NOVEMBER 2020 Issue (Featuring VTM CON 2020 News)
- THANKFUL, for the health of it
- TAKE the CHALLENGE!
- FACE(BOOK) it… We're Social
- LIGHTER Moments of "Toastgator"
- PRIZES, Achievements
- President's Distinguished Club (again!)
- TOASTMASTER of the YEAR Designations!
- PATHWAYS – Awesome Autumn Progress
- PRESENTING New Members
- PRACTICE Competing!
- VTM CON – the DEC 5th event!
- Make YOUR Audience Remember You (theme)
- AGENDA & TIMES for the Contests and Workshops?
- BACKGROUNDS to show your VTM Colors!
- VTM Logo – Social Profile Pic
- SHARE SOCIALLY, use #VTMCON Hashtag!
- HELP WANTED
- CONNECT with Online Presenters Leadership
- Editor Talk
THANKFUL, for the health of it
The SPICE of OP
SAVOR and CELEBRATE our club connections in this 2nd issue of “the PRESS”. Guests and members are treated to magic moments each and every Online Presenters weekly meeting, occasional contest, and speechathon.
BACKGROUNDS displayed by members are more often revealing meeting themes. Pixabay.com is just one of the many royalty-free graphics resources sites we draw from to add vitality to Zoom-meeting together. Remember how Mahfuzur Rahman, Michael Alexander, Sara Gao and Saikishore Raju “got spicy” for us?
PREPARE to PROPEL VTM CON, the 12/5 event
WHY NOT WORDPLAY on DTM?? Angela Heath gave us great idea – to ID the Virtual Toastmasters Conference “VTM”! It will be a wonderful way to enter the last month of a rather challenging 2020, deepening connections with a global family of speakers, presenters, Toastmasters.
CONTESTS and WORKSHOPS to Make YOUR Audience Remember YOU. Online Presenters is taking a leading role in the creation of this collaborative event, VTM CON 2020 – vtm.toastmost.org. The conference website is hosted on toastmost.org, just like our club website. We’ve been a pioneering online-only club since 2017. President Nik Lakhani‘s dream to bring online clubs together to compete, collaborate and uplevel online skills is coming into being, so do join in.
COOL BACKGROUNDS. Further down in this issue, find the graphics you can download for use during the event — and before the event (help us promote!) Does Conference Co-Chair Lois Margolin look fabulous… or what?! Picture yourself in his grand background space.
WHO are the VTM CON EVENT LEADERS from Online Presenters? Yay, team leaders!!!! It’s quite a task communicating and collaborating with the other 5 great club volunteers, and it’s… happening! Thank you, leaders and committee volunteers.
- Event Co-Chairs: Nik Lakhani & Lois Margolin
- PR Chair: David Carr
- Talent Chair: Pamela Benjamin
- Contest Chair: Carol Prahinski
- Contest Chief Judge: Lukas Calafell
TAKE the CHALLENGE!
THANKFUL for THIS CLUB? Marianne Grady embodies the Spirit of Online Presenters — below she greets and challenges you. At this “harvest season” – how about opting in to make a 1 minute video?? Share your gratitude for the gifts you’ve received, being a part of the OP Family.
Send your .mp4 file to mgrady.ptm@gmail.com . We’ll highlight some via Facebook and website in the weeks ahead.
FACE(BOOK) it… We’re Social
YES, OP is on FACEBOOK! A growing number of guests and prospective members discover us first … on our Facebook Page! With Marianne Grady’s fine PR help (lots of fun posts) — our Facebook Page IS getting more traffic.
FACEBOOK Folks – help us out by
- LIKING the page.
- LIKING posts.
- COMMENT. See yourself in a meeting screenshot? Say “hey, that was a great meeting” etc.
- SHARE the VTM CON posts and any others to raise visibility and excitement.
- REVISIT speeches and workshop posts featured there.
- IT’s the ALGORYTHM. The more activity on our club page with your enegagement, the more posts become visible on Facebook User’s streams…
What do you think? Does our FB page have “the vibe” of our meetings?
LIGHTER Moments of “Toastgator”
BDC (Brian David Crawford) 
It’s easy being green…
LOVE A Toastgator??!? Or someone finding kinship with another “Big Mike”? BDC, aka Brian David Crawford did not disappoint OP friends and replay viewers of our October 31st meeting. Plus, recently he found a great way to entice a guest visitor to return. Seeing guest Mike sporting a boom microphone similar to his own, BDC chortled, “We need more Big Mic’s around here!”
PRIZES, Achievements
President’s Distinguished Club (again!)
How wonderful to achieve Presidents Distinguished Club award from Toastmasters International for each club year since chartering in 2017. We’re well on our way already to completing needed goals for this year too. VPE Krishn Ramchurn says we’re eagerly awaiting completion of more Levels 2 and 3 freom our club members…. (nudge, nudge!)
TOASTMASTER of the YEAR Designations!
OP President Nik Lakhani and Secretary Emily Thompson each were honored as “Toastmaster of the Year” 2019-2020: Nik for all of District 71 (the United Kingdom & Ireland) and Emily for Washtenaw Toastmasters in Ann Arbor, MI. They dream big, work hard…. and it’s noticed! Here at OP, “undistricted”… we fully give ourselves permission to go beyond boundaries when celebrating successes.
NEWS FLASH – Nik just received another award… designated as DIVISION HERO (Division K in District 91.) Wow, just wow, Nik!
PATHWAYS – Awesome Autumn Progress
APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE for Pathways Level Completion Achievements! With 2020 Covid-19 life adjustment, plus many of our members being active in multiple Toastmaster Clubs – it’s outstanding how our members keep growing. Notice who’s working on the same path as you.
- Antoinette Trim – Engaging Humor, Level 3
- Birgit Starmanns – Presentation Mastery, Level 1
- Elizanne Warren-Russell – Effective Coaching, Level 3
- Krishn Ramchurn – Presentation Mastery, Level 1
- Lukas Calafell – Strategic Relationships, Level 1
- Michael Alexander – Presentation Mastery, Level 1
- Rosena Duncanson – Visionary Communication, Level 1
- Sara Idehen – Motavational Strategies, Level 3
PRESENTING New Members
2 MORE NEW to OP in October — born competitors — each braved our October Evaluation Contest – what a start!
Ginette Francois, DTM hails from Quebec, CANADA. Already she’s been lively in Table Topics and claiming roles; is Vote Counter again on Nov. 16.
Elizanne Warren-Russell from West Babylon, New York, UNITED STATES helped us get acquainted in her November 2nd Icebreaker. Family?? Fishing? Paragliding… prepare for surprises. Catch the replay, timestamp 19:09.
Saikishore Raju rejoined OP, returning to the US amidst Covid-19 woes and county entry travails. He delights in his comeback to Online Presenters, participating in David Carr leading Table Topics on October 26th (Scary movies — do you love them or hate them? timestamp 33:35)
PRACTICE Competing!
9 COMPETED in the EVALUATION CONTEST.
THE WINNERS… Andriy Smolenko – 1st, Louis Brown – 2nd and Roxanne Hosein – 3rd. Hear Andriy exuberantly conveying the wisdom of “Facts tell and story sells!”
4 OP Winners to compete in VTM CON 2020
1st, Andriy Smolenko – EVAL CONTEST 
2nd – Lou Brown, EVAL CONTEST
1st, Roxanne Hosein – TT CONTEST 
2nd , Angela Heath – TT CONTEST
You’ll want to root on all the first and second place winners from our fall contests competing at the “next level” at VTM CON 2020 on December 5th. The contests will be in the first portion of the 8 hour event, starting at 8:30 am Eastern.
Speaking of contests — the impromptu debating at our November 2nd meeting spurred Rosena Duncanson (third-place winner of our September Table Topics contest) to try this “sport” again. Just days later, she astounded herself winning an Impromptu Debate Contest on November 7, chaired by Nik Lakani — part of a unique 24-hour online Table Topics marathon. Well done, Rosena!
VTM CON – the DEC 5th event!
vtm.toastmost.org
Make YOUR Audience Remember You (theme)
WORKSHOPS at VTM CON are to help you become more memorable and impactful as an online speaker and presenter.
This is an impressive presenter lineup, with workshops on SPEAKER PRESENCE, DESIGN to ENGAGE, UPLEVEL CREATIVITY, SEAL the DEAL, and SPEAKER BRANDING on ZOOM.
AGENDA & TIMES for the Contests and Workshops?
The VTM CON Program times can be found at https://vtm.toastmost.org/program and may be fine-tuned as the event draws closer.
MORNING/DAY/EVENING for YOU?? You can see how the 8:15 am Eastern (New York/USA) Event Room Opening time is converted for your city/timezone here. Scroll down to see all the cities/zone times.
After the 9 am Eastern Welcomes, the day segments alternate between presenter workshops and contests. Also woven throughout the day are interviews of contest winners and participants, video introductions of the 6 Collaborating Toastmaster Clubs, and breaks.
Register, knowing you can attend as many or few portions of the conference as you like. Our Zoom Room capacity is 500.
BACKGROUNDS to show your VTM Colors!
Come on, come on (do) VTM Promotion with OP! You enjoy the great backgrounds folks are using at our meetings? Well, YOU can use the ones below at OP, other clubs you’re in or guest-visit, AND at the EVENT to help build excitement.
VARIOUS CHOICES… Click to download the images you want – then show your VTM CON colors!
VTM Logo – Social Profile Pic
SHARE SOCIALLY, use #VTMCON Hashtag!
Be on the lookout for VTM CON emails and social media posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more – and share!
INCLUDE SUGGESTED TEXT with a VTM CON photo:
Register now for VTM CON 2020, a virtual conference for Toastmasters and anyone who wants to learn to make a stronger impression when speaking and leading online. #VTMCON
Info: https://vtm.toastmost.org
Register: https://bit.ly/VTMCON2020
HELP WANTED
VTM CON 2020 Contest Chief Judge Lukas Calafell needs additional experienced online contest helpers – Judges and otherwise. Click his name to launch a volunteering conversation.
ZOOM MASTER-ASSISTANTS are being recruited too by team lead Sarinca Janga of One Club One World (OCOW).
Assignments will be made to assist for a specific time slot (contest or workshop). Reach out to Sarinca via email and help put your Zoom coordination skills to work.
CONNECT with Online Presenters Leadership
We’re here to make for win-win relationships. Here’s how to connect with the Online Presenters officers.
| President Nik Lakhani – ALB, ACB, MS5, EC4, PM4, VC4 | nik@niklakhani.com | |
| VP Education Krishn Ramchurn, DTM | krishn.tm1@gmail.com | |
| VP Membership Louis Brown, DTM | louisbrown.65@gmail.com | |
| VP Public Relations Elaine Nieberding, DL5, VC1 | speakerelaine@gmail.com | |
| Secretary Emily Thompson, DTM | thomdencollege3@yahoo.com | |
| Treasurer & Charter President David Carr, DTM | david@carrcomunications.com | |
| Sergeant-at-Arms Andriy Smolenko, CC | smolenko@yahoo.co.uk | |
| Immediate Past President Lois Margolin, DTM | loismargolin.speaker@gmail.com |
Editor Talk
In our digital-madness age, I find myself struggling with balancing hyper-focus with ADD “bright shiny object” syndrome. Working on this issue, I had so much fun playing with graphics, and smiling as I came upon images from our meetings. What’s the right balance of celebrating membership and instructing/entertaining?? Help me know. Share some feedback on this issue, just as if you were a speech evaluator (I can take it.)
There’s many months ahead in “the club year” … so would YOU enjoy playing in this arena? collecting fun, quotable quips from meetings? Capturing screenshots live or from meeting replays? Contributing a single article, story or series on a helpful theme? I can’t wait to hear from you.
I look forward to seeing you at Monday meetings and VTM CON 2020.
Your Editor & VP-PR, Elaine Nieberding: speakerelaine@gmail.com.
