the topics outclass “everyday” conversation; the club’s members are rich in personality and thought, it seems, and our speeches certainly reflect that.
Joanna Knott worked as our Toastmaster of the evening. She makes it look effortless and as our club president she has no trouble stepping into any of the necessary roles–but it’s clear her passion is for all the members to grow. Any member is encouraged to embrace one of the many roles needed to help the evening along: Toastmaster, General Evaluator, Speech Evaluator, Timer, and Grammarian. All of these contribute on many levels to personal growth–not to mention attaining the Competent Leadership Award!
One of our newest members, Ryan Zoeller, broke his way into the fold with his engaging Ice Breaker speech about his ambitions as a 14-year-old self-employed lawn-mower who was tapped by a local employer into “bigger times” with his lawn-mowing service. He attributes his early maturity, self-discipline, and success to his parents’ examples as well as life as a student of the Catholic school system.
Eric Dunham delivered a moving speech about the American Constitution, the pinnacle of which he read Preamble at the podium, “we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”. Whether we considered ourselves patriots or not there was no denying the passion and substance to his speech.
Jodi Michael Horner plunged into her third speech from the Competent Communicator’s manual with the topic of temperament, specifically the Keirsey Temperament Sorter in which she is certified. She has plans to expound upon the presentation by providing more detail on the four main types so that we might better understand ourselves and others.
Voting for the night proffered the Best Speech for Eric Dunham’s passionate work, Best Table Topic went to Joanna Knott for her recount of times as a young woman with friends during rock concerts–with wild long hair flailing! And Best Evaluator went to Martin Cobb for his eloquent appraisal of Eric’s speech, and in so doing provided valuable insight for all of our members to use in future speeches.
After the speeches and evaluations, Joanna gave a 20 minute presentation on the Club’s progress and future goals. It’s evident that she’s excited and this is encouraging to us all! One of the bottom lines: let’s get the President’s Distinguished Status for our club again this year!
Thanks to Ryan for stepping up into the role of Timer, which he handled meticulously. By volunteering for that role he also made his first step into his Competent Leadership work–a great habit with which to start his membership.
Sandra Marthaler was our General Evaluator and provided an upbeat and thorough summary of our evening, which included 10 members in attendance and 4 guests. Although success in the Toastmasters organization ultimately is not about numbers it is encouraging and helpful hear the applause afforded by the growing membership of our club.
Last Saturday July 16, the biannual Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) was held, with hundreds of participants from all over the greater Denver area.
Regional advisor Brenda Smull, DTM led off the event as keynote speaker with a rousing and inspirational speech about how club officers are the ‘secret sauce’ that make the whole ‘Big Mac’ work.
Joanna Knott, Parker Toastmasters President, was pleased to see a full showing of all of the officers for this event.
In addition to officer training for each role, the club officers availed themselves of two separate training sessions each. Some of the courses taken included:
Maximized Mentoring (Eric Dunham)
Evaluations by the Numbers (Sandy Marthaler)
Effective Persuasion (Jodi Michael Horner)
Contest Judges Certification Training (Joanna Knott)
Wired for Success (Eric Dunham)
Arming Yourself for Impromptu Success (Jodi Michael Horner)
Using Social Media I & II (Bruce Ekins)
Zen and the Art of Effective Listening (Sandy Marthaler)
Selecting a Speech Topic (Joanna Knott)
I was honored to present the session Social Media I and to help Joyce Feustel in session II to facilitate the breakout session on using Twitter.
District 26 President Norm Frickey said that the TLI this year received overwhelmingly positive feedback and he considered it a success.
How is it possible that the meetings keep getting better and better each time? What do we do to bring so much energy and keep momentum going? The enthusiasm of the Club members is beyond words.
Eric Dunham was our Toastmaster and provided with a handful of interesting quotes about public speaking. Here is one of them: “A foolish man talks, a wise man speaks”.
Room 203 at the SE Christian Church was full of wisemen tonight. We had a full house of 13 including two new guests Bob and Ryan, and a special guest, our new Metro 6 Area Governor Shari Quackenbush. Martin Cobb made a come back after 2 years – welcome back and hope you will stay for a while.
Kellan Stephen gave his ice-breaker on family values and shared with us how his parents impacted his life. His hard working family instilled important values in him and was there to support him.
Jodi Horner delivered her second speech “Messenger for Massage” and gave us a plethora of reasons why we should visit a professional masseur from time to time. Besides removing pains, a massage can lower your blood pressure, improve circulation, boost immunity, and is one of the best ways to reduce stress.
Martin Cobb started his speech with a quote: “Stand like Lincoln, speak like Churchill”. This is what Toastmasters is all about! In his speech, from an advanced manual Speak to Inform, he introduced us to a concept of “Learning Journey Model”, which takes people from no knowledge to competency. This model was introduced to Catholic Health Initiatives and Martin was a part of the project.
Caroline Nguyen painted with words a beautiful picture of Vietnam, her homeland, as a tourism destination everybody should get to one day. With its improved infrastructure, inexpensive lodging, rich in tastes cuisine, Vietnam is becoming an attractive journey destination for more and more holidaymakers. The vision of a picturesque coastline combined with explosion of colors and smells will be instilled in our minds forever.
Sandy Marthaler as usual entertained us with her vivid, high-energy and funny Yellowstone story. She literally took all of us on a short trip to this amazing and indescribable natural wonder. Listening to her speech is like listening to a great radio show as she is a true master of word. It is hard not to jump, smile and cry, or even get goose bumps when she talks about her experiences.
Yes, this Club is getting better and better – no doubt. Why? Here is one of the reasons. We couldn’t pick just one Best Speaker or Table Topic Speech – we had a triple tie in first, and a quadruple tie in the second category! This means we all get more proficient in delivering prepared speeches and more comfortable in delivering impromptu speeches.
Best Speaker: Martin, Kellan, Sandy
Best Table Topic: Kellan, Bill, Eric, Joanna
Best Evaluator: Michele
Parker Toastmasters is on its way to another President’s Distinguished Club award! That’s beyond doubt. If you have not visited us yet, please do so and for sure you will not regret it.
Thanks again to the guests for stopping by, we hope you will come back. Shari, your comments and feedback will be welcomed and appreciated.
Let’s hear more stories on July 21th.
2010-11 was a great year for the club! We reached our goal of President’s Distinguished Status from Toastmaster’s International.
Let’s not forget that it was accomplished because of the continual individual and collective efforts of every member.
Let’s also congratulate our fellow area Metro Six clubs: Lunch Out Loud and Castle Rock Toastmasters for achieving President’s Distinguished Status as well!
Our Area Governor Elaine Love was so supportive, encouraging and a great inspiration to all of her clubs this year. Elaine is now the Metro Division’s 2011-12 Governor. Thanks for a great year Elaine!
Besides the awards, and the new officer elections, we had a very busy meeting on Thursday June 23.
We had three guests, Bob and Adele Lalich, and Sam Jarris. Thank you for attending! We hope you make another meeting, and consider joining our club.
Members attending were Eric Dunham, Joanna Knott, Kaitlyn Wolf, Bruce Ekins, Jodi Michael Horner, Sandy Marthaler and Bill Morgan.
There were four speeches, delivered by Jodi Michael Horner, Eric Dunham, Sandy Marthaler and Joanna Knott.
Jodi Michael Horner delivered a great Icebreaker speech, using a Mythbuster theme, and she busted myths about Minnesotans and twins. As you have already guessed, Jodi is a Minnesota twin, and she has Colorado twins of her own.
Eric Dunham spoke in his speech Sunrise about what it is like to climb a ‘fourteener’.
Sandy Marthaler educated us on how to pack smartly for travel.
Eric and Sandy’s speeches were their fifth from the Competent Communicator manual and they both earned their 1/2 CC ribbon.
Joanna Knott educated us on International Children’s Day, and how this is celebrated worldwide, yet the United States barely pays attention to it. June 10, 2012 is the next one – thanks Joanna! Joanna earned her Advanced Communicator Bronze by completing this speech.
Kaitlyn Wolf served as Timer. Bill Morgan was the Grammarian and the Word of the Day was festive. Eric Dunham was our General Evaluator.
Bruce Ekins was our Table TopicsMaster, and he continued in the recent tradition of providing a challenging and engaging topic. The topic was vacation memories using our Five Senses to describe what we remember. We had great participation and Bruce gave us some wise advice at the end – to remember that we contribute to the memories of the next generation, and to be mindful of that important fact.
The Best Speaker was Eric Dunham, the Best Evaluator was Bill Morgan and the Best Table Topic was presented by Sandy Marthaler.
Joanna nominated and the club elected new officers for the 2011-12 year, which begins at the next meeting on July 7. Please welcome to the leadership team for 2011-12:
Joanna Knott President/Treasurer
Eric Dunham Vice-President Education
Bruce Ekins Vice-President Public Relations
Sandy Marthaler Vice-President Membership
Caroline Nguyen Secretary
Jodi Michael Horner Sergeant At Arms
I couldn’t have imagined a better outcome to my year serving Parker Toastmasters as its President.
At tonight’s meeting I was proud to speak about how far the club has come along in the last three years. This year we had unprecedented participation and enthusiasm by our officers and members. Our club had speech contests and we sent competitors to the area competitions. We had social gatherings and we met every goal. We achieved the pinnacle of club achievement – President’s Distinguished Club.
But all of that is only because each member applies his or her self to the task at hand – towards improving with every meeting attended.
Let’s not forget to congratulate tonight’s award winners:
Toastmaster of the Year – Joanna Knott, ACB
Most Improved Toastmaster of the Year – Carolyn Nguyen
Leader of Excellence – Paul Johnson, CC
I would also like to thank the club officers for 2010-11 – who went that extra mile to make the club a success:
Joanna Knott, ACB
Vice-President Education
Paul Johnson, CC
Vice-President Public Relations
Nina Minary
Vice-President Membership
Aisha Yededjii, CC
Secretary/Treasurer
Ira Martin, Jr.
Sergeant At Arms
And let’s also recognize our club contest winners
Fall Contest
Michele O’Brien-Rose, CC
Humorous Speech Winner
Paul Johnson, CC
International Evaluation Winner
Spring Contest
Joanna Knott, ACB
International Speech Winner
Bill Morgan, ACS CL
Table Topics Winner
Let’s use the positive lessons learned and the friendship gained to reflect upon the last year. We can and will build upon our personal and club achievement to make a bright future for Parker Toastmasters! It is wonderful to know that the club is in good hands with Joanna Knott and her officers this year!
Parker Toastmasters 2011-12 Officers
Joanna Knott, ACB
President/Treasurer
Eric Dunham
Vice-President Education
Bruce Ekins
Vice-President Public Relations
Sandy Marthaler
Vice-President Membership
Caroline Nguyen
Secretary
Jodi Michael Horner
Sergeant at Arms
Our club is on the verge of achieving a lofty goal – President’s Distinguished Club Status.
This is the pinnacle of club achievement for Toastmasters’ International, and it is due to the great efforts of each and every one of you that we are close to this goal.
DCP as a benchmark is not perfect but if you are achieving many of the goals it does correlate pretty well to having a successful, active club. When we add in the intangibles such as enthusiasm, attendance and participation we can see that we are doing well.
Everyone keep up the great work!
| Item | Goal | Total | Met | |
| 1 | CCs | 2 | 2 | X |
| 2 | Additional CCs | 2 | 2 | X |
| 3 | ACs | 1 | 1 | X |
| 4 | Additional ACs | 1 | 0 | Expected |
| 5 | CL, AL, or DTM | 1 | 1 | X |
| 6 | Additional CLs, ALs, or DTMs | 1 | 0 | |
| 7 | New Members | 4 | 4 | X |
| 8 | Additional New Members | 4 | 15 | X |
| 9 | Officers Trained (both required) | |||
| June-August | 4 | 6 | ||
| and December-February | 4 | 4 | X | |
| 10 | Submitted on time (both required) | |||
| October or April Renewal | 1 | 2 | ||
| and Officer List | 1 | 1 | X | |
| Total | 8
|
Key:
CC – Competent Communicator
AC – Advanced Communicator
CL – Competent Leader
AL – Advanced Leader
DTM – Distinguished Toastmaster
Parker’s other Toastmasters club is sponsoring a very good seminar Monday night that you should attend.
Part 1: Characteristics of Effective Leadership
FREE Monday, June 20 · 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: Parker Library 10851 S. Crossroads Drive Parker, Colorado
It’s objective: Define the qualities that determine effective leaders, identify your own leadership style, and learn to determine a team’s leadership needs Who should attend?
Anyone currently in a leadership role or looking to take on a leadership role at work, school, home, or while volunteering RSVP for one or both sessions – content is independent.
PLEASE RSVP to Amy Jordheim 303-841-3215, amyjordheim@comcast.net.
