Archives

When our current VP Membership, Veronica, joined the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Montreal Club in 2022, she initially found it challenging to understand the roles within our executive committee and to familiarize herself with each member.

In an effort to ensure all new members feel embraced, Veronica introduced a valuable initiative – the creation of a document titled ‘Meet our 2023-2024 Executive Committee!‘. This document provides insights into each committee member and the objectives they have given themselves for the club this year.

We even get a glimpse of Veronica herself:

image

Veronica Schleihauf, VP Membership

Veronica joined Toastmasters to connect over our stories, our impassioned speeches, and a shared desire to continue to grow as people and as a community. She leads digital transformation and data management projects for small businesses and nonprofits.

Objectives this year: To create an environment where all members feel they have the space to develop and contribute their unique voice to our club. I strive to make sure that all guests who visit feel welcomed and included.

Come visit our club and see how our executive committee is helping our Toastmasters Club in Montreal to reach excellence in enabling all members to hone their public speaking and leadership skills. 

Our Toastmasters club recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. In honor of this, Morag Mathieson (the current Toastmasters International President for 2023–2024) took a few minutes to warmly congratulate us for this great milestone.

After all, Toastmasters International oversees 14,200+ clubs throughout the world, so we are privileged that Morag took the time to send us her best wishes.

The St. Lawrence Toastmasters Club in Montreal can pride itself on a legacy of transformative growth and excellence in communication and leadership. With a history of maintaining a dynamic member base, emphasizing quality evaluations, and adapting to changes, the club has consistently upheld Toastmasters’ mission.

As a fully bilingual (English/French) club, St. Lawrence has garnered numerous accolades, including 90 ribbons as well as distinction in many district contests.

Members have not only benefitted from enhanced personal and professional communication skills but have also contributed positively to their wider community.

Morag Mathieson’s video underscores the enduring relevance of Toastmasters in fostering connections and achievements, celebrating past legacies, and nurturing a vision for continuous growth and community impact.

We can be encouraged to remember our foundations, cherish our journey, and share the profound benefits of our experience, all while looking forward to a future of further success and camaraderie.

Can you believe that our club is now 75 years old! We had a chance to celebrate in great style.

In case you missed it, or if you’re interested in revisiting some of the evening’s speeches, here’s a video (thanks to our member Frédéric and his son Florent!).

St-Lawrence-Toastmasters-Club-75th-anniversary

Here is an album with select photos of the evening:

image

Here are some fun trivia facts… Did you know that:

– St. Lawrence Toastmasters Club is the oldest Toastmasters club in Canada east of Winnipeg!

– When it was founded in November 1948, it was the only Toastmasters club in Eastern Canada.

– Our club’s number is 606, a rare three-digit identifier. (Club numbers are given in order.) Today’s new Toastmasters clubs are now receiving seven-digit numbers.

Click here if you are interested in knowing more about our club’s history.

If you would like to know more about our club, feel free to come visit us.

Yanick, président actuel de notre club, nous a récemment fait participer à une amusante activité, riche en authenticité. Sur le dessin noir et blanc d’un arbre avec des branches, il a demandé à chaque membre présent à la réunion de tremper son doigt dans de la peinture, pour ensuite l’apposer quelque part sur l’arbre. Voici le résultat :

Arbre-club-St-Lawrence-Toastmasters

Toastmasters peut être imaginé comme un arbre robuste et florissant, où chaque membre représente une branche forte et vitale. Cet arbre fictif est orné de fruits colorés, témoins de la diversité, de la créativité et de l’authenticité des membres. Bien que certaines de ces couleurs puissent se ressembler à première vue, chaque empreinte est singulière. Cette métaphore illustre la beauté de Toastmasters : même au sein de similitudes apparentes, chaque contribution et chaque membre demeurent uniques, ajoutant une valeur incomparable à l’ensemble, renforçant ainsi la richesse et la diversité de cette communauté soudée.

————————

Aimeriez-vous voir comment chacun de nous contribue à la force de notre club? Venez visiter club St-Lawrence Toastmasters au centre-ville de Montréal. Vous verrez comment ce qu’on apprend à Toastmasters aide chaque membre à grandir comme communicateur et leader compétent.

Voici le programme pour la réunion du 26 septembre 2023.

People often ask what are the benefits of joining a Toastmasters club. We therefore like to ask our members what are some of the reasons why they decided to join our club.

Public Speaking Art1 - Public Speaking Word Cloud, transparent png

Here is what Emmanuelle, one of our newest members, has to share with us.

It often amazes me how things happen in life. It’s no different with me joining the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Club in downtown. Montreal. I heard about the existence of the international organization on Sunday, did some quick research on Monday, and attended my first session on Tuesday, the day the club greeted a special guest, M Peck, the Toastmasters International President.

What a great evening. Despite meeting over Zoom, I could feel the warm and benevolent atmosphere. After the next session, I knew the SLToastmasters Club would offer the safe space I need to learn and practice public speaking with fun and great support. Thanks for having me, I can’t wait to meet you all in person.

Welcome to our club, Emmanuelle! We look forward to meeting you in person as well!

« Chaque jour, nous sommes confrontés à nous exprimer oralement. La séance des improvisations développe la capacité de penser rapidement, de structurer ses idées et de s’exprimer avec aplomb.

Prenons l’exemple d’une salle de classe à l’université. Combien d’étudiants sont terrifiés à l’idée d’émettre leur opinion lorsque le professeur pose une question ouverte ? Je me rappelle, il y a plusieurs années, j’étais cet étudiant. »

Dans le cadre du cours Éducation & développement à l’Université de Montréal, notre membre et auteur Yanick Daoust a fait un travail portant sur l’éducation non-formelle.  Il a choisi de parler de son expérience Toastmasters, qu’il nous partage au cas que cela puisse informer certains invités curieux de ce que nous faisons au club St-Lawrence Toastmasters à Montréal.

Voici un autre extrait :

« Grâce à Toastmasters, j’arrive à prendre la parole avec confiance, saupoudrer mon intervention avec un peu d’humour et cela m’a permis de gagner le respect de mes collègues de travail. Lorsque j’ai une idée à partager, les gens écoutent et considèrent mon opinion. »

Le texte dans son intégralité est disponible ici :

image

Bonne lecture!

Last week we held our Toastmasters club’s International Speech and Table Topics contests. Congratulations to everyone who participated!

For the results, feel free to consult the programme for the St-Lawrence Toastmasters meeting of February 6, 2018.

2018-01-St-Lawrence-Toastmasters-club-contest-winners

Nous avons eu les concours de discours et d’improvisation à notre club Toastmasters la semaine dernière. Félicitations à tous les participants !

Les résultats sont disponibles dans notre programme pour la réunion Toastmasters du 6 février 2018.

This is exciting! Our member Nadine was interviewed on the English Montreal talk radio station, CJAD 800 on Friday Nov. 17.

They wanted to interview her regarding her recent win at the Toastmasters District 61 Humorous Speech Contest.

In the interview, Nadine Champagne Gundry-White naturally talks about Toastmasters. 

Here is a quick summary that she shares with us here:

Toastmasters has inspired me to take steps to become a professional speaker and ‘clean’ comedian. I want to put on a comedy show appropriate for all audiences.

À l’occasion de la réunion du 14 novembre 2017, les membres du club St. Lawrence Toastmasters à Montréal ont pu célébrer les 69 ans du club.

En fait, notre club est le club Toastmasters le plus ancien à l’est de Windsor. (Nous aimons nous vanter amicalement et à la légère que puisque nous sommes le plus ancien club, nous sommes naturellement le club le plus expérimenté. Smile)

St-Lawrence 69e

________________________

Voulez-vous en savoir plus sur notre club?  Venez nous visiter!

Voici le programme pour la réunion du 21 novembre 2017.

Toastmasters has recently announced the new educational program entitled “Pathways”.

If  you would like to know all about it, you can always visit the official Pathways page on the Toastmasters International website.

It will answer questions such as:

  • Why is the education program changing?
  • Why is Pathways valuable to me?
  • How many paths are there?
  • Are there different levels in each path?
  • etc.

If you prefer to get a brief overview for the time being, here is an interesting presentation prepared by Kevin Broughton, a fellow Toastmaster in Australia:

___________________

Would you like to visit our club?  Here is the St-Lawrence Toastmasters Montreal programme for October 31, 2017.

Older Posts »