Did you hear the news? Encinitas Toastmasters has been honored with the prestigious title of "TOP PERFORMING CLUB" in District 5 for the 2022-2023 year! As our Club President, Terrie Price, wrote in a letter to the club, "This remarkable achievement is a testament to the dedication, commitment, and remarkable efforts of each and every one of you." Congratulations everyone!
May 20, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Toastmaster Keith led a well organized meeting whose theme was “Diversity”. The club’s newest member James gave his very interesting icebreaker speech. Mark gave a motivating speech about his dream. Moeko won Best Speaker of the night with her moving speech called “Life Lessons” Pat, as usual had great questions as Table Topics Master. Ghazala won Best Table Topic answer. Great evaluations from Alla and Katie. Kamran won Best Evaluator for his evaluation of Moeko.. Toast of the Town Award went to James for his enthusiasm .
May 27, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
"Confidence" was the inspiring meeting theme selected by Toastmster Terrie. We had wonderful speeches from Alla and Katie. It was guest peaker Bob that won Best Speaker of the night for his humorous speech Bruce and Cathy D. tied for best table topics answer. Great evaluations from Carter and Cathy D. Kimberly won Best Evaluator for emulation of Alla’s speech. Toast of the Town went to Keith for stepping up and doing dual roles for the meeting.
April 29, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
“Vacation, Staycation, What’s your Plan” was the fun theme from this weeks Toastmaster Keith, anticipating the summer. Excellent speeches from Terrie and Mark with Terrie winning the Best Speaker award. Table Topics was a stimulating improv session from Table Topics Master Cathy Y. ( a preview of the improv social after the meeting). Katie won the Best Evaluator Award for her insights into Mark’s speech. The Enthusiasm Award went to Carter for graciously stepping up to the Zoommaster Role.
April 22, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Carter as her first role as Toastmaster choose the fascinating topic of “Future Technology” for his theme. We had three different and wonderful speeches by Bruce, Cathy D. and Keith. Keith won best speaker with his speech, “In College it’s sport, in the National Football league it’s food on the table” The best evaluation award went to Moeko for her thought on Bruce’s speech. Kamran won both Best Table Topics award and the Toast of the Town award for his creative twist to the timer tole.
April 15, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
“What I grow up I want to be…” was the fun theme from our meetings toastmaster Moeko Wilson. Kamran, Kimberly and Katie gave wonderful speeches. Kimberly won Best Speaker for her moving speech”Pain Behind they Eyes”. Kaitlyn won Best Evaluator for her insights into Kimberly’s speech. Best table Topics was earned by Ghazala for her clever answer to Table Topics Master Terries’ questions
April 8, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Our Toastmaster Kamran chose “Movies that Evoke Emotion”. as the meetings theme. Speakers Hadi, Alla and Patricia gave wonderful speeches. The Best Speaker award went to Patricia for her speech , “What happened to That Girl?” Best evaluator award went to Moeko and Best Table Topics went to Terrie for her clever answer to Table Topic Master Kimberly’s question.
April 1, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Alla was our Toastmaster this week and selected the amusing theme of “Crazy English” highlighting many of the quirks of the English language. We had terrific speeches from our speakers, Kamran, Kathleen and Mark. Mark won the Best Speaker of the night with his speech on “Bad Language”. Our best evaluator award was a tie with Terrie and Brittany. Bruce won the best Table Topic award and the Toast of the Town was given yo Kimberly.
March 25, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Spring Cleaning was the theme selected for this weeks meeting by toastmaster Katie. Hadi and Cathy D. delivered excellent speeches. Cathy D. was selected best speakers. Best evaluator was Kimberly Johnson for her evaluation of Hadi’s speech. Kamran won for best table topics answer to Table Topic Master Brittany’s question. Our new award for Enthusiasm called Toast of the Town was given to Cathy Y.
March 18, 2021 Special Toastmaster Workshop "Learn how to Create a Podcast"
Tonight’s meeting was a special workshop, focus on helping members learn how to speak on a podcast platform. It was the second workshop in the “I want to be a Better Speaker” series. Organized by the awesome Kyra Oliver it featured a series of presentation and interactive exercises. There was a SPECIAL GUEST PODCASTER Kim Krajci. Kim is a podcast expert and shared information about how to Structure Your Story., as just like any speech, understanding a solid structure and flow helps listeners lean in and keep coming back for more. Ghazala Rehan and Robert Perry gave the members a behind the scenes look with and actual podcast intervew. Kyra Oliver walked us through ways to decide on the theme to a podcast and think through that theme and begin planning topic ideas. A very Informative and fun evening that benefitted all participants.
March 11, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
“Choose to Challenge” was the inspiring theme for the meeting from our Toastmaster Ghazala . Our speakers, Katie, Moeko and Terrie delivered three excellent speeches. The best speaker award went to Katie and Carter who evaluated her speech won the best evaluator award. Cathy Y. was Table Topic Master who had a improv session. Our newest award Toast of the Town for members who were particularly helpful in putting the meeting together went to Kamran.
March 4, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Our Toastmaster John Swan chose Salsa Music for the meetings theme. Our speakers Kamran, Michael and All all delivered great speeches. Kamran won the best speaker award for the night. Pat was table topics Master and had great questions with the Best Table Topic Award going to Suzie. General Evaluator for the night was Kimberly and Kaitlyn won the Best Evaluator award for her review of Kamran’s speech
February 25, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
“You must Fail to Succeed: was the motivating theme for the meeting hosted by Toastmaster Keith. There were three awesome speeches, the first was the Icebreaker by Bruce, next Ghazala and finally Mark who won for the best speaker award. Pat, Zora and Cathy Y. provided excellent feedback on the speeches . Steven provided the Closing Inspiration.
February 11, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Our theme was “it is going to be a surprise!” for our Toastmaster Terrie. The surprise was the roles were picked randomly at the beginning of the meeting, including speakers. No worries, despite the impromptu assignment of roles everyone did great. Our three speakers Michelle, Kimberly and Alla , put together engaging speeches with little preparation. Brittany our surprise table topics master came up with interesting questions. Insightful evaluations of the speeches from Kaman, Hadi and Cathy. Finally a thoughtful closing inspiration from Kathleen.including speakers were chosen at the beginning of the meeting.
February 18, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Toastmaster Kyra Oliver’s inspiring theme for the weeks meeting was “Mind Tricks or Tricky Mind”, how not to let negative thinking hold us back. The meeting had Inspiring speeches by Cathy D. and Alla., with valuable insights from evaluators, Cathy Y, and Patricia. Kamran gave an insightful closing inspiration.
February 4, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Toastmaster Cindy chose “What makes you feel expansion vs contraction” as our theme. John, Kathleen and Kaitlyn all gave great speeches. The award for Best Speaker went to Kaitlyn for her very moving icebreaker speech, “A journey I learned from” Table Topics Master Pat had some interesting questions. Many good answers and the Best Table Topics Award went to Brittany. The best evaluator award went to Michael for his wonderful evaluation of John’s speech. It was a well run and inspiring meeting.
January 28, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Our Toastmaster Moeko chose the theme “Personal Fulfillment” for a well organized and fulfilling meeting. Michael gave a great speech with the fascinating title of “Why Do I Do That? Zora gave her first speech and insight into things to know about her. Katie won Best Speaker of the night for her speech on “A skeptic’s Tips for Reading the Bible”. Best evaluator award was won my Pat on her insight into Katie’s speech. The Best Table Topics award went to Steven for his clever answer.
***Member Spotlight*** Get to know the awesome members of Encinitas Toastmasters
Alla Ramaswamy
Toastmaster Member
Meet Alla Ramaswamy
When Alla Ramaswamy smiles, her face lights up the room, even when these days that room is on Zoom as she participates in Encinitas Toastmasters. This Russian-born speaker, entrepreneur, wife and mother of three recently tied for the Best Speaker competition with accomplished Toastmaster Mark Richter. That goes to show what impressive progress she has made as a Toastmaster in less than a year as a member.
Alla is currently working on level three in the Pathways Presentation Mastery module. Of her experience so far, she says, “I’ve learned a lot about myself and about my way of talking. There are so many aspects to voice and the speech itself! The different styles of speech communication speech were a real discovery to me.”
Professionally, Alla considers herself an expert on parenting and parent-child relationships. In fact, she has written a book for children ages three to six, Sun’s Trip, Her story helps children memorize the days of the weeks in order. “The phonetic wordplay makes it fast, easy and fun,” according to her LinkedIn profile.
Alla studied education at Loyola College in Maryland and has worked for the Montessori Institute in San Diego. She currently co-owns and operates Angel Academy Montessori Preschool and Day Care in Carlsbad.
Alla also consults as a Vedic astronumerologist, a discipline that is based on the interrelation between the nine planets and their respective number's vibration. She also serves as a spiritual mentor, coach and guide.
In her spare time, Alla enjoys cooking, music, art, crafts and singing. She also loves reading and posting on Instagram, which does in her native Russian language. A short-term goal for Alla is to give a TEDx talk. When she does, all of her Encinitas Toastmaster colleagues will be watching and listening!
January 21, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
Toastmaster Margaret picked “Odyssey” as the theme of the meeting. She had attendees reflecting on their travel experience and what they had gained from it. Keith, Kathleen and Patricia all gave good speeches. Patricia was a last minute additions due to a cancellation and managed to win the Best Speaker of the night. Kimberly won Best Evaluator for her review of Patricia’s speech. The Table Topics Master Pat had fun travel questions. Among the many great answers from members Zora won Best Table Topics for her response. Mark gave great speakers tips and Terrie helped end the meeting with a closing inspiration.
January 14, 2021 Toastmaster Meeting
The Golden Mean was the intriguing theme for the meeting, chosen by Toastmaster Katie. Margaret gave a fun speech on storytelling while 2 of our newer members Carter and Cathy gave great icebreaker speeches. Carter won the best speaker of the evening. The Best Evaluator award went to Cathy for her great tips in evaluating Carters speech. Our Table Topics Master Mark who also won the Enthusiasm award for the evening asked some challenging questions. The best answer was given by Cindy who won the Best Table Topics Award.
