Picking A Place To Eat

Our poll for the dinner meeting has ended and January 12th got the most votes. That means we will be having a dinner meeting rather than a regular meeting.

Next we have to pick a location for our dinner. We got five suggestions for you to pick from:

• Il Forno in Fitchburg (Airport Rd and Bemis)
• Chopsticks (by mall in Leominster)
• Slattery's (Rt 2A in Fitchburg)
• Olive Garden (by Target in Leominster)
• Sammy's (Rt 12 at the Leominster/Fitchburg line)

The poll is on the right side of the page. Select the place you want to eat by Dec. 19th. We will announce the winner once the poll is over.

Dinner Meeting Poll

At the last meeting we discussed having a dinner meeting. Sara agreed to put a poll together to help us pick a date we all liked. On the right you will see a poll with four dates on it:
December 22
December 29
January 5
January 12

Pick the date that you think is the best for our dinner meeting. Post a comment to this entry if you think another date would be better or have a comment related to the poll.

Have You Ever Been to a District Conference?

Have you ever considered going to a district conference?

Why not?

This year our very own Sara is the educational co-chair. This means she has helped pick the sessions you can go to through the day. There will be sessions on building better teams, how to use Toastmasters to advance your career, improving external communications, or finding your true passion.

This year the Keynote Speaker is Mary Cheyne. Mary won second place in Augusts World Champion of Public Speaking competition. She represented District 31 and started out at her club's International Speech Contest last Spring. Learn how she did it!

This year we are trying an Evaluation-a-thon. For one hour there will be nothing but other members (and maybe you) giving speeches. Verbal evaluations will be given by members of the district's advanced clubs. These are more indepth evaluations and are fantastic ways to help you set goals.

What about all the people you can meet! Participants will be members from all over Rhode Island and Eastern/Central Massachusetts. This is a great way to see other speakers and make connections. There is always time to network at these events.

Find out more about the conference at http://www.district31.org/conference_2009Fall_home.html including registration information, an agenda and more. Still want to learn more about it? Ask Sara, Rene, Peter, Yvette or Maggie about their experiences at conferences!

Funny People

Try not to laugh, but some Toastmasters have a sense of humor. I've known one or two to crack a joke. If don't believe it, then you probably weren't at the division speech contest. On October 6, 2009, three division clubs convened in a basement conference room at Fidelity Bank to vote on the funniest among them. Yevette Moquin, division governor, mastered the ceremoies and ushered us through the battle of wits. Four contestants competed and one will go on to compete at higher levels and maybe even participate in the international contest. Our contestants were, in order of appearance, Ernest Schreiber, Mike Kornik, Todd Chapman, and Rene Roy.

Ernie coaxed from each of us our latent genius, that apple chomping, over perspiring little savant that we all know has been yearning for freedom. Mike wanted to introduce us to the language of the British, and how it will get you in trouble if you try to us it in America. Todd's story of a winged nocturnal invader evoked the spirit of Halloween and Rene recalled his days as an eager young navy man. The judges voted and awarded Todd Chapman the golden first place ticket. Congratulations Todd!

I'd like to invite you to the next level of competition, the Division A and Division B humorous speech contest. It will be held on October 14, 2009 from 6:30-9 PM at the Raytheon facility in Tewksbury MA. Email for more details.

It's time to pay dues!

It's time to pay dues again! Two times a year all of our members pay dues. Here is a quick guide on how to pay and what we use the money for:

How to pay your dues:

• Due is $42.00 ($27.00 goes to Toastmasters International and $15.00 goes to the club)
• Make checks out to Twin City Toastmasters
• Give checks to Maggie or another club officer
• We can take cash, but not credit cards
• Receipts available if requested
• Dues is due on September 30th!
  

What do we do with your dues? What do you get out of paying?

• Toastmasters International sends you a monthly edition of the Toastmasters magazine.
• The club uses it to pay for supplies like photocopies, ribbons, trophies, name tags, clocks, etc.
  
• Being a current member (or a member in good standing) allows you to participate in speech contests
• When you complete your manuals you get certificates and more from Toastmasters International

Follow The Traveling Gavel

Toastmasters has invented a lot of goals to which it's members can aspire. You might be working towards your competent communicator or an advanced communicator award. Your club might be on its way to becoming Presidential Distinguished. I'll be you think that makes you hot stuff. But you aren't a true proponent of gab geekery until you've claimed the Travelling Gavel. It's easy to do.

On August 4th, I had the pleasure of attending a session of the District 31 Toastmasters Leadership Institute. I know you're all impressed by the jolly name, but TLI is nothing more than a few enlightening hours in which club officers can acquire training for their positions and socialize with officers from other clubs in the district. One item this summer's TLI promoted was the Traveling Gavel, a trophy fostering interaction among clubs. The idea is simple. At this moment the Gavel is in the possession of one club in the district. To find out which one, you must go to the District 31 website and look it up. Then send three or more members from your club to a meeting of the other club and claim the prize. Brag about your victory in the little book that comes with the Gavel. Use the district website to announce it to all who care. Sit back and await another club's invasion and pillage of the precious Gavel. All of this is more than just a good time, it's an attempt to break isolation among the clubs. It gives us a chance to meet other Toastmasters from around the district and exchange ideas.

Another highlight of the August 4 TLI was the presence of our own Yvette Moquin. Yvette has been a member of Twincity Toastmasters for over a year and half and in that time she's become one of our superstars. She's participated in speech contests, inspired students at a Fitchburg State College speaking seminar, and founded a Toastmasters club for prisoners. On the evening of the TLI, she shared her wisdom on fear. The title of her speech was "You Have Every Right To Be Fearful". As public speakers, we're most concerned with fear of standing in the front of a room full of eyeballs, but I think that Yvette's talk covered many aspects of fear in our daily lives. While she did cover methods by which we might conquer our fears, she also taught us to be comfortable with this very human emotion. It's not silly to be afraid, but a natural response that our brains and bodies are built to manufacture. Realizing this may be the first step on the way to accomplishing our goals despite our fears. I think everyone in the audience was impressed, and the audience pitched Yvette more than a few questions afterward.

The TLI was an uplifting experience for all and I'm glad I was there.

- Toastmaster Peter Sargent

The New Newsletter

It has been over a year since Twin City Toastmasters put out a newsletter. With a new year comes new ideas. Watch here for posts from our officers, club members and more. For now:

• Find us on Twitter
• See our redesigned webpage