Dear Fellow Toastmaster!

Showing up to tell, listen and learn from each other expands the propitious environment for our self-development here at Golden Gate Toastmasters!

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📅 GGTM Club Events

Full list in GGTM Calendar!

📈 July 9 Meeting Highlights

Led by our returning Toastmaster for the evening Carnell, the theme was Carpe Diem and we were all encouraged to seize the day and make the most of the opportunities and circumstances that we come across every day. What was fascinating was despite being “caught off guard’, what the speakers were passionate about were resonant every time someone took the stage to tell their story.

Another packed meeting and over 32 attendees (12 were guests!) shared the space with us. We started with learning what folks favorite food are - with seasonal fruits mentioned a couple of times.

Thank you to our members who signed-up for roles to run this meeting: Carnell, Michelle, Sheila, Valeriy, Eugene, Tanya, Omar - some their first for the club!

All four prepared speeches capture the different areas our fellow Toastmasters were passionate about:

• 💻️ Valeriy talked about how an empathic and compassionate approach to Remote Work would make all the difference (🧊 Ice Breaker Speech 🧊 )

• 🏗️ Tavisan highlights his recent trip to three East Coast cities capturing his architecture and travel insights as he navigates the different places

• 📈 Scott talks about yet another profound realization he had while playing a sport he is passionate about - chess!

• 💗 Alex W dove into how human nature can put logic to ashes and re-shared his heartfelt story (🏆 Best Prepared Speech🏆)

Albert gave an equally passionate evaluation of Alex’s speech highlighting all the amazing things he delivered on - storyline, gestures, voice variety and emotion to get (🏆Best Evaluation🏆) and encouraged him to join the speech contest!

• Thanks to our other evaluators Adam evaluating Val to assert confidence by saying “I know” instead of “I think, Nithila evaluating Tavisan’s warmth of delivery, and Angela (first time evaluator!) giving Scott feedback to further make his visual aids effective. Thank you Shubham for leading the evaluation section!

Our Table Topics master Karishma let the jar decide who gets to seize the moment and tell their stories based on a prompt. Nick got the (🏆 Best Table Topic 🏆) for “breaking” the no-eating rule in the streets of Japan.

• Thank you for the other folks who shared their points of view - Agasthian, Sheila, Alkis, Eugene, Shubham, Carnell, Angela, Nick, Kyle. Alex W.

📚 Evaluation Tidbits📚

• Have the “Why” on every element of your speech to keep audience engaged.

• Visual aids are there to support you, not for you to support them

• Using the “rule of three” makes storylines land better and feel complete

💗 Quotes of the Night 💗

“All that matters is that we are starting equal - no matter the score.”
- Scott on his “What’s your rating” speech

“I don’t think I’d need anyone else’s confidence because my life and my journey is my own”
- Shubham. during Table Topics

“Logic only goes so far. Sometimes you know something in your head and still feel the way you do. It’s called being human”
- Alex on his “Ashes of Logic” speech

📌 GGTM Club Business

• We tested the new GGTM Feedback Form to gather both quantitative and qualitative feedback. Let us know what you think at [email protected]

• ✅ Kyle shared a member survey that will help our VPEs objectively understand everyone’s GGTM experience as they work on helping everyone grow this year

  • Members, complete the GGTM Member Survey by 07/14(Mon)

• 🏅 Sheila got recognized for completing her Level 3 Pathways on Presentation Mastery! Log your Pathways speeches everyone and get an exclusive pin!

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!

• Volunteer to help run the Toastmasters Leadership Institute on Aug 9

  • Attending the TLI? Want to help run the event?

  • Reach out to Alex Wu or Denise Singh (District 4 Growth Director) at [email protected]
    

• 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

Introduce yourself in the #ice-breakers channel in Discord!

 🎉 Be part of our 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 or let Omar or Sheila know!