Earth Day is Your Destiny

Hello Fellow Toastmasters and most welcomed guests!

Welcome to Westiside Toastmaster's Club #638 eNewsletter. Visit our Website and drop in on a meeting or two at www.WestSideToastmasters.com

The theme was Earth Day and the word of the day was Sustainability. A while back, our president Nita Lane-Smith declared April as “Old School Toastmaster” month. So tonight was my night. Weaving my experience as a Toastmaster into the Earth Day theme was easy. I began by being “down-to-earth” with my group; praising most for excellent teamwork, and “nailing” a few for not towing, myself included. All done in love, of course.

I reminded everyone that the Toastmaster for the evening is like a CEO of a corporation, setting the directive for their executives who in turn, disseminate that vision to their subordinates. All of this is done to create a strong cohesive group meeting. And that means, we should actively pursue the Toastmaster for that day via phone or email, and confirm any role for which we may have signed up.

Kerrie read some quotes about Earth Day and Nita cleverly rearranged the letters in EARTH to spell HEART. Everybody demonstrated heart that evening, from Table Topics, Evaluators, to Speakers. Even the Functionaries gave their heart, from Timer, (who kept the TM on my game), the Grammarian, to the Er/Ah Counter. My team certainly made me look good.

I shared the origins of Earth Day with the group as spelled out by Wikipedia. Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, and is celebrated worldwide to create awareness of environmental issues. Earth is our destiny. It should be declared “Destiny Earth Day!”

We had a line up of four speakers for the evening who demonstrated various levels of speaking, as they closely followed the format of their manuals.

Bob Aptaker gave a speech about his development project in Santa Monica titled, “A Star is Born.”

Alex Yaftail talked about his life experience and journey through graduate school application process in a speech titled, “It’s the Little Things that Count.”

Michelle Page delighted us with a heart-felt story about raising chickens in a speech titled, “Urban Chicken.”

Gary Binas, our guest speaker from TM District #33 gave us a glimpse into his speech which he will deliver in 2010 at the International Speech Contest, it’s titled “The Little Town.”

I discovered wonderful information about things we can do now to make our homes green.

Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies, pp.44-53

1. Replace Your Old Appliances with New Energy-Efficient Ones
2. Buy a Water Filter instead of Bottled Water
3. Install Water-Saving Devices in Your Bathroom and Kitchen
4. Install a Solar-Powered Clothes Line (a.k.a., A Clothesline)
5. Insulate in Normally Forgotten Locations: Pipes, Water Heater, and Attic

Email me (dazellesteele@gmail.com) for the next 5 things we can do to make our homes green, or for an eNewsletter for Living Green.

And the winners were…..
1. Best Speaker: Gary Binas
2. Best Evaluator: Robert MacKenzie
3. Best Table Topics: Jon Meier

I enjoyed being Toastmaster for the evening, and will gladly pass the torch to Gary Crow; your Toastmaster for next Wednesday’s meeting on April 29, 2009.

Public Speaking is a Breath of Fresh Air!
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Dazelle Steele
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