Highway Cleanup Recap

The Marsh Winds volunteer clean up crew once again had a great time - and this time it was a BEAUTIFUL day!!  Truly a fantastic bonding and community building event!

It took us a bit longer this time (please accept our apologies if you waited at Applebee's, as we didn't get done until noon).

We can tell you that it is amazing what you find alongside the road.  Pamela Rediger declared that smokers, drinkers and fast food eaters are essentially the bane of clean roadways, and we all concurred. 

Dawn and I were greeted by an adorable poodle mix dog, who introduced us to its owner.  During the course of our lovely visit, our host inquired about Marsh Winds Toastmasters, and she was quite enthusiastic about coming to one of our meetings, and bringing her husband, too!  Unfortunately I decided at the last moment that there was no need to carry our new business cards!  Note to self - NEVER leave home without them!

For those who have not yet had the chance to participate in the fun - spring will be here before you know it!

Thank you, extraordinary Marsh Winds members, for contributing in so many ways to the betterment of our community!

Weekly announcements from Marsh Winds presiding officer

Next week’s meeting

• Toastmaster - Susan Budig
  
• Sign up now on line while you are thinking about it. Plenty of spots to speak and participate so… be audacious… and prepare to practice your speaking and listening skills. (You have nothing to lose.)
• If you cannot come, indicate this on the duty roster.
• Our own As the Marsh Winds Blow newsletter will be handed out at the meeting.
• We would like to hold an election for Secretary, co-V.P. Membership and co-Sergeant at Arms positions. 

Speech Contest updates

• A warm congratulations to Marsh Wind/ Area 92 winners Betty and Lisa, and all the best for continued success at the Division and District levels!
• The Western Division Speech Contest will be Monday, Oct 5, 2009 at 6:00 pm at the Super Valu in Chanhassen; 19011 Lake Drive EastChanhassen, MN 55317
• Please try to come and cheer on our own winners.
• The District 6 Contest: Oct 23 and 24 in Grand Rapids, MN at the Fall Conference.  See the D6 Website for information about this amazing conference.  

Reminders

• Our Fall breakfast meeting and colloquium will be November 12^th, at the usual meeting time: think about new guests to invite. Guests will get a free buffet breakfast…yum; members will contribute part of the cost.
• Dues for the next half-year: please mail in to Larry Everett if you have not submitted them yet. They are due September 30^th.
• Check the Blog for cool updates and video/photos from the Twin’s game and meeting recaps

Honored to be in your midst, Dawn Anderson

Backwards meeting recap~

Hello Fellow Marsh Winds TMers,

Thursday's meeting was "upside down, inside out, and round and round." My head was spinning by the end of it, but what a feeling of accomplishment from the mental exercise and delight in the humor everyone brought to the table! Thank you to:

• our Sergeant at Arms, Jenn Ray, who stepped in as General Evaluator at the last minute (or was it just in time?)
• Marsh Winds Presiding Officer, Dawn Anderson, who as Table Topics Master cleverly captured a question from each Table Topics answer
• fantastic speaker, Lee Handwerger, who brought his presentation skills to a new level
• Betty Liedtke, who somehow knew Lee's speech would be exemplary
• timer, Larry Everett, who must have run the clock counter clockwise given we wrapped up our meeting 10 minutes early
• grammarian, Ruth Fernandez, who kept the meeting from getting "droll," with her well planned backwards contribution
• and Leslie Smith, who gave us a break from our "ahs" by filling our meeting with them for us
• Cheryl Henkels was BACK in action not having missed a beat
• Beth Silverwater arrived half way through the meeting, and Ravi Bakshi arrived at the end

Though we attempted to move backwards on Thursday, we progressed forwards despite ourselves!

• Lynn Nodland confirmed her willingness to serve as Secretary
• Tom Schmid was all the wiser during Table Topics because he claims he lives his whole life backwards

Next week's meeting will be led by Toastmaster, Susan Budig! I think we can speak for all of us when I say we all LOOK FORWARD to next week's meeting. Thank you all for doing such a great job with our "Backward" meeting!

Dues Are Due!!

Fellow Marsh Windians,

If you have not already done so, please submit your fall dues ($39.00) to Treasurer Larry Everett BEFORE September 30th, to allow time for Larry to submit them to Toastmasters International.  Toastmasters, as you know is a great value, with great rewards!  Marsh Winds values your contributions and hopes that you will renew and continue to participate!

The big news from tonight's speech contest!

Dear friends at Marsh Winds,

Well, it was a fair wind that blew our beloved Marsh Winders to the Contest for Area 92 this lovely evening. A fair wind indeed! This is your presidential update about the Area 92 Speech Contest.

Tonight at the Ridgedale Library, Ravi (as our area Governor) along with Sandy Ryan (as the Area Governor for Area 91) co-sponsored a speech contest.  It was a smoothly run event, with every detail attended to. The preparation for an event such as this defies the imagination, but it was all worth it. The event was well attended, and well-appreciated too.

It was great to be greeted by both Larry and Jenn Ray at the welcome table. The spread of food was highly nutritious and carefully planned.

The "target" speech was an extremely entertaining and engaging (and at times darn right hilarious) speech by Jennifer Huffman, a Toastmaster from an Eden Prairie club.  For Area 92, our own Betty Liedtke came in first place for the evaluation speech, with a full five star speech that was personal, professional, and delighted us as well as encouraged the speaker in a helpful way. Yes, nothing short of the usual amazing talent and wit that Betty has worked hard to deliver in her five years as a Toastmaster!  Bravo! to Betty.

The Area 92 winner of the Humorous (or hilarious) speech contest was Lisa Jenks. Hearing her tale of lost keys was so intriguing, that even those of us in the audience who had heard it before were delighted, engaged, and responded with well-rounded, full-bodied, healthy laughter. Lisa had us eating out of the palm of her hand!  When it was over, I just wanted to do it all again... like a great ride at the fair.  Bravo to Lisa!

Both Lisa and Betty will face stiff competition at the upcoming Western Division Contest on October 5th at the Super Valu offices in Chanhassen.  They would love to have dedicated and encouraging Marsh Winders come and cheer them on!

Overall, the laughs were plentiful and good will abounded. I think new friends were made, as well. Personally, I learned some skills as behind-the-scenes (where I love to be) ballot counter that will help me in other situations.  I am constantly reminded how everything we learn in our adventures as Toastmasters can help us in other areas of our lives.  It is an honor to be part of Toastmasters, and especially the convivial Marsh Winds Club. It is a privilege to be part of a strong group with such gracious hearts and so many helping hands along with clear, strong, creative voices.

Kudos to Ravi, Sandy, Jenn Ray, Larry, judge Mark, and fellow Toastmaster Lynn for helping to make tonight a memorable event. Everyone: please share your warmest congratulations and support to both Lisa and Betty!

Dawn Anderson
President of Marsh Winds

SDRAWKCAB (Backwards) Meeting set for September 17th

,sretsamtsaoT wolleF olleH  (Hello Fellow Toastmasters, in "Backward")

Our "Backward" meeting will NOT be this complicated, but it WILL BE FUN! Our agenda will look very different this week... call it upside down/reversed/backwards; it will take us outside the box and flip us over! Here is a general idea of how the meeting will flow, as long as we just "go with it."  There really is no wrong way to meet backwards. 

Our meeting will start with the gavel, adjoining the meeting by our Presiding Officer. She will then move to announcements (that are for real), guests comments about our meeting (that will be pretend), and awarding the Toastmaster of the Day (whom Dawn will choose for some fictitious reason, but it will be good!) She will then thank the Toastmaster (who would have normally "turned control back to her." The Toastmaster will ask for Toastmaster of the Day, and give closing remarks on the meeting.

The General Evaluator will ask for the Timer's report, who will give fictitious times (may prepare ahead of time if you'd like), give general comments on the great (or not so great) meeting and work through the Grammarian, Ah Counters reports who will give their made up versions of who said what well and who used certain filler words respectively.  Evaluator #2 will then get up and give an evaluation before hearing the speaker's speech (possibly based on their title?), and so on with the next evaluator.

The Table Topics person will call on people who will give a response to a question, not yet proposed, and THEN the Table Topics person will give the question. The next person will be called on to respond to a question they have not heard yet, and then the Table Topics person proposes the question. It will be fun to see what the question was that the respondent supposedly answered! Does this make sense?

The third speaker will then give their speech (No, not backwards.), and THEN the TM will introduce them, and so on. In other words, the speakers will speak in the 3,2,1 order. We will be on such a roll by now, and having a great time with the backwards theme! 

You will have an agenda to review and to use as your guide. We will be SO TRICKY, we won't be able to stand ourselves! Your role may take a little preparation and creativity to play along. But, it will be so worth it!

Thank you, Fellow Toastmasters for joining in on our reversed meeting with a "Backward"  theme, beginning with signing up for a role. There's nothing "backward" about this part. :)

Your Backweird Toastmaster,

Sandy

The Sound of Music at the Marsh - Meeting Recap September 10, 2009

Hello Fellow Marsh Winders! I hope today is filled with songs in your hearts, streams to ford, mountains to climb and dreams to find!

We had a musical time at the Marsh on Thursday. I believe it was the sort of meeting you just had to be there for, to appreciate the depth of joy and life’s purposes that were shared. Every member and guest shared genuinely of himself or herself and with earnest passion. Thank you one and all, who participated fully in Thursday’s Sound of Music meeting.

Jenn Ray was our trusted behind-the-scenes Sergeant at Arms and helped prepare every detail in the room. When not one, but two iPod players were set up and ready to go, the meeting opened with “The Hills are Alive”!

Dawn Anderson was Toastmaster, leading the meeting by weaving into the agenda the lyrics of her favorite songs from the musical The Sound of Music as we followed our journey through the hills.

Being awarded the Toastmaster of the Day for her second speech from the CC manual, was Ruth Fenandez. Her speech was entitled “King of the Whole Wide World” and when she started out the presentation by playing and dancing to an Elvis song, well, we could anticipate fully who her speech was about!

Deborah Dora was our second speaker, with a moving story about the “Power of Community” as she relayed to us the events of her visit to Greece and the difference that sharing with each other can make in the world. 

Sandy Ryan smoothly led the Table Topics, after we heard about a dream that she is following in the field of photography. Our extemporaneous speakers for the day all discussed nature, mountains, dreams, and plans in life. When you see her next, please ask Lynn Nodland to share her Julie Andrews story with you; it is simply too amazing! While you are at it, please ask Larry to re-tell his high school Elvis story!

Pamela Rediger led the evaluation part of the meeting with grace and poise, and Larry Everett and Betty Liidtke helped our speakers to “bloom and grow” with encouraging, thoughtful, and professionally executed evaluations.

Other “firsts” were Stacey Modahl helping us catch our filler words as the “Ah Counter”, and Lynn Nodland bravely fording the stream for her first time as grammarian; word of the day was a blithe one: “blithe”.  Bravo to both!

Thank you one and all for a resoundingly splendid Sound of Music meeting!

May the streams you ford and mountains you climb bring you to your dreams!

Dawn Anderson

Toastmaster for September 10, 2009

President of Marsh Winds Toastmasters Club #7179

Come to the Area Speech Contests Sept. 15th!

Here's a flier with the details. Click on the picture to make it bigger. Hope you can come!

Marsh Winds World Records Have Been Posted!

At the April 9, 2009 "Toastmasters Garden" meeting, you may recall, Marsh Winds Toastmasters and guests set TWO world records - "Most People Simultaneously Answering a Table Topics Question at a Toastmasters Event" with 20 speakers and "Greatest Age Range Among Attendees at a Toastmasters Event" at 26,657 days or 72 years, 9 months and 4 days. The Universal Record Database (www.urdb.org) has posted our records - your efforts - to their website!  Please check out the links below to see our records.  Any clubs ready to challenge Marsh Winds' world records?

http://urdb.org/Content/RecordDetail.aspx?id=1003&attempt=1918

http://urdb.org/Content/RecordDetail.aspx?id=819&attempt=1162#

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Enjoy the video of H20 Masters and Marsh Winds Toastmasters leading the Metrodome crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th Inning Stretch on August 29th!

Marsh Winds Members Promote Toastmasters at the State Fair

Sandy Ryan and Lisa Jenks represented Marsh Winds and promoted Toastmasters to Fairgoers in the Education Building on the final day of the Fair, Monday, September 7th.  Throughout the Fair, District 6 Toastmasters volunteered, two at a time, at the Toastmasters booth, sharing their passion and Toastmasters testimonials.  Lisa also volunteered earlier during the Fair, and Sandy had volunteered in a previous year.

Keep this opportunity to pass on the Toastmasters experience to others in mind when next year's Minnesota State Fair rolls around!  It is great fun and very rewarding!

The Mini Minnesota Get Together

The theme for the September 3, 2009 Marsh Winds meeting on a stick was "The Great Minnesota Get Together," led by Toastmaster Lisa Jenks. 

Lisa shared State Fair trivia, including the most caloric food - fried candy bars, the Grandstand performers with the most appearances - Alabama and number of corn dogs consumed during the average fair - 500,000.

The meeting showcased two "Grandstand" performers - Sandy Ryan and Ravi Bakshi, both speaking from the Competent Communicator Manual- for the second time!  Sandy shared her soul searching as a newempty nester with her second ice breaker speech, "Who Am I?"  Ravi persuaded us to exercise perseverance, sharing his diligent efforts in planning the upcoming Area 91 & 92 Speech Contests (September 15th - Ridgedale Library).

Midway carney (Table Topics Master) Betty Liedtke engaged the crowd and cajoled participation with "Table Topics on a Stick."  

Two new members, Lynn Nodland and Leslie Smith were inducted into Marsh Winds.  A warm and enthusiastic welcome to both!

Toastmaster of the Day was awarded to Lisa Jenks for bringing the Mini Minnesota Get Together to Marsh Winds.

Poetry Class Offered by Marsh Winds Member

It's time to go back to school.  Even you!

I'm teaching a class about traditional forms in poetry such as sonnet, sestina, tritina, villanelle, limerick, haiku, and more.  

Tuesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 starting September 22nd until October 13th. 

This is the class for you to try something new, discover something you didn't know about yourself or others.  Relax and have fun with words and thinking.

Class is titled The Poetry of Form.

Hope to see you! 

Susan Budig
freelancing in Minneapolis, Minnesota
http://susanbudigs-poetry.blogspot.com
"Do it with dignity, but do it."