Background before the lesson on Tuesday: Competent Leadership

Toastmasters International offers two beginning manuals, the Competent Communicator and the Competent Leadership. The Competent Leadership manual contains ten projects to help develop comprehensive leadership skills.
Leadership skills are learned in every meeting role, however you choose which roles you complete to finish the different projects. There are requirements for marking off a role for a project, since each meeting that you fill a role can only count for one project. Example: Critical thinking and giving feedback require the same roles, however if you are grammarian on August 9th, you can only count that for one project not both.
Projects include skills such as listening, motivation, and time management. Some projects require meeting roles, such as being timer for time management. Others require you to help lead a extra role, such as organizing a contest speech. Others, such as Mentoring, require you to help other members complete speeches, or complete leadership projects.
Just like the Competent Communicator, once you have completed the ten projects, Toastmasters International can send your employer a letter with your accomplishment. From there, Toastmasters has more manuals tracks that you can continue building your leadership skills. The Advanced Leadership Bronze and Silver. At the end of these manuals, including the communication series, you will receive the Distinguished Toastmaster award.

Event on Tuesday November 15th!!

Topic: “Investing and protecting your retirement accounts post-election day”.

When: Tuesday November 15th 7:00AM
Where: Pig n Pancake 810 SW Alder St, Newport, OR 97365
What: Free event sponsored by the Yaquina Toastmaster Club
Who: Guest Speaker, Richard O’Hearn, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments
About the speaker: Richard O'Hearn is a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments. His office is Located at 1460 N Coast Hwy immediately north of Power Chevrolet in Newport. Richard holds the following licenses and credentials:
Series 7 General Securities representative registration covering FINRA, NASDAQ, NYSE, Series 66 uniform Combined State Law Examination registration in 17 states, Insurance Licensed in Oregon and Washington

Richard and Carol Wilks work as a team with three key objectives that focus around the client
We want to understand what's important to you.
We use an established process to help you build personalized strategies to achieve your goals.
We will partner together throughout your life to keep you on track
Richard is a Board member of the Samaritan House in Newport, Newport Chamber of Commerce and Newport Rotary club. Richard is also a Ambassador for the chamber of Commerce and leads a 4-H archery group of kids.
With his copious amounts of free time he likes to go camping, traveling and outdoor activities. Richard also is a first time Grandfather in October.

Background before the lesson! Competent Communicator overview

The Toastmasters program helps you through manuals such as the Competent Communicator, but is not a formal course such as Communications 111. There are no grades or tests, but instead you have Table Topics and the Ice Breaker Speech. Club meetings help you to work together to study and practice your communication and leadership skills.
You can work with introductions, perform roles during club meetings, and work on projects, such as the ten speech projects in the Competent Communicator. In this manual you build speaking skills with each new project. Most of the speeches are five to seven minutes, focusing on a single skill. It works on everything from organization, to body language, to researching a topic. This will help you learn to speak with clarity, and confidence.
With each speech you give, you will be evaluated to help you grow and learn. They will point out strengths and offer suggestions on how to improve the speech. This manual focuses on the basics of public speaking, and your evaluator will focus on the basics as well. If you are working on vocal variety for your speech, they will also focus on it when giving your evaluation. The manual will help you gain the skills through it's ten projects, then you will receive the Competent Communicator Award.
Want to learn more than just the basics? There are plenty more manuals for communication that you can work on, ranging from storytelling, to career related learning. After you have finished the manual, Toastmasters International will send a letter to your employer if you wish them to, notifying them of your achievement. This is especially nice if your work has a program to pay for you to be in Toastmasters.

Benefits for work

A lot of people come to Toastmasters to improve their skills for work. Whether you are trying to get better at interviews to get a job, improve your resume for a job, or gain skills to be able to lead a group, Toastmasters can help. As you gain confidence in your skills, and practice activities such as evaluator, you will see improvement in your daily life.

10 benefits for work:
1. Learn how to lead a meeting through being a Toastmaster for the day.
2. Learn how to present technical presentations to a room, but still make it interesting.
3. Learn how to persuade through the communications manual.
4. By being the timer, and being timed, you will become more succinct in your answers.
5. As an evaluator, you will improve on giving feedback to those around you.
6. Through table topics, you will be able to think on your feet easier.
7. To improve your skills, you will be evaluated on what you did well, and where you need to improve.
8. You will gain connections to other leaders in the community, and a wide variety of professions.
9. Toastmasters can send your employer a letter of completion for each manual.
10. It can hone your speaking skills so you can be more confident in your answers.

Halloween Review

To start the meeting, Lauralee received her competent leadership, and competent communicator awards, and pins.
Today was our Halloween themed meeting. The Impaler Dave was our Toastmaster of the day, who brought in some "costumes" for us. These were anything from ear headbands to a witches hat. He told us a variety of jokes about Halloween. Why did the skeleton cross the road? To get to the body shop. He was evaluated by the Zombie Killer, Lauralee, who said she was more like a zombie herself. Other than not telling us the title for the speeches, she said Dave did a very good job of being flexible, and keeping the meeting organized.
Our first speaker was Paul, who gave us the tale of his younger Halloween days, where he went to his neighbors and scared them with his costume. Because of his antics, he scared one of his neighbors so bad that the husband was trying to get away from him, and the wife screamed for what seemed like 20 minutes. Pen was Paul's evaluator, who gave a very specific evaluation for Paul's story.
Peter was the second speaker today, talking about the mysterious wanderer, Leatherman of Connecticut. This wanderer did not speak English, but was allowed to float around for over thirty years. Anjanette was his evaluator, who gave both compliments and criticism in her evaluation. She told Peter that he gave us a historical story that made her think about the story, as well as giving us a "mysterious" vibe to him.
Brian was the Table Topics master of the day, and gave people gravestones to tell stories of. Laimons said that he was upset by the fact that Merv Griffin had passed away, and that he obviously did not believe in the resurrection if he would not be back after this message. The second picture he got said he did not forward the message to ten people, like the scare messages say. Laimons joked that he would die trying to figure out how to forward the message in the first place. Christa won our Halloween table topics award of the day! Her passed life's tombstone said " here lies an atheist. All dressed up and no place to go". She told us that she was raised in a catholic home, but did not believe in the religion. When she died at an early age due to disease, her parents wrote this on her tombstone.
The word of the day was monstrosity. Marisa was the grammarian of the day, who cleverly said that the wizard of ahhs was Laimons.
Remember that next week is the business meeting, and we will be going over the Competent Communicator and Leadership books!

Halloween meeting

Dave with a Spider

Christa (cat ears) and Marisa (Shrek ears) with ears

Christa with kitty ears

Lee with a "bowtie"

Laurie as the Mad Biker

Halloween Special Meeting

The Impaling Toastmaster of the day is Dave, being evaluated by the Zombie killer (General evaluator) Lauralee. There are two speakers of the day, Paul the Prankster and Peter Pumpkin Eater. Pen Bigfoot will be evaluating the Prankster and Anjanette the Kiwi will evaluate the Pumpkin Eater. The Grave Digger, Brian, is table topics master. For the grammarian of the day, the Haunted Surfer Marisa will scare us into good grammar and expanding our vocabulary. Laurie, the Mad Biker will be the timer of the day.

Meet Richard O'Hearn

Meet Richard O'Hearn:

Richard O'Hearn is a Financial Advisor with Edward jones Investments. His office is Located at 1460 N Coast Hwy immediately north of Power Chevrolet in Newport. Series 7 General Securities representative registration covering FINRA, NASDAQ, NYSE. Series 66 uniform Combined State Law Examination registration in 17 states. Insurance Licensed in Oregon and Washington Richard and Carol Wilks work as a team with three key objectives that:Focus around the client We want to understand what's important to you.We use an established process to help you build personalized strategies to achieve your goals.We will partner together throughout your life to keep you on track.Richard is a Board member of the Samaritan House in Newport, Newport Chamber of Commerce, member of Toastmasters and Newport Rotary club. Richard is also a Ambassador for the chamber of Commerce, and leads a 4-H archery group of kids. With his copious amounts of free time he likes to go camping, traveling and outdoor activities. Richard also is a first time Grandfather in October.

Financial Outlook After the Elections

New Event!!

After the election on November 8th, 2016 please join us for a free informational speech on finances after the election. 

Richard O'Hearn is a Financial Advisor with Edward jones Investments. He will be talking about his perspective on the financial outlook and investment strategies for after the election this November.
This will be on Tuesday, October 15th, 2016 from 7 to 8 AM at the meeting room in Pig in a Pancake (810 SW Alder St, Newport, Oregon 97365). 

October 18th review

Lee was the toastmaster of the day, and his theme of the day was Alaska. His evaluator was Laimons, for the last time in awhile since he and his wife are leaving for Hawaii. The only suggestion he had for the meeting was leading the applause. He also complimented lee for being able to working with the schedule changes.  
Our only speaker for the day was Lori, who did a run through on her reading she will be doing in Denver. She read two parts of her book, Wander, and explained the lead up to the two parts. To evaluate her was Brian, and he pulled from personal experience as he suggested that she look and connect with an audience member at pauses. He also complimented her volume and the organization of the speech.  
For table topics, everyone spoke on a picture of Anjanette's grandfather with his children. She asked us different questions to tell a story about. Christa said that she had a slingshot in her pocket, and that her father had given a lecture so long she no longer cared about the toy, and gave it up. Lauralee spoke about how the older man in the picture was her great grandpa Cecil telling her grandfather Dave and his brother that they should know better than to play on the train tracks. Brian piggybacked off of Lauralee's story to say that the young boy in the picture was important because he was his father. Vickie won table topics saying the youngest boy was her husband as a boy, and telling the story of him growing up and eventually meeting her.  
As a reminder: next week's meeting is Halloween themed, and therefore will be a special meeting. After our Halloween meeting will be our business meeting, and we are highlighting the competent manuals.

October 18th meeting

Lee will be the Toastmaster of the day with Laimons being the general evaluator. There will be two speakers for the day, Dave and Lori. Dave will be evaluated by Laurie, and Lori will be evaluated by Brian. For Table topics, Anjanette will challenge us with questions, and Laura will serve as grammarian. Marisa will be the timer.

October 11th meeting review

Laurie was the Toastmaster of the day. Her topic was emergency preparedness, giving us several facts such as how if we had a 9 magnitude earthquake, about 10,000 would die. She also talked about how we can prepare for these emergencies. One suggestion was that as a family, it is important to have a meeting place planned if there was an emergency. A second suggestion was to have an emergency contact out of town. Her general evaluator was Brian, who said that the meeting was smooth and started on time.  Brian enjoyed the theme of the day, as well as the innovative form of table topics for the day.
Anjanette was the only speaker for the day, giving an 8-10 minute speech.  Her topic was turtles, which she studied in Hawaii during college. She told the story of going to an island, where she collected the baby turtles, to bring the turtles back to the lab where she would do research on them. After the turtles grew bigger, the team transferred the turtles to a bigger tank, where some unfortunately got stuck in the pipe. Lee was her speech evaluator, and he complemented Anjanette on her ability to tell stories, especially with her hands. He also suggested that she work on the abruptness of her ending, since she changed from turtles to whales.
Marisa was in charge of table topics, who capitalized on the saying "a penny for your thoughts". She gave us each a penny, and asked us to tell a story about the year written on it. Lori talking about her uncle who let her sister and herself annoy him until the year he passed away, and how even a child knows a phone call in the middle of the night is not a good sign. Dave spoke about his experience coming home from Vietnam, and the vast change in temperature between Vietnam and Alaska. Lee tied for first place talking about what he had thought was a penny given to him by his father as a child, but turned out to be a five dollar coin his grandma saved. The other person to win was Christa, who talked about her past life, where she was a supporter of the free love movement, after being bitter from her brothers being killed during the Vietnam war. Christa was also the grammarian of the day, whose word was misanthropy, meaning hater of humankind, which she said she became when her siblings passed away in this previous life. 

Meet the Vice President of Membership

Lee Ritzman

I am retired after a career in public works administration. I was born and raised in Utah, and graduated with a masters degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah. While at the UofU, I met and married Kathleen – we have 5 children and 13 grandchildren currently in three different states.

I had just started as Public Works Director/City Engineer in Newport when two colleagues invited me to attend Toastmasters with them. Kathleen and I both went – she enjoyed it because her public speaking skills were much better than mine – I went along. It was not long before I realized that improvement in my speaking ability could benefit my career. That was in 1994. Other than a 3-year gap, we have both been members of Toastmasters since then.

We have both accepted the opportunity to serve in various leadership positions, including club and district offices. We have also enjoyed District training sessions and conferences, and have participated in speech and evaluation contests. Best of all, we have met some great people.

My experience with Toastmasters has helped me tremendously with public presentations and the ability to think and respond quickly while on my feet. I have also learned that those skills help a lot, but are not a replacement for preparation.

I continue to enjoy the fun atmosphere in the Toastmasters meetings and watching others gain experience and skill as well.

October 4th review

The Toastmaster of the day was Peter, whose theme was October, and the change in season. Peter entertained us with facts about everything from the holidays in October, to the gem stones of the month. He was evaluated by Anjanette, who complimented his smooth transitions. She also suggested we give longer introductions, and make sure that we explain how the meeting works for those who are new to the club.
Today was our business meeting. Brian led the business meeting, asking the officers to give a report on the months activities. Our vice presidents of education and membership, Dave and Lee, had no new business to report. Lauralee, our vice president gave a guestimate of the numbers since she forgot about the business meeting due to school starting. Officially, our Facebook page has reach 561 people this month, and 418 people have interacted with the page through likes, comments, or sharing posts. Through Facebook, we have also reached 45 cities throughout the US and 15 different countries. For the blog, we have reached 414 people in the last four months, and 143 in the last month. (If you would like to visit our pages: we are Newport Toastmasters on Facebook and http://ybtoastmasters.blogspot.com/). Our treasurer, Laurie, said all dues have been paid, and we have plenty left over in our bank. Marisa gave a review of the month sparking discussion about our speech contest that we have requested to host.
Our speaker today was Christa, who spoke on significant moments, and how she always thought her parents knew everything. Her topic was about "adulting", and how she did not feel like a grown up until she got a renter and had to keep records. Laurie was her elevator, and talked about her impressions of a 16 year old were very good. She also talked about the fact that Christa was excited and spoke a bit fast.
Laimons was table topics master, and challenged us with a variety of questions ranging from politics to "the blob". Paul and Dave spoke about our political climate, how the third and fourth party candidates seem more reasonable, and that our political system has been permanently changed from this election. Laurie was the table topics winner, speaking about how there are a variety of "blobs" in Hawaii, ranging from the one in the ocean, to the lava that could destroy your house.
Schedules will be out soon.

Have a good day

How Toastmasters can benefit the college student

Toastmasters can benefit everyone in some way. Whether it be through the leadership track, or communications track, going through the manuals and getting experience can help everyone. The leadership manual can help you learn how to give good evaluations, or how to put together a committee. In contrast, going through the communications manual will help you get comfortable in front of a crowd.
10 Benefits for the college student:
1. Table topics can help you be able to think on your feet (especially if your professors like to randomly call on people).
2. Improve your confidence and leading ability for work.
3. If you are in online communications class, here are your five people to present in front of.
4. Being the grammarian will help you expand your vocabulary.
5. Being timed, or the timer, can help you to organize your thoughts quickly and more effectively.
6. When you are the toastmaster of the day, you will work on timeliness and leadership for the group.
7. As an evaluator, you can work on your analyzation skills, and how to give feedback for others.
8. As a speaker, you will gain experience being evaluated, and presenting in front of an audience.
9. Through this club you will meet a variety of people throughout the community.
10. You will have a supportive group to help guide you through your journey to achieve your goals.

Humorous speech contest