Arlinda's "Roasting Ken" speech

Arlinda roasted Ken in winning humorous speech at the Rising Stars Toastmaster Club. It was good entertainment.

Who's the funniest Early Words Toastmaster?

This coming Tuesday promises to be a fun day at Early Words Toastmasters. First will be the evaluation contest, a contest which pits the best speech evaluators in the club against one another for the honor of representing Early Words Toastmasters at the Area B17 Speech Evaluation Contest. Then comes the Humorous Speech Contest which will feature three members doing their best to make the audience laugh the hardest. Surely there's no better way you can think of to spend a Tuesday morning.

The FBI visits.

The FBI was created on July 26, 1908. To celebrate its 103rd birthday, Early Words Toastmasters was briefed by agents of the FBI. Led by Special Agent in Charge Kerry Jones, a team comprised of Special Agent Ken Smith (head of the Humorous Investigations Division), Special Agent Kanda Alahan (chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit), and Special Agent Arlinda Smith (Chief Interrogator) the team highlighted moments in FBI history.

My 2056 Experience

I have been a member this club for approximately 6 months. For those folk considering joining Toastmasters I must say it has been an outstanding experience. Every person has contributed to this experience to make me feel welcome and that I might be improving as a speaker. 2056 Rocks!
Every Tuesday we share company, bread, words and togetherness.

Be well,

Gary

Name Change

Concord Breakfast Toastmasters voted this morning to change it's name since we no longer meet in Concord and we don't serve breakfast. Initially the club considered changing the name to "Up Early and Speaking" which was the original name of this blog. However, the club felt this name was a little too long and settled on the name "Early Words". So, if the early bird gets the worm, does the early word get the berm? Berm or not, welcome to Early Words Toastmasters.

Toastmaster Friend Survives Shiprweck at Sea

Our good friend, Toastmaster Charles C. Gibson, survives a shipwreck and nine or ten hours of swimming without a life jacket to reach the shore of a deserted island in the Sea of Cortez. Read the article in this Contra Costa Times article.

Speaking With a Purpose

The Toastmasters Advanced Speaking Series offers guidance and practice in speaking for almost any purpose you might imagine. Today, our club had two speeches from Advanced Communication manuals.

Arlinda read Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven for a project from the Interpretive Reading Manual. Kerry spoke of "The Longest Eight Miles" for a project from the Storytelling Manual.

Ken & Arlinda re-marriage proposal and acceptance 02-09-2010

Video posted to our youtube channel shows some of the fun that members have in Toastmasters.

Officers Installed - In with the New!

By all accounts, Concord Breakfast Toastmasters is an old club...approaching the 55th anniversary of its charter.But old doesn't have to mean stodgy or decrepit... The club officers who were installed today are a great mix of new and experienced members, making for a very promising year.

Our new President, Gurpreet Kaur, and our new Vice President of Membership, Eric Bergquist, are first time club officers. First time officers are great for the health of the club in that

Dennis Owen's quote in South China Morning Post

Club member Dennis Owen recently passed this on to his club mates:

South China Morning Post (Circulation / Reach: 100,004)  2011-07-01
" The stories of the volunteering works of 38 Cathay Pacific Airways employees are told in a book entitled Flying High with 38 Hearts of Gold. Many of the 38 were at the book's launch at Cosmos Books, Wan Chai, on Wednesday.  

Adventures in Geography

Days like today are what make Toastmasters so much fun. In addition to learning a lot of geographical trivia, we had speeches about Volleyball, growing plants in San Francisco, and Arlinda’s grandmother. And it was fun to hear about both real and imaginary trips to the seven continents. Koala bear hunting? Where did that come from?

Ok, now I'm afraid of YouTube

I was in Toastmasters for a very, very long time before I watched a video of myself for the first time. I always felt kind of guilty about that because there is someone there every week who painstakingly records our speeches. (Thank you, by the way.) But I was really nervous about watching them! I was afraid of what I'd see. When I finally did watch them, I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Now I am back to the drawing board and nervous about the YouTube recordings. I will get over it -- I just hope it doesn't take two years.

What to speak about?

Once you decide to join toastmasters, an initial mind block is what do I speak about? I faced the same fear. I thought it had to be something that had a lot of meaning and weight. In my mind it needed to be educational as well.

What exactly is a Malapropism?

In Toastmasters, one of the duties of the grammarian is to listen for Malapropisms. Invariably, the first time grammarian asks, after trying to figure out how to pronounce the word, "What is a Malapropism?"


Simply put, a malapropism is any sentence in which a word is inappropriately replaced with a similar sounding word which means something entirely different than the intended word. For example, "I resemble that remark," instead of, "I resent that remark," or, "The grammarian is excepted to catch malapropisms," instead of "The grammarian is expected to catch malapropisms."