Beyond Words Advanced Toastmasters

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 fruit, and coffee and tea before and during the meeting. What a treat!

Rick Chandler, a 22-year Toastmaster veteran and the 2016 Table Topics District Contest winner, delighted us with an informative and entertaining keynote speech, “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been.” Talk about being a prepared Toastmaster … Rick had handouts – a Top Ten Lessons list “Getting the Most from Your Toastmasters Experience” AND an in-depth evaluation checklist (please email us if you’d like a copy). Go Rick Go!

Following was a fun THINK FAST! Session that involved all of us. Talk about adding a twist to the Icebreaker! Each person revealed themselves through various questions and scenarios … but then it didn’t stop there, they also got interviewed based on their Icebreaker answers! Ganesh Santhar was hilarious!

He was given:

You are online dating. You will finally be meeting that super hot person you’ve been writing to for the past week. The date starts now.

Ganesh’s answer included: “You smell good.”

Interview question: “Why does a woman have to smell good?”

Okay, maybe you had to be there but … hahahahaha!

Most Enthusiastic ribbon went to me, Bonnie, but how could I not feel excited? Attending this intimate meeting in my home were 11 wonderful Toastmasters representing 10 different clubs, four of whom drove in from well over an hour away … what can be better than this?

This is Beyond Words Advanced Toastmasters. 🙂

Thanks to all who attended and made this special event so much fun! Looking forward to our next meeting on July 30 back in our regular venue …  we’re holding a Speech Bonanza!

Here are some photo highlights:

Rick Chandler delivering his keynote speech, “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been”

We are all captivated by Rick’s speech!

Sarah Lerner, “I’d like to learn a few words from every language.”

Thanks Sarah for taking this fun group shot!

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 Côté
• Gaetane Ferland

And our executive team for the new Toastmaster year starting in July was presented:

• President – Bonnie Mak
• VP Membership – Sapandeep Randhawa
• VP Education – Artem Ploujnikov
• VP Public Relations – Pierre LeBlanc
• VP Mentorship – Estelle Ross

Beyond Words is looking for motivated Toastmasters to complete our team … Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant at Arms. These positions can contribute to your Advanced Leadership Bronze (ALB), and as founding executive members, you’ll help to build an awesome advanced Toastmasters club!

Our enthusiastic Toastmaster, Rick Chandler, emphasized why we were gathered there in the park, albeit the crappy weather, and why we attend Beyond Words … to push past boundaries. It’s by stepping through our discomfort that we can grow! Interestingly, Rick was the only one who succeeded in using the word of the day, reminiscent, as the rest of us were just too distracted by the hilarity that ensued.

First up was a wonderful speaker, Lee Weishar, with his speech “Courage and Conviction”, where he gave a solid interpretative reading of Patrick Henry’s speech made to the Virginia Convention in 1775 in Richmond, Virginia … “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Great evaluations were given during the COACHING SESSION by our two evaluators, Ganesh Santhar and Marie-Chantal Côté, and the round-robin that will help Lee go from good to GREAT!

This special meeting included an extended two-part THINK FAST! Session full of delightful improv games led by Artem Ploujnikov and Bonnie Mak. We all definitely released our inner child and laughed heartily!

Artem’s games:

• Whoosh! – a super fun warm-up game with sound effects (whoosh, woah, zoom) and passing energy
• Bunny, Bunny  (or how Pierre LeBlanc and some others liked to play it, “Bonnie, Bonnie” … humph! 😛 ) This warm-up game was more complex, but it was so funny to see us all get into the body movements!
• Pillars – storytelling game played with a trio and two “pillars” that filled in the blanks

Bonnie’s games:

• Call & Answer – a group game where individuals segue from their answer to call out another question … with some help, of course, from a “hot potato”
• Freeze! – two people start a scene chosen by the group (place, object, action), then at a particular moment, an individual can shout out “Freeze!” and jump into the scene to replace one of the participants, starting an entirely new scene with the remaining participant

We will definitely have to play these games again during our regular meetings!

Our next meeting on July 16 will be another special event, Let’s Get Intimate!, held at the President’s home, where we will have an extended THINK FAST! Session designed to get to know each other in a super fun context. And no, we don’t get nekked!

Enjoy these pics from our meeting:

Rick Chandler, Toastmaster, and Lee Weishar, speaker

Lee Weishar, “Courage and Conviction”

Artem Ploujnikov, Topicsmaster #1 … voted Most Enthusiastic!

Our wonderful Improv in the Park gang!

At Ho Guom, our post-toasties spot … shrimp and vegetables with crispy noodles, so delicious!

Wild. Wacky. Wonderful!

What an incredible demo meeting! At 9:30 am on May 14, 28 enthusiastic people gathered in the Théâtre aux Écuries practice space and MAGIC happened. How could we have expected anything different, what with so much talent and know-how altogether in one room?

Highlights include:

1. SAA Sapandeep Randhawa’s succinct introduction of Pierre LeBlanc … “He’s been a Toastmaster for 3 and 2/3rds of a year, yes, that is exactly 3 years and 8 months. I’d like to thank Pierre for writing his own intro.”
2. Pierre LeBlanc, Chairperson, aka as Thor with his hammer
3. Artem Ploujnikov, Toastmaster, taking the sport of *gavelling* to an extreme
4. Aurore Liang’s enthusiastic Moment of Humour
5. Anita Walter’s beautiful Interpretive Reading delivered in “children-ese”, as she described it
6. A meticulous grammarian, Estelle Ross, who agreed to waive fines for crutch words, just that day … so watch out next time!
7. An advanced timer, Elias Elahie, who amazingly kept up with a new “segment timing” procedure, and also delivered a brief timing report on speech intros and conclusions
8. Jy Nanda’s humorous speech “To Rent or to Marry, That is the Question”, evaluated by two of Montreal’s funniest men, Vitaly Terekhov and Sacha Pommepuy
9. Lee Weishar’s contest speech “Follow your dreams”, evaluated according to the Judges’ Ballot by the wise Gaetane Ferland and George Kiorpelidis Jr.
10. A very fun and creative Table Topics session led by Bonnie Mak that involved “The Three Denis’ ” and a “Hot Potato”
11. An especially entertaining report from Rosalia Felice, GE, who was awarded the “Most Enthusiastic” ribbon
12. A surprise door prize draw!
13. A visit from DeerTM who recommends to all advanced Toastmasters to join Beyond Words, because “They’re just so awesome!”
14. A super delicious post-toasties at Ho Guom, the nearby Vietnamese restaurant (17 of us!)
15. And best of all … a most amazing crowd of fun and open-minded individuals willing to jump right in to play and learn!

Thanks to all who attended for making our demo meeting a SUCCESS!

Special thanks to Sophie Pascal, our District Public Relations Manager (PRM), for putting this fantastic compilation of the day’s antics together:

Here are some photos:

Pierre LeBlanc, Artem Ploujnikov, Deer TM & friend, Bonnie Mak … and a “Hot Potato”!

Demo Meeting Gang

Yummy post-toasties at Ho Guom