Sunday, July 30, 2006
Tri-County Toastmasters Meeting 7/20/06
The Tri-County Toastmasters club held their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday 7-20-06 at the Virden Area Community Center. Club members present at Thursday’s meeting were: Les Apps, Dr. Todd Austin, Jim Blankenship from New Berlin, Dawn Boyer from Auburn, John Davidson, Rev. Ron Grimes, Jackie Rakers, Alan Saeger and Billy Watkins. One guest, Marcia Osterholt from Morrisonville was also present.
Les Apps served as the evening’s Toastmaster. Billy Watkins served as the Tabletopicmaster, conducting the impromptu speaking portion of the program, during which he asked each participant a different question about what he or she would say to a reporter who just asked a silly question. Each was to then assume the role of a different occupation in a certain situation, covering the gamut from beauty pageant winner to movie star to prosecuting attorney.
Participants then came up with one to two minute responses. Todd Austin presented the word-of-the-week, which was ‘apocryphal’ meaning not authentic.
The evening’s first prepared speaker was John Davidson, who delivered an entertaining presentation entitled "If I Had A Hammer". The second prepared speaker was Jim Blankenship, a financial planner from New Berlin. He gave an informative speech entitled "How Much Is Enough?", during which he talked about how much money a person may need in order to retire comfortably.
The city of Virden and the Tri-County Toastmasters club then hosted the District 8 Toastmasters Leadership Institute on Saturday July 29, 2006 at the Community Center. Officers from several of the District 8 Toastmaster clubs were trained, including 4 of the Tri-County clubs’ officers. Tri-County club officers Les Apps and Todd Austin were also in charge of conducting training of other District club officers at the event as well.
The Toastmasters club will next meet on Thursday August 3, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. at the Virden Area Community Center (located at 105 West Jackson Street). The scheduled speaker for next meeting is Auburn's Dawn Boyer. "Guests and new members are always welcome to attend our club meetings, which are devoted to helping area residents to fine-tune both their communication and leadership skills" states club officer Alan Saeger. For more information about the Toastmasters program, please call (217) 965-3100.
The two speakers at the July 20th Tri-County Toastmasters meeting were (from left): John Davidson and New Berlin's Jim Blankenship.
Tri-County club officers trained at the Toastmasters:Leadership Institute in Virden on Saturday were (from left) Vice President of Education Les Apps, Division C Governor Eileen Kluckman who was in charge of the event, Sargeant at Arms Alan Saeger, Vice President of Public Relations Todd Austin and President Ron Grimes.
// posted by Jim @ 7:16 AM 
