Dear Fellow Toastmaster!

The days are getting shorter and the leaves are turning crisp… Fall is in the air with an autumnal chill nipping at our heels. Fear not, for we have plenty to warm your cockles and a fun and toasty social event this Friday to look forward to.

 🥳🥇 Awards and Celebrations

• We had 4 Maverick awards this week. We salute you: Juan, Scott, Jack and Derick for taking on roles and speeches last minute.

• Our GGTM Discord server is alive and kicking. Every member who renews will be invited to join!

• Helen had a super successful first market event with the SF Parks Alliance on August 31st, selling many of her handmade and upcycled clothes and accessories (she often talks about her passion for sustainable fashion in GGTM meetings!). If you’re interested in learning more email Helen or follow her sewing account on Instagram (@she_wears_what_she_sews)!

Don’t be shy, share your life wins and let’s celebrate together!

 📣 📆 Coming Up

Never want to miss out on GGTM social events, workshops and meetings? Clink on the button and subscribe to our club’s Google Calendar.

• Dues are due! Members, you should’ve received an email from our Treasurer Scott Brown about this. If you’d like to continue your membership please make payment before 09/15/2024. Early renewals will gain early access to the new GGTM Discord server (more info on this to come in future communications).

• 09/13 (this Friday) 6-9PM: GGTM Beach Bonfire Social: Join us for a GGTM bonfire at Ocean Beach Fire Pits! Firewood and hotdogs provided. Bring drinks, food and stories to share! Contact Gene at 650-245-4455 for more info.

• 09/18 (Wed) 12PM: Toastmasters Showcase Session II

  • Please join us at the Embarcadero Bricks at 12PM for our second session. Let us know if you’re interested in participating!

• 09/18 (Wed) 6-8PM: Open House with Sierra Toastmasters

  • Golden Gate Toastmasters (GGTM) & Sierra Speakers are co-hosting a joint hybrid Open House ; 

  • For online attendance (Zoom link here); Passcode: sierra4844 || Meeting ID: 648 879 176

  • Share with your friends and bring them along! Meetup link here.

 📚️🏫 Toastmastering Together

It’s a Match!! 👥

The GGTM Mentorship Program is back! Let’s up our self-development game further by working closely with a dedicated peer to reach our goals. If you have signed up to be a mentor and/or a mentee you would have received an email from Helen saying “You’ve been matched!”. The mentorship program entails the following:

• Intro conversation/goal setting

• Mentorship for the next 3 speeches (preparation and detailed evaluation/debrief)

• Support with Pathways/educational elements or club integration etc.

• Exit/wrap-up conversation

For existing members who did not receive the “matched” email, reply to the “What is your Toastmaster Game plan?” email if you’d like to participate as a mentor or mentee. For newer members, reply to the onboarding email we send to express your interest in being matched with a mentor.

As always, feel free to reach out to Helen and Sheila directly for anything we can help with your Toastmaster journey!

🤝 ♣️ September 11 Club Meeting Highlights 👀 by Monika

We had an outstanding meeting filled with engaging speeches, with Juan serving as the “Impromptu” Toastmaster, inspiring everyone to be courageous and showcase their abilities.

Club President, Katka, welcomed 11+ guests, who shared positive feedback about our club. 🙏Thank you to all the guests for attending. We look forward to the meetings ahead in our new term.

Co-VPs of Education, Helen and Sheila, provided updates on their work, including Pathways and the mentorship program. They also encouraged members to respond to the ‘What’s your game plan?’ email from Helen and Sheila.

Great job to our Functionaries for helping us run the meeting: Monika, Sheila and Helen for taking on multiple roles! Derick for taking on his first role at GGTM!

Our word of the day was “Discord” - which was used 5 times during the meeting (also a hint to members to join our Discord server!)

🙋‍♀️ Sign up for the available roles for our joint meeting with Sierra Speakers next week ! 🙋

During our meeting we:

• ☮️ Heard Adam powerfully remind us of the horrors of discrimination by sharing his grandmother's story, recounting how she escaped the Nazi’s in Poland during WW2, emphasizing that history must not repeat itself.

•  🎤 Learned about Tavisan's incredible journey of embracing change after facing personal and professional setbacks, and how he successfully moved to the US for his master's during the COVID outbreak.Shoutout and 🎉 congrats to Tavisan for winning (🏆 Best Prepared Speech🏆)

• 🦆 Were inspired by Katka’s heartfelt speech, full of vivid visuals and humorous hooks, about ‘building in public’, her startup journey and her ambition to become a public speaker. She compared herself to a duck 🦆 appearing calm above water but working hard beneath, and embarked on a 100-day challenge to become a professional public speaker!

•  🚓 Heard a dramatic, impromptu speech from Scott on a topic chosen by the audience, in which he shared how he was apprehended twice by the same police officer during his time at Penn State, and how he managed to win the case, leaving both his ex-girlfriend and the officer disappointed.

• 🎤 Shoutout and 🎉 congrats to Amanda evaluating Tavisan - we learned a lot from hearing what Tavisan did well: strong usage of verbs, choosing a complex adventurous chaotic topic and good eye contact from Tavisan’s speech (🏆Best Evaluator🏆)

  • 🙏 Thank you other evaluators - Jack, Ed, JJ!

• 🙏 Thank you to our Table topic master Katka for coming up with a great idea to make Table Topics fun as well as super topical with all of the current activity around the US Presidential elections. Two parties debated about new changes in Toastmasters:  Doomers (Make Toastmasters Great Again!), and Bloomers (let’s be free to innovate!). Members and guests were called to represent an opinion in favor of the party they got called for.

  • 🎉 Congrats to our guest Connor Wong for stepping up for the Bloomer party to argue for a hybrid format. He highlighted that the city’s biggest Toastmaster group had reached its in-person member limit, and a hybrid approach would extend its reach without limitations. (🏆Best Table Topic Speaker🏆)

  • 🙏 Thanks to our guests and members who participated in the debate : Doomers - Mike, Amanda, Jack, Grace, Vivek, Sheila, Chris; Bloomers - Elena, Connor, Darlene, Grace, JJ, Karishma, Adam.

😎💡Member Spotlight

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

🫵🗣️ 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!