Club Celebrations

Club Celebrations

Open House Meetings
Charterversary Meetings
Golden Gavel Meetings

Off the Cuff  – Club # 4354 – Open House 

Our Off the Cuff Club is pretty unique. Our speeches are ‘off the cuff‘. Our theme for this open house meeting was Open Mic Night. We even made each role ‘off the cuff‘ – not assigned but used the ‘grab bag’ type process for this meeting.

We gathered for a nice relaxing meal at 6PM followed by choosing 4 speakers from who wanted to speak (3 were guests and 1 existing member). The speeches were amazing! We kept our fun roles of Funmaster as Posture Monitor.

We had 6 guests plus 4 significant others. Some left before we remembered to take our group picture.

Club website: https://4354.toastmastersclubs.org/

Diana Patton, VP Education
Meeting: May 27, 2023

 

Speak Up Little Elm  – Club #1009806 – Open House 

Speak Up Little Elm‘s spring Pizza Party Open House. The theme of the meeting was “Summer Time is Coming.” We had seven members in attendance, including one new member who joined that night. Also attending where three guests who expressed the intent to join. We were so excited about the meeting that we forgot to get a group picture.

Laurie McKee, VP Membership
Meeting: May 25, 2023

 

 

San Angelo Toastmasters  – Club #4486922 – Open House/Charterversary

San Angelo Toastmasters held their OPEN HOUSE CHARTERVERSARY EVENT on Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 6pm via zoom! We had 7 guests (including 1 non-Toastmaster guest) who attended our special event!

The meeting began promptly on time with our annual charterversary tradition of reading aloud the names of the twenty charter members who started San Angelo Toastmasters on May 16, 2016 and sending them “good vibes” and our appreciation! HAPPY 7th ANNIVERSARY, SAN ANGELO TOASTMASTERS!

Our Zoom Master was Division B Director, Brandi Wesley (guest) who helped everyone navigate the zoom platform and she filled her meeting role marvelously! Brandi gave us zoom etiquette guidelines at the top of the meeting, posted themed zoom background choices in the chat, spotlighted our speakers, pinned the timer, and counted the votes for Better Speaker, Better Evaluator and Best Table Topics!

Our Timer and Joke Master role was filled by our Division A Director, Phylliss Christian-Daniels (guest). Phyllis timed our speeches, our evaluations, and our Table Topics and she gave us several opportunities to laugh together with her jokes and with her infectious smile! She performed her meeting tasks flawlessly!

Our Quiz Master was our current D25 Public Relations Manager, Michelle Debenport (guest)! She tested our listening skills by taking copious notes throughout the meeting and gave us a chance to answer quiz questions! She really kept us on our toes!

Our Grammarian and General Evaluator was our club’s Vice President of Education, Jason Jett. Jason gave us the word of the day, noted when someone used the word of the day and performed his duties as General Evaluator by introducing the speech evaluators, calling for reports, and giving us an evaluation of our meeting. Wearing two hats during any meeting can be challenging, but Jason made it look like a walk in the park!

Our Ah-Counter for the evening was D25 District Director Marcheta Gardner (guest). She held us accountable  for the use of filler words and she did a terrific job! She gave us kind and gentle notes during her Ah-Counter report and we were honored to have her attend our biannual event!

Our Toastmaster was Sallie Spradlin-Jett, President of San Angelo Toastmasters. She paved the way for our meeting theme “Hello, Sunshine,” which gave a focus to summertime fun AND the positive communication that this greeting resembles (a greeting consistently used by our D25 PQD and District Director-Elect Emily Murray)! Additionally, she gave some trivia about other “Hello, Sunshine” themes, highlighting four pop/rock songs with that song title, and she even gave some trivia on a media production company with that same name, which has been sold in recent years for almost a billion dollars!

Our two speakers for the evening were Steven Timmons (guest) and Sarfaraz Nazir (guest). Steven gave us a wonderful speech about how we can overcome public speaking anxiety by using an alter ego! Sarfaraz spoke to us about his journey to the United States and about taking a “Leap of Faith” in his Toastmasters journey!

Our speech evaluators were D25 Club Growth Director and Program Quality Director-Elect (and VPM, San Angelo Toastmasters) Jesse Ford and D25 Administration Manager (and SEC/TREAS, San Angelo Toastmasters) Hilda Guffey. They both did a fabulous job at giving supportive and kind feedback to the speakers!

Our Table Topics Master was our very own Area 14 Director, Jorge Daniel Santiago Garcia (guest)! Jorge gave us Table Topics questions to ponder like “Fast forward to 100 years in the future, what is the world like?” What a great time we all had during Table Topics!

Our non-Toastmaster guest, Gabrielle F. gave us feedback from her perspective as a first-time guest, “Your club meeting was so polished but it’s nice to see how fun it can be!”

Special thanks to all our D25 dignitaries and to those who took on a meeting role as part of the NEMELITA incentive! A good time was indeed had by all!

Sallie Jett, President
Meeting: May 11, 2023

Charter Date: May 16, 2016

 

Golden Triangle Toastmasters Club  – Club #5297 – Open House/Golden Gavel

Golden Triangle had an excellent spring themed Open House. We had 7 guests, 6 of whom have never been to TM before! The guests were all impressed by the meeting and gave excellent feedback, and two guests have already signed up to be members as a result of this meeting.

There were 6 guests.

Samantha Watt, Club President
Meeting: May 17, 2023

 

NST Toastmasters Club  – Club #7744858 – Open House 

NST hosted a fantastic meeting with 3 speakers, five table topics responses, and 3 evaluations. The speakers were enthusiastic, the table topics were thoughtful and matched the theme, and the evaluations were top tier. They had many guests, ranging from leaders in their community to friends and family members- in addition to several D25 dignitaries. Afterward they celebrated their fellowship with delicious Indian food and conversation.

There were 30 guests.

Samantha Watt, Area 61 Director
Meeting: April 29, 2023

 

MidCities Achievers  – Club #7694 – Open House/Charterversary 

Open House & Charterversary 21 years! MidCities Achievers on April 24th @ 630pm CST – 7:30pm CST @ Texas Health HEB Hospital Conference Center, 1612 Hospital Parkway, Conference Rooms D&E, Bedford, TX 76022. Our club website: https://7694.toastmastersclubs.org. Our social: IG: @midcities_achievers FB:MidCities Achievers

There were 19 guests.

Isleen Rodriguez, VP Public Relations
Meeting: April 24, 2023

 

 

Mr. Cooper Speaks  – Club #3349691 – Open House 

The Mr. Cooper Speaks’ Open House in Area 24 was “the best I’ve attended” per Area 24 Director, Laurie McKee.
Erin Johnson was the mastermind behind the Open House, and she did an outstanding job organizing the event with 17 guests and members feeling inspired and motivated.

The speakers were fantastic. Melissa Syphrett’s speech, “What you Tolerate Grows”, compared lawn care and maintenance to her Toastmasters journey. Erin Johnson shared her personal story of how positivity affected her performance as a young tennis player in her “The Power of Positivity”. Both speeches left attendees with plenty to think about.

Joyce Trimble capably served as the Toastmaster, Table Topics Master, and General Evaluator. Table Topic questions were centered around personal open houses, and attendees shared their plans and ideas for hosting their own events. Brittany Corbin spoke about the delicious chocolate cupcakes she would serve, while Candi Blunt shared her plan to sing with Belle as her honored guest. Guest Erica Johnson-Seck also shared her three supports in life, and how they would help her with her open house.

Kristina Lohmeyer and Lydeisha Gossett gave evaluations that were both motivational and encouraging. They provided excellent feedback that left the speakers feeling inspired and ready to continue their Toastmasters journey.

The event was a huge success, with several attendees requesting membership packets. Thus far, one new member and a renewal has been added to the club’s membership. It’s hoped additional new members will begin their journey, and that Mr. Cooper Speaks will end the 2022-23 year on a high note.

All in all, the Toastmasters Open House in Area 24 was, per Joyce, “a glorious Toastmasters meeting” leaving everyone empowered to continue their personal and professional development journeys.

There were 17 guests.

Joyce Trimble, VP Membership/Treasurer
Meeting: April 5, 2023

 

Panther City  – Club #4716146 – Open House/Golden Gavel

What an Amazing night Panther City Toastmasters had celebrating our Spring Open House. The atmosphere was lively, and fun filled. Lots of laughter took place between both the members and our special guests. Our guest speaker, Jenny Riddle gave an inspiring speech, and our timer Hilda Guff was able to get credit for her Nemilita Nine. Our Area Director Jorge Garcia Santiago joined in on the fun as well. We had a total of sixteen “Lucky Charms” in the house. Check out our Saint Patrick’s Day costumes. It was definitely a night to remember!

There were 5 guests.

Phylliss Christian-Daniels,  Division A Director
Meeting: March 15, 2023

 

Grace Club – Club #1912 – Golden Gavel

Grace Club held a hybrid meeting March 16, 2023 with members attending in person and members/guests attending online The meeting started on time despite a slight technical surprise. Zoom participants had their names on their window and in-person members all identified themselves. Of the 12 paid members, 9 members were in attendance. At least one non-Toastmaster guest was present. There was applause after every speaker. The speech today was provided by Debra Sanford and was her DTM Visionary speech. The agenda was distributed in advance with no changes. Table Topics was fun and prepared based on the theme of the meeting – St. Patrick’s Day!

There were 3 guests.

Submitted by Brandi Wesley,  Division B Director
Meeting: March 16, 2023

 

Toast With Confidence – Club #28675564 – Golden Gavel

Toast With Confidence is a new club; chartered about six months. The meeting had all three sections of the meeting, prepared speeches, Table Topics and evaluations. They had two great prepared Pathways speeches that were effectively evaluated. Guest were invited to participate and ask questions, As always, this was an exciting energizing club meeting.

There were 4 guests.

Submitted by Laurie McKee,  Area 24 Director
Meeting: March 7, 2023

 

Nissan Toastmasters Club – Club #5922 – Open House, Charterversary

On March 1, 2023, Nissan Toastmasters virtually celebrated 27 years of successes, growth, and development of the members. We had so many participants that we had to scroll to a second page in Zoom! President Leigh Gilliam gave a brief presentation about the club, including the 13 times the club has achieved Distinguished status or more. Our Table Topics session was designed to showcase impromptu speaking on the topic of Toastmasters, including how it has impacted tenured members, what goals guests are looking to achieve, and how Toastmasters could help with those goals.

There were 10 guests.

Submitted by Brandi Wesley,  Club VP Public Relations & Division B Director
Meeting: March 1, 2023

 

Strategic Communicators – Club #3331520 – Open House, Golden Gavel

This is one of the strongest clubs in Area 43 as they continue to exceed the high standards within District 25. During their Open House, they had a total of five non-Toastmasters guests and at least three Toastmasters members from other District 25 clubs. All Roles were filled, and the Open House was well publicized. The meeting featured an Ice-Breaker speech, an Advanced Level speech and very thoughtful Table Topics questions & responses. The structure of the meeting was well described throughout the meeting for the guests  benefit. All criteria for a Golden Gavel Award were met for this meeting.

Submitted by Brent Campbell,  Area 43 Director
Meeting: February 1, 2023

 

     

Roanoke Texas Toastmasters – Club #4236 – Open House, Golden Gavel, Charterversary (20th)

What a great way to celebrate 20 years as a club! Six guests were present, at least two of them became members by the very next day. Graced by the presence of our Division Director – Krystal Besaw, we had stupendous speeches, excellent evaluations, and terrific Table Topics participation – including three of our guests! Food, fun, and fellowship were on the agenda! I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years brings us.

Submitted by David Winkowski,  Club President
Meeting: January 23, 2023

 

   

Keller Communicators Toastmasters – Club #621025 – Open House, Golden Gavel

We had an enjoyable meeting for our open house with eight guests on Thursday, January 19th,2023.
Our Toastemaster(Patty) did an amazing job-theme:”What You’ll Find in My Frig”. The theme relates to our daily life and six guests brought their own personal stories in the table topic part.

We had two prepared speeches. We also had a potluck and began with yummy food.

The structure of the meeting was well described for the guests.

Submitted by Sunny Hao,  VP Public Relations
Meeting: January 19, 2023

 

     

Centex Clearly Speaking Toastmasters – Club #638381 – Open House, Golden Gavel

We had an enjoyable meeting for our open house that centered around Friends & Family! We were even able to incorporate the VPM’s daughter into the meeting by allowing her to introduce her before the speech. We had 4 guests join us, though unfortunately one had to leave early. It was wonderful hearing from each of our guests before we closed out the meeting.

Submitted by Jai Erwin, Area 34 Director
Meeting: December 6, 2022

 

Circle of Excellence – Club #1540842 – Open House, Golden Gavel

This was a great open house with 4 guests and a guest speaker about the value of Toastmasters.  The meeting met requirements for Golden Gavel Meeting.

Submitted by Shuhdi Hashim, Area 62 Director
Meeting: October 25, 2022

 

Alliance Networks – Club #5718 – Golden Gavel

I watched the video of this meeting. I observed the club met the Golden Gavel requirements. There were 15 members and 3 guests in attendance. Lynne was the speaker working on a Level 5 project that included a panel discussion and was a extended program.  This is a lively clubs and very supportive and welcoming.

Submitted by Michael Duckworth, Area 52 Director
Meeting: October 11, 2022

 

Off the Cuff – Club #4354 – Open House 

This is an amazing club! Over the years we’ve combined theme of Halloween and Backwards meeting – theme: “Beginning at the end…”.

Several of our members reached out to possible and past guests, our Area Director and guests even invited guests. We had a total of 5 guests. Their names: (backwards) Ymmat, Bed Nai, Zil, Mik).

Our Toastmaster (Gerg) did an amazing job handling things backwards. The speakers took the backwards theme to heart and incorporated actions and words from Posture Monitor (Zil) and their evaluators.

We did begin with a delicious meal as normal but from that point on everything was done backwards!!

Submitted by Diana Patton, VP Education
Meeting: October 22, 2022

 

San Angelo Toastmasters – Club #4486922 – Open House 

SAN ANGELO TOASTMASTERS hosted their semi-annual Open House event on Thursday, October 27th and celebrated in true fashion with a “Happy Halloween” themed meeting! Attendees and guests participated in a COSTUME CONTEST, witnessed two talented speakers sharing SCARY STORIES, and heard fang-tastic responses to TERRIFYING TABLE TOPICS!

 

Our Toastmaster for the evening was seasoned Toastmaster, Larry Prince who guided us through our haunting theme claw-lessly! (Congratulations to Larry for winning the Best Costume Award as he was clad in Sherlock Holmes attire!)

We had three Guest Ghostmasters attending our meeting:

1. Joyce Trimble took on the role of Guest Speaker and gave us a scary presentation as the ghost of her original character “Oops Chef!”
2. Donna Young took on the role of Guest Timer / Guest Jokemaster timed all our speakers, evaluators, and Table Topics responders and led us through a thrilling array of hair-raising halloween jokes!
3. Cassie Bullock took on the role of Guest Ah-Counter and took note of all our wretched wailings, filler words, and false starts.

We loved having all three of these mysterious Ghostmasters as our special guests!

Additionally, we had three non-Toastmaster guests who attended our Open House event – one of witch had not attended a Toastmaster meeting before! We are always happy to welcome first-time ghouls (guests)!

Our second enchanted speaker of the evening, Jenny Riddle told a tall tale of a real life experience she encountered when it was move-in day at her new house! So scary!

Our tricky Table Topics Magician (Master), Pam Davis gave us spine-chilling table topics of which made us all very very afraid. Sallie, Jesse, and Viral were her shocked victims. (Congratulations to Viral Trivedi for being voted Table Topics Winner!)

Our in-house investigator (General Evaluator), Jason Jett navigated us through the mystery of the evaluation portion of our meeting. Our two spooktacular speech evaluators Hilda Guffey and Jesse Ford evaluated our speakers using words that made our blood run cold (yet made our speakers feel encouraged and supported).

Our Grammarian Viral Trivedi gave us an extra challenge for the evening and gave us a frightful PHRASE OF THE DAY. We received extra (imaginary) points for saying “It’s spooktacular, ya’ll!” throughout the meeting.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR COSTUME CONTEST WINNERS:
Best Costume Award – Larry Prince (“Sherlock Holmes”)
Scariest Costume Award – Viral Trivedi (“The Wizard of Grammarian House”)
Funniest Costume Award – Jenny Riddle (“Chicken”)
Punniest Costume Award – Pam Davis (“Radioactive Particle”)
Most Colorful Costume Award – Shelby Jett (“Pirate”)
Horror-ific Costume Award – Sallie Jett (“Momma Zombie”)

A fun time was had by all who attended! Join us next spring for our next Open House event or attend any of our Thursday evening meetings! We promise, we won’t bite! (Evil laugh.)

Submitted by Sallie Jett, Club president
Meeting: October 27, 2022

 

Highway to Excellence – Club #3332446 – Open House 

Theme for the Open House was “Catch Me If You Can”.  A good time had by all.

Each month, in addition to our regular meeting, HTE has a workshop. The workshop for the Open House Meeting was: Speaker’s Lab.

Submitted by Marylee Mims, VP Public Relations
Meeting: October 20, 2022

 

Golden Triangle Toastmasters Club – Club #5297 – Open House, Golden Gavel, Charterversary

Highlights of meeting:  Halloween themed meeting with several guests, no changes in agenda, two members of District, active participation from all guests and no changes to agenda.

There were 16 guests!!!

Submitted by Samantha Watt, Area 61 Director, Club President
Charter Date:  October 1, 1983
Meeting: October 19, 2022

 

Waco – Early Birds – Club #3546 – Open House, Golden Gavel

Waco Early Birds had a hybrid open house this morning that ran very smoothly. They had two prepared speeches, and three Table Topics speakers that included guests. Gary Lee Webb was giving his 900th Toastmaster speech.  There were 5 guests.  Meeting met criteria for Golden Gavel meeting.

Submitted by Jai Erwin
Meeting: October 19, 2022

 

FFEAR-Less Toastmasters – Club #7594460 – Open House, Golden Gavel, Charterversary

More than once, I’ve heard a member say they joined because someone invited me. In preparation for our Open House, FEAR-less sent several hundred invitations to former members who began their journey once with an expectation they would realize the benefit to continue that journey. One member invited our guest, Ramya Iyer, featured at the bottom of our picture. Ramya joined that day. Charterversary, Golden Gavel, New Member. That is a successful Open House!

Submitted by Joyce Trimble, Club VP Education
Charter Date: October 1, 2019
Meeting: October 8, 2022

 

Centex Clearly Speaking Toastmasters – Club #638381 – Golden Gavel 

The club met criteria for Golden Gavel meeting including two guests.  Both guests were brave enough to participate in Table Topics, and one of our guests won best TT Speaker!

Submitted by Jai Erwin, Area 34 Director
Meeting: October 4, 2022

 

Savvy Sayers – Club #1082792 – Open House, Charterversary, Golden Gavel 

Savvy Sayers held there Charterversary as an open house with 17 club members and 14 guests on the hybrid meeting. All 4 DTMs that have been members of the club were present as shown in one of the photos as well as the Area Director and two past District Directors.

Submitted by Les Condit, VP Education
Charter Date: September 7, 2008
Meeting: September 8, 2022

 

Progressive Leaders – Club #3467810 – Open House, Charterversary

We celebrated our anniversary with panel discussion of elected officials.  We had 1 guest at our open house.

Submitted by Sandy Swan, VP Education
Charter Date: September 26, 2013
Meeting: September 26, 2022

 

Link Toastmasters – Club #7742649 – Golden Gavel, Open House

One of the strongest meetings this club has had. Roles were all filled, the Open House was well publicized, and had two ice-breaker speeches. Nine guests were in attendance and two turned in completed applications at the end of the meeting. The structure of the meeting was well described throughout the meeting for the guests benefit. All criteria for a Golden Gavel was met for this meeting.

Submitted by Clark Pfarner, Area 33 Director
Meeting: September 20, 2022

 

Keller Communicators Toastmasters – Club #621025 – Golden Gavel

The theme for the meeting was “What’s Your Language of Appreciation” and the Toastmaster was Club President “Patty Wyatt”. The theme carried forward the theme from the TLI training sessions so all members could share in the message. The club carefully considered all aspects of the Golden Gavel requirements and easily met the requirements.

Submitted by Clark Pfarner, Area 33 Director
Meeting: August 11, 2022

 

Panther City Toastmasters – Club #4716146 – Golden Gavel, Open House

The meeting had a great theme that was well developed throughout the meeting. They had great energy and performed each role well.  Club had a total of 5 guests.

Attendance:
Panther City Members 7
Non-Toastmaster 1
Area Director 1
Division Director 1
Past Division Director 1
Guest Speaker 1

Submitted by Jorge Daniel Garcia Santiago, Area 14 Director
Meeting: September 21, 2022

 

 

Alliance Networks  – Club #5718 – Charterversary

We had a wonderful 25th, Silver anniversary meeting on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. Our Area Director, Michael Duckworth was with us too and two first-time guests. We had our second hybrid meeting – complete with lunch and a lovely anniversary cake. One of our speakers Toasted the club (Social Speech) along with pictures from past 10+ years.

There were lots of memories and hugs shared. Our theme was Silver Anniversary (Celebrating 25 Years). Word of day: Commemoration. It was another outstanding meeting!!

Submitted by Diana Patton, VP Education
Charter Date: 9/1/1997
Meeting: September 20, 2022

 

Longhorn Toastmasters Club  – Club #3178 – Golden Gavel, Open House

Highlights of Meeting:  The recognition of guests at the end of the meeting, asking if any had anything to say about the meeting or their impression of Toastmasters resulting in at least two very positive responses. I think it is very likely that this open house will result in a couple to several new members.  There were 9 guests.  Meeting met requirements for Golden Gavel Meeting.

Submitted by Dennis Regan, Area 11 Director

 

We had a wonderful Open House with over 8 guest. Two of which have verbally confirmed they will be joining the Longhorn Toastmasters. Our Longhorn Toastmaster President, David Fleming, kicked us off and our Distinguished Toastmaster, Greg Heinzman, was our speakers.

Submitted by Shannon Luce

Meeting: September 19, 2022

 

Texas Talkers  – Club #1082726 – Charterversary

We had a wonderful celebration for our club’s 15th anniversary as well as celebration two our our members that will not be in-person with us. They will continue to join us virtually at our hybrid meetings. They both gave speeches at our meeting.

 

Our Area Director, Iva, attended too. She joined in the festivities (WOD ‘Festive’) by bringing food to share. Others in the club did too to ‘Celebrate’ (Meeting theme).

We had a total of 11 in attendance (including 1 guest and our AD).

It was fun hearing a bit about club’s history and viewing pictures to review all the great meeting and other celebrations we’ve had. There are lots more memories to be made.

Our Treasurer Cassie has done a great job reaching out to our community and using Meetup to grow our club.

Submitted by Diana Patton, Club Secretary
Charter date: 9/7/2007
Meeting: September 15, 2022

 

San Angelo Toastmasters  – Club #4486922 – Golden Gavel

San Angelo Toastmasters held their hybrid meeting on Thursday, September 15, 2022.

We had at least 75 percent of our paid members attending tonight’s meeting.

Our Presiding Officer role was filled by our current VP Education Jason Jett who called the meeting to order on time at precisely 6:00pm CST. Jason greeted our two non-Toastmaster guests (Nancy Prince and Kevin Settle) warmly and with enthusiasm. He also gave our guests the opportunity to introduce themselves and tell us a little about their work. Jason then gave several announcements before turning the meeting over to our Sergeant at Arms.

Our Sergeant at Arms (Larry Prince) opened our meeting with an inspirational message, led us in the reading of our club mission and he introduced our Toastmaster of the Evening.

Our Toastmaster of the Evening was Hilda Guffey who presented our theme: “Quote of the Day,” where she talked about when she attended one of her first Toastmasters meetings and everyone presented their favorite inspirational quotes throughout the meeting. Hilda inspired us with some wonderful quotes!

We heard an amazing Ice Breaker speech by Will Hennig (our newest member)!

Our Table Topics Master role was filled by Lisa Melton who was celebrating that exactly one year ago this month she herself was giving her Ice Breaker speech at our club meeting. Lisa’s Table Topics were engaging:
1. What was the most sensible advice you’ve ever received?
2. Who do you turn to when you need good advice?
3. What would you tell your younger self now?

Our three Table Topic responders answered thoughtfully and were within their time allotments. Our guest Kevin Settle volunteered to answer a Table Topic question, and once the votes were tallied later in the meeting, was declared the winner of this evening’s Table Topics!

Larry Prince filled the role of Speech Evaluator and gave thoughtful and supportive feedback during his evaluation of Will’s speech.

Our General Evaluator was Jenny Riddle (one of our newer club members) who gave us wonderful feedback on the meeting overall and was also responsible for calling on the Grammarian and the Timer for their reports.

Jesse Ford filled the role of Grammarian. The word of the day was “rancid.” Although we all agreed that this meeting was far from that!

Our Timer role was filled by our club President, Sallie Spradlin-Jett who timed the speakers, Table Topics, and evaluators.

Hilda Guffey concluded her role as Toastmaster by giving out the Best Table Topics ribbon to Kevin Settle and by giving out the Ice Breaker ribbon and the Welcome To Toastmasters ribbon to Will Hennig!

The Presiding Officer for the evening officially adjourned the meeting on time at 6:51pm CST in order to allow for extra time for in-room networking and tear down by our local San Angelo members.

We had all our roles filled well before our meeting was called to order with zero role/agenda changes prior to the meeting. The finalized agenda was emailed to those attending virtually before the meeting was called to order. Additionally, agendas were printed out ahead of time and distributed to those attending in person as they arrived in the room.

Nametags were worn by those attending in person. Zoom profiles were correctly labeled with first and last names of those attending virtually.

There was applause after every speaker by those attending virtually and by those attending in person.

A special thank you to our setup team local to San Angelo: Hilda Guffey and Lisa Melton. Without their hard work and dedicated efforts, our hybrid setup wouldn’t have been possible this evening! Thank you Hilda and Lisa! We love you!

San Angelo Toastmasters is an amazing “family of Toastmasters.” Our hybrid meetings typically include those who are local to San Angelo, TX as well as members and guests from all around the world!

ALL. ARE. WELCOME.

Submitted by Jason Jett, Area C Director
Meeting: September 15, 2022

 

Heart of Texas Bridge Gappers Club  – Club #676842 – Golden Gavel

Great meeting – requirements for Golden Gavel Meeting were met.  There were 3 guests at the meeting.

Their non-Toastmaster guest won for best Table Topic, and at the end of the meeting, almost all of the members gave her praise for her response. She did an excellent job, and the club was very eager to acknowledge that, even above simply voting for her.

Submitted by Jai Erwin, Area 34 Director
Meeting: September 10, 2022

 

Tip Top Toastmasters  – Club #9595 – Open House, Golden Gavel

Tip Top held it’s Open House on August 28, 2022. Toastmaster for the afternoon was VP Membership, Rick Newton, ACB, ALB, PM2. Their guest speaker was DTM Eddie Merla, who shared his initial reservations before joining Toastmasters 20 years ago. There were 19 total attendees: 7 Toastmasters from other clubs and 5 honored guests who are considering Tip Top Toastmasters as an avenue to personal and professional growth. Kudos to VP Public Relations, Connie Blake, TM and Rick for a successful “Open House!”

Submitted by Rhonda McCarthy, Area 12 Director
Meeting: August 28, 2022

   

Afterburners  – Club #6191 – Open House, Golden Gavel

Overall a great meeting in hybrid format which this club does very well. I was particularly impressed by the special recognition given to the five guests at the end of the meeting when they were resented a small gift just for being there.

The atmosphere was casual and as it was an open house there was food, Sadly I could partake as I was there virtually, but those in attendance were clearly having a good time. I also got the feeling that the club will reap at least one new member from this open house.

LeVona:

We had a hybrid meeting with 5 guests, the Area 11 Director, Division A Director present and there were 16 Afterburners members present.

Submitted by Dennis Regan, Area 11 Director
and
LeVona Patton, VPM
Meeting: August 30, 2022

Colleyville  – Club #1582921 – Golden Gavel

Our Toastmaster Jim Jameson gave us a great meeting with his “Back to School” theme and Kris with her coinciding Word of the Day, “meticulous” which was used frequently! Lynzy Slezak and Bridgette Beal both delighted us with their wonderful speeches! Lynzy’s Icebreaker was captivating and Bridgette’s highly educational and informative speech was so helpful especially to newer members! Shirin did a great job with Table Topics and we had great answers surrounding our theme. Our evaluators Charlie and Denise both gave excellent feedback to our speakers. Our General Evaluator Chuck led his team with wonderful expertise and as usual Colleyville Toastmasters always steps up and rises to the occasion!

Karen Coleman, Area 31 Director
Submitted by Deb Peterson
Meeting: August 12, 2022

Texas Talkers  – Club #1082726 – Open House

Plans started months ago by reaching out to Watauga Public Library to reserve spot on their calendar that is open to community for promoting events. Our own Cassie worked with Dana to make this happen. The Library promoted it as well as club did on our Facebook, Meetup and reaching out to others. We had light snacks and guest packets ready. We had 6 guests that even participated in Table Topics. We had an abbreviated meeting allowing time for networking and questions. Tony, our VP Membership, will be following up with each one of them to invite them to our next regular meeting. We’ve got our name on the calendar to do this again on January 26, 2023 to make this a regular thing.

Diana Patton, Club Secretary
Meeting: August 11, 2022

Airport Toastmasters  – Club #5537 – Charterversary

Airport Toastmasters Club held its year-end celebration and celebrated its birthday on July 14th at the Olive Garden in Grapevine, TX. The club was chartered June 1984. The club meets on Thursdays, from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Visit club website at:
www.airporttoastmasters.com

Sarfaraz Nazir, VP Membership/Public Relations
Charter Date June 1, 1984
Meeting: July 14, 2022

Alliance Networks  – Club #5718 – Golden Gavel

Alliance Network organized a fantastic Club Contest! Four contestants for International Speech Contest (picture attached) and five contestants for the Evaluation Contest. Since there were many who wanted to compete, the contest covered two meetings. Each meeting, each contest, was run well. They followed their contest agenda and kept to it. Members filled contest roles. I visited with Michael Duckworth. Wow! What a contest it was!

Tammy Kasterke, Division Director
Meeting: February 8, 2022

AAFCU Flying Toasters Club – Club #643446 – Open House

AAFCU Flying Toasters had a great Open House on June 22nd. This was our first meeting we had in person after 2 years of the pandemic. We had sent out a lot of fliers throughout the company and emails to our past members that were within the club.

Our theme was Toasting Toast as you can see within our pictures. You also can see how everyone was interested in our speaker’s speech and in Table Topics.

We had 4 members that were there and 8 guests. One of our guests was our speaker Chuck Menke who gave us a wonderful speech. The title of his speech was Tick Tock, Time Is Ticking Away! He inspired everyone. We had great Table Topics and we gave everyone the time to ask questions on the Table Topics and about the club Toastmasters. The four members that were there were Scott Payne, Rehan Hafeez, Sarah Hrabal and Celeste Castro as well as our guest speaker Chuck Menke explained their experience with Toastmaster and how we grew to enjoy Toastmasters.

Out of the 7 guests 5 of them are wanting to join us. We had a great meeting and a wonderful time even though we were a small number of people at the Open House. We are looking forward to doing another one soon for our next term.

Celeste Castro, VP Education
Meeting: June 22, 2022

     

Fear-Less Toastmasters – Club #7594460 – Open House

The “YOU” in our invitation was an invitation to many! The many consisted of prospective members’ contact information gathered for years by our VP Membership, Joyce Trimble. Over 26 contacts accepted our invitation. Five attended and 3 joined that day.

The agenda and virtual backgrounds set the theme of our Open House, “Becoming FEAR-less.” A fun word was introduced as the word of the day, Plucky. Just saying it still makes me smile. It means having or showing determined courage in the face of difficulties.

Joyce served as Toastmaster, Table Topic Master, and General Evaluator weaving Jamie Pickering’s “How to prepare a speech in 5 minutes” into the meeting.

FEAR-less members filled the agenda to show-case both new and seasoned members. Emily Green, who join in March shared “The Art of Being Grateful” and how a life-threatening motorcycle accident forced her to become grateful and how it changed her life. President, Elly Malaxos DTM, presented a call to action speech “What Happened When I faced the Fear.” She shared how she listened to the 1% of her brain that told her to go to the first meeting and join Toastmasters. You may remember Elly, she won the D25 International Speech Contest in 2021.

Table Topics consisted of sharing the speech subject and 3 attributes of the members developing speech. A plucky guest even participated in Table Topics.

Polished Evaluators, Kelly Pelkey, DTM and Vanessa Rivera provided evaluations to motivate. Their personal styles were part of the meeting conclusion demonstrating how we help overcome the fear of public speaking by providing quality feedback.

Overall, a huge success. Members were the one lacking component to become President Distinguished.

And the 3 new members have their Ice Breaker ready to present!

Joyce Trimble, Member
Meeting: June 11, 2022

Highway to Excellence – Club #3332446 – Open House/Charterversary

Our Highway to Excellence ended our 2021-2022 year with an Open House/Charterversary meeting – a great time was had by all. Since returning to in-person we’ve been meeting at la Madeleine in Grapevine. We had lots of good food and visiting before the meeting started promptly at 7PM.

 

There were no changes to the agenda but best of all we had 2 first time guests. We all cheered when Jamie announced we’re a President’s Distinguished Club for 9th consecutive year.

We had two speeches. David completed his Path and did “Reflect On Your Path” project. It was a nice way for us to learn a lot about one of our newer members. Marylee did a great job on that project that she did two short impromptu speeches. Nice job!!

Our theme made the meeting even more festive – “Walk Up Music.” How fun was that?

The unique thing about our club is our workshop following regular meeting. Diana led us down memory lane with club past, present and future journeys as we trave that “Highway to Excellence”.

Diana Patton, Member
Meeting: June 16, 2022
Charter Date: June 28, 2013

 

 

Out On The Town  – Club #897575 – Open House

Out on the Town June 11, 2011:  The plan was to have first meeting of the summer at park in Grand Prairie.  Mike was able to secure location.  Kimberly created SignUpGenius for all the picnic fixings.  Grocery list was created for Saturday morning trip to Costco for hamburger, hotdogs and grilling supplies.  Chef (Bob) was ready to do the grilling.  Members of the Grand Prairie Clubs were invited to join in the fun and see what our specialty club is all about.

Then the forecast was for record highs – over 100!  Plans were quickly changed.  Chuck was able to secure meeting room at Spring Creek BBQ in Arlington.  Our plans may have changed but we had a our last meeting of 2021-2022 was another great success.

We ad 5 guests which included 1 new member.  That new member along with several education goals completed and submitted were what was needed to be President’s Distinguished.  This is our 5^th consecutive year to finish as President’s Distinguished.

Our newly elected officers for 2022-2023 will continue to lead this club to success.

Full set of pics – click here

Diana Patton, Member
Meeting: June 11, 2022

 

Afterburners  – Club #6191 – Open House, Charterversay

This successful meeting was in 3 parts: Reflection, Recognition, and Renewal. We reflected on 36 years of being chartered, led by the president, and awarded our charter member, Tom Brents, with an award. Then the VPE hosted the Recognition of 29 educational awards this year, and Renewal, led by VPMembership as we inducted new members into our organization. Wonderful speeches, wonderful fellowship, wonderful opportunity to celebrate all things Afterburners and Toastmasters.

Laura Stewart, VP Education
Meeting: May 29, 2022
Charter Date: 3/1/1986

Waco – Early Birds Club  – Club #3546 – Open House, Golden Gavel

This was a very warm and welcoming meeting. The hybrid meeting went off without a hitch. Started on time ended on time. The speech was captivating and held all our attention. Table topics was great fun and made us think on how we would answer if called upon. Guests were welcomed whole hardly. Very enjoyable meeting. It was a pleasure to be up so early!

Rahmana Warren, Area 35 Director
Meeting: May 25, 2022

Panther City Toastmasters – Club #4716146 – Charterversary

We had a great meeting with 2 speakers and 2 evaluators and the theme for the night was Lucky 7 Charterversary. A total of 6 members were present plus 1 guest (will be joining).

Rose Timmons, VP Education
Charter Date: 5/15/2015
Meeting: May 11, 2022

First Command – Club #8474 – Open House

First Command Toastmasters had their first hybrid Open House on May 3, 2022 with a theme of Stars Wars Day/May the 4th Be With You. We had 11 Toastmasters and 14 guests in attendance. We served delicious snacks, and had fun talking about the history of Star Wars Day. Did you know it’s called Star Wars Day because May the 4th Be With You doesn’t translate well in other languages? We were entertained and informed while listening to engaging Toastmaster Danny Coonce. We are overjoyed to be able to welcome several new members in the next week as a result of this highly successful Open House!

Kelsey Dean, Club President
Meeting: May 3, 2022

San Angelo Toastmasters – Club #4486922 – Golden Gavel

(We held a “Double Hybrid Meeting!” We set up two in-person sites in San Angelo and in Austin and we also had virtual attendees via Zoom)

Meeting Theme: “Explore. Dream. Discover” (Quote by Mark Twain)

Our Toastmaster for the evening was our charter member Pam Davis, DTM (see attached screenshot photo/ Pam pinned as Speaker).

We had 14 people in attendance: 8 members (out of 9 current members on our roster), 3 non-Toastmasters guests, and 3 Toastmasters members from other clubs (2 of which were filling a role to qualify for the NEMELITA AWARD).

All guests were greeted warmly and enthusiastically prior to the meeting being called to order and again at the beginning of the meeting by our Presiding Officer.

Our two prepared speakers were Jason Jett (Pres. of SATM, see attached photo/ pinned as speaker), and Eddie Merla, DTM (Guest Speaker). Each speaker gave a Pathways speech.

Our Grammarian was guest (and pending SATM member) Lena Brown, DTM.

Our Speech Evaluators were Larry Prince and Jesse Ford. (Additionally, we also held a “round robin format” for one of our speakers where five of us each got to provide a one-minute rapid feedback that was specific and supportive.)

Our General Evaluator was our VPE Hilda Guffey.

Our Timer was Lisa Melton.

We had fun and interesting Table Topics provided by our Table Topics Master Jenny Riddle (Guest Toastmaster, Member of Peaks Speaks).

We had a prepared agenda distributed to attendees virtually and to those attending our two in-person sites.

We had no agenda changes prior to the meeting.

Our meeting started on time at precisely at 6:00 P.M. and ended on time at precisely 6:59 P.M. (This had been our biggest challenge when we attempted to earn this award a few weeks ago, but we did it this time!)

Our VPE Hilda Guffey presented the First Place Ribbon on zoom screen to our Table Topics Winner, (guest) Donna Fossmeyer.

Zoom attendees labeled their profiles appropriately with their first and last names. Those attending in person wore nametags on their shirts.

Applause was given to each speaker and functionary as they passed the lectern. (Zoom attendees were instructed to use the clapping hands emoji under the Reactions tab on Zoom OR show their hands clapping on camera.)

WE DID IT! (See attached photo of screenshot of almost all attendees.)

Jason Jett, Area 15 Director
Meeting: May 5, 2022

Southlake Club– Club #4987 – Golden Gavel

This was a regular meeting (no open house or charterversary). They had 21 in attendance and have 22 members. 2 guests were at the meeting. Myself and a new guest who joined that day. All members were wearing name tags. The agenda had no changes. Two prepared speeches. The meeting was run very effectively. Toastmaster did an excellent job. Had introductions for all the speakers. The Table topic s master called on members who had lessor speaking roles. The evaluations were done positively. timer effectively recorded time and kept the meeting on time. The guests were all given time to speak. the VPM was right next to the new visitor and processed application on the spot. And had information on orientation ready and informed her immediately. They ran over next weeks assignments at the end of the meeting. It was a model meeting! I presented Jacquelyn Martin her trophies from the Area Contest. Several members met afterwards and socialized.

Deb Sanford, Area 62 Director
Meeting: May 2, 2022

Texas Talkers– Club #1082726 – Open House

Our Texas Talkers cub has been so fortunate to have a wonderful physical meeting location now that we are having hybrid meetings. We had our second open house this Toastmaster year. We reached out to past members, guests and others that have shown interest. We sent emails, texts, posted flyers and mass message to our MeetUp members.

We had a very strong meeting that was well run and great speakers, Table Topics and evaluations. Cassie did a great job on decorations and everyone brought nice treats for those in-person.

We have a wonderful Area Director, Frank Correa. He was able to join us on-line. We had a few guests with hopes to continue to reach out to build our membership.

Diana Patton
Club Member
Meeting: May 1, 2022

Wichita Falls Club 305– Club #305 – Golden Gavel, Charterversary

We celebrated 77 years! We had many former members, guests, and district leadership in attendance. The event committee created a fun table topics type speech leading us through the decades since our club was formed, 1945. Many former members shared how impressed they were with the growth and longevity of the club and may return! It was a fun meeting and we continued to treat it with the official format of TM meetings.

Katie Britt
Club President
(copied Area Director – David Winkowski)
Club President
Meeting: April 28, 2022

Strategic Communicators– Club #3331520 – Open House, Golden Gavel

Our theme was “Leaders of Tomorrow”; a creation by our Toastmaster, Samuel D. Hartman. We had 9 of our 12 members in attendance. The big gain was 11 guests! This club has so much momentum, but has struggled to have a positive Open House the last few times. It was incredible to have so many people in attendance. It showed the hard work the members were willing to do to grow. We had two prepared speakers that spoke about their journeys, both in Toastmasters and with their dogs. I am working on gathering photos or screenshots, but did not want to miss the deadline.

Chris Raneri
Club President
Meeting: April 27, 2022

Information added – from Area Director, Dwight Collings, Golden Gavel Meeting

This meeting had all the hallmarks of a Golden Gavel Meeting which are strong attendance, an agenda that did not need tweeking, and many new guests. It was a very successful open house.

Off the Cuff – Club #4354 – Open House

We had an amazing open house at our Off the Cuff Club – Open Mic Night. We had 13 members and 11 guests – 3 of those are our newest member.

Four of our guests got a taste of how to prepare a well organized and delivered speech in five minutes.

Everyone gathered for a Taco meal with all the fixins’ at 6PM with meeting starting at 7PM. We were inspired and entertained by our four guest speakers.

This is club for anyone wanting a second club. We meet the 4th Saturday of each month. Here is our website: https://4354.toastmastersclubs.org/

Diana Patton
Member
Meeting: April 23, 2022

San Angelo Toastmasters – Club #4486922 – Open House.  Charterversary

SAN ANGELO TOASTMASTERS held their OPEN HOUSE EVENT ON THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022 at 6:00 P.M. (CST). We had a total of 8 guests attending our Open House Event! (6 of those guests were non-Toastmasters, and 3 of those had never attended a Toastmasters meeting before!) Lisa Melton received a special honor for bringing the most guests (she brought 3 guests to the meeting)! We had a total of 15 people who attended our Open House Event!

We had two speakers: (1)Cassie Bullock – Special Guest Speaker booked through D25 Speaker Bureau’s webpage. Cassie gave a speech on connecting with others by being vulnerable. It was an incredibly moving speech! (2) Hilda Guffey – VPE San Angelo Toastmasters gave a speech entitled “Abacadabra” and she spoke about the power of intention and inspired all of us to “think” our goals and dreams into existence!

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Larry Prince, who gave us our theme: “TAX TIME,” which was appropriate since the tax deadline was approaching (and it was a fun theme since we had three CPA’s at the meeting)!

We celebrated our 6th Charterversary during our meeting and gave a special tribute to the 20 members who chartered our club in 2016.

We held a drawing for a $25 HEB gift card for all our guests and for our members who brought a guest. Lisa Melton won the drawing for the gift card!

We also presented the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank with food items and cash donations collected during our 2022 Spring Donation Drive. The items donated totaled over 40 pounds! The cash donations collected by members and friends of SATM enabled the food bank to provide 480 meals to people in the San Angelo area!

Cassie Bullock won the Better Speaker Award. Lisa Melton won the Best Table Topics Award. Jason Jett won the Better Speech Evaluator Award.

Educational Awards were also given out during the meeting: Jason Jett was awarded the certificate in Level 2 of Presentation Mastery. Larry Prince was awarded the certificate in Level 5 of Presentation Mastery.

Overall, it was such a special event and seemed to “ignite” a new sense of pride for our club members!

Sallie Jett
VP Public Relations
Meeting: April 14, 2022
Charter Date: 5/16/2016

Nissan Toastmasters – Club #5922 – Open House.  Charterversary

On April 13, 2022, Nissan Toastmasters opened their virtual doors to guests both within and outside of Nissan to celebrate their 26th Charterversary with a meeting theme of “Welcome”. Structured like a traditional Toastmasters meeting, the agenda included excerpts throughout to provide the guests with club information. Club officers introduced themselves, their role, and a description of their role. The speaker and evaluator were club and area contest winners who will be competing in an upcoming division contest. Speaking and evaluating during this meeting gave them an opportunity to practice before the competition. It was a great meeting and that brought forth several new guests that the club hopes to see return soon.

Brandi Wesley
VP Public Relations
Meeting: April 13, 2022
Charter Date: 3/1/1996

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Once Upon A Time – Club #6103644 – Open House. Golden Gavel, Charterversary

Once Upon a Time annual Charterversary and Open House featuring special guest author and fellow Toastmaster, Robi Ley, who led discussion of her book The Seventh McGuffyn. Four guests attending, one all the way from Turkey!

Sandy Swan
Area 24 Director
Meeting: April 10, 2022
Charter Date: 3/10/2017

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Heart of Texas Bridge Gappers – Club #676842 – Open House. Golden Gavel

The HOT Bridge Gappers really know who the throw a party!!! The Open House was very entertaining and met all of the criteria to be considered a Golden Gavel Meeting. Although it was a virtual meeting all members and guests were greeted warmly and enthusiastically at the beginning. 75% of the membership was in attendance along with one non toastmaster guest. All roles were filled and pathway specific. There was a lot of energy and great communication throughout the meeting. I wish them much success in attracting new members.

Bobby Tatum
Area 42 Director
Meeting: April 2, 2022

Southlake Cub – Club #4987 – Open House

Our Open House on April 4, 2022 was a big success. We had 2 guest join along with 1 returning guest and 1 first time guest. Several of our members brought refreshment. It was a festive atmoshere with theme of “Happy Birthday” including party hats and horns which were a nice addition to clapping. Things ran smoothly as normal. We had two outstanding speeches and clever Table Topics questions. Two outstanding evaluations.

Our 7AM starting time may seem a bit early but all the positive, inspiring, motivational, education atmosphere is a great way to start our week!

Diana Patton
Member Southlake Club
Meeting: April 4, 2022

Clearly Speaking Toastmasters – Club #5440 – Golden Gavel, Open House, Charterversary

Clearly Speaking had an exciting Open House/Golden Gavel meeting with Ron Davis giving a speech on ‘Not Wasting the Moment’ . He eloquently demonstrated how to capture an audience from the first word or non-word in a speech! With 5 guests and the Area and Division Directors in attendance, a wonderful time was had by all. AND the Zoom Master & Toastmaster smoothly engaged the virtual attendees in every aspect of the meeting, except for the in-person food. Reports are that the food makes in-person attendance really worth it, because West Texans ALWAYS dish up the best food! I loved the way, the meeting roles were revealed throughout the meeting, so the guest where never left wondering what was happening and why. Each role holder explained what they were doing in such a personable manner. No reading of a banal rote role description. Warmth and laughter prevailed and reached across the internet to the virtual attendees. And if ANYONE meets Suanna Davis, just say the words, ‘there is a tickle monster in the room’ and watch her reaction! Yup! You can find the ‘best of the West’ at Clearly Speaking Toastmasters Club 5540.

Donna Young, Division A Director
Meeting Date: 3/23/2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abilene Club 1071 – Club #1071 – Golden Gavel

Abilene Club 1071 really puts on a great hybrid meeting.  Last night’s meeting drew in 2 non-Toastmaster guests. The theme was the year of the Tiger, playing up the Chinese new year.  The two advanced speakers and lively table topics kept all of us entertained and on our toes.  Everyone enjoyed the inventive Quiz Master  who stumped the Division Director. In addition to having all meeting roles filled before the meeting, the VP whizzed through filling any open holes in the lineup for the next meeting AND worked in future DCP educational goal reminders with the members. Wow! Talk  about having all your ducks in a row OR in-keeping with the meeting them, all your TIGERS by the tail. AND the club is planning an OPEN HOUSE in April!   No date has been set, but the Open House Chair has been appointed.  If this was a regular meeting, then this Division Director can’t wait to see what their OPEN HOUSE will be like.

Donna Young, Division A Director
Meeting Date: 3/14/2022

 

 

 

 

NST Toastmasters Club – Club #7744858 – Open House

NST Toastmasters Club hosted an Open House today at Nanglo Restaurant. Today was a day for many “Firsts.”

NST Toastmasters hosted their first open house.
After two years of making speech online Diana Wigginton presented her first live speech.

Kushagra (Kush) Wagle is breaking into Toastmasters with the aspiration to be a attorney.

NST Toastmaster Dinesh Sharma who crafted his public speaking skills through Toastmasters is running for the Texas State Legislature. Dinesh spoke about how Toastmasters gave him the skills of public speaking and that he believes every person deserves a decent quality of life and the opportunity to go as far as their dreams and ambition will take them.

Today’s Open House was a smashing success recruiting 15 new club members!!

Also in attendance: Division Director E Tammy Kasterke, Area Director 63 Suresh Basyal,
Area Director 65 Conda Rice, Area Director 64 Pedro Melendez and Club Growth Director Emily Murray

Jim Chappel, Area 61 Director
Meeting Date: 2/26/2022

Burleson Club – Club #706449 – Golden Gavel

The meeting was well organized. There was a variety of speeches which make the meeting very entertaining and fun. The interaction between members and guest was remarkable. As Area Director I had the pleasure of congratulating and presenting a trophy to the winner of the Area International Speech contestant and give challenge coins to the Club President and other contest participants. The club members were very proud of the club and supportive of their members. Overall, it was a great experience for me which makes me look forward to the next time I have an opportunity to visit their club.

Bobby Tatum, Area 44 Director
Meeting Date: 2/21/2022

FAA Toastmasters – Club #6102 – Open House

This Virtual Open House was hosted by 3 FAA Toastmasters Clubs from across the country. The event was advertised widely via agency internal communications. 60 guests attended including the current TM attendees. We plan to continue to host joint open house events regularly due to the success of this inaugural event. The event has also sparked interest from managers of various Lines of Business who have requested presentations for future employee engagement sessions.

Jeri Bird, VP Public Relations
Meeting Date: 2/1/2022

Burleson Toastmasters – Club #706449 – Open House

Burleson Toastmasters held an Open House January 3, 2021. Sixteen members and 9 guests were present for 2 speeches, evaluations and Table Topics fun!

No Area or Division Directors were present (so no Golden Gavel was submitted), but the meeting was a huge success with lots of food and fun!

Ninfa Flewitt, District Director, Club VP Education
Meeting Date: 1/3/2022

 

 

Roanoke Texas Toastmasters – Club #4236 – Open House/Charterversary

RTTC opened its doors and windows on January 24, 2022, to past members, fellow Toastmasters, and inquirers who want to know about Toastmasters. The theme was Open Your Possibilities. It was a splendid evening with 13 Club Members and 13 Guests! WOW! In addition, we all celebrated Roanoke Texas Toastmasters’ 19th Club Anniversary.

The Open House/Anniversary meeting resulted in one guest becoming a member. Woohoo!

As mentioned we opened doors and windows. The doors at the Roanoke Public Library were opened for our in-person members and guests. And, we opened the Zoom Windows for our virtual members and guests. Ten attended virtually and 15 attended in person.

We also had dignitaries present! Shout outs to Marcheta Gardner, PQD; Diana Patton; Past District Governor; Tammy Kasterke Div E Director!

Our celebratory meeting ended with door prizes for 4 lucky attendees… Diana Patton, Sarah Jensen, Celeste Castro, and David Roth.

Tammy Kasterke, Division E Director, Club Secretry
Meeting Date: 1/24/2022
Charter Date 1/17/2003

Grand Orators – Club #7173767 – Open House/Charterversary Meeting

We had a combination Open House and Charterversary Celebration on December 15, 2021. Our fellowmember Monte Whetstone was Toastmaster Santa. The theme was a “A Holiday Celebration”.

Food, fun and fellowship was had by all in attendance.

Chiquita Taylor, President
Charter Date: 12/17/2018, Meeting Date: 12/15/2021

Northwest Tarrant Toastmasters – Club #1440249 – Open House

We had 10 people attend the meeting in total. We only had one guest come. There was one speaker who gave an intriguing story about one of her adventures as we stuffed our bellies with lunch-sandwiches, salad, and fruit!

Kelcee Tarrence, VP Public Relations
Meeting Date: 11/17/2021

 

Longhorn Toastmasters – Club #3178 – Golden Gavel Meeting/Open House

This has been the second Open House meeting that I have attended with Longhorn Toastmasters and I must say that this one was the greater.

Thenishia Smith drew in a good crowd by advertising the Open House in the City of Fort Worth Roundup. President Annette Henderson went above and beyond with making sure that the meeting was a success.

There were eight guests present three of which were Area Director, Phylliss C-Daniels, Division Director Donna Young and Special Guest, D25 Club Growth Director, Emily Murray.

A gift exchange , which may have caused the meeting to go over by a few minutes worked well on a hybrid level to make the meeting that more fascinating. One new member has joined as a result of this Open House!

Phylliss Christian-Daniels, Area 11 Director
Meeting Date: 12/20/2021

Keller Communicators – Club #621025 – Golden Gavel Meeting

In this meeting there were 3 speakers — two of which (Clark & Steve) gave a ‘tandem’ speech on “Life with Kids” They received a tandem evaluation in a similar style (from Jim & Liz). The meeting theme was “Holiday Movies” and there were some spirited discussions during table topics. There were 16 members and two guests present, and one of the guests (Tony) joined!

Jim Jameson, Area 31 Director
Meeting Date: 12/2/2021

Waco Early Birds – Club #3546 – Golden Gavel Meeting

The guest Rami presented in Table Topics. It was wonderful to have a first-time guest willing to participate. This is a hybrid meeting and they do very well for an early hour club. The guest won table Topics.

Joann Smith, Area 45 Director
Meeting Date: 11/24/2021

NE Tarrant Toastmasters – Club #4618496 – Golden Gavel Meeting

This meeting was an Installation of Officers and they had one new Guest. The excitement of having their First Installation and having grown their membership by 4 was exciting to witness. All the Officers met prior to meeting for their Executive Meeting and are having their 2nd Open House in less than 6 months. This Club is not only following all protocols but are inspiring new members to begin their pathways journey early as soon as they join. The energy and engagement is contagious. This Club has earned the rights to be awarded The Golden Gavel Award and recognition.

Frank Correa, Area 55 Director
Meeting Date: 11/1/2021

BNSF Expressed – Club #879088 –  Open House/Golden Gavel Meeting

Every member of the club played a part in success of our open house. We’ve spent some time at our last several minutes making sure details were discussed and assignments made. Our theme was “Be Our Guest”. We had a high percentage of our members present. Angela was our speaker with a little longer speech that gave background of our club from her involvement in chartering until now. He was funny yet explained nicely about our club and what Toastmasters is all about.

Everyone from Toastmaster to Table Topics Master and all our helpers did a great job (just like always)!

Our Area Director, Alberto Pineda, attended along with 8 other individuals.

Submitted by Diana Patton
VP Education
Date: 11/3/2021

Golden Gavel:

A massive amount of guest joined the session, a great achievement for this club. It was fun and educational, and at the same time they had time to answer guest questions and inspire them to achieve their goals.

Every member of the club played a part in the success of the open house. They’ve spent some time making sure details were discussed and assignments made. The theme was “Be Our Guest”. We had a high percentage of our members present. Angela was our speaker with a little longer speech that gave background of our club from her involvement in chartering until now. It was funny yet explained nicely about our club and what Toastmasters is all about.

Everyone from Toastmaster to Table Topics Master and all our helpers did a great job (just like always)!

Submitted by Alberto Pineda, Area 54 Director

Off the Cuff – Club #4354 -Annual Halloween/Backwards Meeting

We had another great meeting at our annual Halloween/Backwards Meeting.  It was nice to have a guest Toastmaster (David (Divad) Martin).  Our theme was “Beginning at the end….”.  We ended (actually began) with a recap of our meeting, reports (Posture Monitor and Timer)  then evaluators followed by speakers and Table Topics and Funmaster.  It truly was a ‘backwards’ meeting.  Our names were even spelled backwards on the agenda.

For those in person they shared a meal and us others virtually felt part of things too.   If you’re thinking of a second club or just want to see what we are all about (off the cuff speeches and a few extra fun roles) we meet 4th Saturday of every month.  We had 3 guests, 11 members and 4 great speeches and evaluations.

Website: https://4354.toastmastersclubs.org/
Find out about advanced and specialty club in District 25: https://www.d25toastmasters.org/find-a-club/find-a-club-specialty/

Submitted by Diana (Anaid) Patton, DTM, Off the Cuff
Annual Halloween/Backwards Meeting 10/23/2021

Highway to Excellence – Club #3332446 – Open House

We had a great Open House at Highway to Excellence’s October monthly meeting. Michelle Bayes was the Open House Chair and did a great job. We had a fun theme: Ghosts & Monsters. We had 15 in attendance including 4 guests. At least two are great prospects for our newest members.

It was a lively meeting with good conversation on Zoom before meeting began promptly at 7:00 PM.

Are you considering a second club ? We’re an advanced club. Check details out details of advanced and Specialty clubs in District 25. – click here

We meet 3rd Thursday of each month – click here

Submitted by Diana Patton, DTM, Member Highway to Excellence
Club Open House: 10/21/2021

Nissan Toastmasters Club – Club #5922 – Charterversary/Open House

On July 14 Nissan Toastmasters started the year with a bang by meeting to celebrate a remarkable achievement: their 25^th Anniversary. They doubled the event with an Open House and by taking full advantage of the virtual environment were able have several dignitaries in attendance including several founding members, the Area Director and Nissan Motor Acceptance Company LLC’s Vice President. Way to lead by example and set the bar high from the start. Congratulations on being our Open House Winner this month!

Club Charter Date: 3/1/1996
Charterversary Celebration Date: 7/14/2021

Something to Talk About – Club #5518497 – Charterversary

Club Charter Date: 9/15/2016
Charterversary Celebration Date: 9/14/2021

Savvy Sayer – Club #1082792 – Open House/Charterversary

Open House/Charterverary

Savvy Sayers had an open house on September 23rd to celebrate our charterversary.
We had over 20 guests and are working the prospects.
With Zoom we really couldn’t have refreshments or group photos.

Submitted by: Les Condit
Club Charter Date: 9/7/2007
Charterversary Celebration Date: 9/23/2021

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Afterburners – Club #6191 – Open House / Golden Gavel

Open House / Golden Gavel:
Afterburners had a well-attended action-packed open house on Sept 7, 2021. They managed to take advantage of the hybrid nature of their meetings and have attendees from far away places.  The club set the scene for their guests by running a shortened regular meeting first before they split the 2 groups into interactive fun workshop activities. They took on the challenge of engaging both online audience and in person audience at the same time but in different ways, and much laughter and fun resulted. Congratulations Afterburners- you are our Open House Winner for September!

Submitted by: Emily Murray
District Club Growth Director
Date: 10/7/2021

Texas Talkers – Club #1082726 – Open House / Golden Gavel

Open house:
We had an outstanding meeting. All our members were involved in planning and executing meeting. Cassie did a great job with decorations. Nice treats for those in-person. We had all of our paid members in attendance along with 2 past members and 1 returning guest. We have lots of people that have shown interest in joining us. We will definitely follow up with them.

There were 3 great speeches and evaluations. Cassie has fun Table Topics. Our guests felt welcomed and even involved with meeting.

Golden Gavel:
All paid members and 2 past members and 1 returning guest were in attendance. The club has a great new meeting location which is going to help club grow. The club has been successful with hybrid meetings. To improve technical issues at club they has ordered and received some new equipment that will be using in upcoming meetings by using TI gift certificates (speaker, camera, etc.). Plan is to start using this equipment in next couple weeks.

There were 3 great speeches and evaluations along with fun Table Topics. All around great meeting!

Submitted by: Diana Patton
Member Texas Talkers
Date: 10/3/2021

FAA Toastmasters – Club #6102, Charter Date October 1, 1990

The FAA Toastmasters Club was able to celebrate its 30-year “Charterversary” on Oct 21^st.  The event featured this video of activities and participants throughout the years, an ice breaker reflection on where each attendee was 30 years ago, and an entertaining barrage of table topics that included such things as “how do you load a dishwasher?”, and “if olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?”

Thirty years is a long time for an all-volunteer, corporate-based club to exist, yet alone succeed.  As evidenced by the career progression and personal achievements of the FAA Toastmasters members past and present, the club is a true reflection of the Toastmasters motto, “Where Leaders are Made”!

Click here to view video

Submitted by: Jeri Bird
Club Officer/VP Membership
Celebration date – 10/21/2020

Longhorn Toastmasters – Club #3178, Charter Date: October 1, 1960

Longhorn Toastmasters celebrated our 60^th Charterversary by moseying off the dusty trails into Zoom-In for a spell to wet our whiskers! Theme: “The Historical Toastmasters Club.”

High Noon is when we got to the town of Zoom-In and is when we normally meet up with the rest of the posse to learn leadership and communication skills.

Jesse Torres’ speech, “A Club’s Leaders Leave a Legacy for its Future,” spurred us on to achieve 60 more years of blazing the trail for the future. Kacey Bess’ Best Table Topics Speech reminded us that “Great ideas are no good if you can’t communicate them effectively.” Joining us was Chris, Ninfa, Fursey, Diana Patton, Jodi Sanders, former members and guests.

Submitted by: Annette Henderson
Club Officer/President
Celebration date – 10/12/2020

Afterburners Club – Club #6191, Charter date: March 1, 1986

Highway to Excellence  – Club 3332446, Charter date: June 28, 2013

Out On The Town  – Club 897575, Charter date: May 22, 2006

Panther City  – Club 4716146, Charter date: May 15, 2015

 

Once Upon A Time – Club 6103644, Charter date: March 10, 2017

 

MidCities Achievers – Club 7694, Charter date: March 25, 2002

Roanoke Texas Toastmasters Club – Club 4236, Charter date: January 27, 2003

Tammy Kasterke
President Roanoke Texas Toastmasters Club
1/13/2020

Six Twenty Nine Toastmasters – Club 629, Charter date: November 1, 1984

Ernestina Piñones
Member Six Twenty Nine Club
11/30/2019

Burleson Toastmasters Club – Club 706449, Charter date: October 20, 2004

Ninfa Flewitt
Member Burleson Toastmasters Club
11/4/2019

Alliance Networks Club – Club 5718, Charter date: September 1, 1997

Our theme: Be Our Guest (open house too!)

We had a wonderful meeting – amazing members, strong speakers, well run meeting!

Here is poem written and read by Fredrick Byerly at end of his Table Topics questions.

 

We’re touched in many ways by the people that we meet,
Our lives are often shaped by the words in which they speak.

Now if it is repeated to drive their message through,
It won’t impede our thinking unless we deem it’s true.

Whether it be true or not, that is not the case,
The point is that our memories aren’t easily erased.

The motive of their words can’t always be conceived,
Yet, it starts to impact the moment we believe.

So, let us carefully receive the words that others may say,
Seize those that shape and mold for us a better way.

The ones like, “You’re the best!” “Great job!” “You nailed it!”
Send back the negative to its source because it does not fit.

Build for ourselves a platform that enables us to fly,
Reach for the stars, the sky’s the limit, don’t settle for less, aim hi!

As we increase our progress, give thanks to up above,
We would not be where we are if it weren’t for our Toastmasters Club.

Fredrick Byerly
Member Alliance Networks
10/15/2019

Something to Talk About – Club 5518497, Charter date: September 15, 2016

Our theme: Charterversary

The club had a celebration on 9/24/2019. The title of the meeting was “Charterversary”. It was the third anniversary of the club and was the open house. I feel that the club met the criteria for a Golden Gavel Award. There was sign up table and a member was standing at the door to greet each guest as they entered. There were 8 visitors at the meeting. The meeting started and finished on time. Each member and guest had a name tag or badge. Each person was given a printed agenda and it was followed. More than 75% of members were present.

There were two speeches given each met with applause. One was Innovative Planning Level 1 Speech #3 and the other was Visionary Communication Level 1 Speech #3. First given by new member and the second a member that has been with the club from the start. A very good evaluation was given after each speech. Table topics were on target and went along with the theme of the meeting. Each speaker was met with positive recognition after the speech.

Sandra Starr
Area Director &
Member of Something to Talk about
9/24/2019

NCTCOG – Club 3017469, Charter date: June 25, 2013

Our theme: Interstellar

NCTCOG Toastmasters celebrated our 6 years as a club with decorations and guests! Our meeting theme, Interstellar, went perfectly with the celebration, as we should always strive to dream big. With some of our founding members present, we had a great time recognizing our history and looking forward to the future. We were honored to have our Area Director, Bill Hanke, present to in our meeting and celebration. Our charterversary celebration (Charted in June, but celebrated in September) has fallen during the busiest time of year for our staff, so we had a small but mighty group in attendance. We are also in the middle of a remodel, so our meeting was floated to a room we aren’t often in. One thing is for certain, our members have become masters of adapting and overcoming!

We are happy to have made it six years and are looking forward to making it a strong seven this year.

Alayna Payne
Club President
9/24/2019

Southlake Club – Club 4987, Charter date: August 1, 1996

Our theme was: Happy Birthday All!!

Every Monday at 6:45AM members of our Southlake Club (along with guests nearly every meeting) are waiting for the front door of Southlake Town Center to click open.  September 16, 2019 was even more exciting.  Our Toastmaster of the Day (Elizabeth Kupferman) had a special meeting planned.  It turned out we celebrated Darryl Day’s birthday along with Elizabeth’s too as well as (a bit delayed) our club’s birthday.

Meeting was complete with decorations (special crown for Elizabeth), mini cupcakes and what would a celebration be without a little box of ‘emergency confetti’ for each member present.

Each piece of meeting supported the ‘birthday’ theme including word of the day ‘commemorate’.

Here is inspiration read by Nicole Smith-Woodard that added icing to the cake so to speak.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

 

– By Marianne Williamson

Happy Birthday: Darryl, Elizabeth and especially Southlake Toastmasters Club!

Diana Patton
Member Southlake Club
9/16/2019

Arlington Nooners Toastmasters Club – Club 7514, Charter date: June 1, 1989

Our theme was: Celebrating 30 Years!

It was with great joy and all-around-excitement that Arlington Nooners celebrated 30 years of building confident speakers, communicators, and leaders through club meetings on June 24, 2019.

As a founding member, Dan Hartman gave a fun and informative look at the changes in Toastmasters over the past 30 years. One of our newer members, Tammy Dean, entertained us with her speech on the benefits of Toastmasters in her own personal life.

President, Cassie Bullock, and VP Education (and recent DTM), Sara Beall, and Area Director Alex Conrad led the club well in celebrating such a great accomplishment.

The celebration was enjoyed all! Present and former members shared stories of encouragement, respect, and instruction.

Special thanks to Dee Dee Seidule and those who helped make our 30th anniversary celebration a success! Dee Dee organized a great event!

Affiliated with Toastmasters International, Arlington Nooners Toastmasters has earned the President’s Distinguished Club award for 2017-2018 and we have earned it 18 years in a row. Become a confident speaker in a safe, friendly atmosphere. Visitors are ALWAYS welcome!

Michelle Debenport
Vice President Public Relations
Arlington Nooners Toastmasters Club
6/24/2019

Mr. Cooper Speaks – Club 3349691, Charter date: August 9, 2013

Our theme was: Celebrating You: 6 Years Strong

Mr Cooper Speaks is a thriving corporate club.  On August 28^th, the club commemorated the anniversary of the charter with a Charterversary meeting.  The only way to celebrate this occasion was to have DTM and the last active charter member Joyce Trimble serve as the Toastmaster.  Whenever you let Joyce drive you know you are in for a great adventure and she did an amazing job with our event.

We were thankful to have two wonderful speakers , Vanessa Rivera and DTM Kelly Pelkey, address our audience with reasons to join Toastmasters and the places you can go with it.  The Vice-President of Education lead in raising our glasses to toast our club (apple juice, you have to remember it is a corporate club).  We had many great guests to support and celebrate our club.  Robbi Ley, Immediate Past Director, and Dana Dillard, an executive vice-president of Mr Cooper (how is that for name dropping) and many other District TM and corporate dignitaries were in attendance.  Our EVP Dana Dillard was presented with a D25 service coin by Immediate Past Director Robbi Ley and DTM Joyce Trimble was presented with an engraved gavel as a token of appreciation for her service and leadership to the club for the past six years.  Joyce even lead us in a “Celebrating You: 6 Years Strong” chant.

Andres Aguilar
President
8/28/2019

ARBOR Toastmasters – Club 2474402, Charter date: June 6, 2012

Our theme was: National Radio Day

ARBOR Toastmasters is a strong group of club members that still holds many of its chartered members after 7 strong years. We continuously strive for growth, accomplishments and encouraging words, as individuals, as well as a club! Our Sgt. At Arms, Jarron Lewis started off the meeting with the club mission statement, reminding us all how truly supportive and positive our club really is! We had one speaker, Kevin Walsh. Kevin’s speech was titled “Nine Dollars and Sixty One Cents”. This was a persuasive speech from the Pathways educational path. Kevin persuaded his listeners to be aware of our costs, money going in and money going out. Judy Hearn presented us with the Table Topic questions, where April Smith and Jarron Lewis answered questions about their experience with listening and learning from the radio. President, Jan Peterson ended our meeting with a celebration of 7 strong years for ARBOR Toastmasters! Cake was had and enjoyed by all! We love to celebrate our club and our individual successes!

April Smith
VP Public Relations
8/20/2019

Waco Texas Toasters – Club 5529749, Charter date: June 1, 2016

Waco Texas Toasters Turn 3 – The celebration focused on FOOD, Fun and Fellowship

Our theme was: Celebration and our Word of the day was: Transmogrify – To Transform some other person or thing as if by magic.

That truly describes the transformations I have seen take place over the last three years as our club and each of its members have transformed and grown.   Our President Tina S. kicked off the meeting and Linda B.  (Last Year’s President) served as our toastmaster for the day, starting us off with a rousing cheer. Malinda A. was presented her Competent Leader Certificate. Each of the three speeches presented where accompanied with power point presentations.  3 club member accomplishments were recognized. Janice G.  recently received her Master’s Degree, Tiffany P received her Associates Degree and Melanie S recently received a promotion at work to Supervisor.  Table Topics Master Jathon W.  continued the celebration theme with questioned focused on making the impossible- Possible.   Waco Texas Toasters is a Great Club, filled with Great Members who know how to celebrate.

Melanie Pantoja
Member of Club & Area 45 Director
8/15/2019

Westlake Toastmasters – Club 7050056, Charter date: July 17, 2018

Westlake Toastmasters celebrated their 1st Charterversary on July 25th 2019 with cake, applause and laughter.   In the picture, Scharlette Donald got a certificate for finishing Pathway Level 1! Rightmost in the picture, Michelle Johnson the founding president and our fearless leader in her spectacular suit.  Sheba Panicker, the club mentor who served the BEST VPE ever for the first year, presenting the certificate to Scharlette. The gentleman in the picture is Lawrence Reid, who is our Area Director. Godfred Ahuma gave a prepared speech and got one step closer to his DTM, with Chad Wilson served as his evaluator.  The meeting had four visitors, with Pramod Dabas joining as our newest member! Hooray for small but mighty Westlake Toastmasters!

Crystal Dong
Vice President Education
7/25/2019

Off the Cuff – Club 4354, Charter date: July 26, 2001

Happy Charterversary to Off the Cuff 4354! Greg welcomed members and four guests to our potluck dinner and meeting with the theme “All Things Summer.” Tracy and Bill E. sang “Summer Nights,” and President Bill S. invited members to sign our congratulatory Charterversary letter. Funmaster Fursey led the cheers with YES, HOMERUN, and FIREWORKS variations as members shared favorite summertime memories. Table Topics Master Mike W. and Toastmaster Tracy continued the summertime theme. Each speech in this club is truly off the cuff. The Toastmaster distributes the topics, and speakers have five minutes to prepare! Speakers Liz, Greg, Reggie C., and Reggie M. delivered outstanding speeches, followed by insightful evaluations. Posture Monitor Susan reminded us that we must be mindful of our body language. What a great way to spend Summer Nights!

Bonne Stroman, DTM
Club Immediate Past President
7/27/2019