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wcasing Success . . .
Toast of Corvallis Toastmasters: Friendship
Keeps Them Coming Back
Jack Standeven, ACB, ALB
When you walk into a Toast of Corvallis Toastmasters meeting as a guest for the first time you
immediately notice how everyone greets each other like lifelong friends, because they are. Each of
us joined Toastmasters for the usual reasons, to improve our public speaking skills. We keep
coming back each week for the laughter and the fellowship with our friends. When you walk in
you instantly become part of that circle of friends.
You are warmly, and perhaps a bit overwhelmingly, greeted by big smiles. The VP of Membership
will give you a handshake and a guest packet. The Sergeant at Arms welcomes you and gives you
a meeting agenda. An experienced Toastmaster sits next to you during the meeting and explains
what is going on. The President opens the meeting and warmly welcomes you to the club. You
find yourself wondering “I don't know what is going on here, but I think I could use whatever it is
they got going on!” As the meeting progresses you see one speaker after another get up to
address the room. Some inspire, some make everyone laugh. They all share something that helps
us to understand them better and leaves everyone with something to think about. You find
yourself wondering if you can be that smooth and polished up in front of the room. Just when you
are trying to figure out what the magic is all about, these people start to evaluate each other! And
the speakers getting evaluated are not offended! You didn’t realize that you use some of the same
crutch words. They time each other and count how many um's, so's and other fillers. Wow! You
want to come back for more.
The Toast of Corvallis works hard to be a proper
Toastmasters club. Meetings start promptly, we stick to
the agenda, making sure all meeting roles are filled,
speakers are ready to go and the evaluation team is
prepared. It gets back to the main reason we all come
back each week is for the friendship and laughter. We
always leave in a good mood that sets the tone for the
rest of the week. We often mix it up by having fun
themed meetings. One year we celebrated Talk Like a
Pirate Day. We have had a Shakespearian Ides of March meeting, and one April Fool’s day we had a
backwards meeting. Evaluations of speeches were given before the speakers gave their speeches.
Speakers had to include items to improve on from their evaluations as part of their speeches.
(Continued on page1290)
Toast of Corvallis Toastmasters: Friendship
Keeps Them Coming Back
Jack Standeven, ACB, ALB
When you walk into a Toast of Corvallis Toastmasters meeting as a guest for the first time you
immediately notice how everyone greets each other like lifelong friends, because they are. Each of
us joined Toastmasters for the usual reasons, to improve our public speaking skills. We keep
coming back each week for the laughter and the fellowship with our friends. When you walk in
you instantly become part of that circle of friends.
You are warmly, and perhaps a bit overwhelmingly, greeted by big smiles. The VP of Membership
will give you a handshake and a guest packet. The Sergeant at Arms welcomes you and gives you
a meeting agenda. An experienced Toastmaster sits next to you during the meeting and explains
what is going on. The President opens the meeting and warmly welcomes you to the club. You
find yourself wondering “I don't know what is going on here, but I think I could use whatever it is
they got going on!” As the meeting progresses you see one speaker after another get up to
address the room. Some inspire, some make everyone laugh. They all share something that helps
us to understand them better and leaves everyone with something to think about. You find
yourself wondering if you can be that smooth and polished up in front of the room. Just when you
are trying to figure out what the magic is all about, these people start to evaluate each other! And
the speakers getting evaluated are not offended! You didn’t realize that you use some of the same
crutch words. They time each other and count how many um's, so's and other fillers. Wow! You
want to come back for more.
The Toast of Corvallis works hard to be a proper
Toastmasters club. Meetings start promptly, we stick to
the agenda, making sure all meeting roles are filled,
speakers are ready to go and the evaluation team is
prepared. It gets back to the main reason we all come
back each week is for the friendship and laughter. We
always leave in a good mood that sets the tone for the
rest of the week. We often mix it up by having fun
themed meetings. One year we celebrated Talk Like a
Pirate Day. We have had a Shakespearian Ides of March meeting, and one April Fool’s day we had a
backwards meeting. Evaluations of speeches were given before the speakers gave their speeches.
Speakers had to include items to improve on from their evaluations as part of their speeches.
(Continued on page1290)
