Marshwinds Toastmasters

Meeting Recap - November 5, 2009

2009-11-11T00:51:00.002-06:00

We had another wonderful and inspiring meeting this morning, thanks to all who attended and participated in our theme of "Leap, and the Net Shall Appear." We also had an interesting situation of three speakers who were all doing Speech Project #3 (Get to the Point) in the C&L Manual: Ruth Fernandez, who is working on her Competent Communicator Award, Sandy Ryan, who is working on her second CC, and yours truly, working on my 3rd.

For her heartwarming and delightful speech, "Knights of My Round Table," Ruth won theToastmaster of the Day Award. Sandy's speech, "What is the DCP?" gave us all new understanding (or a refresher course) of the Distinguished Club Plan, and my speech, "Is There Life After CC?" gave some information about Advanced Manuals, and about leaping into the new speaking adventures that come after completion of the CC Award.

Dawn Anderson's inviting Table Topics were answered with enthusiasm and entertainment by Shaun Jamison and a former Toastmaster and is looking for a new club to join. He is exploring several area clubs, and we hope to see him back at Marsh Winds!

Tom Schmid was our very thorough and capable General Evaluator. Larry Everett, in addition to serving as Sergeant at Arms, evaluated Ruth's speech. Tom conducted group evaluations for Sandy's and my speeches.

The rest of our team today included Shaun Jamison as Ah Counter, Leslie Smith as Grammarian (who challenged us all to use the word of the day, "loquacious," which we loquaciously did), and our newest member, Stefan Stamenkovic, who jumped right in and served as Timer.

Thank you all for your participation and inspiration. It was a joy to serve as Toastmaster of this meeting, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone next week at the Colloquium.

Always,

Betty Liedtke

Meeting Recap - October 29, 2009

2009-11-02T00:15:00.001-06:00

We have a new member: Stefan Stamenkovic.

Welcome Stefan.

Thursday's meeting theme: An Evening of Art

Two great artists: Dawn Anderson and Susan Budig gave interesting speeches on their respective artistic abilities. Music and poetry. Our table topics master, Ruth Fernandez, took on the Halloween topic and added to our education on the how, why and what of Halloween. We learned what some Toastmasters thought of this evening of entertainment.

Larry, Ravi and Tom evaluated the speeches and the meeting overall, always room for improvements... we did do a few things well.

Lynn pointed out our Grammar and Language skills while Betty kept us on time from start to finish.

Even though our meetings are always planned in advance, the orchestration is always a surprise. WELL DONE Toastmasters.

What a great group of people! Thanks to everyone who attended and participated.

Marleen Geyen

Toastmaster

Happy Birthday, Toastmasters! Meeting Recap - October 22, 2009

2009-10-29T20:04:00.003-05:00

Hello Fellow Marsh Wind Toastmasters! I hope this day finds you staying warm and sunny in your hearts and celebrating each day as if it is your birthday. Here’s to you!

Mark Forsberg, DTM, did the honors of preparing the room, and being our Sergeant-at-Arms. He ably remembered that today is exactly the 85^th anniversary of the official beginnings of Toastmasters, an auspicious date to be sure. He shared the thoughts of the Toastmasters International President, Gary Schmidt, to start us off, stating that to communicate ideas well is a means of “improving life in all its phases”. Here’s to improving phases!

After a few words of welcome to our guest, James, our co-VP Membership, Deborah Dora, CTM, glided smoothly into her role as both Ah-Counter and Grammarian. Her choice of word for the day for this celebration: Razzle-dazzle. Her ah-counting report at the end of the meeting demonstrated world-class listening abilities. Here’s to incredible listening without the razzle-dazzle!

Filling in the role of timer at the last minute was our other co-VP Membership, Ruth Fernandez. She made the job look much easier than it actually is, to be sure, so here’s to keeping time effortlessly!

We had three outstanding presenters who shared their expertise and stories with us today:

Stacey Modahl, co-Sergeant-at-Arms, gave her Ice Breaker entitled, "The Challenge”. The story was eloquently relayed and masterfully written speech about a two-mile outdoor swimming race. Inspirational thinking abounding as we heard, ”Think positive… you’ll be fine!” Stacey was awarded the coveted “Toastmaster of the Day Award” for her very first speech! Here’s to you, Stacey!

Lee Handwerger, VP Education delivered his eighth speech entitled, ”It’s Optional”. His humor did not end with this tricky title, as his speech was on the buying and selling of options, a skill that he has expertise in and will use well in his new-new job at Cargill. Here’s to new-new jobs and all the best to Lee!

Betty Liedtke, DTM, gave the first half of an inspirational speech that is slated to be the keynote address at the upcoming Distirct 6 conference this weekend. In response to the district’s motto this year, “Dare to be Distinguished!”, she entitled her talk “In Undistinguished Company”. Her speech in one word: amazing. Here’s to hearing the speech in its entirety soon and perhaps every year!

Ralph Smedley, the founder of Toastmasters 85 years ago, said “The ability to approach an audience in a friendly style is partly a gift of nature, and partly a cultivated art. It is worth cultivating if you want to be as effective as possible in your speech”. Celebrating 85 years of individual personal growth, here’s to Toastmasters! Happy Day!

Toastmaster Dawn Anderson

President, Marsh Winds Toastmasters Club #7179

Marshwinds Member Tells Brush with Fame Story in Toastmaster Magazine

2009-10-26T09:32:00.003-05:00

Scoring Points with a Sports Celebrity

Lisa Jenks, of the Marsh Winds Toastmasters club in Minnetonka, Minnesota, was surprised while working in a local lumber yard as a cashier. She says, “Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins baseball team came through my line. It was early in his career, but he was already a very popular player. He wrote a check, and I began to say ‘Can I see your driver's license?’ Embarrassed, I caught myself part way through the sentence – ‘Never mind, I know who you are!’" But as she regained her composure, Lisa figured out exactly what to do. She notes, “Being a huge baseball fan, I could not believe I almost asked Kirby Puckett for identification! I grabbed a scrap of paper and asked for an autograph, which he cheerfully signed.”

Read more Toastmasters What Do You Say to a Celebrity? stories.

Marsh Winds Meeting Recap - October 15, 2009

2009-10-26T07:32:00.001-05:00

Larry Everett served as TM with the theme “Reflections on Education", and Stacey Modahl served as the Table Topics Master, and did a wonderful job with selecting questions relative to the theme meeting.

Since this was MEA Week, the theme for the meeting was "Reflections on Education", and participants were asked to think about a teacher or someone who had a significant impact on his or her life. In many ways, all of us are "teachers" - helping children, family, and/or friends.

We had two speakers, Joe Muniz with a speech from the C&L manual, topic #2, Organize Your Speech. His title was “Find your Strength.” Hegave an impressive speech related to his work as a Marketing Sales Manager for a local IT firm.

Ravi Bakshi was our second speaker with a speech from the C&L manual, topic #8. The title was “Joys of Leadership – A Learning Experience”. His speech content related some of the challenges he has with serving as the Area 92 Governor for the current Toastmaster year. Ravi is repeating C&L manual.

General Evaluator – Pamela Sakayan (practicing her improvisational character - Olga Katrina). She is our club comedian, and helped to make the meeting livelier.

Grammarian – Ruth Fernandez with word of the day “inspiration”. All were inspired who attended the meeting.

Ah Counter – Tom Schmid

Timer – Lee Handwerger

Sergeant-at-Arms – Jennifer Ray

Toastmaster of the Day was awarded to Larry Everett for bringing the meeting together. There were a number of open duty positions open the night before the meeting, but concerned members appeared and help to make this an inspired meeting.

Since we only had two speakers, we had time for 4 or 5 table topics. Several members listed above had an opportunity to reflect on the theme, including Lynn Nodland, who was also present.

Three guests attended the meeting.

New Board Members

2009-10-21T00:40:00.002-05:00

Though this announcement may be a bit overdue, please join me in welcoming our newest Marsh Winds Toastmasters Board Members -

Ruth Fernandez, co-VP Membership
Stacey Modahl, co-Sergeant at Arms
Lynn Nodland, Secretary

Your service is greatly appreciated and welcomed!

Pesky Project #8 - CL Manual

2009-10-21T00:26:00.001-05:00

At this time, your VP of Public Relations and your VPs of Membership would like to offer opportunities for you to complete Pesky Project 8 in the Competent Leader Manual.

The challenging requirements for completion of this project include service as a contest chair, membership campaign chair or PR campaign chair. Suffice it to say, there are limited opportunities to serve as contest chair, so a PR or membership campaign may be your best opportunity to complete Pesky Project 8.

Here are some of preliminary ideas for membership or PR Campaigns that may be taken on:

Promoting the colloquium****

Promoting the spring contests

Membership/guest contest

Website redesign

Blogging

Press release campaign

Guest packets

Slide show/PowerPoint creation

New display board

Create/maintain Facebook group

URDB World record campaign

Visitor follow up

****We are in immediate need of someone to take a lead role in promoting the upcoming colloquium (November 12th).

Leading a campaign would involve putting together a team (of maybe even 2 or 3) and coordinating efforts to complete the project. Your VP of PR and VPs of Membership will offer guidance as needed.

By no means would this be an exhaustive list, and the possibilities are limited only be imagination (and maybe money). Please contact Lisa Jenks (PR), Deborah Dora (Membership) or Ruth Fernandez (Membership) to discuss the opportunities.

We thank you for your contributions to Marsh Winds!

Highway Cleanup Recap

2009-09-21T23:17:00.001-05:00

The Marsh Winds volunteer clean up crew once again had a great time - and this time it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! Truly a fantastic bonding and community building event!

It took us a bit longer this time (please accept our apologies if you waited at Applebee's, as we didn't get done until noon).

We can tell you that it is amazing what you find alongside the road. Pamela Rediger declared that smokers, drinkers and fast food eaters are essentially the bane of clean roadways, and we all concurred.

Dawn and I were greeted by an adorable poodle mix dog, who introduced us to its owner. During the course of our lovely visit, our host inquired about Marsh Winds Toastmasters, and she was quite enthusiastic about coming to one of our meetings, and bringing her husband, too! Unfortunately I decided at the last moment that there was no need to carry our new business cards! Note to self - NEVER leave home without them!

For those who have not yet had the chance to participate in the fun - spring will be here before you know it!

Thank you, extraordinary Marsh Winds members, for contributing in so many ways to the betterment of our community!

Weekly announcements from Marsh Winds presiding officer

2009-09-21T23:04:00.005-05:00

Next week’s meeting

Toastmaster - Susan Budig
Sign up now on line while you are thinking about it. Plenty of spots to speak and participate so… be audacious… and prepare to practice your speaking and listening skills. (You have nothing to lose.)
If you cannot come, indicate this on the duty roster.
Our own As the Marsh Winds Blow newsletter will be handed out at the meeting.
We would like to hold an election for Secretary, co-V.P. Membership and co-Sergeant at Arms positions.

Speech Contest updates

A warm congratulations to Marsh Wind/ Area 92 winners Betty and Lisa, and all the best for continued success at the Division and District levels!
The Western Division Speech Contest will be Monday, Oct 5, 2009 at 6:00 pm at the Super Valu in Chanhassen; 19011 Lake Drive EastChanhassen, MN 55317
Please try to come and cheer on our own winners.
The District 6 Contest: Oct 23 and 24 in Grand Rapids, MN at the Fall Conference. See the D6 Website for information about this amazing conference.

Reminders

Our Fall breakfast meeting and colloquium will be November 12^th, at the usual meeting time: think about new guests to invite. Guests will get a free buffet breakfast…yum; members will contribute part of the cost.
Dues for the next half-year: please mail in to Larry Everett if you have not submitted them yet. They are due September 30^th.
Check the Blog for cool updates and video/photos from the Twin’s game and meeting recaps

Honored to be in your midst, Dawn Anderson

Backwards meeting recap~

2009-09-18T22:37:00.002-05:00

Hello Fellow Marsh Winds TMers,

Thursday's meeting was "upside down, inside out, and round and round." My head was spinning by the end of it, but what a feeling of accomplishment from the mental exercise and delight in the humor everyone brought to the table! Thank you to:

our Sergeant at Arms, Jenn Ray, who stepped in as General Evaluator at the last minute (or was it just in time?)
Marsh Winds Presiding Officer, Dawn Anderson, who as Table Topics Master cleverly captured a question from each Table Topics answer
fantastic speaker, Lee Handwerger, who brought his presentation skills to a new level
Betty Liedtke, who somehow knew Lee's speech would be exemplary
timer, Larry Everett, who must have run the clock counter clockwise given we wrapped up our meeting 10 minutes early
grammarian, Ruth Fernandez, who kept the meeting from getting "droll," with her well planned backwards contribution
and Leslie Smith, who gave us a break from our "ahs" by filling our meeting with them for us
Cheryl Henkels was BACK in action not having missed a beat
Beth Silverwater arrived half way through the meeting, and Ravi Bakshi arrived at the end

Though we attempted to move backwards on Thursday, we progressed forwards despite ourselves!

Lynn Nodland confirmed her willingness to serve as Secretary
Tom Schmid was all the wiser during Table Topics because he claims he lives his whole life backwards

Next week's meeting will be led by Toastmaster, Susan Budig! I think we can speak for all of us when I say we all LOOK FORWARD to next week's meeting. Thank you all for doing such a great job with our "Backward" meeting!

Dues Are Due!!

2009-09-16T00:23:00.002-05:00

Fellow Marsh Windians,

If you have not already done so, please submit your fall dues ($39.00) to Treasurer Larry Everett BEFORE September 30th, to allow time for Larry to submit them to Toastmasters International. Toastmasters, as you know is a great value, with great rewards! Marsh Winds values your contributions and hopes that you will renew and continue to participate!

The big news from tonight's speech contest!

2009-09-15T23:54:00.005-05:00

Dear friends at Marsh Winds,

Well, it was a fair wind that blew our beloved Marsh Winders to the Contest for Area 92 this lovely evening. A fair wind indeed! This is your presidential update about the Area 92 Speech Contest.

Tonight at the Ridgedale Library, Ravi (as our area Governor) along with Sandy Ryan (as the Area Governor for Area 91) co-sponsored a speech contest. It was a smoothly run event, with every detail attended to. The preparation for an event such as this defies the imagination, but it was all worth it. The event was well attended, and well-appreciated too.

It was great to be greeted by both Larry and Jenn Ray at the welcome table. The spread of food was highly nutritious and carefully planned.

The "target" speech was an extremely entertaining and engaging (and at times darn right hilarious) speech by Jennifer Huffman, a Toastmaster from an Eden Prairie club. For Area 92, our own Betty Liedtke came in first place for the evaluation speech, with a full five star speech that was personal, professional, and delighted us as well as encouraged the speaker in a helpful way. Yes, nothing short of the usual amazing talent and wit that Betty has worked hard to deliver in her five years as a Toastmaster! Bravo! to Betty.

The Area 92 winner of the Humorous (or hilarious) speech contest was Lisa Jenks. Hearing her tale of lost keys was so intriguing, that even those of us in the audience who had heard it before were delighted, engaged, and responded with well-rounded, full-bodied, healthy laughter. Lisa had us eating out of the palm of her hand! When it was over, I just wanted to do it all again... like a great ride at the fair. Bravo to Lisa!

Both Lisa and Betty will face stiff competition at the upcoming Western Division Contest on October 5th at the Super Valu offices in Chanhassen. They would love to have dedicated and encouraging Marsh Winders come and cheer them on!

Overall, the laughs were plentiful and good will abounded. I think new friends were made, as well. Personally, I learned some skills as behind-the-scenes (where I love to be) ballot counter that will help me in other situations. I am constantly reminded how everything we learn in our adventures as Toastmasters can help us in other areas of our lives. It is an honor to be part of Toastmasters, and especially the convivial Marsh Winds Club. It is a privilege to be part of a strong group with such gracious hearts and so many helping hands along with clear, strong, creative voices.

Kudos to Ravi, Sandy, Jenn Ray, Larry, judge Mark, and fellow Toastmaster Lynn for helping to make tonight a memorable event. Everyone: please share your warmest congratulations and support to both Lisa and Betty!

Dawn Anderson
President of Marsh Winds

SDRAWKCAB (Backwards) Meeting set for September 17th

2009-09-12T23:14:00.006-05:00

,sretsamtsaoT wolleF olleH (Hello Fellow Toastmasters, in "Backward")

Our "Backward" meeting will NOT be this complicated, but it WILL BE FUN! Our agenda will look very different this week... call it upside down/reversed/backwards; it will take us outside the box and flip us over! Here is a general idea of how the meeting will flow, as long as we just "go with it." There really is no wrong way to meet backwards.

Our meeting will start with the gavel, adjoining the meeting by our Presiding Officer. She will then move to announcements (that are for real), guests comments about our meeting (that will be pretend), and awarding the Toastmaster of the Day (whom Dawn will choose for some fictitious reason, but it will be good!) She will then thank the Toastmaster (who would have normally "turned control back to her." The Toastmaster will ask for Toastmaster of the Day, and give closing remarks on the meeting.

The General Evaluator will ask for the Timer's report, who will give fictitious times (may prepare ahead of time if you'd like), give general comments on the great (or not so great) meeting and work through the Grammarian, Ah Counters reports who will give their made up versions of who said what well and who used certain filler words respectively. Evaluator #2 will then get up and give an evaluation before hearing the speaker's speech (possibly based on their title?), and so on with the next evaluator.

The Table Topics person will call on people who will give a response to a question, not yet proposed, and THEN the Table Topics person will give the question. The next person will be called on to respond to a question they have not heard yet, and then the Table Topics person proposes the question. It will be fun to see what the question was that the respondent supposedly answered! Does this make sense?

The third speaker will then give their speech (No, not backwards.), and THEN the TM will introduce them, and so on. In other words, the speakers will speak in the 3,2,1 order. We will be on such a roll by now, and having a great time with the backwards theme!

You will have an agenda to review and to use as your guide. We will be SO TRICKY, we won't be able to stand ourselves! Your role may take a little preparation and creativity to play along. But, it will be so worth it!

Thank you, Fellow Toastmasters for joining in on our reversed meeting with a "Backward" theme, beginning with signing up for a role. There's nothing "backward" about this part. :)

Your Backweird Toastmaster,

Sandy

The Sound of Music at the Marsh - Meeting Recap September 10, 2009

2009-09-12T22:34:00.003-05:00

Hello Fellow Marsh Winders! I hope today is filled with songs in your hearts, streams to ford, mountains to climb and dreams to find!

We had a musical time at the Marsh on Thursday. I believe it was the sort of meeting you just had to be there for, to appreciate the depth of joy and life’s purposes that were shared. Every member and guest shared genuinely of himself or herself and with earnest passion. Thank you one and all, who participated fully in Thursday’s Sound of Music meeting.

Jenn Ray was our trusted behind-the-scenes Sergeant at Arms and helped prepare every detail in the room. When not one, but two iPod players were set up and ready to go, the meeting opened with “The Hills are Alive”!

Dawn Anderson was Toastmaster, leading the meeting by weaving into the agenda the lyrics of her favorite songs from the musical The Sound of Music as we followed our journey through the hills.

Being awarded the Toastmaster of the Day for her second speech from the CC manual, was Ruth Fenandez. Her speech was entitled “King of the Whole Wide World” and when she started out the presentation by playing and dancing to an Elvis song, well, we could anticipate fully who her speech was about!

Deborah Dora was our second speaker, with a moving story about the “Power of Community” as she relayed to us the events of her visit to Greece and the difference that sharing with each other can make in the world.

Sandy Ryan smoothly led the Table Topics, after we heard about a dream that she is following in the field of photography. Our extemporaneous speakers for the day all discussed nature, mountains, dreams, and plans in life. When you see her next, please ask Lynn Nodland to share her Julie Andrews story with you; it is simply too amazing! While you are at it, please ask Larry to re-tell his high school Elvis story!

Pamela Rediger led the evaluation part of the meeting with grace and poise, and Larry Everett and Betty Liidtke helped our speakers to “bloom and grow” with encouraging, thoughtful, and professionally executed evaluations.

Other “firsts” were Stacey Modahl helping us catch our filler words as the “Ah Counter”, and Lynn Nodland bravely fording the stream for her first time as grammarian; word of the day was a blithe one: “blithe”. Bravo to both!

Thank you one and all for a resoundingly splendid Sound of Music meeting!

May the streams you ford and mountains you climb bring you to your dreams!

Dawn Anderson

Toastmaster for September 10, 2009

President of Marsh Winds Toastmasters Club #7179

Come to the Area Speech Contests Sept. 15th!

2009-09-10T05:08:00.002-05:00

Here's a flier with the details. Click on the picture to make it bigger. Hope you can come!

Marsh Winds World Records Have Been Posted!

2009-09-09T19:22:00.002-05:00

At the April 9, 2009 "Toastmasters Garden" meeting, you may recall, Marsh Winds Toastmasters and guests set TWO world records - "Most People Simultaneously Answering a Table Topics Question at a Toastmasters Event" with 20 speakers and "Greatest Age Range Among Attendees at a Toastmasters Event" at 26,657 days or 72 years, 9 months and 4 days. The Universal Record Database (www.urdb.org) has posted our records - your efforts - to their website! Please check out the links below to see our records. Any clubs ready to challenge Marsh Winds' world records?

http://urdb.org/Content/RecordDetail.aspx?id=1003&attempt=1918

http://urdb.org/Content/RecordDetail.aspx?id=819&attempt=1162#

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

2009-09-08T22:36:00.003-05:00

Enjoy the video of H20 Masters and Marsh Winds Toastmasters leading the Metrodome crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th Inning Stretch on August 29th!

Marsh Winds Members Promote Toastmasters at the State Fair

2009-09-08T21:54:00.003-05:00

Sandy Ryan and Lisa Jenks represented Marsh Winds and promoted Toastmasters to Fairgoers in the Education Building on the final day of the Fair, Monday, September 7th. Throughout the Fair, District 6 Toastmasters volunteered, two at a time, at the Toastmasters booth, sharing their passion and Toastmasters testimonials. Lisa also volunteered earlier during the Fair, and Sandy had volunteered in a previous year.

Keep this opportunity to pass on the Toastmasters experience to others in mind when next year's Minnesota State Fair rolls around! It is great fun and very rewarding!

The Mini Minnesota Get Together

2009-09-04T20:56:00.002-05:00

The theme for the September 3, 2009 Marsh Winds meeting on a stick was "The Great Minnesota Get Together," led by Toastmaster Lisa Jenks.

Lisa shared State Fair trivia, including the most caloric food - fried candy bars, the Grandstand performers with the most appearances - Alabama and number of corn dogs consumed during the average fair - 500,000.

The meeting showcased two "Grandstand" performers - Sandy Ryan and Ravi Bakshi, both speaking from the Competent Communicator Manual- for the second time! Sandy shared her soul searching as a newempty nester with her second ice breaker speech, "Who Am I?" Ravi persuaded us to exercise perseverance, sharing his diligent efforts in planning the upcoming Area 91 & 92 Speech Contests (September 15th - Ridgedale Library).

Midway carney (Table Topics Master) Betty Liedtke engaged the crowd and cajoled participation with "Table Topics on a Stick."

Two new members, Lynn Nodland and Leslie Smith were inducted into Marsh Winds. A warm and enthusiastic welcome to both!

Toastmaster of the Day was awarded to Lisa Jenks for bringing the Mini Minnesota Get Together to Marsh Winds.

Poetry Class Offered by Marsh Winds Member

2009-09-02T01:04:00.006-05:00

It's time to go back to school. Even you!

I'm teaching a class about traditional forms in poetry such as sonnet, sestina, tritina, villanelle, limerick, haiku, and more.

Tuesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 starting September 22nd until October 13th.

This is the class for you to try something new, discover something you didn't know about yourself or others. Relax and have fun with words and thinking.

Class is titled The Poetry of Form.

Hope to see you!

Susan Budig
freelancing in Minneapolis, Minnesota
http://susanbudigs-poetry.blogspot.com
"Do it with dignity, but do it."

Toastmasters Cheer the Twins to Victory!

2009-08-30T22:23:00.004-05:00

Members of Marsh Winds and H20 Masters held a group outing at the August 28, 2009 Minnesota Twins game. The event was not only a great opportunity for Toastmasters to get together and have fun outside of regular meetings, but also a promotional opportunity, in that the clubs were welcomed on the big screen. Better yet, members of the clubs led the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th Inning Stretch!

The idea, when assuming the role of "Stretch Leader" is not to be a proficient singer (Have you ever watched a Chicago Cubs game, with the likes of Harry Carey, Bill Murray, Mike Ditka, and, recently, football legend Gale Sayers singing the baseball anthem?), but rather to be comfortable getting up in front of a crowd and letting go of your fear. And who better to do that than a group of Toastmasters?

A fantastic time was had by all! And the Twins beat the Texas Rangers 3-2!

Contest Results!

2009-08-30T21:57:00.003-05:00

Marsh Winds' Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contests were a success!

The guest speaker for the Evaluation Contest was newly elected Toastmasters International Board of Directors member Theo Black! It was truly an honor to be graced with a speech by Mr. Black!

Evaluations were presented by Betty Liedtke, Lee Handwerger and Lisa Jenks. The winner, advancing to the Area 92 contest is Betty Liedtke.

Lee Handwerger and Lisa Jenks presented humorous speeches. Lisa Jenks will represent the club at the Area 92 contest.

Please come to the Area 91 and 92 contests on September 15, 2009 to cheer on and support Betty and Lisa!

State Fair Volunteers Needed!

2009-08-22T14:22:00.004-05:00

More volunteers are needed for the Toastmasters' booth at the Minnesota State Fair beginning next Thursday. As of yesterday, only 56 of 94 available slots had been filled. By volunteering, you get free admission, a chance to complete speech and leadership projects and to share your passion for Toastmasters.

Please consider volunteering! Go to www.d6tm.org, under "Member Resources" to sign up!

If you are at the Fair on Saturday, August 28th between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, stop by the Toastmasters' booth to visit me!

"Those Were the Days" August 20, 2009 Meeting Recap

2009-08-20T21:55:00.006-05:00

Larry Everett served as TM with the theme "Those Were The Days", and Betty Liedtke served as the Table Topics Master, and did a wonderful job with selecting questions using the song lyrics "Those Were The Days" by Mary Hopkin as a source for questions.

One Speaker - Ravi Bakshi - Speech Title: Blowing in the Wind. Ravi was a blimey speaker today, because with a title he chose, no one knew what he was going to talk about until he got into the speech. No, he was not just shouting into the wind, he was describing some of the points about flying an airplane and "blowing in the wind". Some members learned something new today about Ravi, and his pilot license from years ago -
Yes, those too were the days.

General Evaluator - Sergeant-at-Arms - Jennifer Ray
Grammarian - Tom Schmid with word of the day "blimey" - interj Brit & NZ slang an exclamation of surprise or annoyance. But no one was annoyed today.
Ah Counter - Trichy Pasupathy
Timer - Shaun Jamison's daughters
General Evaluator - Pamela Sakayan, practicing her improvisational character speaking as a blimey Brit. She really did a super job with the British accent.

Toastmaster of the Day was awarded to Betty Liedtke for her wit with Table Topics.

Marsh Winds 2008-2009 Awards

2009-08-16T23:44:00.007-05:00

Another successful Toastmasters year came to an end on June 30th. Marsh Winds' year end party was held at the home of President Sandy Ryan. The outgoing board members, Sandy Ryan, Dr. Michael Kennedy and Pamela Rediger were thanked for their service and new board members Dawn Anderson, Lee Handwerger, Deborah Dora, Carol Ulstad, Trichy Pasupathy, Jennifer Ray-Bertheussen, Mark Forsberg, Jean Keating and Marleen Geyen were welcomed into service. Board members Crissy Roeglin, Larry Everett and Lisa Jenks will reprise their roles in 2009-2010.

Larry Everett was awarded Marsh Winds' Toastmaster of the Year 2008-2009 for educational awards, Club service, dedication, and exceptional enthusiasm.

Tom Schmid was awarded Marsh Winds' Don Paulsen award for long-term and continued service and priceless contributions integral to Marsh Winds' success.

Thank you, Sandy, for hosting a wonderful celebration of Marsh Winds' gifts and success!