Tip of the Week: Toastmaster duties

Being Toastmaster for a meeting is a fun, rewarding role!  There is a little preparation to do before the meeting and one follow-up after the meeting in addition to the in-meeting duties of the Toastmaster.  The list below summarizes the Toastmaster’s duties.

Toastmaster duties before the meeting:

·                 Contact the speakers and obtain speech title & length and any info to relate in the introduction of the speaker.

·                 Make sure all roles are filled – check the duty roster and confirm that people with roles are attending the meeting.

·                 Prepare remarks relative to the theme of the week.

·                 Prepare and print out copies of the meeting agenda (template is attached).

 Toastmaster duties in the minutes before the meeting:

·                 Arrive early to the meeting to help set up the room and distribute the agendas and voting sheets.

·                 Welcome guests in person.

·                 If people with roles are not present by noon, find a replacement for their role.

Toastmaster duties during the meeting:

·                  Have an officer (Club president Ania, if she is present) start the meeting on time at 12:00 noon.

Tip of the Week: Toastmasters Suffrage

When we vote for best speaker, best table topics speaker, and best evaluator, be sure to wait until all the "candidates" have spoken.  For best evaluator, this includes the speech evaluators, plus the timer, grammarian, ah counter, and last but not least the General Evaluator!

Our new member, Kat Latet, says hi!

Hello Fellow Toastmasters, my name is Kat Latet.  I work as the Community Engagement Coordinator at the Oregon Primary Care Association (OPCA).  OPCA is the membership association for community health centers (CHCs) across the state.  As the Community Engagement Coordinator, I am in charge of our advocacy program and do government relations and policy work.  I have a passion for politics, so sometimes my work carries over into my free time.  I am a lover of many things, including live music, traveling, the outdoors (my backyard and the back country) and playing team sports.

I have had Toastmasters on my list of things to do for awhile, but have always found an excuse for why I couldn’t fit it in.  While discussing professional development with my office, Toastmasters came up, so here I am.  I hope to improve my ability to speak publicly, since it is something that I do often for my work.  I also look forward to writing speeches and delivering them.  Lastly, since I am of the American “like” generation, I hope to curb my usage of “like” and all of those other words counted by the “ah” counter.

Taking time off?

Summer season is vacation season!  Many of our members are taking vacations this summer – are you one of them?  If so, you can let me know which days you will not be able to attend Toastmasters, and I will create a “time off request” in the scheduling software so you won’t be scheduled for a role during your vacation.  Similarly, if you have a standing monthly meeting on Wednesdays – for example I have a meeting the third Wednesday of every month at noon – I can create a rule in the software so you won’t get scheduled on those days with conflicts.  This feature in the software makes time off requests easy for you and for the scheduler!

Electric Toasters Rocks the DCP!

The DCP stands for Distinguished Club Plan and is a set of ten goals that each Toastmasters club should strive for.  Six of the ten goals are related to the educational program, two are related to membership, one is related to officer training, and one is for club administration.  Toastmasters designates clubs that meet at least 5 of the 10 goals in the Toastmaster Year of July-June as “Distinguished Clubs” – less than half of clubs around the world reach this designation.  Even rarer are the clubs that reach the “Select Distinguished Club” status (7 of 10 goals) and the “President’s Distinguished Club” status (9 of 10 goals).  I am proud to announce that Electric Toasters has met 9 of the 10 goals and attained the President’s Distinguished Club status for the first time since the 2003-2004 Toastmasters Year.  Congratulations to club president Jeff Brooks and to all of us for rocking the DCP!

Here are the goals that we met to reach President’s Distinguished Club Status.

Electric Toasters 2010-2011 Distinguished Club Program Status

Goal #1 – Two CC’s.  Sarah Mammen and Laurel Vallarta

Goal #2 – Two More CC’s.  Not met

Goal #3 – One AC Advanced.  Carrie Henderson

Goal #4 – One More AC Advanced.  Chris Trappe

Goal #5 – One AL Advanced.  Jason Kent

Goal #6 – One More AL Advanced.  Craig Jones

Goal #7 – Four New Members.  Mike Fajen, Steve Wilcox, Jake Haas, and Amy Van Camp

Goal #8 – Four More New Members.  Tom Birch, Brooks Burford, Matt Burnett, Sean Byram, Wei Chiang, Stephen Connor, Lacey Garrett, Anna Garwood, Judy Jigarjian, Marcia Karfstedt, Angela Mahoney, Erin Rowe, Jackie Scherer, Chris Trappe, and Emilie Witkowski

Goal #9 – Minimum of Four Club Officers Trained During Each Of Two Training Periods.  4 in the summer and 6 in the winter. 

Goal #10 – One Membership Renewal Report Submitted On Time AND One Club Officer List Submitted On Time.  Done.

Say Hi To Marcia Karfstedt and Brooks Burford, Our New Members!

Marcia is a Senior Application Support Specialist at Viewpoint Construction Software. She joined Viewpoint 5 years ago with a deep background in accounting and construction management. Her patience and understanding work wonders when clients call needing help. Marcia’s responsibilities have recently expanded to training new employees how the software functions and how to help her clients use it more efficiently. "I am increasingly interacting with people and teaching classes, so Toastmasters is a big help to me boosting my confidence speaking to groups of people."

Marcia is married to Brooks Burford, a retired newscaster from KATU and KEX. Brooks has lived here nearly 30 years. He not only convinced Marcia to marry him, he got her to commit to living in Portland as well! Marcia and Brooks are native to Seattle, attending the same high school (Queen Anne). They were born 16 hours and 6 blocks apart. "There is a big difference between public speaking and speaking publicly. I have been away from the public eye for two years, so Toastmasters gives me a great opportunity to share my experiences, hone my skills and make sure speaking skills never atrophy. I have a lot to gain by learning from Toastmasters."

Marcia and Brooks travel the region, vacation in Mexico and volunteer each Summer at the Oregon Brewers Festival. Committed to sustainability and reduced impact on the environment, Brooks and Marcia live in the Belmont District, close enough for Marcia to walk to work and downtown.

2011 Club Elections Results

One more month is left in our ETOs (Electric Toasters Officers) 2010/2011 term. A big thank you for the hard work and a fun year goes to:

President: Jeff Brooks
VP of Education: Jason Kent
VP of Membership: Laurel Vallarta
VP of Public Relations: Ania Osinska-Bulloff
Treasurer: Joe Miller
Sergant-at-Arms: George Hutcherson

The new 2011/2012 term begins in July and our club voted for the new ETO squad today. Fingers crossed for the new team:

President: Ania Osinska-Bulloff
VP of Education: Jason Kent
VP of Membership: Sarah Skinner
VP of Public Relations: Jake Haas
Treasurer: Steve Wilcox
Sergant-at-Arms: Mike Fajen