Area16

President's Distinguished

We DID it! We are a President's Distinguished Area in a President's Distinguished Division. Everyone helped.

Rochester High Noon was President's Distinguished and Rochester 476 was Select Distinguished. Both clubs were presided over by very busy people who found ways to achieve in both their careers and toastmasters over the course of the year. Congratulations Juls Foos and Dan Beerse.

We needed to fulfill even more educational requirements than these two clubs could provide to be a distinguished area, which Frederick Douglass club and Lyceum provided. If Lyceum had gained 2 more members, they would have been Select Distinguished themselves and I want to recognize their educational achievements and hard work. They came so close to their goal.

In order to be President's Distinguished as an area, we needed a new club - and Blues Expression covered that requirement. They have grown so much in the past 9 months, that I fully expect that they will be distinguished themselves next year.

Cathy Shannon will be a wonderful Area Governor to guide you.

Best wishes to you all in the coming year. I appreciate all your help and support over the past year.

Over and out...

Kay

Speech-a-thon News

We had a full day at Speech-a-thon yesterday and heard a lot of interesting and powerful speeches.  Three of the four sessions ended right on time and the other ended early due to last-minute cancellations. Many thanks to all who participated, and especially to Juls Foos, who got us the location and helped with setup and cleanup - AND gave two speeches, Mary Bell, who was timer for 3 of our 4 sessions and helped me with setup, Partick Olson, who helped me carry all the heavy boxes, and Nancy Scott, who was Toastmaster for the final session and helped in many other ways throughout the day. Advanced club officers were there to recruit new members and help with evaluations.

I was rather disappointed in the pictures - some of them were quite blurry and I found that somehow the settings on the camera had gotten changed, so this round of pictures won't be as good as others have been.

The first round of speakers included

Patrick Olson (Speakup, Batavia) Joellen Kuhl (Daybreakers), Karl Obine (Wayne Articulators), and Mike Batz (Daybreakers). Mary Bell, Central Division Governor was timer.

Ray Tardiff, Nancy Scott, and Patrick Olson:

 

The second round of speakers were all from Rochester High Noon:

Jaren Kronenberg, Juls Foos (President) and Mike Meynadasy (incoming VP of Membership).

Our timer was Kris Stevens.

The third session had only two speeches, but they were both longer speeches and both were extremely moving. Our speakers, Juls Foos and Nancy Scott both brought tears to our eyes.

We had time for Pizza before the last session. Many thanks to Sheri DeLong for ordering the pizza and taking care of all the details for us. Here's a picture of Marlene Markham (Advanced Club and Impressionists), Sheri, and Mary Bell (Central Division Governor, Impressionists)

The last round of speakers included Gordon Penniston (District Governor,Rochester High Noon/Toasted Sage), Rosemarie Eskes (TNT, Advanced), Cathy Shannon (Lyceum), and Tanak Bolovar (Empire Statesmen, Eastern Division). Joanne Green-Blose (Toasted Sage/Advanced) also spoke but left before the photo was taken. I was heartbroken that this picture didn't turn out, but I included it anyway.

Officer Training

The Central Division officer training for new round of officers will be:

Saturday, June 10, 2006

10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

(Please RSVP by 6/7/2006)

MCC Damon Campus

228 East Main Street

Rochester, NY   14604

Cost is $3.00 per officer which will include breakfast items.   In order for your club to get credit, each officer will need to attend the full training.

There is FREE parking in the St. Joseph's Garage.  If you park on Level 3, there is a walkway to MCC.

Hope to see you there!

Cliff's song - Blues Blowout

I was not planning on writing again so soon, but I just went to an incredible Toastmasters meeting at Blues Expression. They were having a member drive and their meeting was geared toward that end.

First of all, they had over 30 guests - and they all seemed to have a great time! There was only one speaker, Cassandra Lott, who gave a very informational and funny speech. The evaluator, Ann Marie St. Rose, did a wonderful job of commenting on it. Table Topics were not timed this time, and were designed by Mary Lou Lawson to get people involved. She had unusual words and we had to guess the definitions. Even the guests had fun getting into the act. Lizzie Huff ran a concise business meeting to keep things rolling along.

To me, the highlight of the meeting was Toastmaster Cliff Milligan, who SANG the description of a toastmasters meeting to the tune of "My Favorite Things." Everyone LOVED it - particularly the Toastmasters present. Cliff was kind enough to send me the words to share with you, which I greatly appreciate. ENJOY!

Speeches on makeup and speeches on dinner

Speeches that help me dress better, look thinner

Speeches that help me to clean up my rings

These are a few of my favorite things

Toastmasters help us try to conquer our fears

Toastmasters help us turn our nerves into cheers

Each group has its own unique offerings

These are a few of my favorite things

Toastmaster meetings are broke into segments

One or two members will practice their preachments

Each speech has it own required timings

These are a few of my favorite things

When my thoughts cease

And my panic sings

When I’m feeling dumb

I notice the ah counter ready to ding

And then I don’t need to um

Toastmasters speeches gets evaluations

Not meant to weaken but rather to strengthen

Evaluations help with their teachings

These are a few of my favorite things

Tabletopics helps you to speak on your feet

By letting you tell what you know ‘bout gamete

The Master picks out vocabulary

By using words such as hortatory.

The Toastmasters timer keeps track of your time

The ah counter is clearly watching my rhyme

And Grammarian will not soon forgive

When I keep splitting my infinitive

When my thoughts cease

And my panic sings

When I’m feeling dumb

I notice the ah counter ready to ding

And then I don’t need to um

Lyceum 50th

This past weekend I was thrilled to help Lyceum Club celebrate its 50th anniversary at a dinner at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. We dined among the dinosaurs and listened to speeches given by current and former members of the club. There were 40 people in attendance.

Alberta Latimer Hunt gave the invocation and pledge, I gave the opener, Cathy Shannon gave the toast. Gloria Langston was Toastmaster for the evening. Robin Nowell gave a very entertaining speech, leading up to Nancy Scott's presentation of the history of the club, including speeches made by several of the early members. This part of the program was followed by speeches by the current president, Cathy Shannon, the incoming president, Greg Condon, our current district governor, Gordon Penniston, and our incoming district governor, Sam Mehta.

I was able to take a few pictures, but I didn't get everyone. I guess I was having too good a time to snap a lot of pictures! There were cameras on the tables and other people had digital cameras, so if people send me more pictures I will post them. Here is a small sampling of the people who were there.

Lyceum President Cathy Shannon, Toastmaster and Lyceum VP of Membership Gloria Langston, Past District Governor Carol Stafford, Past District Governor, Lyceum Sgt. at Arms, and speaker Nancy Ellen Scott.

District 65 Governor Gordon Penniston and Incoming District 65 Governor Sam Mehta.

Robin Nowell entertained us with a speech. We had all filled out "Fun Facts" about ourselves (no names given!) and Robin played psychic, reading the fun facts and telling us who they were describing. I was very impressed that she knew that I was the skydiver...

One of Lyceum's newest members Wendy Rose and Lyceum Secretary Alberta Latimer Hunt.

We also had friends from other clubs attend.

Marlene Markham, president of the Advanced Club and VP of Membership of Impressionists, and Sheri DeLong.

Day Breakers Secretary Michael Batz and VP of Education Joellen Kuhl with Central Division Club Extension Specialist  and Secretary for both TNT and the Advanced Club, Rosemarie Eskes.

Lance Miller Seminar in Buffalo

On Tuesday, May 9th, Lance Miller, DTM, the 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking gave a presentation in the Western Division and number of Area 16 and other Central Division club members went to Kenmore to see him.

Lance Miller with his Certificate of Appreciation.

Lance gave us many guidelines for preparing winning contest speeches, and we watched his awardwinning speech several times in the development process, and finally what it looked like at finals, when he walked away with the grand prize at the International  Contest finals in Toronto. What really struck me was that it took Lance nine tries to win a contest in his own club. He made it to ligher levels several times. One reason that he went all the way was that he never gave up, and continued to learn and improve. Most people give up too soon.

Lance told us to know our audience, know our message and know our room. In his opinion, 50% of the speech is Life Force - energy, enthusiasm, and passion - 30% is Message (be able to state it in one short sentence), and 20% is Mechanics - structure, writing, vocal variety, gestures, props (all the things that people are usually most focused on).

The other thing that impressed me was the level of support he had from his club, area, division, and district. They rallied around him. The night of his presentation he even had a toastmaster friend present who had flown in from California just to help him out. Lance has been on the road most of the time since early April. You can see more about Lance at his website, www.lancemillerspeaks.com.

The event was coordinated by Western Division Governor Mike Berta and Dam Weselak, President of West Winds Advanced Club:

There were a number of familiar faces at the event:

Elizabeth Passino, District Sgt. at Arms, and Gordon Penniston, District Governor

Joan Post (Sgt. at Arms from Speakup in Batavia and Area 5 Tall Tales Champ 2006) and Harry Carlson (Immediate Past District Governor and Western Division Club Extension Specialist)

Sharon Grace from Rochester 476 and Dan Beerse, president of Rochester 476

Juls Foos, president of Rochester High Noon.

I was also there, but having the advantage of being behind the camera lens, I don't have to have my picture here!

It was a worthwhile event - absolutely worth the time and the travel. I was sorry that every member could not have been there.

Speech-a-thon Signups

The Area 16 Speech-a-thon will be held on June 3rd from 10-4 at the Greece United Methodis Church at 1924 Maiden Lane, Rochester NY. It is open to all. Slots are filling up, so please sign up ASAP if you are interested.

Download SpeechathonIntroSheet.doc for the information I need from people who are attending. The flyer is available in my original post on this topic.

Lyceum 50th

Lyceum Club is celebrating its 50th Anniversary on May 13th with a dinner at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Dine among the dinosaurs!

6:00 Cocktail Hour

7:00 Dinner Program Begins

Rochester Museum and Science Center 

657 East Avenue, Rochester NY (Near Goodman)

Download flyer

Download ToastInviteMay062.pdf

District Conference News

Last weekend was the District Conference at the Owego Treadway. Although not many people from our area went, our Central Division had many attendees and we all had a great time. Friday night was the Casino Night. Mary Bell dressed up in her Cher Hair and 70s clothes. Here's a picture of her with Patrick Olson, Area 5 Governor.

Saturday after the educational sessions, we had the Tall Tales contest. Here are the contestants:

Dave Kellogg, D'Lores Simmons(Life Learners, Central Division),Contest Master and last year's winner William Spizuoco, Taz Cannon, and Alto Byrd. All of the contestants were EXCELLENT! It was an honor just to be in the audience!

At the Business Meeting Sam Mehta was elected District Governor and Bob Logan was elected Lt. Governor of Education and Training. Taz Cannon was elected next year's Lt. Governor of Marketing, and I (Kay Whipple) was elected District Public Relations Officer.

After the business meeting was the International Speech Contest. Our Central Division contestant was David Urban, and he was even more awesome at District than he was at the Central Division contest.

It was a long wait for results. At the awards banquet we had dinner and listened to a keynote speech by Tammy Miller, our Region 6 International Director. The newly elected District officers were inducted. Ruth Parmenter, DTM, PDG won the Pat Panfile/Ben Luce award. Here she is after the dinner with Gool Mehta, Sam Mehta's wife.

FINALLY - the winner of the Tall Tales Contest, Central Division's own D'Lores Simmons! Second place was David Kellogg.

Here she is with Peggy Casselle (who just received her DTM) and Gloria Langston.

The winner of the International Contest was John Allen and second place was Kevin McCue.

We all had a fantastic time at the conference. The next one is going to be in Rochester, November 17-18. It's local, and we are telling you about it way in advance, so no one has an excuse not to attend!

Central Division Contest Pictures

We all had a great time at the Central Division Contest. Mary Bell sent out digital pictures from the event, but I took my pictures via the little disposable left at our table. It took a while to get the pictures processed and some of the pictures didn't turn out very well because of the lighting in the room. However, I thought I'd share the best of them anyway. Here are some Area 16 club members and also friends from other areas. Because I am also a member of Life Learners, I am including some photos of people from that club as well. Enjoy!

Tom Merkel, Our Area 16 International Contestant with his wife.

Area 16 Tall Tales Contestant and Lyceum VP of Education Linda Penniston is between Tall Tales Contestmaster (and Life Learners VP of Education) Priscilla Whipple and Life Learners member Jeremiah Langen. Linda, who is President of Life Learners, was also the Area 1 International Contestant.

Lyceum President Cathy Shannon with Rosemarie Eskes, Central Division Club Extension Specialist and 3rd place winner in the International Contest.

Life Learners member and Tall Tales Contest winner, D'Lores Simmons with her trophy.

Frederick Douglass club secretary, Alicia Ward and Lyceum President Cathy Shannon.

Past District Governor and Lyceum Sgt. at Arms Nancy Scott with Ray Tardiff.

 

Life Learners member Linda Jeroy with Area 5 Governor Patrick Olson.

He's not Area 16 and he's not Life Learners, but I grabbed a picture of Tom Sargent because he had a cool hat.

And of course, I can't forget our Division Governor, Mary Bell:

But the person who seems to have summed up how we ALL felt after the contest was over was Alicia Ward.

YIPPEE!

If for some reason you didn't get the e-mail with Mary's digital pictures and want them, drop me a comment with your e-mail and I'll send them right along.