The Leaders of Tomorrow Today

For eight weeks the Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters have been on a journey.

One of our charter members, Delores, had a vision about a group of youth that were going to become the Leaders of Tomorrow. In her vision, she saw them going on a six-month journey to learn leadership skills.

During the first part of the journey, they would seek some basic skills that they were going to need for the rest of their journey. She knew some people called the Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters who meet regularly at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre to practice communication and leadership skills. She asked us if we could guide these young people for the first eight weeks.

We said, of course. Toastmasters International offers a Youth Leadership Program that is the perfect roadmap for this journey.

None of us had ever been on this journey before, so we packed a few things. We prepared our hearts and minds by smudging before we began our trip. We had a Coordinator’s Guide to navigate through the skills that the students were seeking. The students had their own Participant’s Workbooks to give them more information and to keep track of their progress.

We took along the Seven Teachings because we knew that it might be a tough journey.

We were all going to need Bravery, because this was an unknown country. We all started out as strangers. Some of us had never spoken in public before, lead a meeting before, or taught before.

But we knew that if we treated each other with Respect, we would all get through this together.

The coordinators and educational presenters of Unit 1 (members of Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters and Carleton University Toastmasters) did their best to share their Wisdom with the students. We are still learning and practicing our own leadership and communication skills. It’s a lifelong journey and we were proud to share the road with these young leaders for a little while.

We learned Humility, because we realized that the students had a lot to teach us. They already had some impressive leadership skills and they shared their life stories with Honesty.

We saw Love in action. Deena, the coordinator of the Leaders of Tomorrow program, brought food and drink each week to nourish us and keep us on the trail. When the call  went out for educational presenters, people took time out of their busy schedules, because they knew how important it was to encourage these Leaders of Tomorrow. Whenever a student was asked to do a task, he or she did so willingly. The students organized a feast and they invited the people who are important to them. A beautiful invitation for the celebration was created with imagination and love.

We’ve learned the Truth about communication and leadership. Good leaders hold all of the seven teachings in their hearts and practice them daily. We’ve taught the students about the tools of public speaking and how to conduct meetings, but they already have what it takes to be good leaders. They are the Leaders of Today.

Back to School

September 8, 2011 – Meeting Notes

“Back to School” was our theme for the meeting. As chair, Louise reflected that our communities are heading “back to school”. Everywhere you look around, families and individuals are now engaged in “back to school” activities. This activity reminds each of us of our school days while some of us are going back to school.

Three toastmasters in attendance, Shirley, Jim and Louise, all shared in the duties of a very relaxed and fun meeting. It was a warm day and Jim brought juice which was very welcome. The word of the day was “Education”.

Jim brought levity to this rather serious group by telling us about a fellow who was not enamoured with his cat. He decided to get rid of the cat. He tried driving him away three times by taking different routes, but the cat was intent on staying. He was impossible to drive away; in fact he would beat his owner back home every time. The owner was equally determined and on his third try, he took the cat on a very complicated route, going one direction then another, then another. Eventually he left the cat. The route he took was so confusing that he got lost for several hours. He called home and his wife answered. He asked his wife if the cat was home. He was. He asked her to put him on the phone as he needed to ask him the directions for the way back home.

We were honoured to have our Area Governor, Clarita, as a guest. She reminded us of the upcoming contests. We need to know by September 22, who will represent us at the humorous speech and the evaluation contests.

Jim Robinson delivered a great speech telling of three very humorous incidents about his efforts to communicate in foreign countries. We wished we had a video. He promises to give the speech again perhaps in French for the contest.

The evaluation portion of the meeting was a joint effort. The two members noted the strong aspects of the speech and some tips that may be of help to Jim.

We chatted informally on the importance of each of us doing our part this year to help our club grow. We have a good size Aboriginal community, the Friendship Centre. We encourage everyone to promote our club and to bring guests to our meetings.

Mind, Body, Spirit

August 25, 2011 – Meeting Notes

The theme for this meeting was “Mind, Body, Spirit”. As chair, Beverley drew her inspiration from the sweetgrass teachings as she harvested and braided sweetgrass recently. When you braid three strands of sweetgrass you are reminded that mind, body and spirit are intertwined and together they are stronger than when they are apart.

Shirley presented the Word of the Day – “Meegwetch”. This word is used in at least three languages – Ojibway, Cree and Algonquin – to convey thanks. It was used frequently throughout the meeting.

We were honoured to have our Area Governor, Clarita as a guest. Clarita capably took on several roles in the meeting – delivering a delightful humourous story, educating us about the role of the club Vice President of Education and evaluating Louise’s speech. She also told us about the challenges and rewards of being an Area Governor. We will undoubtedly have several opportunities to get to know Clarita better over the course of the year.

Have you ever wished that you could tell someone how you really feel about them? It’s difficult to find the words to convey exactly why someone is worthy of praise. It’s even more difficult when that person doesn’t wish to be singled out. Sometimes someone who thinks of themselves as ordinary is truly extraordinary. Louise demonstrated how to “speak in praise” by telling us about a remarkable person who is close to her. Her speech was from the advanced speaking manual “Special Occasion Speeches”, just one of the many varieties of speaking that we may be called upon to do.

Denise had three evocative table topics to illustrate the theme of “Mind, Body and Spirit”. Shirley responded to the first topic of “Mind”, Anita convincingly portrayed some powerful creatures and Beverley facilitated an exercise to refresh our spirits.

The evaluation portion of the meeting was ably filled by Clarita as speech evaluator, Denise as timer, Shirley as grammarian and general evaluator.

We exercised our minds, bodies and spirits by spending a productive and interesting hour at Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters.

Fatherhood

August 11, 2011 – Meeting Notes

As summer passed the midway point, four of us dropped in to the Odawa Native Friendship Centre to keep our speaking and listening skills tuned up. The meeting started promptly at 5:00, much to the dismay of one member who turned up at the recently revised time of 5:15. Guess who that was? Suffice to say that your reporter cannot comment on the first fifteen minutes of the meeting.

When Beverley came in, Jim and Shirley were providing Michelle with some feedback on her speech, while Beverley moped about having missed it. Much to Beverley’s delight, Michelle delivered her speech again, incorporating the feedback she had just received. Michelle spoke movingly about how her father instilled in her the values of hard work and independence. Beverley had the honour of adding her own comments on Michelle’s speech.

Beverley brought a bag of wooden blocks for table topics, spelling out the word “Fatherhood” in honour of the theme for the meeting. She invited Jim, Shirley and Michelle to use the blocks in any way they wished to convey some thoughts about Fatherhood. Jim took us back to his love of blocks as a child and to a treasured friend who was much like a father to him. Shirley talked about how her father influenced her thinking and encouraged her to be strong. Michelle rearranged the blocks to spell “The Food” and talked about a father’s role as provider of the “food of life”. This reminded Beverley of blueberry picking with her father in late summer.

We moved on to business and announcements.

Jim will be attending the Toastmasters International Convention in Los Vegas August 17-20. We eagerly await his report the next time we see him. Jim offered to share a video of last year’s winner at a future meeting.

We talked about the benefits of attending the Toastmasters District 61 Fall Conference in November, just across the river in Gatineau.

Our Area Governor, Carlita, will be visiting us at our next meeting on August 25th at 5:15 p.m. Everyone is invited to come and meet her and hear about the exciting Toastmasters year ahead.

We talked about publicity. VP Membership Jim would like to spend a few minutes in a future meeting brainstorming some membership ideas. He has created some high quality guest kits which include information about Toastmasters and our club. Bravo Jim! Michelle offered to distribute information on her email network and encouraged us all to talk up Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters with our own friends and colleagues. Shirley continues to promote the club on Aboriginal CKCU. Thanks Shirley! She also suggested that we make connections with APN.

Fatherhood, friends, fun and future! That was our meeting for August 11, 2011.

What’s in the box?

July 28, 2011 – Meeting Notes

Not surprisingly, our meeting right before the holiday weekend was low on attendance but high on energy.

As chair, Beverley’s theme of the day was “What’s in the box?” Her intent was to reveal the contents of our club’s big red box throughout the meeting. Eleven years of history are in the box and without it we could not run Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters.

Our Word of the Day, presented by Louise, was “Resource”. The word got used a lot as Tom constantly checked our listening powers and alertness.

Irene told us a “gem” of a humorous story about a shared moment of hilarity with her husband.

Irene’s table topics were all about boxes. When she asked for volunteers to try them, all three hands shot up. Tom’s topic was about “thinking outside of the box”. Louise talked about “feeling boxed in”. Beverley talked about what she sends in a box to her daughter.

Beverley continued to extract “Resources” from our small red university on wheels. Along with the tools that we need for every meeting, like our banner, timing device and lectern, we have promotional and educational items for our guests and members.

Inexplicably, we have a box of hot apple cider mix, which is not that appealing in late July. Somewhere along the way we also acquired a small dog as a mascot. Expect the unexpected at an Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters meeting.

By the way, what is the difference between a lectern and a podium?

Perhaps the most interesting item in the box is the talking stick that was gifted to us on our club’s tenth anniversary by one of our charter members. Gabe, who now resides in Toronto, carved it for us in the shape of a deer leg. Irene suggested that each member add something meaningful to the talking stick, such as some beadwork or feathers or drawings. This will be an intriguing project for us to explore at a future meeting.

There were no formal speeches on the program, but Irene took the opportunity to tell us about her involvement with the people of Kingfisher Lake who are temporarily housed in Ottawa after being evacuated from their community due to forest fires.

Tom rounded out the meeting with his general evaluation, thanking everyone for his or her contributions. Thus ended our “Resourceful” meeting and everything went back into the big red box for our next meeting on August 11.

Honouring Leadership

July 14, 2011 – Meeting Notes

Not only is July 1st Canada Day, it marks the start of a new year for Toastmasters leaders. For every Toastmasters club in the world, July 1st is the date when the current club officers hand over the reigns to new officers to take on the responsibilities of running the club. Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters, true to the leadership example of the geese, take turns at the leadership roles. On July 14, our first meeting in July, we honoured the leaders who keep the Odawa Neeskak flock flying in formation.

Our meeting leader for July 14 was incoming Vice President Education, Louise. Denise, incoming Vice President Public Relations reminded us of the importance of working together with her Word of the Day “Unison”. As outgoing President, Denise gave us a recap of our goals and what we have accomplished in the past year. She gave a moving tribute to Irene, incoming President, who has strengthened many a wing in the community, some of them broken. Irene accepted the challenge with grace and enthusiasm.

Beverley, as Treasurer, lead off the club’s financial year by delivering a gripping Treasurer’s report and budget. We agreed to discuss and vote on the budget at a future meeting.

Also present was Shirley, one of our newest Toastmasters. We look forward to hearing about Shirley’s many community activities.

All leaders face unforeseen circumstances and this meeting was no exception. This was the first meeting which was to start at our new time of 5:15 which would give us a bit more time to navigate rush hour traffic and set up in a less frantic manner. However, we were asked to vacate the room by 6:00 p.m. for another meeting. This meant abandoning the scheduled table topics in favour of welcoming Matilda to join us for a discussion on the Youth Leadership program that we will conduct for the Odawa Native Friendship Centre in the fall. Stay tuned for more details.

We also opted to have the planned executive meeting at a later date, and have a more formal officer induction ceremony at a future meeting.

For the record, our club officers for 2011-2012 are:

President: Irene
Vice President Education: Louise
Vice President Membership: Jim
Vice President Public Relations: Denise
Treasurer: Beverley
Secretary: Beverley
Sergeant-at-Arms: Vacant, all members assist

Congratulations to the outgoing executive for keeping us flying proudly. The next 12 months promise to be an invigorating and uplifting flight.

The Summer of Love

June 23, 2011 – Meeting Notes

Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters felt the love at our meeting on June 23, 2011. They say that if you remember the 60′s you weren’t really there. We got to dig it whether we were there or not.

The groovy scene was set with a mind-blowing tie-died podium and a crazy mood-setting lava lamp. Our chair, Irene, wore her best “summer of love” tie-died T-shirt. We all wore flowers in our hair and at least one person sported an outrageous Afro. We dined on sweet, succulent heart berries (strawberries) as we contemplated the meaning of love.

Louise gave us “Cherish” as the word that we used to describe.

Michelle presented her challenging and thought-provoking speech “Wasting Away” about prescription drug issues.

Denise appealed to all of our senses with her table topics. Irene, Louise, Anita and Beverley took us higher with their inspiring insights and stories as they answered Denise’s topics.

Jim gave Michelle a thoughtful and encouraging evaluation of her speech.

Beverley kept us present and mindful in her role as timer.

Tom reminded us about our um’s and ah’s and language gotcha’s as our grammarian and reported on our meeting as general evaluator.

We wrapped it all up and returned to 2011, feeling refreshed and energized after our psychedelic trip to the 60′s. Peace, everyone!

Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters celebrates LOVE!

Hey all you cool cats and groovy Toastmasters – we are celebrating the last of the Seven Grandfather teachings on June 23rd at our regular meeting. LOVE is the theme and we’re doing it old school and staging a “LOVE IN”!!! That’s right, let your hair down and the hippie inside of you out, for on the 23rd of June we’re bringing back the 60′s and 70′s. Drag out your flower power t-shirts and dust off your lava lamps and meet us down at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre at 5pm. We’ll have a regular meeting with speeches, table topics , etc., on the theme of LOVE!

Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters concludes Seven Grandfather Teachings series

Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters will conclude its Seven Grandfather Teachings series of meetings with the final teaching of “Love” at our June 23rd meeting. The club incorporated the Seven Grandfather Teachings of Truth, Honesty, Bravery, Wisdom, Respect, Humility and Love into the meeting themes to inspire our members and provide food for thought. Each meeting began with a reflection on the theme of the day, which was carried through to the table topics (improvised speaking) and other meeting activities. We also reviewed the basic public speaking skills with educational presentations on topics like “Selecting a Speech Topic”, “Organizing a Speech” and “Evaluate to Motivate”. Memorable moments included Denise’s presentation on “Habits of Highly Effective Speakers” and Jim’s exciting table topics session on gestures, which had even the most reticent members delivering Academy Award-winning performances. Get out your tie-dyed T-shirts and love beads for a groovy trip back to the “Summer of Love” for our last meeting in the series. Stay tuned for the next innovative and thought-provoking series.

Odawa Neeskak Toastmasters attends TLI

Irene, Beverley and Jim attended the Toastmasters Leadership Institute on Saturday, June 18. TLI is the authorized Toastmasters training for club officers. Club officers learn from seasoned Toastmasters and share their experiences to benefit themselves and their Clubs. It’s a chance to meet, network, and have fun with hundreds of other Toastmasters from Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Northern New York. All Toastmasters are welcome to attend to share ideas and resources. Irene attended the President’s training, Beverley attended the Secretary and Treasurer training and Jim attended the Vice President Membership training. Beverley also presented a workshop about Speechcraft. The next TLI takes place in January, 2012.