Dear Fellow Toastmaster!

The new term is off to a refulgent start as we welcome members, guests and our new club officers.

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📈 July 2 Meeting Highlights 🚩

The club definitely made the most of our shorter meeting. We celebrated new beginnings as we welcomed the second half of the year to our 29 attendees (12 were guests)! It was wonderful learning about what the newest things our guests have done recently, some of which were “preparing to officiate a wedding” 💍 (Allison), “organizing a soccer tournament at a university” ⚽️ (Mafer) and “trying improv” 🎤 (Alkis). Anyone sense a theme forming? 👀 

Carnell, our Toastmaster for the evening, signified the change of officership and reminded us to always take a moment to say hello when you can. Whether you’re a member for a guest, we’re all here to grow and build connections.

Thank you to our members who signed-up for roles to run this meeting: Agasthian, Anna, Omar, Sheila and Shubham.

🦗 Nikilitha shares with us in his “What we can learn…from grasshoppers” speech that:

• Grasshoppers don’t overthink before jumping on where they’ll land. Just leap!

• Grasshoppers are cold-blooded, they need folks to share the warmth with them.

• Grasshoppers sing. They speak their truth. They're speaking it boldly and loudly even though we don’t understand it.

We can learn a lot from grasshoppers, similar to how Freakonomics, a book Nikilitha referenced, connects seemingly unrelated questions (🏆 Best Prepared Speech🏆).

🎤 Scott’s evaluation of Nikilitha highlighted his good use of visuals and eye contact (🏆Best Evaluation🏆). He referenced “Cool guys don’t look at explosion” because that’s exactly what Nikilitha did. He spoke and didn’t look at his screens!

• 🧑‍⚖️ With the new big beautiful bill being top of mind for the country, Albert challenged everyone to give their take on equally controversial bills during Table Topics. YEA or NAY?

• Some of the compelling bills introduced were: sidewalks having a slow and fast lane, early bedtime (unless you have a permit), dessert first and sharing a snack in public being required.

• Katie’s veto for the dessert first bill won (🏆 Best Table Topic🏆) as she stated there were so many unclear points to the bill and that there needed to be more context!

We are adding these two new sections in our newsletter to capture memorable moments and words of wisdom from our fellow Toastmasters!

📚 Evaluation Tidbits📚

• Simple visuals driving the point home are the best!

• Change of voice and intonation when the mood changes is helpful.

• Sometimes you need to hold your audience’s hand so you don’t lose them.

💗 Quotes of the Night 💗

“Even if you don’t know where you’ll land, you are always allowed to leap”
- Nikilitha on his “What we can learn…from grasshoppers” speech

“Kindness is what would make earth great again”
- Alex W. during Table Topics

“Life is short, let’s get the best things in life first!”
- Ping during Table Topics

“Tell your truth. Show your truth. And so it shall be.”
- Nikilitha’s mom from his speech

📌 GGTM Club Reminders

• Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) 🎤

  • GGTM Members get to go for FREE! Meet fellow Toastmasters and leaders from District 4, attend speaking and leadership workshops, and officers get in-person training. Let Alex know by JULY 9 (member-only email will be sent with Luma link to RSVP) so your name can be added on the list.

  • When: Saturday, August 9 • 8am-3:30pm 

  • More details here: https://d4tm.org/events/eventdetail/369/-/toastmasters-leadership-institute

📅 GGTM Club Events

See the full list in the GGTM Calendar!

Benefits of your Toastmasters membership go beyond the club meetings! Check out these opportunities in the wider Toastmaster community and optimize your speaking and leadership growth opportunities!

• Become a Toastmaster Area Director

  • District-level leadership role where you support 4–6 local clubs by checking in with officers, helping them grow, and sharing resources.

  • You’ll develop leadership, communication, and coaching skills — with training and mentorship provided.

  • Details below or reach out to our president Alex W if you want to learn more: https://www.d4tm.org/area-director

😎 Member Spotlight

Joined TM to: Work through my presentation jitters and unlock my full ability to share my unique knowledge and perspectives!

Favorite book/movie/fun fact: When I was a kid, my family was the first family in the world to have a hydrogen powered car (called the Honda FCX)! To our surprise, this ended up being pretty big news.

Upcoming speech topic: Still deciding but potentially something about how buddhist practices can benefit the modern world.

“Thanks for welcoming me into the club and I can't wait to get started!”

 🎉 Exciting things coming up 🎉

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 or let Omar or Sheila know!