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