Tall Tales Contest

Every year most clubs hold a tall tales contest. The objectives of this contest are to tell a story that’s three to five minutes long which must be a highly exaggerated, improbable nature and has a theme or plot.

Sounds simple enough? Right. I’ve always found tall tales the toughest contest to pull off. Maybe I don’t have a brain that works that way but I find standing in front of an audience at a tall tales contest about as much fun as going to the dentist.

But there are Toastmasters who can really pull it off. We held our Division L, Area 56 area tall’s contest last week and it was universally wonderful.

Sorry I can’t remember the names of all the contestants but the tall tales were unforgettable. I particularly liked First Oakville’s Vincent Daly’s story about his recent surgical procedure. The tall tale part came when he had to pick whether to have the anaesthesia in the first half or last half of the operation since the doctor didn’t have enough to last for the entire procedure.

And Mike Isber of Might Oaks clipped a happy face balloon to his shoulder and talked about his conjoined twin from whom he was recently separated. 

Deborah Bartucci of First Oakville talked about a new way of giving birth in nine days instead of nine months. She brought her new family with her.

Toastmasters is so much fun. If you’ve been wondering whether or not to join why not go visit a club as a guest. You’ll be made to feel very welcome. And, who knows, maybe next year you’ll be competing in your club’s tall tale contest.

The Tao of Toastmasters

As many of you know I’ve been working Thursday nights for Henry’s School of Imaging so I’ve been unable to attend First Oakville Toastmasters on a regular basis.

Of course, I am doing anywhere from four to seven presentations a week so I am keeping my skill set sharp although I do miss my meetings and the camaraderie of the membership (which is hitting 50!!! members),

So what’s new?

Well our advanced club Mighty Oaks has voted to disband after a tough year which saw our membership fail to rise. In fact, it fell and now we have less than 10 people per meeting.

Our District executive offered to send us a rescue team but unfortunately the members didn’t take advantage of this opportunity. I’m going to guess that the reason was simple pride. All of us in the advanced club have our CC (or CTM as it was known as in my time) and many of us have well over 10 years of experience.

So who would the District send? Somebody else with 10 years of experience? And how would have have helped?

I don’t know and I guess now we won’t find out. Pity.

Another new development is the District realignment of the clubs in Oakville. Unfortunately through some miscommunications those of us directly affected weren’t included in the discussions or decision. That’s not the Toastmasters way of doing things so when I complained to our District folks I got back an email that essentially said suck it up and live with it.

Oh dear. That too isn’t the Toastmaster way and I’m attempting to point that out in direct emails with those who govern but I don’t seem to be having any impact. Pity.

I think this is another learning opportunity that we’ve lost.