Author Archives: Bonnie Mak

About Bonnie Mak

President, Beyond Words. All-round groovy girl ... just a tad impetuous, more than a little zany! I joined Toastmasters in February 2013 and it's been quite the exciting ride ...

Meeting #011 – October 22, 2016

What fun! Artem Ploujnikov, our VP Education, decided to Halloween our meeting up a bit, hence the creepy giant spider and the scary witch … BOO! Rick Chandler was our enthusiastic Toastmaster, especially delightful when he joked that “arrogant American” … Continue reading

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Meeting #010 – October 8, 2016

The fun thing about our club is that you never know what to expect … Though we have a defined structure and vision, we colour our meetings with lots of vibrancy and creativity, sometimes colouring within the lines, and sometimes … not. … Continue reading

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Meeting #009 – September 24, 2016

Super fun meeting with lots of laughs! To facilitate the special meeting program, we introduced the concept of the TOASTCHAIR. What a hoot, every time someone addressed me as “Madame Toastchair”, especially Giridhar Raghunathan, our Advanced Timer, who also got … Continue reading

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Get Your Game On! Evaluation Workshop with Rick Chandler – Meeting #008 – September 10, 2016

YOWZA! What a workshop! Rick Chandler, a multi-time District Champion (in ALL categories) and Beyond Words member, kicked off a fabulous Evaluation Workshop with a bang of a presentation … biggest take-home, SELL THE BENEFIT! We then launched into two contest-style … Continue reading

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Meeting #007 – August 27, 2016

Our Chairperson, Aziz Saud, said it best … “It’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality!” And definitely, Beyond Words has quality in spades … in the members, the visitors, the program, the speeches, the evaluations, and in our … Continue reading

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Raymond Brisebois Battles Washington – Meeting #006 – August 13, 2016

What an incredible meeting! We were honoured to have Raymond Brisebois, 2016 International Speech Contest Champion, District 61, present his two contest speeches as he prepares for the Toastmasters International Convention in Washington, DC. All of District 61 will be … Continue reading

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Meeting #005 – July 30, 2016

Meeting #005 was a speech bonanza! What fun, it was our own “Festival Just for Laughs!” with an amazingly diverse *United Nations* audience. I love how inclusive Toastmasters is! A little something about our club … In-depth speech evaluations are the … Continue reading

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Let’s get intimate! – Meeting #004 – July 16, 2016

What an exciting meeting! This special event held at the President’s home was designed to get to know each other better … and get to know each other better we did! We enjoyed a scrumptious frittata, bagels and cream cheese, fresh … Continue reading

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Improv in the Park – Meeting #003 – July 2, 2016

To put it simply … this special event was SO. MUCH. FUN !! Thanks to all who who braved the unusually cold summer temperature and high winds to make it out! Three awesome Toastmasters were inducted as members: Rick Chandler Marie-Chantal … Continue reading

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Meeting #002 – June 18, 2016

Always an exciting meeting … we were a small but very fun group of intrepid Toastmasters members! Highlights: Majeda Haidar as Chairperson describing the vision of Beyond Words. She actually went through our entire website and read the blog posts … Continue reading

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