South County Toastmasters

HOWARD BRANDT, founder of the South County Toastmasters club, passed away at 92 on May 5, 2022. His wife Loretta preceded him in death by 9 months. South County Toastmasters held its first meeting in November of 1974. The club has a rich history of strong leaders, largely because of Howard's leadership and example. Even at his advanced age, Howard continued to attend club meetings as his health permitted. The photo of him at the lectern was at our first annual Founder's Day... Meeting in October 2021. He will be missed but his legacy will continue. #toastmasters #southcountytoastmasters

THE EVOLUTION OF OUR CLUB'S TECHNOLOGY One thing we recommend to our members: video record your club speeches and do a self evaluation at home to find your opportunities for improvement. Years ago, the club bought a video camera which used DVDs. It's hard to remember if they were full sized DVDs, but by today's standards our first camera was ancient technology.... Then we upgraded to a smaller camera with mini DVDs. Our next one used solid state memory SD cards. Then Covid hit and our meetings were initially held via Zoom. On Zoom, it's easy to record because that capability is built in. When we got back to having in-person meetings, we ditched the video camera. Now if you're giving a speech, you just hand your phone to a fellow member and ask to be recorded. Other aspects of our club's technology have also come a long way in a short time. One thing that hasn't changed over the years is our club's commitment to helping people become better public speakers. We meet every Wednesday from 6-8pm at the Sunset Hills Community Center. #Toastmasters #southcountytoastmasters #publicspeaking www.southcountytoastmasters.org

FREE TRAINING One of our members found this info so even though it's not directly related to Toastmasters, we're sharing it here. The St. Louis County Library offers great free training videos on just about any tech topic plus hundreds of Presentation Skills videos. It used to be called Lynda.com, but LinkedIn has bought the company. These classes are usually $20 to $30 a month, but with a library membership it's free, so you’ll be saving a lot of money with your library car...d. To enroll, just click on this link: https://www.linkedin.com/learning-login/go/slcl and then enter your Library Card number and Pin. Please share this post with anyone who might be interested. South County Toastmasters meets every Wednesday evening at the Sunset Hills Community Center. #publicspeaking #toastmasters

On March 30, our weekly meeting will have the theme "What's My Line?" Like the old TV show of the same name, 2 of our members who have had unusual jobs will be asked questions, and the rest of the members will try to guess what those jobs were. Many of our members are too young to remember the TV show. We meet every Wednesday 6-8pm at the Sunset Hills Community Center. ... #publicspeaking #Toastmasters www.southcountytoastmasters.org

Read the article about SOUTH COUNTY TOASTMASTERS in the March 11th issue of the WEBSTER-KIRKWOOD TIMES: https://www.timesnewspapers.com//page_0c8f7574-8fd4-57e0-8 #publicspeaking

As we tread into new territory of participating in online meetings, we don't have to stop giving our speakers feedback. You can leave feedback for any member, any time in Base Camp. Following is a short video to walk you through the process: Post Feedback for a Member in Pathways https://southcountytoastmasters.wordpress.com//leave-feed/

The Zoom.us basic account is free, but is limited to 40 minutes when you have a crowd. Apparently, what some groups do is have a 40 minute meeting and then after that meeting is done, they have a second meeting. I installed it on my Chromebook from the Google Play store. It should also work on other systems and devices. [ 219 more words ] https://southcountytoastmasters.wordpress.com//zoom-video/

The club maintains a Speakers Bureau to provide speakers for outside groups at no charge. While the majority of the speakers are "well - seasoned" veterans, there is no reason anyone in the club couldn't develop a topic that they could share with the St. Louis community. I encourage every Toastmaster to develop a passion, interest and area of expertise to share with outside groups. [ 29 more words ] https://southcountytoastmasters.wordpress.com//speakers-b/

A reminder to everyone that our Christmas party is December 18th at the Fox Chase Apartments. Bring a dish to share and a white-elephant gift if you'd like to take part in the exchange. Times 5:30 pm - doors open and time to socialize. 6:30 pm - dinner starts 7:30 pm - Events and White Elephant exchange. Place Fox Chase Apartments - Club House. 700 Fox Chase Arnold, MO 63010-1349 Fox Chase Apartments are located near the intersection of I-55 and Highway 141 in Arnold, MO https://southcountytoastmasters.wordpress.com//party-dece/