Did you know that many of us on the
TransitHub team are also members at the
Liberty Village Toastmasters club?
Do you recognize some TransitHubbers?
First of all, you might be wondering –
Toastmasters, what is
Toastmasters? Is it what its name suggests? A club where people master the making of toasts? Well, not quite.
Toastmasters International is a not-for-profit organization that helps members work on their public speaking, communication, evaluation, and leadership skills. Since there are many stages and speeches with different objectives to complete before moving onto the next speech,
there is always room for improvement!
On Wednesday, March 14,
Liberty Village Toastmasters had a special meeting at
ING Direct Café, due to our home, the Harbourfront Community Centre, being closed for March Break.
At the corner of Yonge St. and Shuter St. (located right in the middle of downtown Toronto), the ING Direct Café was easy to spot – the bright orange lion struck out at us. Upon entering, we saw comfy couches, computers, and the café, where they offered items like freshly squeezed orange juice, hot coffee, and delicious pastry!
Like an alchemist, this innovative machine takes whole oranges and turns it into liquid gold (freshly-squeezed orange juice) for me.
While we waited for our meeting room to open up, we waited downstairs in the café, and chatted relaxedly.
Although the meeting was held at a different venue, the
room still quickly filled up with members and guests. The
energy remained vibrant, and as feedback, many guests had commented about the
atmosphere being both positive and supportive.
We heard prepared
speeches from three great speakers that night. As usual, the
topics varied from serious and important issues affecting today’s people (like management letting people go due to economic crisis, or our declining health care system) to hilarious, laughter-ensuing matters (finding the perfect shaving mirror a man can have at Ikea). After prepared speeches, we have a short networking break, a session of
table topics (one to two minutes of thinking on your feet), and then
evaluations of the speeches and meeting overall.
But speaking and evaluating isn’t all we do! At the end of the night, after our meeting, we
regroup at a bar. This time, we chose a nearby bar called
Firkin at Yonge. Their menus were extensive – ranging from salad wraps to burgers to sandwiches, and including several types of beer and cocktails!
We even convinced a few Toastmasters to become TransitHubbers!
Valerie,
Onur, and
Jay proudly present their new TransitHub buttons!
To experience one of our meetings to its fullest potential, feel free to
come join us as a guest! We’ll be at the Harbourfront Community Centre, assembly room C, every Wednesday night from 6-8 PM (unless otherwise specified on our website:
http://libertyvillagetoastmasters.com/). For TransitHubbers, the closest TransitHub is
#BathurstQQWest, which you can get to from Union (take the 509 Exhibition Streetcar) or by heading south on Bathurst getting off near Front.
-
Rose
