Tri-County Toastmasters #5682

The Tri-County Toastmasters club met on Thursday 4-19-07 at the Virden Area Community Center. Club members present at Thursday’s meeting were: Les Apps, Dr. Todd Austin, Jim Blankenship, John Davidson, Liz Mollett and Alan Saeger.

Jim Blankenship from New Berlin served as the meeting’s Toastmaster (or master of ceremonies). Liz Mollett from Auburn conducted the Tabletopics portion of the program, during with each participant had to pull a different kind of Easter candy out of a grab bag and then answer a specific question about it and had to deliver a one to two minute impromptu response.

The evening’s first prepared speaker was Todd Austin. Austin gave an informative presentation entitled “My Newfound Aquaticity” during which he explained how (and why) he recently overcame his inability to swim and briefly explained his new aquatic hobbies of snorkeling, SCUBA diving and basic freediving.

The second prepared speaker was John Davidson. Davidson gave a fact-finding report about the recent trend of escalating fees (and other miscellaneous charges) to customers by the banking industry.

The Toastmasters club will next meet on Thursday May 3, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Center at 105 West Jackson Street in Virden. The scheduled speakers for next meeting are Jackie Rakers and John Davidson. “Our club is a community club, so all area residents are encouraged to attend. Whether your goal is to lead a business meeting, gain some speaking confidence as a new member or to talk to a whole room full of people, Toastmasters is an awesome, yet extremely cost-effective opportunity to fine-tune one’s communication and leadership skills” states club president Les Apps. For more information about the Toastmasters program, please call (217) 965-3100.

Virden Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Kershaw (4th from left) congratulates Dr. Todd Austin, one of the club’s original members from 10 years ago on the 10th Anniversary milestone of the Tri-County Toastmaster Club’s first meeting. Other club members in the photo are (from left): Mary Mitchell, Alan Saeger, Liz Mollett from Auburn, Bill Watkins, Jim Blankenship from New Berlin, Jackie Rakers, John Davidson and Michelle Suslee.




All Tri-County Toastmaster club members present at Thursday’s meeting, seen here with the club’s special 10th Anniversary cake are (from left): Jackie Rakers, Mary Mitchell, Michelle Suslee, Bill Watkins, Liz Mollett from Auburn, John Davidson , Dr. Todd Austin, Eugena Austin, Jim Blankenship from New Berlin and Alan Saeger.





At Thursday’s special Tri-County Toastmasters club 10th anniversary meeting, club vice-president Todd Austin (right) congratulates Mary Mitchell of Waverly on becoming the clubs’ newest member.

Virden hosted the Area 1 and Area 10 spring Toastmasters contests on saturday 3-24-07 at the Virden Area Community Center. Two contests were held, those being the Evaluation and the International Speech contests. Speakers from Virden’s Tri-County club and the two Springfield clubs competed in the Area 1 contests, while speakers from two Decatur clubs competed in the Area 10 contests.

Dr. Todd Austin from Virden was the master of ceremonies for both contests. Dr. Ivan Paul, a tenured professor at Quincy University served as the pattern speaker for the evaluation contest. Paul’s prepared speech was called "Destiny". Each evaluation contestant then had 3 minutes to deliver an evaluation of Paul's speech.

For the Speech Contest, each participant had from 5 to 7 minutes to deliver a (serious) prepared speech. John Davidson of the Tri-County club was awarded third place for his speech entitled "Our Country’s First President". Davidson also took home third place in the evaluation contest.

First and second place Area 1 and Area 10 contest winners will advance to compete at the next highest level in the Division C Contests which will be held on Saturday 4-21-07 in Waverly.
Current Area 1 Governor Les Apps, a Tri-County club member from Girard also helped out with the contests.

The Tri-County Toastmasters club will hold their next meeting on Thursday, April 5th at 6:30 p.m. at the Virden Area Community Center at 105 West Jackson Street in Virden. It will be a special 10th anniversary open house meeting. It is open to the public and refreshments and cake will be served.

"This was an awesome opportunity to observe some proficient speakers in action." said Area 1 Governor Apps. "Attending a speech contest serves as a great introduction to what the Toastmasters program can do for people, by turning ordinary men and women into confident speakers that feel comfortable in front of an audience of any size!" For more info about Toastmasters, contact club Public Relations officer Todd Austin at 965-3100.