Emotional maturity, ringing doorbells and being present

Celebrating things that make us happy!

Author

GGTM Team
August 17, 2024

Another packed GGTM Club Meeting!

Dear Fellow Toastmaster!

What brings us happiness and why should we show up for ourselves and others? We captured these in another joyful day together at the Chamber of Commerce.

 📣 📆 Coming Up

  • 08/19(Mon) 6PM: GGTM Talk Tank

  • 08/21(Wed) 12PM: Embarcadero Bricks Special Meeting

    • Event Details here

    • Catch GGTM at the Embarcadero Plaza as we host a special meeting. After a prepared speech and evaluation, join us in a table topics session for a chance to speak in a brand new environment in front of a wider audience!

  • This Fall: Sustainability Special (collaboration w/ Chamber of Commerce) if you care about a sustainability-related topic and you would like to contribute with a speech, please indicate your interest here. 

 📚️🏫 Toastmastering Together

Let’s get better by learning from each other and sharing resources. If you want to add info or share a Public Speaking Tidbit, let us know here.

Let us make your evaluations more focused by utilizing Evaluator resources in Pathways! Access these resources as follows:

  1. As a member, login to Toastmasters International website.

  2. Go to My Home > My Basecamp > tile for the club

  3. Click Speech Evaluations

  4. A list of resources for evaluation will be listed.

  5. Select the current project you’re working on to open the Evaluation Resource (usually a PDF file).

  6. Coordinate with the Toastmaster and your VPEs Sheila and Helen to know your evaluator and send them a note before the meeting to let them know what to focus on!

Evaluation Form to focus feedback given during speeches!

Public speaking is a muscle we incorporate in our lives, possibly until the day we die.

- Mike Z, for our Public Speaking Tidbit of the Week

🤝 ♣️ Aug 14 Club Meeting Highlights

Our president Katka is back from a trip to visit family and was ecstatic seeing how dynamic the club has been! Inspired by special moments from the Olympics, this week we celebrated the same HAPPINESS (theme of the night) led by our Toastmaster for the Evening Mark. We heard about our INSATIABLE (word of the day) pursuit for moments of joy and shared stories on how we navigate days when we’re not.

Thank you to our 17(!!) guests who spent Wednesday evening with us! 🙏 

Great job to our members who ran today’s meeting: Mark, Torran, Helen, Katka, Grace, Daniel, Gene and Sheila

🙋‍♀️ Let’s keep our dynamic meetings going. Sign up for roles! 🙋

Sheila shares bit.ly/GGTM-resources!

Tavisan recommends ringing your neighbor’s doorbell today!

This Wednesday, we:

  • 🗣️ Learned how Mike Z’s 12-year experience as Toastmaster came in handy during the celebration of life for his mother. He encouraged us to incorporate public speaking into our lives (🏆 Maverick Award 🏆)

  • 📚️ Sheila shared that the GGTM community and opportunities aligning with her goals is why she cares and asked us to explore why we should. (🏆 Best Prepared Speech 🏆)

  • 💓 Grace enlightened us about Emotional Maturity and encouraged us to invite people who might not be in that state in the moment with kindness and curiosity

  • 🔔 Tavisan introduced himself to the club by highlighting how technological advances should not get in the way of building human connections. Ring your neighbor’s doorbell today! (🧊 Ice Breaker 🧊)

  • 👫 Heard how being present while on a walk with her husband by Lake Merced made Ashanti happy recently. (🏆 Best Table Topic 🏆).

    • Thanks to those who shared their happy stories - Alex C, Juan, Katka, Elaina(guest), Jay, Noah(guest), Torran, Divya(guest), Daniel and Katie(guest). Thank you Helen for leading Table Topics!

  • 🪝 Concurred with Alex C. telling Tavisan, “You are already a public speaker!”. He encouraged having a stronger hook and relying less on notes to make it stronger. (🏆 Best Evaluator 🏆) 

    • Thanks to all our evaluators Jack (evaluating Sheila) and JJ (evaluating Grace). Thanks Gene for leading this section as General Evaluator last minute! (🏆 Maverick Award 🏆)

Ashanti gets Best Table Topic!

Alex C was Best Evaluator!

😎💡Member News

Doing anything fun? Share your adventures that we can highlight!

Since we did not have a member spotlight last week - today, we have two! We highlight our Toastmaster for the Evening and Best Table Topic winner!

Meet Ashanti!

  • Why you joined TM?
    I joined TM to improve my public speaking; however, building relationships with members and guests motivates me to stick with it. 

  • Hobbies/Fun fact:
    I've recently taken up photography and enjoy taking pictures of flowers.

  • Upcoming speech topic
    I am contemplating a few topics for my next speech. I have been very sensitive to the layoffs that have been happening in the biotech industry for the last 2-3 years. Therefore, my next speech will likely focus on the biotech job market.

Thank you for having us choose HAPPINESS this week, Mark!

  • Why I joined TM: I joined TM because I need to be a better public speaker for my work. I have a successful career thus far. To keep advancing, great public speaking skills are absolutely essential. There is no way to get around it. Golden Gate TM club is a perfect platform for that. It has a lot of members and draws many guests at each meeting. One can really feel the pressure and anxiety in front of a large crowd, which is exactly what we need to get comfortable with ourselves and overcome our fear. 

  • Favorite books/movies/fun facts: I like books in the genre of magical realism. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende was such a fun read, so was One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In my spare time, I love to do yoga, hang out in my garden, or grab coffee at one of many cool local coffee shops. I also have a home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I go there from time to time, especially in the winter. Thanks to work from home culture now, I can work there and most people don't even know that I am in another country. 

  • Upcoming speech: I have not decided, but it may have to do with my work, my dog, or things that bring me joy. I promise that I will think of something soon!

🫵🗣️ Your turn

We would like to hear YOUR stories, information and feedback to make this newsletter, our club and our Toastmastering better. Share it with us! (

Also, kindly reply to the Member Spotlight email please! 😄 🙏 

Need more info? Check out:
Golden Gate Toastmaster Resources