In October 2024, Toastmasters International turns 100, helping people from around the globe become better communicators and leaders.
You can learn all about Toastmasters turning 100 at the Toastmasters Centennial History Site. In honor of this historic milestone, each issue of theToastmaster Magazine this year will show historical facts, photos, throwback articles, or recaps of Toastmasters firsts.
Toastmasters History
Glen Abbey History
Chartered on March 30, 1992, Glen Abbey Toastmasters has been a vibrant part of the Oakville community for 30 years. Our club has consistently achieved President’s Distinguished Club status in the Toastmasters International Distinguished Club Program every single year since 2003. It is the highest achievement possible for any Toastmasters club and is the marker of a successful club.
Glen Abbey Toastmasters helps people improve their communication and leadership skills through a proven approach that focuses on self development and self confidence in public speaking. We are known for its professional, friendly, supportive, and fun learning atmosphere.
This past November, Glen Abbey Toastmasters held our club level speech competition. For our International Speech Contest, members Krista Rowan & Zehra Raza placed first and second, respectively. For our Table Topics Contest, member Zehra Raza placed first and Krista Rowan placed second.
They both qualified and competed in the Area Speech contest. We are thrilled to announce that Zehra placed first in the International Speech Contest and third in the Table Topics Contest! She will go on to compete in the Division level in March.
We are so proud of both Krista and Zehra, as well as all the Glen Abbey Toastmasters who competed. As well, we would like to extend our gratitude to all of our members who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the various competitions ran smoothly.
It was a SPOOK-tacular evening this past Wednesday at Glen Abbey Toastmasters as we hosted our annual Halloween meeting! It was the first time in 4 years that the meeting was held in-person.
It was a fun evening filled with speeches, sweet treats, and a best costume contest! First place went to Tina who dressed up as Snow White. And our runner-up was Chris dressed as Sherlock Holmes! We also had the privilege of hearing from HR expert Ellen Zhang, who held a workshop on interview and salary negotiation tips.
A special thank you to Toastmaster Gordon for hosting the special evening. As well, thank you to all of our members who showed up in their Halloween costumes!
Who says Toastmasters is just speeches? Not at Glen Abbey Toastmasters! This past week we had Lucy Martins, an expert human resources professional from Halton Healthcare, and previously a Glen Abbey Toastmasters member, drop in to lead an educational session. She conducted a mock interview with one of our members, where we had the opportunity to listen in as she went over most commonly asked interview questions and how to best answer them. At the end there was a Q&A session to answer any further questions members had.
Thank you Lucy for educating us and sharing your time! As well, thank you to our President Chris for organizing these sessions.
The first in-person meeting of Glen Abbey Toastmasters kicked off with a bang! With almost a full house, members and guests alike came to practice their public speaking skills. Those in attendance were treated to unique speeches such as How to Build a Campfire, and the 4 Different Communication Styles. As well, there was an impromptu Table Topics session held where members were chosen at random and given a prompt, and asked to speak for 1 minute on the prompt.
All in all, members and guests had an exciting time. And we’re just getting started! We’d love to have you join, and come to meetings for the remainder of the year.
Interested in visiting our club to check it out? Click this link: BE OUR GUEST
As summer rolls to a close, Glen Abbey Toastmasters looks forward to welcoming new members and welcoming back returning members.
We hope you have had a great summer, and are excited for the year ahead.
We’ve got a great 2023 / 2024 season planned with a mix of in-person meetings and virtual zoom meetings. Plus a number of special themed meetings to enhance your learning journey.
First meeting of the season is online on September 6, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Interested in visitng our club to check it out? Click this link: BE OUR GUEST
The theme was “Around the World with Glen Abbey Toastmasters.” The map showed 14 countries our members hail from. The food gave us a taste of Persian dip, samosas, khaman dhokla [chickpea], zongi [rice dumpling], shrimp balls, jollof rice, liang pi noodles, chili, Australian coleslaw, apple strudel, and not to forget the locals – Timbits. The dress was Arab, African, Canadian, and Indian.
Past President, Krista Rowan opened the meeting with a reflection on how our club is family and community as well as a space for learning leadership and public speaking. Our guest speaker, Jamie Dinsmore, reminisced about how Toastmasters launched him into a career that has landed him at Microsoft. Elvis Gregov, table topics master, tested our “around the world” impromptu speaking skills. Event committee member and Club Secretary, Emilia Wang, allowed us to share a favourite quotation in our native language along with an English explanation. Chris Zhou, VP-ED and incoming President, gave a slideshow overview of our 2022-23 year.
Outgoing President Jeethan Tellis presented Katherine Bullock with the Toastmaster of the Year Award. He thanked his executive team and introduced the incoming executive team. And we thanked him for his leadership this year, which brought us President Distinguished Award Status and the Shooting Star Award. We said teary goodbyes to those who cannot return next year. And wished everyone a “Happy Summer!”
GATM is excited to host an educational speech about what takes place in a parliamentary session, or business session, of our weekly meetings. If you are confused about Robert’s Rules of Order, want to know why it is a good idea to learn how to run a meeting this way, or brush up on rusty skills, this is the speech for you.
Please join us in our first session after the holidays, January 4th. This will be an in person meeting at Trafalgar Park Community Centre, 133 Rebecca St, Oakville, ON. 7.30 – 9.30 pm.
Toastmaster Bill Kirby has been with the organisation for 19 years. He has held all the club officer roles. He has twice been an area director, once a division director and once an alignment chair. He is currently the parliamentarian for districts 65 and 86. His home club is Cambridge Toastmasters.
GATM hosted on Wednesday December 14 the evaluation and international speech contest for its members.
We thank Tuula Redditt from Brampton and Winner of District 86 Toastmaster of the Year 2019 for being our test speaker for the evaluation contest. Toastmaster Tuula was evaluated by several GATM members. Congrats to Connor Grist, Past President GATM and Wajiha Sabrani for placing first and second.
Congratulations to Bahareh Tehrani, also a Past President GATM and Wajiha Sabrani for placing first and second in the Speech Contest!
Chair Krista challenged us to face our fears as a recent meeting theme. What challenging role have you taken on lately? I gulped and was timekeeper for the first time in two years as a member. Five guests joined us, including special guest Area 83 Director, Shannon O’Callaghan.
Captain JT steered his crew through another enjoyable GATM meeting that was spooktacular [word of the day], educational and fun. People shared their experiences of escaping out of a real haunted house, running away from meeting skeletons at the door for the first time (without knowing what Halloween trick or treat was), and dressing up as Barney to their first Halloween party because they’d committed themselves to wearing the first costume to be pulled out of the old costume box.
It’s your beliefs and values that drive every behavior, which, when aligned with your core, creates your life purpose and path. Life purpose isn’t something to be achieved; it’s something to be created.Would you like to create it ?
Attend the session by Club Retention Chair DTM Guerdah Felix What’s in it for me in Toastmasters Journey? Oct 22 Saturday 10 A.M est to 11 A.M EST
Registration Link – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcumqpzkjHtc4_47GKtMYyPaDf1lq-ld4
Join us at Glen Abbey Toastmasters as we kick off our 30th year by welcoming the 2021 3rd Place Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking – Roger Caesar.
He’ll be speaking on Delivering A Winning Speech.
Roger has competed and become a semifinalist at the Toastmasters World Championships of Public Speaking 4 times. In 2021, he won 3rd place. He is also the Founder of Empire Coaching and Owner of Caesar Transport.
Date: September 7, 2022 Time: 7:30 pm
If you’d like to join, please let us know you’ll be coming.
Did you ever challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone?
We had a great meeting on Sep 29th, 2021, sharing our experience and thoughts about leaving the comfort zone with our Area Director, Ian Horne. Table Topic Master, Nisarg, challenged the audience with thoughtful questions below:
What is your definition of Comfort Zone?
How can someone leave their comfort zone?
Why should someone leave their comfort zone?
Can you give us an example when you had to leave your comfort zone?
Can you give us an example when you decided to not leave your comfort zone?
How do you encourage yourself to take risk(s)?
If you would like to challenge yourself for public speaking, please join our weekly meeting as a guest to hear more.
As Toastmasters International starts a new chapter for the year 2021-2022, in our club meeting on July 14th, 2021, Glen Abbey Toastmasters shared their plans in their Toastmasters’ journey.
We are all looking forward to this new year with a commitment to doing something new and interesting.
What a great meeting on June 23, 2021. In honor of World Music Day on June 21, Chairperson Joan Teri encouraged us to share all our stories about music and what it does to our souls, ears, and more.
Many Glen Abbey Toastmasters shared what music means to them and especially how during COVID – music brought joy and happiness.
Table Topics included a playlist of songs with famous dances, and a number of Toastmasters showed off their dance moves. The list:
What a delectable (word of the day) night we had! Our meeting Chair Gordon Vuong sent this email to all of us five days before the meeting:
What is an Adventure in Food?
They say “variety is the spice of life”.
I say the BEST way to get variety in life is through the literal spices, textures, flavours of yummy food! You can learn a lot about a country, its people, traditions, and culture through its food. Since we cannot really travel now, we can still go on a CULINARY ADVENTURE!
I encourage you to support your local restaurants and order take out from a new place. If you’re feeling even more adventurous, experiment and cook a new recipe you’ve never made before. Not so adventurous? That’s okay, tell us all about your favorite comfort food that gives you warm fuzzy memories when you eat it.
Please come ready to share stories of your own adventures in food!
Bon Appétit! Your food obsessed Chair
Of course the whole club jumped in to participate – because of course we all love to eat!
![GATM End of Year & 31st Anniversary Party [2023]](https://www.glenabbeytoastmasters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cover-gatm-party-1080x675.png)
