Monday, January 07, 2008
Toastmasters Club Learns About Bats
Dr. Todd Austin from Virden gave a ‘public relations’ after dinner speech about bats at Thursday’s Tri-County Toastmasters meeting. It was the same Power Point presentation that he delivered to the Macoupin County Pork Producers two months ago. Austin has been involved with Bat Conservation for over 17 years.
The Tri-County Toastmasters club met on Thursday 1-3-08 at the Virden Area Community Center. Club members present at Thursday’s meeting were: Les Apps from Girard, Dr. Todd Austin, Liz Mollett from Auburn, Alan Saeger and Bill Watkins.
Les Apps served as the meeting’s master of ceremonies. Liz Mollett conducted the Tabletopics or impromptu speaking portion of the program. All participant had to give a 1 to 2 minute impromptu response, each to a different question.
The evening’s prepared speaker was Todd Austin from Virden. Austin delivered a very entertaining and informative 'after dinner' presentation called ‘The Wonderful World of Bats: With an Emphasis on Natural Crop Pest Management”. It was a project from the advanced Toastmasters manual on ‘Public Relations’. It was the same Power Point presentation that Austin delivered to the Macoupin County Pork Producers after dinner at their annual fall kick-off meeting in November 2007. Austin, a Bat Conservation International member since 1990, elaborated about how Big Brown Bats, Hoary Bats & Red Bats drastically cut down on the number of crop pests like cucumber beetles, cut worm moths, potato leaf hoppers and root worms right here in Central IL. Les Apps evaluated Austin’s speech.
