Thank you to all members who came out this past Wednesday to cast their vote for our new executive committee. A noteworthy nod to all the candidates who stepped up to run for all the positions; we appreciate your effort and dedication to the club. It was a close race in many cases, but we are pleased to announce the brand new executive team for Walter Gage Toastmasters! (Drum roll, please!)





President: Arash Narchi
VP Education: Cass Chan (Successor: Jeff Pena)
VP Membership: Felipe Iriondo
VP Public Relations: James Pena (Term 1) & Christina Wong (Term 2)
VP Finance: Peter Wiebe
Secretary: Nia Gobin
Sergeant-at-Arms: Clarice Yeung

Congratulations all! We look forward to seeing even greater growth and innovation from all of you!

Here are a few important things to note about upcoming changes to our club schedule and activities:

1. We will be extending club meetings until December 19th, same time and place. (No meeting on December 26th.) Meetings resume January 2nd, 7:00pm in Rm 155 Irving K. Barber.

2. We will no longer offer a "free" icebreaker for guests, as we have a number of members who wish to speak and have priority in acquiring speech slots. This offer may resume once the summer term begins.

3. There will now be a waiting list for members interested in doing speeches. If you wish to do a speech for an upcoming meeting, please email Cass (casschan515@gmail.com) and she will notify you via email of when the next available dates are.

4. New members are encouraged to work towards their Competent Leadership certification by taking on officer roles which require less experience, such as timer, ah-counter, grammarian, quiz master, and invocator. We encourage all members to take on any of these officer roles, and encourage more experienced members to take on roles such as evaluator, table topics master, table topics evaluator, chair, and general evaluator.

5. We continue to accept new members every week. If you are interested, please visit the How Do I Become a Member tab for more information and come by to one of our weekly meetings! :)

Greetings Toastmasters & Guests!

As the end of September draws near, we are officially approaching the official start term of Walter Gage Toastmasters! This is the time of year when we finish most promotional events (e.g. Imagine Day, Clubs Days, etc.) and embark on our adventures with public speaking. There have been many questions posed by new members and guests regarding what the club's year will look like, and hopefully this post will help to answer many of them. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. New Member & Renewing Member Orientation 
2. Club Dues & Renewals (DEADLINE!)
3. Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest
4. October Social: "SCARED SPEECHLESS!"

1. New Member & Renewing Member Orientation
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 26th (6:00pm-6:40pm)
Location: Irving K. Barber, Room 317 
Facilitator: Cass Chan (VP Education), Jenson Leung (Club VP)
This will be a quick orientation for new and renewing members. We will be covering the Education Track in Toastmasters. We will also discuss the use of the Competent Communicator & Competent Leadership Manuals. (Please bring your copy if you have already received a set, otherwise bring some paper to take notes.) A question-answer period will follow. This session will only take 30-40 minutes, and leave enough time to head to our regular WGTM meeting.

Please RSVP: casschan515@gmail.com

2. Club Dues & Renewals
DEADLINE: Wednesday, September 26th
Members from the summer planning on renewing, please bring your dues in at our next meeting (Wednesday, September 26th). If you are a renewing member and unable to make next week's meeting, please contact Ismail (smbi@synthetasegroup.com) to meet up with himbefore Saturday, September 29th to pay your dues. 

New members who have not finished paying your fees, also bring your dues to our next meeting so you may get your manuals as soon as possible. Thank you!

Guests who have not yet made a decision about membership, no worries! You can choose to join our club at any time in the future. :)

3. Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 3rd (7:00am-8:30pm)
Location: TBA
Do you have a great sense of humour, but don't know how to show it on stage? Want to see how others get the audience laughing when presenting their speech? Walter Gage Toastmasters is proud to host the 2012 Area 23 Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest! Come for a fun-filled night of light-hearted (and gut-splitting) speeches, as well as some great impromptu speaking! 

Guests are welcome, but members will have seating priority. Members come for free (sign-in sheet at door), and guests only have a cover charge of $1 (to cover the cost of drinks and light refreshments).

Interested in participating? If you're a member in good-standing (i.e. paid dues before the end of September), you are eligible to enter! Email:casschan515@gmail.com by Monday, September 24th (8:00pm). 

4. October Social: "SCARED SPEECHLESS!"
Date & Time: TBA - most likely week of October 21-27
Location: TBA
What's a club without socials? (More accurately, what's university life without socials?) This will be a fun, relaxed evening for members both new and old to mix and mingle. There will be refreshments (i.e. appetizers, snacks and drinks) provided; pot-luck dishes are always welcome! We'll have tons of fun games and icebreakers ready, as well as a Candy Pot Prize Draw! 

Members come for free, and guests are welcome to come for a cover charge of just $3! 

Stay tuned on on the event time and location! (Check our emails, website and Facebook for updates!)

Our meeting schedule for the summer will be the following:
a) Walter Gage Meetings in IKB, Rm157 every first and third Wednesday of the month.
b) Club visits to neighbouring clubs in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland every second and fourth week of the month. Days may vary depending on the availability of other clubs as well as our executives.
c) Summer meetings start May 9, 2012 and end August 15, 2012.
d) Autumn term starts in September 5, 2012. New location TBA.

See you in the summer! :) 

Thanks again to all the guests and members who came out to our club elections! It was an evening filled with wonderful speeches, as well as thoughtful and humorous nominations and pitches. A big thank you for the outgoing executives for all the work, time and effort they put into the club this year. 

And now for the introduction of our new executives... (drum roll)

President - Kristina Solyom
Vice-President - Jenson Leung
VP Education - Cass Chan
VP Membership - Arash Narchi
VP Public Relations - Christina Wong
VP Treasurer - Ismail
Sergeant-at-Arms - Nanami Oki

A big hand for our new executive committee! I'm very excited to be working with everyone here as well, and this upcoming year for WGTM should be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!