Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club Member Keith Rabey recently achieved a big Toastmasters milestone – his Distinguished Toastmaster designation.
What is a Distinguished Toastmaster?
The Distinguished Toastmaster is the highest award Toastmasters bestows. The DTM recognizes a high level of achievement in both the communication and leadership tracks in the Toastmasters education program. To be eligible for the award, you must have completed / earned the following (links take you to details at Toastmasters International):
Communications Track
Competent Communicator
Advanced Communicator Bronze
Advanced Communicator Silver
Advanced Communicator Gold
Leadership Track
Competent Leader
Advanced Leader Bronze
Advanced Leader Silver
Keith joined Toastmasters in 2009, and over the last 6 years completed over 75 speeches at Glen Abbey, at other clubs, and at District 86 events. In addition, he held roles as the Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club VP PR, Club President, and Area Director.
Thoughts On Toastmasters
I joined Toastmasters with the goal to improve my public speaking and particularly my interviewing skills. Table Topics was instrumental in helping me achieve that goal. Over time I have become much more confident and able to stand up and deliver speeches in many situations in my personal and professional life.
One of the surprises I found with Toastmasters was the leadership component of the program. I took on leadership roles on the executive of GATM and went on to become an Area Director serving and leading 5 clubs in Mississauga.
Many individuals have helped me along the way. I would like to say Thank You to all, who have applauded when I spoke, who have provided verbal or written evaluations. Thank you to all who have encouraged me with “good job Keith!” or a friendly pat on the back. This is what Toastmasters is all about, as safe supportive environment to learn and develop.
I actively promote Toastmasters when the opportunity presents itself and encourage everyone to sign up and take advantage of this fantastic program!
A fun halloween-themed meeting was held at the GATM on November 1st, 2017. Our members were dressed up in great Halloween costumes and shared ghoulsidh stories and spook-tacular evaluations. What a fun night!
We cheered for Glen Abbey Toastmasters Humorous and Table Topics Club Contest winners, Zehra Raza and Srini Kesavan, as they represented our club at the Area 83 contest. After an exciting round of speeches, we are proud to announce that Zehra Raza was a 1st Place Winner in the Area Table Topics Contest and will be moving on to the Division level on October 18, 2017.
Glen Abbey Toastmasters is celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary – 1992-2017
Join us for a celebration dinner on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at Tavolo Restaurant in Oakville.
Dinner will include:
Complimentary Cocktail Antipasti – Mixed Greens Salad OR Caesar Salad OR Soup Entrée – Chicken Supreme OR Tagliatelle Bolognese OR Margherita Pizza Coffee OR Tea Celebration Dessert
Congratulations to the winners of the recent Mary Heary Tall Tales Contest – (left to right) Keith Rabey – 3rd place; Srini Kesavan – 1st place; Richard Kitney – 2nd place.
And To All Our Competitors – It Takes Courage To Compete! – (left to right) Keith Rabey, Richard Kitney, Zehra Raza, Srini Kesavan, & Chris Roode
In November 2016, Flora Sun received her Competent Communicator designation. The Competent Communicator is the first speaking designation in the Toastmasters program and is achieved after creating, practicing and delivering 10 speeches with specific project goals. We asked her a few questions about her experience at Glen Abbey Toastmasters.
How long have you been a Toastmaster? I have been a Toastmaster since January, 2015.
Why did you join Toastmasters? Originally, I wanted to improve my English listening and speaking skills. With the help of Glen Abbey’s experienced club members, I improved my public speaking skills.
What have you learned from your Toastmasters journey? I learned a lot from the Toastmasters. After every speech, I received constructive feedback from my evaluator and club members. Many experienced members took a lot of time to help me improve my tone and gestures and encouraged me to continue to practice my public speaking skills.
What surprised you about Toastmasters? How really encouraging the environment is. After my first speech, I was waiting for the criticizing feedback, but instead – the evaluator was really encouraging and pointed out my strong points while gently and kindly mentioning areas that could be improved. This helped me a lot to continue to practice.
What do you like most about our club? The really friendly encouraging environment. Many club members are not only excellent public speakers, but also the humorous performers.
Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club Member Reema Duggal recently achieved a big milestone: the Distinguished Toastmaster designation.
What is a Distinguished Toastmaster?
The Distinguished Toastmaster is the highest award Toastmasters bestows. The DTM recognizes a high level of achievement in both the communication and leadership tracks in the Toastmasters education program. To be eligible for the award, you must have completed / earned the following:
Communications Track
Competent Communicator
Advanced Communicator Bronze
Advanced Communicator Silver
Advanced Communicator Gold
Leadership Track
Competent Leader
Advanced Leader Bronze
Advanced Leader Silver
Achievements
Reema joined Toastmasters in 2010, and over the last 6 years:
Completed over 75 speeches at Glen Abbey, at other clubs, and at District 86 events
Held the roles of:
Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club Vice President Public Relations
Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club President
Toastmasters District 86 Area 35 Governor
She also led the Toastmasters District 86 Member Communications and Engagement Committee, and received the District 86 Legacy Award for her vision and foundational work in designing the District 86 communication strategy / channel.
Thoughts On Toastmasters
Reema says “Toastmasters is one of the best things I have ever done. The program is exceptional and the peer2peer format creates a very supportive and positive environment for everyone to become better at public speaking and leadership. I encourage everyone to come to a meeting to see what it’s all about.”
Next Steps? “I’m thinking about what I have to do to become an Accredited Speaker, but that will take another few years. I’m in no rush. In the meantime, I hope to be able to mentor new club members and help the club celebrate our 25th Anniversary in 2017.”
2024 Update
Reema left Toastmasters for a few years, but returned in 2022. I missed the opportunity to speak and get feedback. So I am here again – and I started the Toastmasters Program from the beginning. The curriculum is new – it’s now called Pathways. But more importantly, I missed the mentoring of new speakers as they embark on their journey.
The Art of Effective Evaluation is a workshop designed to help Toastmasters develop the knowledge, motivation, and skills you need to become more effective evaluators.
Don’t understand all the parts of an evaluation? This workshop willl help.
Don’t understand how to evaluate to motivate? This workshop will help.
Uncomfortable about giving an evaluation? This workshop will help.
Over two hours, we will work through these objectives:
Recognize the purpose and value of effective speech evaluation
Discover ways we can improve our evaluations skills- individually, professionally and with Toastmasters
Understand how effective evaluations help everyone – the speaker, the evaluator, the audience, and the club
Congratulations Tony and Srini. You made Glen Abbey Toastmasters very proud by taking first and second place in the Area 35 Speech Contests. Good luck at District finals!
At Glen Abbey Toastmasters, people with similar communication and leadership goals and interests come together to support, guide and encourage each other. We are a welcoming, diverse community where you can make connections with friends and mentors.
With 2017 as the 25th anniversary of our founding, the club’s continued success has been the result of the contributions of talented and dedicated members and the energy and leadership of executive committee members through the years.
I’m very excited and honoured to be President for 2016/2017 year. I invite you to explore what we to offer you through our website and discover what sets us apart from other Toastmaster clubs. Want to experience one of our meetings for yourself?
Glen Abbey Toastmasters recently held Club Elections for the 2016/2017 season. Congratulations to the following members who ran for election and will be leading our club next year:
President – Wendy Rintoul
Vice-President Education – Rose Ford
Vice-President Membership – Tariqul Islam / Liz Akey
Vice-President Public Relations – Sushila Pereira / Beverly Roberts
2016 Area 35 Contest Winners – Evaluation Contest: Reema Duggal (1st place) and International Speech Contest: Tony Corrie (1st place)
2016 Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club International Speech Contest Winners Srini Kesavan (3rd place), Tony Corrie (1st place), and Frederique Herel (2nd place)
2016 Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club Evaluation Contest Winners Sean Connor (2nd place) and Reema Duggal (1st place)
2016 Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club International Speech Contest Participants Srini Kesavan, Kevin Chisholm (Chair), Chris Roode, Tony Corrie, Jack Jagernauth (Chief Judge), Frederique Herel, Mike Kozak, and Wendy Rintoul
2016 Glen Abbey Toastmasters Club Evaluation Contest Participants Jack Jagernauth (Chief Judge), Nicole Wong (Chair), Sean Connor, Reema Duggal, Danny Zhang, and Mike Kozak
Glen Abbey Toastmasters will be hosting their annual Holiday meeting again this year – Chaired by Toastmaster Tony Corrie. This year, we’re going to be doing a spin on the popular tV series “Whose Line Is It Anyway” – the ultimate impromptu speaking event. If you’re not familiar with the program – check out these videos on YouTube
Congratualations to Toastmaster Reema Duggal on achieving her Advanced Communicator Silver award.
The Advanced Communicator Silver is the second highest award in the Advanced Communication Series and requires the Toastmaster to complete the Competent Communicator manual, as well as four other advanced communication manuals.
It is truly a difficult and long path that Reema Duggal has travelled!
Cheers to new Toastmaster Nicole Wong as she delivered her first speech and began her journey towards Competent Communicator. Wish you the best of luck and hope you enjoy your journey.
Congratulations to Toastmaster Roberto Fazio as he deliveried his tenth speech and achieved Competent Communicator. Cheering you on as you work towards the next level of certification: Advanced Communicator Bronze.
We held out annual Halloween themed meeting – Monster’s Ball – on October 28, 2015. Everyone got into the spirit wearing their orange, black, purple, and masks. As always, it was lots of fun with spooky tales, haunting music, candy – and of course great speeches from great Toastmasters!.
Wendy Rintoul
