"Take the Lead, great things can happen" said David Benjatschek, keynote speaker at the Take the Lead Toastmasters District 42 Spring Convention held in Calgary, May 4 to 6.
Battlefords Toastmasters had seven members in attendance once again earning the convention's mileage award.
The convention offered a range of activities and learning opportunities. Three educational sessions were offered: Applied Leadership in the Real World, a panel presentation, Authorenticity with David Benjatschek, and Talking to Your Team with Freddi Dogterom.
The Battlefords Rena Weikle, DTM and Division E Governor, participated in the Leadership panel session. Weikle spoke about how Toastmasters has helped her to reach her goals and has led to opportunities such as being the chair of the provincial board of directors for the Western Development Museum Board. This panel discussion is available on CD.
Keynote speaker, David Benjatschek, talked about a process for taking authority for your own authenticity which includes the following steps: being aware/emotionally intelligent about ourselves; choosing areas for challenge/growth; taking action (motivation comes from wanting to and having to do something) and learning; and application (state your goals and be accountable for those goals).
Presenter, Freddi Degterom, talked about how not everyone hears, speaks and processes information the same. By crafting presentations, stories and requests to the communication needs of a team, presenters will maximize impact and results.
Congratulations to all the participants of the International Speech Contest and Evaluation Speech Contests at the District 42 Spring Convention.
The winners of the contest events were:
International Speech Contest: first, Darlene Davies - Division J (Calgary and Southern Albert ); Second, Jacqueline Quail - Division E; third, Mark Kolke - Division G (Calgary and Southern Alberta);
Evaluation Contest: first, John Hallett - Division F (Red Deer and area); second, Jeanette Williams - Division J (Calgary and Southern Alberta); third, Suzanne Vindevoghel Division B (Southern Saskatchewan).
The Evaluation Contest target speaker entertained us with her memories of working at the Calgary Stampede. Nine contestants gave their evaluations. Watching nine evaluations of the same speech was certainly an educational experience. One contestant evaluated using the 3-2-1 approach. He spoke of three strengths, two suggestions for improvement and closed with the one thing he liked the best about the speech. The second place evaluator, Jeannette Williams, had a unique approach. She evaluated using the acronym - S- super fun speech, T - tricky organization, A - attitude, M - meaning and P - purpose/call to action.
Battlefords Toastmaster Don Francis, DTM and Lieutenant Governor Education and Training delivered a District 42 governor elect speech Sunday morning. This is the highest position in the district. He delivered his speech to 261 conference attendees. Francis will be district governor for 2012-13.
The local club banner was on stage, front and centre. In addition to all of the above, there was excellent food, salsa dance lessons and a dance with a live band on Saturday. It was great to see Battlefords Toastmasters in their finery dancing the night away.
The next conference will be Nov. 2 to 4 in Edmonton, Alta.
