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Improving our Public Speaking - One Grain at a Time! 🗻
GGTM Team
December 14, 2025
Hello Fellow Toastmaster!
It’s the culmination of even the tiniest things that make the difference - no matter how long it takes.
In this week’s newsletter:
Meet our new GGTM Club Officers for Jan-Jun 2026!
See highlights of this Wednesday’s meeting as prepared by our incoming Club Secretary, Irene!
Highlights from GGTM Year-End Holiday Toast
Get to know two new members who officially joined GGTM this month
Read time: ~8 minutes
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📆 Club Announcements
Full list in the GGTM Calendar
Meet our new GGTM Club Officers for Jan-Jun 2026
On December 3, GGTM voted for our next set of club officers for January to June 2026! You will get to know them more in our year-opener newsletter (we’re still collecting bios 😄), but soft-introducing them today! Meet your new GGTM Club Officers!
President: Shubham Saloni
Vice President of Education: Albert Yan
Co-VP of Education: Michelle Wen
Vice President of Membership: Blair Vorsatz
Secretary: Irene Suwarno
Vice President of Public Relations: Valeriy VIslobokov
Treasurer: Helen Fream (continuing her term!)
Sergeant-at-Arms: Gautam Nair
Co-Sergeant-at-Arms: Caitlin Brown
Thank you to our officers from June to December 2025 for leading our club: Alex Wu, Kyle Combes, Albert Yan, Scott Brown, Sheila Vida, Omar Sinada, Nikilitha Mdluli, Helen Fream, Michelle Wen, Nithila Raman!
Alex handing over club leadership to our new president, Shubham!
12/17 is our Last Meeting for 2025!
Our last meeting of the year is next week, 12/17 and our theme is “A Year in Review!”. Join us for a Final Toast to 2025! Thank you for being part of Golden Gate Toastmasters this year and see you all in the next year!
Speech Contest Season is from February 2026
Alex shared the speech contest guidelines for 2026! Members, more info will be sent on this but start thinking about your topic if you want to participate in the Speech Contest and Tall Tales contest!
🎆 Meeting Highlights
🎤 Toastmaster of the Evening: Gene Zhou
Returning after a three-month hiatus, our Toastmaster, Gene Zhou discovered that public speaking truly is a muscle that needs regular exercise. Despite feeling the effects of time away, he delivered an engaging meeting centered around the Paradox of the Heap - the idea that removing or adding a single grain doesn't seem to make a difference, but eventually it all adds up.
Much like our journey as Toastmasters, small consistent efforts lead to remarkable transformation! With gratitude to the members who stepped up to fill functionary roles (including Albert, Katie, and Juan for last-minute positions), Gene was able to focus his energy on what he loves most about the role: the speaking opportunities and crafting thoughtful introductions. His 2-3 minute theme presentation reminded us all that short speeches force us to prioritize our message and can serve as excellent testing grounds for future longer speeches.
Gene is like a bit of sand in this panorama-ish shot! 😄
Thank you to all the functionaries who as always helped making running our meeting a success: Shubham, Juan, Monika, Katie, Albert and Sheila.
👥 Welcome to Our Guests!
We celebrated another fantastic meeting with nearly 50% guest attendance! Our guests introduced themselves by sharing "What is a little thing you do to start the day?" Popular answers included stretching, meditation, exercise, running, and spending time outside.
🏆 Prepared Speech Winner: "Being a Tall Girl" by Irene Suwarno
In her winning speech "Being a Tall Girl," Irene Suwarno brought us back to her childhood in Indonesia, where growing up unusually tall shaped her school experience in unexpected ways. As a third grader, Irene found herself in the unexpected role of keeping fifty energetic classmates quiet whenever the teacher stepped out. What followed was a mix of responsibility, teasing, and unforgettable childhood moments—from classmates calling her "giraffe" and "skyscraper" to her grandmother worrying aloud about how her height might affect her future. Through gentle humor and honest reflection, Irene shared how these early experiences shaped her sense of self. Her speech became the culmination of a long journey—from childhood insecurity to finding her voice again through Toastmasters, and a reminder that confidence isn't about perfection, but about standing tall just as you are.
Irene won the ‘The Best Speaker’ and also received her ice breaker ribbon
🎵 Prepared Speech: "A Year in Songs" by Tavisan
Tavisan took us on an emotional journey through his year, sharing six songs from his Spotify playlist that captured key moments—from joy and falling in love to melancholy and anger. His creative approach reminded us that our stories can be told in many ways, and music has a unique power to express what words sometimes cannot.
🎙️ Table Topics: Holiday Celebrations and Rituals
Tanya led our Table Topics session with thought-provoking questions around holiday celebrations and rituals.
Our Table Topics winner was Kat 🏆 , a guest who captivated the audience with her speech about the 75 Hard Challenge—a rigorous 75-day program that requires participants to follow a strict diet, complete two 45-minute workouts daily, drink a gallon of water, read 10 pages of non-fiction, and take a progress photo every day. Kat shared that while all the requirements were demanding, drinking a gallon of water each day proved to be the most challenging aspect for her. Her honest and engaging delivery proved that impromptu speaking skills can shine from day one!
Kat, our guest, won ‘The Best Table Topic’ for the evening
Thank you to everyone who spoke impromptu to share their holiday rituals: Monika, Gautam, Eugene, Karishma, Kat and S.
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⭐ Best Evaluator: Alberto Jarrin
Alberto won Best Evaluator for his evaluation of Irene's speech. He skillfully noted how her storytelling left the audience wanting to hear more, and provided specific feedback on delivery—suggesting she could have really hit the table when delivering her emphatic "Shut Up!" to emphasize the moment.
Thank you to Sheila as well for evaluating Tavisan’s Year in a Song speech! Thank you Juan for stepping in last minute as General Evaluator reminding us to be mindful of our prep work before our meeting such us our tech.
Alberto won ‘The Best Evaluator’
✏️ Evaluation Tidbits
Act out impactful parts of speech (slam that table!)
Work with your evaluator before the speech on focus areas for evaluation
Power outros make a difference
👁️ Through the eyes of the TME
Gene always has the most profound topics and speeches! 🙂 This time was no different with him as Toastmaster for the Evening once again. Let’s hear how it was for him!
I can't remember the last time I came to a meeting 2 weeks in a row... it must have been over 3 months ago. It's always interesting coming back and seeing a good mix of old and new faces. I have to say, public speaking really is a muscle that atrophies from disuse, and I felt it during this meeting. Luckily the members helped out, filling nearly all functionary roles before the meeting with Albert, Katie, and Juan filling in for last-minute empty or dropped roles. So to everyone who took on a role: thank you, because you let me focus my energy into the public speaking side of my own role.
Perhaps my favorite part of being TME, besides the copious amount of speaking time, is the fact that I get to come up with a theme and do a little intro for it to start the meeting. I chose the Paradox of the Heap, because I love discovering clever ways to articulate our experiences. For a 2-3 minute introduction, I probably spent way too long thinking about how exactly I wanted to do it. Short speeches are interesting in that you don't have as much time to make a fool of yourself, but you also don't have as much time to convey your message. It forces you to think about the most important things you want to say, and it's perfect for someone like me as I'm often very inefficient with presenting my thoughts. It also serves as a great way to test run ideas for a longer speech that I might want to give in the future.
As our last meeting approaches I suppose I've missed my chance to attend 3 meetings in a row, but it was great to be back, and it's great to see that the club still has the same great energy going. Looking forward to the next year!
🏝️ GGTM Beyond the Board Room
Get to know our Golden Gate Toastmasters outside of our weekly Wednesday club meetings at the Chamber of Commerce Board Room.
To more Rhino X GGTM Collaborations in 2026!
🥂 Year-End Holiday Toast🧋
Following GGTM Elections, we all went to The Nook SF to celebrate our Year-End toast together with our friends from Rhino Toastmasters. With way too much finger food in our midst, we got to know each other through names and actions, did the quintessential stealing of gifts in While Elephant Rhino, did a storytelling exercise (it’s not a Toastmaster event without a speaking slot!), and celebrated a year of collaboration and working together on our club and individual goals.
It was great to see everyone to celebrate our Toast to 2025! Thank you to our Holiday Toast committee - Rajitha, Dipayan, Page, Nik, Sheila and Alex for organizing and making this event possible!
See our Year in Review for both Rhino and GGTM on this presentation that Rajitha and Nik prepared (as VPPRs of their respective clubs!).
 The biggest hit in White Rhino! |  Banner selfie, yay! |
 Our hosts and Club Presidents - Dipayan and Alex |  Getting to know each other |
Name/Action Introduction game!
📸 Member Spotlight
Every month, we hold our Club Business Meeting where we vote in new members. Today, meet two of our newest members for December. Kat got the Best Table Topic on this week’s meeting and Terrence has spoken a couple of times in Table Topics as well as a guest.
Welcome, officially, to GGTM! Looking forward to your Ice Breakers Kat and Terrence!
 Welcome to GGTM Kat! | What made you interested in joining Golden Gate Toastmasters? I’m interested in joining Golden Gate Toastmasters because I’m stepping into a more public-facing role as my companies become self-managing. I want to sharpen my speaking skills, get solid feedback, and surround myself with growth-minded people who are committed to habits that move them forward. What will your speech topics be? |
 Welcome to GGTM Terrence! | What made you interested in joining Golden Gate Toastmasters? I am looking to improve my public speaking skills & overall communication ability. What will your speech topics be? |
🎉 Be part of the GGTM Newsletter! 🎉
Want to write a future issue or have something that you want featured with the club? Send a message to the #newsletter channel in Discord, email [email protected] or approach our new Secretary, Irene! 🙂