Peter Thomas Storytelling Event

On November 27th, Venio Dictum Toastmaster held their 2012-13 club level storytelling event.

At the conclusion of the event, Janet Adam, Don Eppler, and Gary Stempnick shared the background of why this event was name in honor of Peter Thomas.  By the sounds of it, Peter was quite the "character" with an adventurous personality and had members amazed as he recounted his adventures when delivering speeches.

Our contestants for this event were:  Toban, Janet, and Don.  Our chairman of the event was the clubs VP of Pubic Relations, Andrew Smith who ran the event very well.  All the speeches ended up being exactly as "billed" as storytelling they were.  All unique, entertaining, insightful, and at times humorous.

The winner in the end was our Past President, Don Eppler.   Special thanks to the speakers, judges, ballot counters, timers, and avid listeners.

District 64 Fall Conference Luncheon

On Saturday, November 17th, Venio Dictum Toastmasters hosted the luncheon at this year's Fall Conference.  It was held at the Holiday Inn on Portage Avenue, close to the Moray Bridge.

 Janet Adam and Don Eppler championed this project to good success.

Keynote speaker for the lunch was Barbara Bowles.

In the above photo:  President Glenn Laycock, Barbara Bowles, Past President Don Eppler.

The luncheon went well with a strong keynote by Barbara, and the Holiday Inn lived up to its reputation as a good venue.

Area Evaluation and Humour Contest

Last week our club had its Evaluation and Humourist Speech Contests.

• Eric Elford was the winner of the Evaluation contest
• Nicolette L. was the winner of our Humourist contest

Eric and Nicolette advanced to the Area 21 level event, which was held on October 25 at the St. Boniface University.

We had several people on hand to cheer on Nicolette and Eric, including: 

VP of Membership, Ray Larkins 
President, Glenn Laycock
Members Ian S. and Josephine O. 

Although Eric and Nicolette did not advance to the next level, the evening was an enjoyable one that was chalked full of excitement as the competition was of good caliber.  

Opening Game Remarks for 2012-13 Season.

Welcome to the opening pitch of the 2012 – 2013 Season.

With the new Executive of the Venio Dictum Toastmasters Club taking office as of July 1st, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get everyone up to speed on what I am seeing.  But let me introduce your executive team “line up”.

In as our Sergeant of Arms is Tom. Tom is a relatively new member of our club, but is "taking the bull by the horns" and will be making sure our room is all set up, introducing me every meeting and maintaining our club resources.

Our Secretary Alexis took on the occasional role of “Acting Secretary” last year, so she will just walk into her new shoes pretty easily I expect.   Alexis is skilled at being the person in charge of correspondence and doing our Minutes.

Treasurer – Nicolette – will be a new face to many of our members, but she is actually returning from a year of schooling abroad to resume the position she held in the 2010-11 Season. 

The website and public visibility (marketing) falls into the domain of our VP of Public Relations – Andrew Smith.  Andrew will be working very closely with our VP of Membership, Ray Larkins as both these roles support and empower each other

Janet is our VP of Education.  Janet brings with her a wealth of experience with our club and has proven how growing your skills in Toastmasters can improve your life.  Janet and me are confident with the membership we have, that Venio Dictum will return to being a Distinguished Club in the coming year.

As you can see, our line up is strong and  I was filled with pride and anticipation of getting onto the playing surface, to stretch our legs.

I look forward to seeing everyone in September,

Glenn Laycock, President
Venio Dictum Toastmasters Club

Don looks back on his year as President of the club

Don Eppler, President (2011-12)

"This is your Captain speaking"

As we near the port of entry I'm becoming nervous. My voyage is almost over and what a trip it has been.

With your help and dedication during our voyage our good ship Venio Dictum proudly displayed our 'FIVE STAR CLUB FLAG'

    

Many other TM Clubs from far and near at times questioned its meaning. It was our actions that proved to them over and over that we knew our mission and how to get there. That Mission was the benefits you received through 'BETTER LISTENING, THINKING AND SPEAKING WITH RESPECT AND RESPONSIBILITY'

Rough seas or not our sturdy and steady ship carried us on to reaching the goals we set for ourselves and our Club.

With us finally reaching dock this Saturday June 30th, 2012 and I disembark I'm both happy and sad. Happy because of you who wee such good sailors who continually without much notice came forward and rescued the moment. Your efforts made a potentially poor meeting into one of our best, so thank you. Then I'm sad when I think of us missing opportunities that we as individuals didn't take advantage at the time they affronted us. So my hope now is that we don't miss out on them the next times they arise.

So as your outgoing executive sets foot on land, we salute you our members for making our job easier. We salute our incoming executive as they now step a board our proud Venio Dictum ship and wish them fair weather sailing as they take us on our next journey. We know they will guide us as members to new exciting ports that will challenge us to becoming even better communicators.

With that, BON VOYAGE....my fair mates...  

Don Eppler, President 2011-12

Venio Dictum Toastmasters Club

What a great week to cap off our 2011- 2012 season!

At our regular Wednesday meeting, we elected the Executive for the 2012-2013 Toastmaster Season. 

• President:  Glenn Laycock
• VP Education:   Janet Adam
• VP Membership:  Ray Larkins
• VP Public Relations:  Andrew Smith
• Treasurer:  Nicolette Ling
• Secretary: Alexis Cherewayko
• Sergeant of Arms:  Tom Epp
• Past President: Don Eppler

Also, Don wanted to thank the members of his Executive Team; Darren, Glenn, Joel, Brianne, and Chantal.  Seeing as I am writing this on behalf of Don, I will take the liberty to thank Don for all his effort (what a work horse) and leadership -- Thank you Don. 

Last night was our club's big gala event -- our Annual Award's Dinner -- at Bailey's.   We were treated to our club's winning speeches from:

• Junior Speech:  Andrew Smith, and his speech entitled, "My American Hero"
• International Speech:  Janet Adam, and her speech entitled, "Baby Steps"
• and Humourist Speech:  Don Eppler, and his speech entitled, "Senior's Revenge"

All these presentations demonstrated to our membership and guests, why Toastmaster's is so relevant and effective.  Well done, everyone.

Congratulations to our Award Winner's last night, which were as follows.

• Most Improved Toastmaster: Alexis Cherewayko
• Evaluator of the Year:  Jean Travis
• Executive of the Year:  Glenn Laycock
• Toastmaster of the Year:  Glenn Laycock
• Mentor of the Year:  Ray Larkins

Again, his thanks and congratulations too ALL the membership for their individual and team successes this year.

Glenn Laycock, VP Membership 
for  Don Eppler, President
      Venio Dictum Toastmasters Club.

Area Speech Contest Feedback

Janet Adam and Andrew Smith both deservingly did our Club proud at the Area 4 Contests last night.

Andrew coming second in the Table Topic Contest, delivered a winning quality Table Topic.

Winning the TMI Speech Contest Janet now moves on to the Division B Speech Contest which will be held on Saturday April 28th at 1pm...exact location notification will be coming soon...so mark your calendar and please come out to show our Club's support for Janet.

Don Eppler

President, 2011-12

Our President Don Eppler, reports in from California.

This has been an unusual but great year so far for Venio Dictum.

Unusual in one sense because as their President here I am down in sunny warm California for two months attending other Toastmaster Clubs rather than my own.   Also I don't know the actual chances or how often this happens, but our club for the first time as I can remember, is actually holding a meeting on February 29th or on a Leap Year Day.

When I mention 'having a great year' I mean even in my absence our club is continually growing to its already 33 signed up members. The members are also been treated with learning something that has never happened in our club before and that is having different past presidents preside over the meetings in my absence and letting our members see how THEY ran their meetings during their term of office.  During this same period we've set up for our incoming President Glenn Laycock to get his feet wet at leading our club, so in September he'll be well ahead of the game when his term begins.

HP Northside Toastmasters Club

While in California, almost weekly I try to attend some TM club in this area.   One is the HP Northside TM Club (a company club with over 3000 employees to draw from).  At present they have only about 15 members with only 10 or less at each meeting, but still a very enthusiastic group of TM's.

Another club I've attended is the Roseville Toasters TM Club who meet at 7pm with about 30 signed up members and usually 20 plus out for each meeting.

I always come away from these meetings with some new idea or way to try at our club to make them more exciting...but after all is said and done there is no better club than Venio Dictum and I miss their meetings immensely...see you when I get back in early April.

Don Eppler

President 2011-12