Nous avions récemment accueilli notre membre Sam, qui revenait se joindre à notre Club St. Lawrence Toastmasters à Montréal après quelques années d’absence (même s’il venait nous visiter de temps en temps).

À ce moment-là nous n’avions pas de photo, mais en voici une (Sam est à droite)!

Bon retour à Sam!

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Êtes-vous intéressé à savoir comment Toastmasters peut vous aider à vaincre votre peur de parler en public? 

Voici le programme Toastmasters pour notre réunion du 2 juin 2015.

Last week we held our club elections to vote for the members of the 2015-16 Executive.  Congratulations to everyone who stepped up to the plate!  Here is our new executive committee and leadership team that will guide our Toastmasters club for the 2015-2016 session.

President/Président:
Pier-Luc Rouleau

VP Education/VP Éducation
Martina Kugler

VP PR/VP Rel. Pub.
Nastaran Nayebpanah

VP membership/VP recrutement
Jacques Lamontagne

Coord. mentorship /Coord. mentorat
Joseph Sohmer

Secrétaire/Secretary
Émilie Doré

Treasurer/Trésorière
Antoine Bégin

Sgt-at-arms/Huissier
John Brown

Past President/Président sortant
Nicholas Kepper

Webmestre/Webmaster
Alex Chan / Tommy Lebel

We would like to congratulate Christian Turianskyj, one of our long-time Toastmasters members, for having recently received the Toastmasters “Advanced Communicator – Gold” award.

This award attests of Christian having further developed his Toastmasters skills both inside and outside of the club environment by participating in advanced programs, speaker series, and workshops, as well as leadership and volunteer opportunities.

(Left-to-right: Christian, Italo)

Christian sent us an article he wrote for this website, which we are hereby sharing with you:

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BLOODIED, BUT NOT DEFEATED.

The Toastmaster of the Evening, a very experienced member of our St. Lawrence Toastmasters Club, stood up and shouted: Bloodied, but not defeated. This cry from the heart was his reaction to my evaluation, as General Evaluator. His performance, as I saw it, ran from the excellent to a few definite don’ts.

These words ring true for many Toastmasters around the world.

(more…)

Félicitations à Antoine, notre nouveau membre Toastmasters qui s’est récemment joint au club St-Lawrence Toastmasters Montréal.

Antoine accueilli par Nicholas, Président du club

Nous aimons demander à nos membres ce qui les a incités à devenir membre.  Voici donc l’explication d’Antoine :

«Je me suis joint à Toastmasters parce que je voulais améliorer mes capacités à livrer des discours. J’ai choisi le club St-Lawrence parce que c’est celui qui cumule le plus d’expérience. J’ai immédiatement voulu m’inscrire après ma première visite au club quand j’ai vu la motivation de tous les membres et la qualité des conseils que l’on peut recevoir.»

We would like to wish a warm welcome to our returning member Sam.

Sam was a member of St-Lawrence Toastmasters Club in Montreal several years ago.  Since then, he would come to visit our club as a guest any occasion that he had.

He has now decided to plunge back in and attend our meetings regularly as a member once again.

Welcome back Sam!

(Picture to follow shortly.)

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Are you interested in finding out how Toastmasters can help you become a better speaker and a better leader?  Come visit our club in Montreal to find out more.

Here is the Toastmasters programme for May 12, 2015.

Come attend the St-Lawrence Toastmasters meeting of Tuesday February 17 as it will be a special meeting not like our usual weekly meetings. We will be holding a club contest (i.e. Toastmasters International Speech contest and Table Topics contest).

Although it won’t be in the standard weekly Toastmasters meeting format, it will nevertheless be quite interesting to check out. For example, this is how the Table Topics contest usually unfolds:

Table Topics is about developing your ability to organize your thoughts quickly and respond to an impromptu question or topic (as described on the Toastmasters International website).

In this contest, the contestants will have 1 to 2 minutes to provide an answer to a topic given to them “on the spot”. Here is an excerpt of the rules:

1. All contestants shall receive the same topic, which shall be of a general nature.
2. The topic shall be of reasonable length, shall not require a detailed knowledge, and shall lead to an opinion or conclusion.
3. Contestants will receive no advance knowledge of the topic until the moment they are introduced by the contest chair.
4. When the contest begins, all contestants except the first shall leave the room.
5. Introduce each contestant by announcing the contestant’s name, the topic, the topic, the contestant’s name.
6. At the conclusion of each speech, the next speaker shall be invited into the room.

*** What makes it interesting for us as audience members is that we get to hear different answers to one same topic question. We will perhaps imagine, “If I had been asked that question, how would I have answered it?”, which can lead to an ever greater appreciation of how each contestant answers the question. We’ll probably also pick out the common points between each contestant’s answer, as well as marvel at hearing any specific or particular points that make each answer stand out. This is a great learning experience because it allows us to, in a sort of indirect way, “learn through osmosis”. ***

Here is the current program of the evening. Good luck to all the contestants!

P.S. And for the contestants, here is a useful post on Tips for preparing for Toastmasters Table Topics.

We would like to welcome Alejandro, the newest addition to the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Club.

Nicholas (club President) welcomes Alejandro to St-Lawrence Toastmasters

Are you looking for a bilingual Toastmasters club in Montreal?  Feel free to come visit us!

Here is the programme for the Toasmasters meeting of February 10, 2015.

Nous aimerions chaleureusement accueillir Andrei à St-Lawrence Toastmasters. 

Il se joint à notre club Toastmasters bilingue à Montréal afin de rencontrer du nouveau monde et pour faire ressortir les qualités d’orateur qu’il sait qu’il possède déjà mais qui sommeillent en lui.

Installation d’Andrei, avec Pietro di Benedetto (Vice-président à la formation)

Il s’est fixé comme objectifs de surmonter sa timidité et de se sentir à l’aise à parler en devant de nouvelles gens.

Bienvenue Andrei, et nous sommes heureux de pouvoir t’aider à atteindre tes objectifs!

Chers amis et membres Toastmasters,

Veuillez noter que nous sommes présentement en relâche pour le temps de Fêtes.

Nous serons de retour à nos activités régulières dès le mardi 13 janvier 2015.

D’ici-là, voici une petite vidéo créative de Noël :

Der Lauf Der Dinge X-Mas Card from Bas Manders on Vimeo.

Dear Toastmasters members and friends,

Please note that we are currently taking a break for the 2014 Holiday season.

We’ll be back in full swing starting Tuesday January 13, 2015.

Until then, enjoy the following emotionally heart-warming video:

(OK, so apart from the fact that it’s an ad for Sainsbury’s – “Christmas is for sharing”, the story is presented in a way that engages the viewer in a sentimental manner.  This is the kind of emotion that we also learn to try to bring out in some speeches at Toastmasters…)