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Congratulations to longtime George Sutton Toastmasters member Steve Worthman who placed first in the 2023 District 26 Toastmasters International Speech Contest, Area U3.

Steve Worthman receiving award at Area Toastmasters International Speech Contest, Aurora, Colorado, 2023

Steve’s speech, “I Love Spam Calls,” was a humorous 5 to 7 minute speech that described his novel method for dealing with those irritating sales phone calls that we all receive.

Steve Worthman delivering international speech contest speech 2023

After winning at the club level this spring, Steve went on to the area competition where he placed first.

TLI is coming !

You may be wondering “WHAT IS TLI?” It stands for Toastmasters Leadership Institute. It happens twice a year usually after we have our club officer elections which we just had.

You may be thinking “Why should I attend?” I didn’t sign-up to be a club officer!

The first part of the TLI gives us the opportunity to listen to fantastic a keynote speaker! In past years, the keynote speakers have always been fabulous, funny and speak from their heart. Last year, we had the pleasure to hear from a Native American Indian and his tremendous philosophy… Read Full Post »

Zoom Master for Toastmasters meeting

You’ve invited all of your Toastmasters members into your Zoom room for your virtual live Toastmasters meeting. You sent the link and password and now everyone has joined the meeting…except John. John is a scheduled speaker. “Hope he shows up before we call on him for his speech,” you announce to the other attendees.

The meeting begins and you are also the Toastmaster of the Day. You begin presenting your meeting theme and explaining the process of the meeting to your two non-member guests. Everything is going great…until.

“John” sends a text message to your phone: “I can’t login. The… Read Full Post »

If you are one of the millions of people who have a fear of public speaking, that fear is probably holding you back more than you know. Your fear of speaking has had a dramatic impact on the person you are today. After all, just like the saying goes, “You are what you eat,” your fear of public speaking has made your personality the way that it is because you’ve been thinking about it and practicing that fear probably every day.

I know, because I too lived in a world of extreme fear of public speaking; and I can definitely… Read Full Post »

Free web-based timer for online virtual live Toastmasters meetings

Ever since states and countries became locked down due to the Coronavirus, Toastmasters clubs have been forced to move their meetings to an online, virtual live setting. At the George Sutton Toastmasters club, we too have adopted the online meeting system, Zoom, which has worked well for our situation.

The one problem: How do you effectively fulfill the role of Timer in a virtual live environment?

Colored Paper for Timing Toastmasters Speeches

We’ve tried everything. Green pieces of paper, then yellow, then red. Just hold them up in front of the camera eye when the stopwatch on your phone signals… Read Full Post »