A Welcome To Our Student Guests

We are always excited when we have guests visit our Cottonwood Toastmaster's Club! This past Monday we had the pleasure of enjoying four new guests, what fun! Two of our guests were visitors from a local college business class assigned to speak at our club, and who came even with their nervousness and shakes! Hooray to this teacher who gave the assignment for the students to participate in a Toastmaster Club Table Topics.

For those of you readers who are not familiar with Toastmasters, each week at our meetings we have a fun segment where the Table Topics Master calls on an unsuspecting participant to give a 90 second impromptu speech. The topic in our club is taken from the theme of the day. Our theme for this meeting was "Traffic". I happened to be the Table Topics Master deciding to have some fun with this topic!

 One of my questions was "If you were a stop light in a busy city, what would your thoughts be at rush hour?" To assist our guests, especially our very nervous student guests, I asked one of our best speakers, long time member, and DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) to go first. She set a great example for the following two speakers.

Question number two was:

"Some towns are so small that the only traffic guide for the entire town is a four way stop sign at the only intersection in town. One day you experience four cars at the same time at your intersection, quite an unusual event. As a four way stop sign, what are you thoughts while experiencing this unusual moment?"

And question number three was:

"On occasion there are reasons for the freeway to shut down. Have you ever been stuck on the freeway in a traffic jam? What did you do and how did you handle your delay?"

I loved question number three because as I was contemplating what questions to ask our participants about "Traffic", I remembered the day my husband, daughter and I were stuck in very slow traffic at crawling speed, coming down Oak Creek Canyon. After a few minutes of this slow speed crawl, my husband jumped out of the car and said "I'll see you at the bottom of the hill! I'm going visiting." and off he jogged, stopping along the way to visit and have a laugh with whom ever would lend him an ear! He is so fun to be married to. I guess in a way, I was  hoping our speaker would relate a similar story, but since he was just a young college boy, he was modest in his answer. I am proud to say that he won the Table Topics Best Speaker award for the day!

I say to you all "Welcome to our Cottonwood Arizona Toastmasters Club where we have a lot of fun! Bring yourself and a guest anytime. You are more than welcome!"

To public speaking and the fun of overcoming your fears, happy day to you and CONGRATULATIONS for getting out of your comfort zone!

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

Pets on Parade

One day I heard someone say that they thought the Table Topics portion of Toastmasters was the dessert of the meeting. I would have to agree. We have oodles of fun with our Table Topics time and this weeks was not a disappointment! 

Our theme of the day was "Pets on Parade" and our Table Topics Master did a great job incorporating that theme into the meeting. One of the first questions he asked was "There has been a reversal in our the society, humans are the pets, and the pets are the masters. Your pet has taken you to a parade. Tell us what you are doing." This was too funny and quiet the challenge! Our speaker talked about her experience of being put in a wagon to juggle all different types of balls using her hands and her feet. She had to "Juggle, juggle, and juggle some more!" 

The next question was "You have recently written a book called "Pets on Parade". Tell us how you chose the title and who your intended audience is." Okay readers, why don't you answer this one? I'd like to know!

The last question was "Us earthlings have contacted an alien world. You have been chosen as a delegate to this alien world and have been asked to pick ten animals that best represent our earth. What ten animals would you choose, and why?" Wow! That's a difficult one. There are so many amazing creatures on our planet. The speaker did a great job and mentioned that he would start with a fish as it represents the life in the waters on our earth. The next would be the turkey, for it's intelligence, being smarter than the eagle. What animals would you choose? I think I would choose the lion for it's majesty and strength. To me it would represent us, the people. We are strong and courageous, having faced many challenges in our existence. We are mighty! Hear us ROAR!!

 

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

Happy Halloween!

The holidays are now upon us and most everyone is in the celebrating spirit. This week in our Cottonwood Toastmasters club our Table Topics Master outdid herself! She began by handing out sealed envelopes to everyone in the room. In the sealed envelopes was a message. You either received a paper saying "Treat", "Trick", or "Trick or Treat". If you received a paper that said "Treat" then she threw you a bag of candy. If your paper said "Trick", then she read you a question, Halloween related of course, and you had to do your Table Topics on that subject. If you received a paper that said "Trick or Treat" you got to choose what you wanted, a treat or to do a trick. 

All of the impromptu speeches were fun and entertaining! Congratulations go to our winner, although, we were all winners this day!

Happy Holidays from your Cottonwood Toasties!

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

Too Much FUN!

You would LOVE our Cottonwood Toastmasters group. We have too much fun! It's a great thing seeing each of us progress in our public speaking goals and the learning of leadership skills. Here are just a few highlights of the past month of meetings:

Tara, our newest member, gave her first speech from the competent communicators manual, project one, titled "Ice Breaker". She did a fantastic job. A quote from the beginning of her speech is "How do you make God laugh? You tell Him your plans." We learned a lot about Tara and appreciate her courage!

Laurie gave us a speech on learning to drive and her experiences with her children. How fun to relive those memories!

Helen gave a wonderful speech from her competent communicator manual, the project titled "Vocal Variety". We learned about her many travels with her sister and their surviving each other in long distances and in close quarters. Excellent speech Helen!

AND last, but not least, our Table Topic for today was about a carnival caravan having an accident (the theme of the day was "Road Rage"). What a hoot! We had witnesses to the accident. There was Donald Duck, a little five year old girl, an old man, a Ring Master, and more. Everyone did a great job!

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 634-6540

If You Were A Mirror

Congratulations to Paula for winning the Table Topics portion of our Cottonwood Toastmasters meeting yesterday. You did a marvelous job answering the following question: "If mirrors could talk, I wonder what they would say. Mirrors capture the images of many things such as people, shower steam, animals, insects whizzing past, and so much more. If you were a mirror, explain to us what travelers you may have seen that have passed your way."

In the Free Dictionary by Farlex, we learn that a mir·ror  (mrr) n, is:

1. A surface capable of reflecting sufficient undiffused light to form an image of an object placed in front of it. Also called looking glass.

2. Something that faithfully reflects or gives a true picture of something else.

3. Something worthy of imitation.

 

 

Cottonwood Toastmasters meets every Monday 12:00 to 1:15 at the Cottonwood Village, 201 E Mingus Ave. Guests are welcome. For more information call Laina Lloyd at 928-300-8638 or Dave Ellison at 928-634-6540

Table Topics

At every Toastmasters meeting we have a section devoted to Table Topics. "Table Topics" is an unrehearsed speaking exercise where the speaker speaks "off the cuff"; that is, the speaker responds to a question or topic that is not known beforehand. The Table Topics Master presents the topic, calls on an individual, and then that individual has 1 to 2 minutes to respond. In our club, you have 90 seconds.

This is one of my favorite times at Toastmasters. During a recent meeting I was asked to stand and address the assigned topic. I started to shake, my mind went blank, and after what felt like forever, my mouth finally began to speak! It's crazy how your brain starts moving and then the words begin to come out. It seems like an eternity standing there trying to think of something to say and you wonder "When will that light come on so I can stop speaking! Surely I have spoken long enough!" Ah, the light. Yes, we have a light that signals our time, thank goodness, or I would probably end too soon. With a sigh of relief, you finally see the light and you can end. You hurry and take your seat and wonder, "What in the world did I say?"

So, do you want to give it a go? Okay, this will be good practice for you! Set the timer for 90 seconds. Here is your topic: Talk about the most trouble you have ever been in. On your mark, get set, GO! Woo Hoo, fun isn't it? There are several members of our Cottonwood Toastmasters Club that are amazing examples of ad-libbing. I look forward to hearing form them during the Table Topics session of our meetings. I look forward to hearing from you too. Feel free to leave a comment about your first blog assigned Table Topics speech. We would all like to hear about it!

Come join us for an afternoon of fun! It will brighten your day and quicken your step. You will walk around with smile on your face and everyone will begin to wonder what you are up to!

Signing out for now,
Your Cottonwood Toastmasters Toastie,
Laina Lloyd