A Letter From Christa

Hello, all.

I couldn't sleep the night before my first time training a class of new employees. I felt jitters throughout my body. Even though I knew the material inside and out, I was afraid someone would put me on the spot by asking a question.  I'll also admit, since we're all friends here, there was an embarrassing amount of sweating going on. I’d like to say that I quickly overcame these symptoms, but it took years before I finally relaxed. If I had only joined Toastmasters back then, I could have saved myself a lot of sleepless nights.

I finally joined Toastmasters in 2016 to prepare for a presentation I was giving at an international conference. I knew Toastmasters would help me develop my speaking, but I didn’t expect the other skills I would grow through the club; how to lead a meeting, quickly organize my thoughts, and adapt to role changes.

It took me hours to write my first speech. Now I can craft a speech in less than half an hour because I no longer fear “it won’t be good enough.” The members of the club are wonderfully supportive. I’m not afraid to go out on a limb, to try new things, and most importantly to make mistakes.

New doors have opened for me since I joined. I just confidently submitted three presentation abstracts for another international conference, I started writing articles for a newsletter, I was in the local newspaper for earning my Competent Communicator Award, and I was a co-guest on a local radio station to talk about the club. I even discovered I love competing in speech contests. I can't wait to see what's next!

Joining Toastmasters has been one of the best decisions of my life. I relish the challenge and the resulting personal and professional growth. However, that’s not what keeps me going to the meetings every week; it’s because it’s so fun!

Christa

We are in the paper!

https://www.newportnewstimes.com/article/kathleen-ritzman-receives-toastmaster-award

Kathleen Ritzman, a member of the Yaquina Toastmasters Club, took third place in the District 7 table topics finals contest. District 7 covers western and central Oregon, SW Washington and part of Northern California. There were eight division finalists who competed in table topics. The topic that all contestants were given was “November is novel writer’s month. You have a great idea for a novel. Your first line is: “Hester was well liked by her colleagues, but no one knew the secret she kept.”
(From Newport News Times, please see the article attached above)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our Zoom Link

https://zoom.us/j/503657370 

Our new link for the new year

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Join a meeting!

Yaquina Toastmasters meets every Tuesday at 7 AM PST at Pig 'N Pancake in the back meeting room. We also offer an online attendance option through Zoom. To attend through Zoom, we offer a link to our meeting, which you click to download it to your computer and then you can join us live. This allows our online members to actively attend our meetings! We would love to have you join us!

About Us

Yaquina Toastmasters started on April 1st, 1965. They are a club that is apart of Toastmasters International, an international speaking and leadership organization. Since it's beginning in 1924, Toastmasters International has grown to become a world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience. Yaquina Toastmasters strives to provide a fun and supportive atmosphere where their members can practice public speaking and leadership skills. This allows their members to grow in confidence and overcome their fears. To help their members achieve their goals, Yaquina Toastmasters has a mentorship program, where every member has a mentor that will guide them through the education program towards their goal.
As a club, they are active in their community, helping the Loyalty Day Princesses perfect their scholarship speeches, assisting clubs such as the 4H members as they work on their competition speeches, and working with college students who are in public speaking classes to record their speeches.
To aid in the members' growth, Yaquina Toastmasters has an educational program that all members have the opportunity to go through. As an exciting development, this year there was an update to the program! This new program is called Pathways, which is made up of ten different Paths that members can choose from, which can be seen in the graphic below. Each Path includes five different levels that increase in difficulty (see below). These Paths will teach both leadership and public speaking skills to the members, and can be customized to the person's interest.

As a member of Toastmasters, there are opportunities to practice leadership skills at club and district levels. Every club has seven officers, including the President, Vice President of Education, Vice President of Membership and Vice President of Public Relations. There are also the Treasurer, Secretary, and Sergeant at Arms. In addition to year long roles, there are meeting roles that members can practice their skills doing. These include roles such as timer, speech evaluator, grammarian and Toastmaster of the day. Other meeting roles are general evaluator, table topics master, and speakers. Members also have the opportunity to give prepared speeches at meetings, and participate in Table Topics, practicing on impromptu speaking.
Yaquina Toastmasters meets every Tuesday at 7 AM PST at Pig 'N Pancake in the back meeting room. We also offer an online attendance option through Zoom. To attend through Zoom, we offer a link to our meeting, which you click to download it to your computer and then you can join us live. This allows our online members to actively attend our meetings! We would love to have you join us!