Two wins at Area 12 Contest

Last Saturday, September 25th, Area 12 conducted its Speech Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contests. Steven Timmons did a great job as Contest Toastmaster. Dressed in a bright green hat, he led the group in a fun-themed event. Several attendees came dressed in boas, tiaras, weird hats and crazy glasses.

The food was wonderfully coordinated by Gary Chiu and Rose Timmons. Mack Mercer won 1st place in the Speech Evaluation Contest and Jodie Sanders won 1st place in the Humorous Speech Contest. Everyone had lots of food and fun. We will be ready to support Mack and Jodie as they compete at the Division A contest on November 6th.

Congratulations Mack and Jodie...

Pat Quick

Gary's take on the contest!

The Humorous Speech and Evaluation contest was a BLAST! Not even the drenching downpour outside could shake our spirits.

Our own Jodie Sanders and Mack Mercer were in fine form and are moving onto the next round...fantastic job to both of you!

With all due respect to Julius Caesar, we came, we saw, we laughed while eating powdered sugar donuts (ewww!).

Gary Chiu

'Burners Are Dreaming Big

Do you dream? Of course you do. We are Afterburners, and we do in fact DREAM BIG.

Well, here is your chance to turn your Big Dreams into rewards with the new District 25 DREAM BIG promotion. Commit to completing an education level, sponsoring 5 or more new members or even sponsoring a new club charter. Just commit to doing something and we can all push each other to make our goals.

Thanks to Pat Quick who brought a Commitment List to the Sept 21st meeting, the Afterburners have already kicked in on this one. I have entered commitments for everyone who signed our Commitment List, or with whom I have spoken by phone.

We have 16 commitments so far. Ten to achieve CC, a CL and several other advanced rewards including 3 DTMs. WOW! . . .  That bears repeating. WOW! The club has also committed to make President's Distinguished for an eighth great year in a row.

If you have not had the chance to commit, don't feel left out. This is just the start. To enter or see your commitment please go to www.d25toastmasters.org/dreambig.

Remember, making the commitment is just the first step in the journey. You need to complete your chosen commitment as well.

I challenge the Afterburners Club to burn this thing up. DREAM BIG, COMMIT and COMPLETE!!!

Steven Timmons
Club Secretary

Sept 21: Football & Wildlife

Our recent Afterburners Meeting celebrated the theme of the American Football Season. One of the highlights of the evening was the rivalries between the TEXAS football teams. TEXAS is the HOME of AMERICAN FOOTBALL! Did you know that MANY college football coaches recruit football players from TEXAS high schools?

Another highlight of the evening was the first place winner's speech given by Mr. Steven Timmons. The title of his speech was "Why I Could Never Be Steve Irwin." Mr. Timmons' speech included adventure, humor, action, drama, vocal variety, and last but not least, alligators. We invite you to join us next Tuesday evening for another exciting Afterburners Toastmasters Meeting!

Dámaris E. Thorn
General Evaluator

Get carded!

 Here's an easy way to invite someone to our meeting — give them an Afterburners business card! The day and time of the meeting, plus the physical address and website address, ensure that the potential visitor has all the information needed to find us.

Having them will also make networking easier at Toastmasters functions like visits to other clubs, contests, district conference, and TLI (Toastmasters Leadership Institute).

You can customize it with your own name, phone number, office you hold, or whatever you want on it. (See the samples above.) Then I can print however many you need, say 5 or 10. When you run out, ask me for more. The cards will also be available without any personal information printed on them.

Jodie Sanders
VP Public Relations

Calendar reminders

Our regular monthly business meeting is next week, Sept 21, immediately after the regular meeting.

The Area 12 Contest is Saturday, Sept 25, at Tarrant County Public Health, 1101 S Main St in Fort Worth. Afterburners is in charge of the refreshments. (We are good at anything to do with food.) If you are going to be involved as a helper or contestant, be there at 9:15 am, otherwise the contest starts at 10:00 am. If you want to help in any way, see or talk to Pat Quick. Come to have a good time, and to support Jodie and Mack, our club's representatives in Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation, respectively.

Remember that you can see all upcoming club events by checking the calendar on the Members home page on the website. Clicking on an event will open a small window where you can read more details about it.

Sept 14: Great accomplishments

WOW!  What a meeting  tonight!  If you were unable to attend the Afterburners meeting, you missed a treat.  The speeches were great.  Ryan Gallagher's speech, "Stranger Danger" was about people who ride the train from Ft. Worth to Dallas. He talked about the little old ladies, the children on field trips, and the funniest of all, the sleepers on the train. The handouts were cute little (4" x 5") booklets with pictures (hand drawn) that were so funny.  

 

Rose Timmons was spectacular; her speech title was "Change."  She shared three aspects of change and how a 12-year-old spoke to a world renowned group about saving the planet, the way she makes changes without spending any money, and she challenged us to make changes in our personal life. Rose took command of her audience and she made an impact in seven minutes.

 

Jodie Sanders gave an impressive speech on "Speak Greek," giving facts about the Greek alphabet, the origin of the alphabet,  and handouts with the alphabets.  She explained how we use the Greek alphabet in math and science, religion, and education.  In her conclusion she recited the alphabet from Alpha to Omega.  This was an awesome speech.

 

Linda Coleman

Sept 7: Fall contest has big turnout

Test speaker Rick Newton and evaluation contestants Mack Mercer,
Brenda Daniels, Dámaris Thorn, Joyce King, and Tom Brents

We had a big night at this year's Fall Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest, in spite of it being the day after a holiday. First, we had excellent attendance: lots of members and several visitors came to assist with eating all that good food. (I'm sure they were interested in the contest as well.) Second, we had quite a full slate of contestants: five evaluators and five humorous speakers, with two people participating in both contests. Third, we accepted applications from three new members — Holly Trinh, Melessa Baker, and Ron Baker.

Yum!

Toastmaster Rodney King kept the contest humming along, with the necessary breaks for plate refills. Did I mention that we had a lot of good food? Leading off, our guest test speaker Rick Newton (of Tip Top Toastmasters) had us all wanting a Porsche. Or was it Por-sche? This was a question that came up several times in the evaluations!

After a short break (too short to be called halftime or intermission, but we had a lot of speakers still to hear), Rodney conducted the humorous speech contest. What an entertaining and educational night this was! A real-life "Bates Motel." A creative practical joker named Benny. The risks of apartment living. Dangerous, independent women. How to determine if your socks are ripe enough to launder. (If you are worried about that last one, don't sit next to Ryan at meetings.)

Humorous speech contestants Steven Timmons, Jodie Sanders,
Brenda Daniels, Dámaris Thorn, and Ryan Gallagher

After the judges and vote counters did their work, the highly-anticipated results were finally announced. There were two disqualifications for time (out of the 10 speakers). The first-place winners will go to the Area 12 contest on Sept 25. Each second-place winner will be ready to compete if the first-place winner is unable to.
Speech evaluation contest results:
1st place: Mack Mercer
2nd place: Brenda Daniels
3rd place: Joyce King
Humorous speech contest results:
1st place: Jodie Sanders
2nd place: Ryan Gallagher
3rd place: Steven Timmons

A big THANK YOU goes to contest chair Pat Quick and the helpers, judges, contestants, participants, club members, guests, cooks, and eaters — all of whom made our contest a success and created an enjoyable evening for everyone. I want to especially thank our wonderful photographer:

Awards Banquet is fun for first-timer

This year's awards banquet was my first ever. I had a wonderful time eating dinner with friends and among many other toastmasters from many other clubs. What I liked the best was the camaraderie among our district's leadership. I didn't expect that from a district that boasts so many clubs and members. I also enjoyed the past district governor's roast. It was the highlight of the evening! It's great to know that our district can be so dedicated to its members and at the same time not take themselves too seriously. What a relaxed evening!

Saraí Garcia

Two more club goals reached in August

We added two new Competent Communicators in the month of August — achieving goal #1 on our Club Success Plan! Congratulations to Joyce King and Nick Colón, who finished their CCs on the 17th and 31st, respectively. It won't be long until we have two more, as several other members are close to finishing their manuals.

Also in August, Pat Quick applied for her Distinguished Toastmaster award, accomplishing Goal #6 (an additional Leadership award). Congratulations to our immediate past president, who has actually been distinguished for quite some time, as far as we're concerned.

How close are you to your CC, CL or advanced award? Look at your manuals! Bring them to the meetings! Talk to your mentor. Let Benson, the VP Education, know what you want to accomplish by filling out the Member Survey on the Members Area home page of the website. Remember that you can update your goals here at any time.

By the end of the year, we want to be neck-deep in alphabet soup!

Distinguished Club Program Update - EXCITING!!!!

Our superb Secretary, Steven Timmons, submitted dues renewals for those members who have paid so far. When he received confirmation of those dues renewals from Toastmasters International, it marked a very important occasion for Afterburners.

WE ARE OFFICIALLY A DISTRICT 25 DISTINGUISHED CLUB.

We have now reached five of the ten goals set forth by Toastmasters International to measure how well we are meeting the needs of our members. Here's the summary:

Goal #1: Two Competent Communicators. Joyce King & Nick Colón have accomplished this, and we're very proud of them!

Goal #5: One Competent Leader, Advanced Leader Bronze, Advanced Leader Silver, or Distinguished Toastmaster. Tammy completed her CL manual on July 27.

Goal #6: One more CL, AL-B, AL-S or DTM. Patricia Quick submitted all the completed requirements to attain Distinguished Toastmaster in August 2010. What a momentous achievement!

Goal #7: Four new members: Since July 1, we have added Juan & Marla Tovar, Ryan Gallagher, and John Bacon. They will bring fresh ideas and energy to Afterburners!

Goal #9: Minimum four officers trained July & December. All seven of your club officers attended district training in July, so we have a half-point to our credit on this goal.

Goal #10: One membership dues renewal and one club officer list. We now know we have achieved this, which puts us at 5.5 points for the year.

If we did NOTHING else for the rest of the Toastmaster year, we would still be Distinguished, but of course, Afterburners is not known for resting on its laurels. Our sights are set on being Presidents Distinguished, which requires a minimum of NINE of those goals, and we have a tradition of meeting all TEN goals.

I know we'll get there!