Tri-County Toastmasters #5682

The Tri-County Toastmasters club met on Thursday 3-1-07 at the Virden Area Community Center. Club members present at Thursday’s meeting were: Les Apps, Dr. Todd Austin, Jim Blankenship from New Berlin, John Davidson, Liz Mollett from Auburn, Alan Saeger and Bill Watkins.



Alan Saeger served as the meeting’s Toastmaster or master of ceremonies. Auburn's Liz Mollett conducted a rather entertaining Tabletopics (or impromptu speaking) portion of the program. Mollett gave out boxes of Valentine's conversation hearts. Each participation then had to use as many of the phrases on the hearts as he could during his response. Alan Saeger won the competition by using 23 hearts.



The evening’s first prepared speaker was Billy Watkins. Watkins gave an informative and educational address about “Mastering Impromptu Speaking”. The second prepared speaker was John Davidson. Davidson, a Catholic and longtime (4th degree) Carlinville Knights of Columbus member, delivered an informative presentation called “Why I Joined the Knights of Columbus”.



The Toastmasters club will next meet on Thursday March 15, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Center at 105 West Jackson Street in Virden. The scheduled speakers for next meeting are Todd Austin and John Davidson. “Our club is a community club, so all area residents are invited and encouraged to attend. Whether your goal is to lead a business meeting, just gain some speaking confidence or to talk to an entire room full of people, Toastmasters is an awesome, yet extremely cost-effective opportunity to fine-tune one’s communication and leadership skills” states club vice president Todd Austin. For more information about the Toastmasters program, please call Todd at (217) 965-3100.