Lemberg Toastmasters

...to help you break the ice - a prize for delivering an Ice Breaker

2011-12-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

"Come to the dark side!.. We have cookies :-)"

// reportedly a motivational phrase by Darth Vader

The Ice Breaker is what a first speech of a Toastmasters Club member is called. As someone once said, a journey of thousand miles begins with a step, and in Toastmasters Club this step is an Ice Breaker speech. And as it is the first - it is the hardest one.

Our conscious mind and logic tell us that since one becomes a member of a Toastmasters Club he should waste no time and start delivering the speeches, but our subconscious mind often has different opinion. Knowing that we're about to go on a many miles journey we will most certainly hesitate to make a first step, even though it seems to be an easy step to do on it's own. Similar things happen to new members as they are about to deliver their Ice Breakers - there's always some fear or uncertainty in our subconsciousness that causes procrastination and evasion, while our conscious mind just makes up excuses like "I think I'm not prepared enough yet" etc. Life is full of situations like this, I believe everyone at certain times in their lives have to struggle with themselves to overcome this kind of "invisible barrier".

But, as often mentioned, Toastmasters Club is a positive and mutually supportive environment. And now as a part of this support we are introducing a new thing that should really help you on getting extra motivation for delivering an Ice Breaker and getting your subconsciousness to become eager to deliver it - a prize! A prize for delivering an Ice Breaker.

The prize itself isn't something extra fancy, yet we believe it is just the right thing to have an effect on your subconscious mind - this nice cup with Toastmasters International logo:

click to see bigger picture

Looks good, doesn't it? Want one? Than stop hesitating and deliver that Ice Breaker! :-)

New Officers Team

2011-07-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

Lemberg TM club has appointed a new team of officers for 2011-2012.

Please welcome:

Andriy Turak - President

Alex Sheremet - VP Education

Yustyna Holubets - VP Membership

Pavlo Maschak - VP PR

Secretary - Mykola Makhin

Treasurer - Dmytro Martynov

I personally wish these guys the best of the experience on the leadership position at the club, and truly devoted members and great achievements!

Viewpoint

2011-03-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

You have probably noticed a strange phenomenon: sometimes a discussion can be hot and last hours, but other times barely a handful of sentences are dropped — and the talk is over, as nobody replies, let alone argues. Some blog posts collect thousands of links and comments, while other products of the same author can remain uncommented.

The skill to support the hot flame of discussion can be developed, this is why we make a Viewpoint section an essential part of our club meetings.

To cut a long story short, here are the basic rules. A speaker has 2 minutes to deliver a controversial viewpoint. His speech is aimed at splitting the audience in halves: supporters and opponents, and starting a hot dispute between them. Responders have 1 minute each to reply.

It is very important to clearly understand your stand point, and deliver it straight, with no disclaimers. There can only be black or white, and no shade. Do not try to analyse pros and cons of each side.

When you prepare a viewpoint speech, remember what causes the biggest urge to reply. I bet, nobody wants to answer a trivial question. But I want to stand up and speak up when someone is wrong. So, it is important to deliver a strong statement rather than a question.

Reading this, you may think: "Blimey, you are talking about Internet trolls!" — Right, I am! They know, how to make you boil, and extract tons of comments out of readers. Their methods are a good lesson for shy speakers, who protect each opinion with disclaimers.

So, here are my three major tips for a viewpoint speaker:

Pick a title that draws attention. It needs to catch their eye sights, and rise their eye brows a bit.
Deliver an intentionally limited, one-sided view point, which leaves no room for different mindset. Make their heart beat stronger.
Make a very controversial statement as a conclusion. Let the blood hammer in their temples!

Now you are ready to go. Let them release the steam. Let the debates begin!

Hot Rhythms of Summer Holidays

2011-01-27T10:41:00.000-08:00

Summer in winter! Can it be possible? Definitely yes! At Toastmasters Summer carnival which took place in Kiev, on 22nd of January 2011!
The atmosphere of the beach, sea, sand and hot burning sun captured you as soon as you stepped inside the room. All the guests got a warm welcome on reception where they were provided with the sunhats to protect the heads from the sunstroke, with small bottles to blow soap bubbles and sugar candies to feel that cool sweet holiday carelessness.

You felt as if you were at real beach: all around there were umbrellas, towels with dolphins, and a slide show of participants’ best holidays’ photos in the background. Girls in their best dresses were beautiful and bright as flowers, guys in colorful shorts, shirts and sunglasses looked like real playboys. Everyone excited, merry, relaxed and energetic.
As soon as the company was rather big the team game was a good start indeed. Divided in teams we were to create the best holiday story. After exciting and loud discussions and preparation we felt much more relaxed and close to each other, so funny it was. We could enjoy the witty, eccentric performances recreating a deserted island with an exotic tribe, an Egyptian hotel with dangerous sharks, and a beauty contest with an unusual end.

After some time of pleasant conversations, delicious food, Kiev Toastmasters presented some pretty and interesting numbers. There was a song written by one of the members who played it on a guitar, another girl sang a romantic nice hit from the 80-s, and a group of six officers from the Area team performed a really funny yet very challenging and concentration demanding project.
And of course, what is the summer without dancing? Our party contained a really hot dance part. To inspire the audience and to present them with an exotic wind of orient there was a performance of Bollywood-belly dance numbers (presented by me, Yustyna Holubets, which was a great pleasure and honor for me). This was followed by a fascinating and energizing master class of Latin dance from a true professional dancer Gabriel from Cuba. And then it went! There was no person who wouldn’t dance that evening. Hot and romantic, rhythmic and slow music gave us all a unique feeling of holidays and took us back to such desired sunny days.
Three members from our Lviv Lemberg Toastmasters Club were lucky to be present there. Victor Medvedev seemed to be one of the most popular playboys among the others.

Our president Lena Koronenko with her unique self-made wreath of fresh flowers and her witty jokes created a summer mood from the very beginning as the host of the event.
As for me, the carnival became an excellent time of holiday, inspiring, amazing, great time…

Yustyna Holubets

Table Topics Contest

2010-12-07T06:35:00.001-08:00

Great news everyone! Last week we have conducted a Table Topics Contest. After the great response we got last year, we have decided to make this our annual tradition.

Each meeting is fun and interesting on its own, but from time to time we want even more emotions, a spirit of contest, communication with other clubs. That is what contests are for: to show what we can do, and to watch others in action! People from different clubs gathered in Lviv this time to compete for the titles of Best Table Topic Master, and Best Table Topic Speaker.

What are Table Topics anyway? Table topics are small impromptu speeches. They are just 2 minutes long, but need to have perfect structure, to be emotional and inspiring.

Table Topic masters announce the rules and general theme for talks. They conduct the show, talking on a subject to help speakers form their own story or a viewpoint, they also make transitions between speakers and their speeches.

This year we had four contestants who prepared their Table Topics sessions. Four judges, two from Lviv, and two from Kyiv, apprised the Best Table Topic Master based on fixed criteria and cold-minded analysis of strengths and flaws of each of four contestants. We paid much attention to fair metrics, so that a cheerful smile and contagious positiveness do not outperform thoughtful preparation and elaborate rehearsal. This is our second contest already (see the Table Topics contest 2009), nevertheless we still see the ways to improve our scale.

A fair democratic voting was our way to let the people’s hearts choose the best Speaker and the Chosen Table Topic Master. This way we made sure that no pure technical trick or weeks of thorough preparation would outperform the natural charm and enthusiasm!

Lyuba Lazarenko was first to present a topic of cartoons. The cartoon heroes we all know appeared in different situations on her pictures. Speakers were asked to describe the story behind the illustrations. All the stories were quite unexpected, and interesting :) And as one of the speakers, I must admit that they were challenging to compose. Only when one tries walking in Table Topic Speaker's shoes, can he understand how brilliant some stories and speakers truly are!

Christina Domashchuk asked the audience to come up with an alternative story based on well-known fairy tales. As in the childhood, the tales were entertaining and had a happy ending. But unlike hearing your grandmother tell the story again and again, knowing every next word, no one could ever guess what comes next! The listeners were roaring with laughter at very unexpected turns of the plots.

Yustyna Holubets was about to found a Total Happiness Organization, and conducted interviews with candidates to the head positions of departments of Confidence, Luck, Success and Creativity. Speakers presented their own ways to run the organization and help people according to their department’s competence. Very thought provoking, the topic has led to interesting ideas and thoughts that make us look at our ways of life from different angles.

And no discussion today can be conducted without trendy social networks! Yuriy Karabach lead the discussion, asked provoking questions, and even called 2 speakers at once to make a sketch on personal communication in an office while facing an impatient deadline. I am personally not a big fan of all the e-social stuff, but the discussion made me consider: maybe it’s worth a second try? It definitely sounded cool!

All the masters were hilarious and creative in their own way, and speakers were a good match to them!

Overall, the contest turned out to be a success. Ancient streets of old Lviv met the first snow, while in the SoftServe’s meeting room Toastmasters enjoyed the cozy atmosphere of friendly talks, stories, and presentations, the rage of a contest, and the joy of sweet victory.

Congratulations to Lyuba Lazarenko, she was chosen by the audience to be the Best Table Topic Speaker!

Congratulations to Christina Domashchuk, she received the Audience Choice Award!

Congratulations to Yustyna Holubets, she was chosen by the jury to be the Best Table Topic Master!

Congratulations to all participants and guests, we had a whole weekend of fun, and that was brilliant! :-)

Games Toastmasters Play

2010-11-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

It’s a well-known fact that people come to Toastmasters to learn. It’s also a well-known fact that people come to Toastmasters to have fun :)

And what better way to combine business with pleasure than to practice your English and public speaking skills by playing games? That’s why occasionally we play games at the meetings. There are a lot of speaking games out there and we have tried many of them, until we found two favorite ones, which have the advantage of giving players a great opportunity to use their speaking skills, while being very thrilling and entertaining.

Hide a Word

To play this game, the audience is divided into two teams, and each player gets a piece of paper with a common, fairly everyday use word, which they don’t show to anyone.

Players from each team are then called to the stage in turn to give a one minute speech on a topic provided by the opposing team. The topic can be anything: the weather, fishing, astrology, etc. The key is to use your secret word during this one-minute speech at least once. When the minute is over, the opposing team gets three attempts to guess what the secret word was. If they guess the word, they get a point, and if they don’t guess, then the speaker’s team gets a point.

The trick is to forward your speech in the necessary direction or to slip the secret word into a sentence without going too far off topic; otherwise the opposing team will easily guess it. And here is where your Toastmasters practice comes in handy :)

Of course, the more specific or unusual the topic is, the more difficult it will be for the speaker to use the secret word without going off topic too much, so there has to be a moderator to make sure the topics aren’t completely bizarre.

We usually play a practice round with the game master being the speaker with the secret word and the players giving the topic and trying to guess the word, so that everyone understands the idea of the game.

This game is great for Toastmasters since it develops quick thinking, adept speaking and attentive listening.

Just 1 Minute

Another game we like to play is called “Just 1 minute” and is fairly popular among Toastmasters.

As with “Hide a Word” the audience is divided into two teams. The game master gives one of the teams a topic to speak on and starts the timer. A speaker from this team starts to speak on the given topic and continues until he is stopped by a player from the opposing team. Any player of the opposing team can stop the speaker if he makes any kind of mistake in his speech, like says “um”, takes a pause which is too long, makes a grammatical mistake, or goes off topic. The player who stops the speaker then proceeds to speak on this topic until he makes a mistake and is stopped by the opposing team. The teams continue until the minute runs out. Whoever is speaking at the end of the minute gets a point for their team.

This game is very competitive and thrilling and really keeps you on your toes. It teaches you to think ahead of speaking even when time is limited, producing an eloquent and seamless speech.

Other Games

We are always looking for new ideas to make our meetings even more diverse and interesting, so if you know other speaking games you would like to play at the meeting, don't hesitate and sign up for the Game master role!

Lemberg Toastmasters! We rock! We have 2nd place winner among the best Toastmaster speakers in Ukraine!

2010-05-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

Time flies, seems like only a month ago we had our Local Speech Contest held in our club in winter.
We had two winners, Lena Koronenko and Alex Sheremet! According to the rules local winners went to Fifth Annual All Ukrainian Speech Contest to take part, and we won 2nd place! Within 14 participants, our Lena Koronenko won as a second best Toastmaster speaker in Ukraine!

Our warmest congratulations to Lena who brought such an honor to Lemberg Toastmasters club as a 2nd place winner in All Ukrainian Speech Contest. That means that Lemberg Toastmasters have a real potential, and we are proud of having such a professional member in our club.

The Fifth Annual All Ukrainian Speech Contest was organized by Toastmasters clubs in Ukraine and took place in the premises of Master-Klass Cultural Centre in Kyiv on April 25th, 2010. More than 120 people have attended the event and witnessed 14 articulate and very creative speeches delivered by representatives of 7 Toastmasters Clubs.

The winners of the contest were:

First place – Evgenia Poluektova, American Chamber of Commerce Toastmasters Club, Kyiv
Second place – Olena Koronenko, Lemberg Toastmasters Club, Lviv
Third place – Tatiana Lukinyuk, American Chamber of Commerce Toastmasters Club, Kyiv

On the picture: (from left to right)Olena Koronenko, Evgenia Poluektova, Tatiana Lukinyuk.

There were 3 people from our club who took part in the contest:
Lena Koronenko (contestant), Alex Sheremet(contestant) and Yaroslav Kisylychka (judge). I (Olena Derzhko) was lucky to talk to each of them and to get their impressions after visiting such event.

OD: Lena, what did you like the most in the contest?
OK: It is a great opportunity for each speaker to try him/herself in doing your best when competing to be the best public speaker. Such opportunity is of course challenging, but gives you lots of feedbacks: those are learning what it takes to be the winner, practice it and just a pleasure when you perform on a stage when the audience counts more than 100 people, and those are not your friends or relatives. It is all much more serious.

OD: Lena, were you scared to perform? Events of such importance do not happen so often?
OK: No, I wasn’t scared. The main thing, I was prepared and when you are prepared, you have nothing to be scared of.

OD: What are the benefits of participating in such contests for a Toastmaster club member?
OK: It is beneficial for any Toastmaster because you get a chance to speak in front of a large audience, from a big stage, which is it is another experience comparing to speaking in front of your well-known audience of your local members. Plus, you gain completely new skills when you speak among the best speakers, and get to be evaluated by unbiased jury with a really objective opinion about you. And also it is a great chance to meet different Toastmasters, to extend your networking. I consider All Ukrainian Speech Contest as a very great entertaining, even if you don’t go as a speaker-participant.

On the picture: Alex Sheremet delivering his speech

OD: Alex, what are the advantages of taking part in such events like Annual All Ukrainian Speech Contest?

A.Sh.:First of all, there you will see the best prepared speeches, what they should look like. It means fresh ideas and approaches to communicate with people, not just theory, but the best practices. You see what works, and what does not. Also, you meet many new people, and making personal contacts is always good for business and hobby.

The Toastmasters community consists of active people, who are professionals in certain area. It is surprising, how quickly my contact list grows with people I know personally, who can help me in my projects, or suggest being a part of theirs.

And last, but not least, participating in a speech contest is an unmatched experience, it is always exciting, it is a good benchmark of what you really can as an author and speaker.

On the picture: Yaroslav Kisylychka, judge at the contest)

OD: Yaroslav, you participated in Annual All Ukrainian Speech Contest as a judge. Tell us your impressions, what did you like about your role?
Y.K. As a judge I liked to evaluate every separate speaker according to 5 important skills, that a good speaker should have. It is not that hard to evaluate speaker objectively, still it requires some experience of evaluator, and exactly the first 6 speeches allow you to gain the mentioned experience and all the rest is just to polish the things you have learned.

Ha ha! So funny… Applauses! Yahoo! Great! Perfect!

2010-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

Those are just some of the things you could have heard while passing 52 V. Velykoho St, the usual place for Toastmasters regular meetings, because that's where THE FISRT HUMOROUS SPEECH CONTEST took place on Wednesday, March, 31st, right before April’s Fool Day!
And that was HI LA RI OUS!

Why? Because 6 speakers delivered their funny speeches competing for the first place in the contest. The Chairman of the evening was Yaroslav Kisylychka, who kept the atmosphere of a holiday and all the fun the audience were ready to accept. And we did! We really enjoyed the contest!

First was Alex Sheremet with his speech “Snowboarders vs. Skiers: who rules the slope?” telling and showing us not to judge others until we've been in their shoes. Metaphorically and literally.

Second was Lena Koronenko, explaining how great it is to have a cat, imitating the cat behavior very realistically, persuading us in her speech “9 and a half reasons to have a cat” that having a cat is really worthwhile.

Then Olena Derzhko with her speech titled “Be weird, bright life is here” showed that being weird is really beneficial and funny, as your eccentric look and behavior can give you lots of benefits besides just simple FUN.

After weird Olena, it was Christina Domashchuk's turn, and she told us a “Tale of her life” walking us through all the most interesting milestones of her life, in a very funny and eccentric way.

Fifth speaker was Reno Derosier who shared all the funniest moments of sailor’s job in his speech “Hey, mate”.

And finally Lyuba Lazarenko told us the story of traveling to Jerusalem, almost a script for an adventurous film but produced as a great comedy.

We were happy to greet our winners with the strongest applauses:
3rd place – Lena Koronenko,
2nd – Lyuba Lazarenko and
THE WINNER of the funniest speech according to audience choice – Christina Domashchuk!
Who, by the way, has just become our new Toastmaster member.

Congratulations to all the contestants, chairman and timer, and all the guests because the event was great and very positive!

Lets laugh, let’s be funny, and LIFE WILL BE SUNNY!!!!

Lemberg Toastmasters extends boundaries

2010-03-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

Visiting the "Language Step" school was a new, yet very cognitive event in the Toastmasters community. The aim was clear – to get new members by attracting them within an audience struggling to succeed in learning English.

The idea was evoked in terms of PR activity, to promote the club within and audience that expresses interest, like students of language schools.
Having one of our honored guests, Christina Domashchuk, as a teacher in a language school, we gladly accepted her invitation and scheduled the Open meeting in the "Language Step" school for Wednesday, 24th of March.

The meeting was greatly held.
Lena Koronenko as a president did her best to introduce the club to the "Language Step" school students, being a Toastmaster she professionally kept the atmosphere of Toastmasters harmony throughout the meeting.

General evaluators did their best to provide clear and effective evaluations in terms of the clearness of speech, precise timing and correct grammar usage.

The View Point speaker, Dasha Leskiv with her topic "Post-Relationship Friendship: Yes or No", encouraged our guests and old members to talk a lot.
Olena Derzhko with her fascinating speech about famous people of Venice, playing the role of an Italian girl from Middle ages, took everyone on a marvelous journey throughout the ages.

Then Yaroslav Kisylychka organized a 15-minute fun time with his Table Topic questions about the life of a stone on a beach and all the involved people around.

Finally, evaluators of prepared speeches and table topic sessions delivered their objective yet positive evaluations.

Well, applauses and admiring feedbacks were the great result we expected.

Toastmaster, go ahead! New members, new events, new inspiration!

The First Local Speech Contest has taken place in Lviv

2010-02-12T04:32:00.000-08:00

Finally! Great event in Lviv!

On Wednesday, the February 3^rd, 2010, the very first Local Speech contest was held in Lemberg Toast Masters club. This is annual Toastmasters contest that runs through all levels of the organization. Starting with club-level contests in the early months of the year, contestants proceed through higher levels until reaching the finals at the Toastmasters annual conference. Winners of this contest are awarded the title "World Champion of Public Speaking".

On the occasion of the contest Lemberg Toast Masters gathered a lot of people, TM club members and guests. That was definitely worth coming to watch as a guest and taking part as a speaker-contestant, judge, chairman of the event, and in any other roles those were important.

The first speaker Yaroslav Kisylychka in his speech "The cage for our soul" raised deeply interesting point about reincarnation, talking about the importance of a soul as integral part of a human personality as well as a body that should be kept as healthy as possible to ensure further life of a soul after it is reincarnated. The photo represents how deep subject of a speech keeps a speaker in that philosophical mood far long after the speech is given.

Second speaker was Andriy Mudryy, with his speech "Visiting Vienna", that was actually about how he didn't manage to see anything in the city, being stuck instead in Vienna airport. This was a story about how cognitive it can be to learn how to communicate with people of different ages and ranges.

Third came Lena Koronenko, who amazed us how many things applicable in our real life fairy tells can teach us. “A magic fairy hat” title was reflection of all the tricks and magic approach we can learn from children literature and to apply it in our life.

And the last but not least speaker was Alexander Sheremet with his speech titled "What makes things simple” where he uncovered his personal approach on living life in easier yet very enjoyable way.

The speakers’ efforts in preparing their works were evaluated by four judges with a chief judge Lyuba Lazarenko.

Also special gratitude should be given to counters, Olesya Dzyben and Dasha Leskiv, timer - Alex Andreew and Toastmaster of the event - Olena Derzhko.

Local Speech Contest was a prominent event in Lemberg Toastmasters Community. First of all it marked great enthusiasm of the speakers, who decided to try themselves and to receive award in art of public speaking. Secondly, people having taken all the roles, can be distinguished for their devoted approach to further prosperity of Lemberg Toastmasters club. As a result we are happy and it is great honor for us to have 2 winners, Lena Koronenko (1^st place) and Alexander Sheremet (2^nd place), who are delegated to take part in All Ukrainian Speech Contest, that will be held in Kiev in spring of the year 2010.

No wonder, that event like the described above not only is followed but just requires a celebration part, and we accomplished that task with the highest grade. Enjoying fascinating discussions and sharing the latest impressions, alltogether with new ideas as a result of fresh inspiration was a good supplement to tasty food and noble alcohol we had on such a great occasion provided by Toast Masters community for its members and followers.

ToastGangsters at Winter Masquerade

2010-02-04T01:05:00.000-08:00

Men in black & white with guns and ladies in fashionable exquisite dresses with delicate accessories in their hair and boas around the shoulders – dancing Charleston, drinking champaign and discussing the most recent events in the world of Chicago gangsters of 20s….

A real Chicago 20s atmosphere at annual Winter Masquerade organized by the Toastmasters clubs of Ukraine in Kiev. I was very excited to participate in that event together with my fellow Toastmasters from Lemberg.

Our adventures started from the early morning upon our arrival to Kiev. First thing (after breakfast of course) we went to the club meeting of Art Talkers. I personally was very curious about this particular club. The initial impression I had about Art Talkers – they are the most creative and artistic people. And this impression has been confirmed. They don’t only give speeches, but also set up theatrical sketches. If you happen to be in Kiev, make sure you spear time on Saturday morning to visit these guys.

The evening was a culmination of the entire trip to Kiev. We entered into the world of Sicilian mafia lead by famous Al Capone (Levon Petrosian). The program was very rich and extremely entertaining; starting from the Chicago performance of The Kelly Sisters “All that Jazz” song and Timur’s (Berezhnoy) amazing singing of “All I care about is love”. Those who were not interested in dancing were spending their money in Poker or simply playing good old mafia game.
The final gun shot of the event was Photo Contest Finely hosted by Lemberg Toastmasters. The winner of the best photos in 4 difference categories was Top Talkers club.

It has been our second Winter Masquerade in Kiev which proves that Toastmasters are not only great public speakers but also are great dancers, singers and simply know how to have fun and enjoy themselves.

New Year with a New Committee

2010-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

It was sad to say "good bye" to year 2009, because it has been productive and interesting year for Lemberg Toastmasters. Thanks to the efforts of our officers team many good things happened, and the most prominent for us were:

1. Lemberg TM club got chartered in spring,
2. Added new members to the club,
3. We got our first Competent Communicator Toastmaster,

4. Participated at Ukrainian Toastmasters officers training,

5. Conducted Toastmasters outings : picnics, lake parties, etc.

However, the new year 2010 has started with good changes for the club - we elected a new committee of officers!

Ladies and gentleman, please welcome:

President-Lena Koronenko

VP Education - Lyuba Lazarenko, CC

VP Membership - Yaroslav Kisylychka

VP PR - Olena Derzhko

Treasurer - Dima Martnov

Sergeant at Arms - Sasha Sheremet

We all wish them a productive year and achievement of new big personal and club goals.

Good luck!!!

Table Topics Contest

2009-11-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

I love Table Topics! Love participating in them, love conducting them, love evaluating them, and just plain watching them. Because a Table Topic session is always a show, it's the most exciting and dynamic part of every meeting where everyone has the opportunity to think and speak on their feet.

And of course the key to a successful Table Topics session are the witty, intriguing and entertaining questions and comments of the person leading the session – the Table Topic Master. Every meeting we reward the best impromptu speaker; there are all sorts of speech contests, but the Topicsmaster always remains the man behind the scene.

That's why last week we held our very first Table Topics Contest. This was a great opportunity for the members to achieve recognition for their creativity, presentation and organizational skills and to exchange experience and some exciting new ideas for Table Topics.

The results exceeded all expectations. All Table Topics were unique and riveting.
First, Yaroslav took us on a journey in time, to the far past, to bring civilization to primitive tribes. We were to explain to the prehistoric people how to use some of the everyday appliances we have in our time.

It's amazing how we take most of the things we have for granted, so when it comes to explaining them, we don't know where to begin. Especially if the questions are a bit... unexpected :)

The next Topicsmaster, Olena has provided us some food for thought with her Table Topics devoted to emotions, good and bad. With her Table Topics session she showed that everything is not black or white and even anger can sometimes be useful.

Alex's Table Topic session was rather unusual. It transported us to a courtroom where we took part in a civil case process between a dog owner who was walking his dog without a leash and a man, whom the dog allegedly bit. Despite the gravity of the matter, the whole trial was hilarious, thanks to the colorful and vivid acting of the participants.

The next Topicsmaster, Reno, had some deeply philosophical questions. He drew parallels between human behavior and the survival mechanisms of orchids. Apparently no matter how evolved we may be, we still adhere to the same rules as the rest of the animal kingdom.

The last participant was Andriy, who also made us travel in time, this time into our own childhood. It was very interesting to hear about the childhood memories people have. And some of the stories were really amusing. Like, you know that cats always land on their feet, and a sandwich always falls butter down. But do you know what happens if you put butter on a cat's back and throw it out the window? It lands on a tree. Go figure... :)

At the end of the meeting 3 winners were determined.

The best impromptu speaker chosen by the majority of votes was Christina, our new member, who won the audience over with a hilarious story from her childhood.
The best Table Topics Master was Yaroslav and the audience choice award went to Andriy.

Overall, the contest turned out to be a success. It was a lot of fun and very educational. I think we'll make such contests a tradition along with the annual speech contests.

Welcome a brand new VP PR

2009-10-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

At the yesterday's meeting the President of Lemberg Toastmasters welcomed a brand new VP PR - Olena Derzhko - our devoted member who already has shown a lot of interest in contributing to the club's success and has been actively promoting it among her peers.
We welcome Olena to our team of officers!!!

Splendid meeting

2009-09-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

We had a really good meeting lately, so I want to share with you what I liked most. Maybe, it will give you an idea for your role preparation next time.

First, a grammarian’s word of the day: «to take one’s goat». Usually, the most used words are synonyms to «good»: they are easiest to insert into prepared speech, or to use in some meaningless sentences to fill gaps between speakers. Words with more complex meaning or concerning a particular subject barely make their way to speeches of one or two speakers. This time it was a completely different story. Perfectly announced by grammarian, and promoted by toastmaster, it was used several times by each member!

Then, there was a viewpoint. Rules are following: speaker has 2 minutes to deliver a very controversial speech, a statement that causes a holy war. Each response is 1 minute long. I decided to discuss attitude to police. The statement was that nobody likes them, for good reasons, but still apply for help. We should appreciate their service and collaborate when we can. Certainly, everyone has their own experience with police, and different attitude, so there was a certain flame. Just as planned!

As a tabletopic master, Lena arranged a «job interview in a company of your dream». «Interviewees» needed to answer one question each:

What are your greatest weaknesses?

Tell us about the latest problem you encountered. How did you solve it?

What recent accomplishment are you most proud of?

How would your colleagues describe you?

What was the latest mistake you made? What did you learn from it?

It was a constant flow of interesting stories, personal experience, brilliant solutions. I liked the section very much.

Trip to the TM OfficersTraining in Kiev

2009-09-17T09:55:00.001-07:00

Teaching is extremely difficult, i did not realize that until my recent experience of being a trainer. This was my first time in such a responsible role. And I realized that profession of a trainer or a teacher has been underestimated, especially in our country. Training is about sharing the experience and helping others in what they are doing.
Mykola Latansky has shared with us his view on the opportunities in life, motivation and inspiration. I do agree with him in things like positive thinking, and I believe that thoughts do materialize.

Overall, it's been a great weekend in Kiev. I am very happy that my fellow Toastmasters from our club had joined me and got a valuable information and fresh ideas on how to make our club even better. For me trips like this one are always productive, cause i get to know new cool people form TM community, like our new Area Governor Yulichka Dmytryshin--a very sweet, braive and smart lady, and spend a quality time discovering Kiev and new people around me:)

Weekend with Kiev Toastmasters

2009-07-01T01:58:00.000-07:00

"Never mess with Ukrainians"--one more proof of that statement was given by Vera in her fabulous speech last Saturday at the joined meeting we had held together with Kiev guests.

Well, that was not the main idea of her speech, but whoever attended the meeting know what i mean:) The rest--go figure.

What i also liked was the Table Topic part led by Irina Nikolaynko. She brought to us a sense of summer holiday which I crave so much for.

After the meeting we had a great time walking around the city and tasting good food of fine Lviv cousine. One of the interesting places we visited was Lviv Brewery museum with its long history and great story. As a treat we got a chance to taste a true Lviv beer. Well, I do hope the guys had fun and they will come back for more:)

Grabbing Audience Attention

2009-06-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

Do you feel you have a difficult time with starting your speech?
Do you feel the audience is chaotic and not intersted in you?

Startel them!! Tell them a joke or ask them a question.

The very important part of any presentation or a simple speech is drawing the attention of your audience. Moreover, i think it is a milestone to any presentation, because you want to make your audience start listening to you, and furthermore, get interested in what you are about to tell them.

Turns out it is not that easy to do.

Thank goodness there are tips that you can learn to use. One of the valuable source is an article written by Rana Sinha a cross-cultural trainer and author. So, I'd like to share it with you, hope you'll find it useful:
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Grab-And-Keep-Audience-Attention-During-A-Presentation&id=593725

Improve your technique and keep impressing your audience!!

Toastmasters are out in the open air

2009-06-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

Winter is over!

Although, such a cold and gloomy weather like the one we had for almost 2 weeks now, makes me doubt that summer has come.

Anyway, no matter what the weather is like, Lemberg Toastmasters are celebrating the warm season ( I am beeing a bit hypocritical) by going out side. This is actually our second picnic and we plan to spend it by the lake with tasty shashlik (aka bbq) and the fun activities.

Our heart to all Toastmasters:)

Officially Registered!!!

2009-04-15T06:05:00.001-07:00

I would like to express my gratitude to every member of Lemberg Toastmasters club who contributed to make our club recognized in the Toastmasters community.

We are finally charted!
My congrats to all of our members! I hope this event will help us explore more possibilities the Toastmasters is offering.

Now our new goal is to become a Distinguished club.

Good luck to us:)

Lyuba
VP Membership

Mascarad Party 2009

2009-01-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

Another fun meeting with Kiev Toastmasters community our guys had a chance to attend. This was a mascarad party where everyone had a costume.

Before the party 4 of us (Lena Koronenko, Olena Derzhko, Alex Sheremet, and I) togather with Vera Viter and folks from Odessa TM club went to see newly opened galleries at PinchukArt Center and drink a coffee cocktail in SkyArt Cafe on the top of the Center.
What was real fun is that we had a chance to meet other Toastmasters, exchange the experience with them and jus hang out in a party atmosphere while tasting good food, wine and hot dances (swing, tango and salsa).

Even though Olena was not chosen as a winner of the best costume (she was an amazing and hot Red Hood), we all considered her costume to be the best in all aspects:) Alex got so much into his character that he even started speaking and joking just like Dr.House does. Impresive, i must say.
Well, it was a good time for sure, and we are looking forward to have more of events coming up this year to visit in Kiev.

Visiting EBA Toastmasters Club in Kiev

2008-11-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I was invited to Speech Marathon at EBA Toastmasters Club in Kiev. A great experience. Why great? Because I not only had a chance to physicly be there, but also to participate as a General Evaluator which was a big honor for me.

When you evaluate members of your club who you know well, who's strengths and weaknesses you know is way more different from evaluating totally new to you people. I don't know how well i did (although everyone said that i did a good job), but I did get strong butterflies in my stomack, which I rearly get at Lemberg TM club meetings now. I wish I had more opportunities to attend other clubs. We definitely need to invite them to our meeting in Lviv:)

It's about Thinking, not Speaking

2008-09-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

It's interesting how most people joining toastmaster think the ultimate benefit of Toastmasters is the ability to speak well in front of a crowd. Even most toastmasters below advanced feel the same way. I have a totally different opinion. While we do become better speakers, I believe the ultimately benefit of toastmasters is it teaches us to think better.

Years ago when one of the best toastmasters I know told me this it just confused me. "What's this man talking about!" was what ran through my mind. Then I started to observe the various speakers while considering his comment. Indeed he was right. While a toastmaster has to get past the basics of communicating in front of a crowd (speak clearly, display no nervousness, use enhancing gestures, etc.), it's those that learn to really think while on their feet that are the best and most entertaining speakers.

Being able to think clearly is what allows one to prepare the best speech. Those who think quickly are the best table topics speakers. (Don't worry, if you're not thinking quickly and clearly at table topics or viewpoint rebuttals it's only a matter of time and practice before you are!) No matter how well presented its the thoughts that truly matter. Whomever said "its not what you say but how you say it" assumed a pretty shallow audience. Sure, saying nothing well will appear to be a reasonably good speech. Saying something well AND intelligent will have a much deeper and lasting effect on the audience. This is what Toastmasters ultimately teaches us to do.

Stick to doing regular speeches, taking on roles, and jumping up for impromptu speaking opportunities. While you become a better and more comfortable speaker, you will find yourself a better thinker as well.

Our First Toastmasters Picnic

2008-08-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

We finally moved out of the office room to a green park.

Last Saturday Lemberg Toastmasters had their meeting and a picnic outside in Kazervald Park in Lviv.

First we had the meeting with Table Topic Sessions. Sasha Yanov made us all speak on a sensetive topic--love and relationships. Olena, on the other hand, wanted us to give a piece of advice on personal letters " for help" sent by real people to Mrs. Web.

But for me the most challenging part was to lead an Auction. My goodness, it is really exhausting to be an Action Master. It is not just talking, it is about selling for a higher prise!!! I did have fun though:) And we raised 100 UHA for our budget which was the main point.

After the official part we gathered around the "table" to feast:) on backed sausages with beer and wine (boy, it was a challenge to open the wine without corkscrew). The unwelcome quests were annoying bugs and bees coming from all over.

And of course, there is no picnic without fun games. Do you think you can do a rabit or a mamonth? You should see Ira doing a wild cat. Who was there knows what i mean:)

All this fun lasted from 11 am to 5pm. And believe me --time flies when you are having fun!!
I surely hope this is not the last "Toatmasters going out event".

Share your experience....

Advantures in Kiev

2008-07-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

If you missed our trip on July 6th to Kiev - Annual Picnic of all Ukrainian Toastmasters, then you missed some good stuff!

This has been our first trip outside of Lviv. Vera Viter (still as an Area Governor) invited us to this picnic that they have once a year for the Ukrainian TM clubs. And it was quite an advanture for us.

First of all the weather was not very friendly: it rained cats and dogs all morning. However, we decided to break the rain! After a good breakfast at the Puzata Hata place we headed for Pirogov's museum--where the picnic was planned to be.

The picnic started from the formal meeting. This was my very first time when i had to give a speech evaluation to a girl i never met before in front of 60 people. Kind of challenging....I was nerveous...Lena also had a difficult job--Ah-counting all of the participants!!!

Besides the general meeting procedure, they had an Auction led by Levon Petrosian (an experienced Toastmaster). If not for him, the Auction would have been very boring. Also i think it was way too long. People started to loose the interest. Sasha Sheremet even bought cool headset and some CDs. This way he donated to the TM area budget. I realized that the Auction is a great way to raise money for our club as well. We should try it.

All who wanted to have fun participated in team games. Some of them were so tought that i started to fear for my health:)
Since the seconod half of the day was warm and sunny we took a walk around that amaizingly large museum on the open air. Besides, it was the "Ivana Kupala" holiday that gathered hundreds of people to celebrate it in more or less traditional way: singing, dancing, jumping over the fire, etc.

Meeting new people, gathering tons of ideas for our club, making friends - made our trip interesting and useful. Inspired by this, I want to organize a picnic for our Lemberg Toastmasters in a nearest future. Hope the people will support it!!!

In Lviv with Kiev Toastmasters

2008-06-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

After a fun Toastmasters meeting our Kiev guests and a couple of Lviv Toastmasters went for a tour around the city. This was the chance to get to know each other better and enjoy the company which we used to the fullest:)

The first stop was in dungeon Ravlyk museum. Everybody wanted to get under the ground world of Lviv. Me too actually... But not much was there, just a couple of statues of lion, one big, empty and mysterious sarcophagus, and a good old man telling us a story of ancient Lviv.

Long walk gets tiering. Good Lviv beer and a delicious snack was the best decision. We stoped at everyone loved Dzyga caffe.

See how Tania and Andrey enjoy the beer:)

Of course we could not miss the provokative statue of Mazoh near the Mazoh caffee. Mazoh actually was born and lived in Lviv for some time. Lviv really got quite a history:)

Anyway, it was a great day with lots of positive impressions and memories.

We should do it more often:)

Hilarious Meeting

2008-06-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

Who said that Toastmasters meeting can be boring? Who said that Toastmasters meeting is no fun?

Last meeting AGAIN proved wrong everyone who still had doubts about how fun and hilarious (who attended know what i mean:)) Lviv Toastmasters can be!!!

This time it was a joined meeting with experienced toastmasters from Kiev:

Area Governor - Vera Viter
President of ArtTalkers - Tania Knyazeva
President of DniproHills - Lily Nabochenko
President of EBA Toastmasters - Iryna Nikolaenko

VP PR ArtTalkers & Treasurer DniproHills - Greham Seibert

ExVP PR DniproHills - Andrey Yaroshenko

Our hilarious participants were:

Olena Derzhko told us all about how hilarious extreme activities could be . She had her 2nd project titled "Extreme Activites: sports vs. lifestyle".

Olena Koronenko with her 5th speech "The Best Advice" gave us advice not to give an advice:) Now, every time i mean to say " here is my advice.." I think twice..

Sasha Sheremet as a Table Topic Master made everybody remember our hilarious childhood.

The most challenging topic was: how do you decode this abriviation YMPA as a child? What is your guess?

The fastests Ah-counter so far:) has been Bohdan . After his hilariously fast evaluation we should invent a competition "The fastest ah-counting":) It definitely saves time and makes everyone listen to it carefuly.

Who was the most on-time?

Zoryana - our Timer (she knows what i mean):) Never heard such a deep introduction of the Timer role and such a profound ending (and i am serious). Understanding that time is extremely important in our meetings she made an extra stress on it. Man, i wish we had it recorded...

The most hilarious word of the day:) was provided by our Grammarian Krystyna, and counted how many times it was used. Vera used the most-15 times. Bohdan was second-13. That was quite a competition:)

In that hilarious atmosphere amazingly she could also pick the most commonly used mistakes.

And now on a serious note:

Lemberg Toastmasters first time had guests from Kiev and were very happy to meet new friends. It was definitely a fun meeting with interesting speeches and a variety of jokes and discussions. We also managed to impress Kiev Toastmasters by the level of our organization, performance as speakers and hospitality:)

Lemberg Toastmasters welcome everyone who wants to visit us!!!

The oldest Toastmaster from Lviv

2008-06-12T03:10:00.000-07:00

My first interaction with Toastmasters was in November 2006. Since then I became the first member and the founder of this club and now I am the oldest Toastmaster.

Everyone knows me...

I am the one who encourages people to participate, and I am the one who makes officers to work for the good of our club. In other words - ladies and gentlemen, please get acquainted with Lyuba Lazarenko - the President of Lemberg Toastmasters.

Lets get acquainted

2008-06-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hm, it's been a year now since my first TM meeting... How fast the time flies :)
Wait, let me introduce myself properly. My name is Lena and I'm currently the VP of Education and the President's right hand :)
Of course, that's just my off-hour job. My main occupation is software development. And I must admit that I'm a typical representative of the species, a real nerd; I prefer reading to speaking, computers to humans and gadgets to fancy shoes :). That's why sometimes I wonder how I even ended up being a Toastmaster, considering that I have to communicate, convince, entertain and sometimes even inspire... and of course, the scariest: to expose my thoughts to a relatively large and reasonably strange audience — the things I don't do every day.
But I guess the question already contains the answer: I don't do it every day. Where else would I train my persuasion skills? "standing in front of an audience" skills? I'm not mentioning my English skills because I'm already an ace in that :P
And now back to nostalgia...
I remember the first time I came to the meeting. When I stepped out to the floor to give an impromptu speech. Can't remember what it was about, but it was good and made everyone laugh :) Kinda made me proud. And hooked up. Ever since then I try to make every meeting interesting for myself and as a result to the others (hopefully :))
Having that said, I'm really glad that I joined the club, hope you are too.

P.S. For those of you still wondering who I am, here's my photo:

P.P.S. What about you? Got something to share? ;)

Our Members

2008-06-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Our proud members are:

Olena Koronenko
Sasha Sheremet
Bohdan Rak
Iryna Pantel
Dima Martynov
Reno Derosier
Sasha Yanov
Tetyana Naychuk
Glenn Rogers
Ivan Kravets
Lyuba Lazarenko
Olena Derzhko
Dasha Leskiv
Andriy Mudryy
Olesya Dzyben
Fady Haek
Yaroslav Kisylychka
Tania Knyazeva (from Art-Talkers club)
Vera Viter (ex Area Governor, EBA club)
Taras Kohut

Experimenting a bit

2008-05-23T09:24:00.001-07:00

Having a demonstration speech has proven to be worthwhile. We decided to experiment a little bit with our speech delivery presentations and add some creative touch to them. This is how we've come to idea to have a demonstration speech: speaking and demonstrating.
Olena K. had an interesting speach about origamy. Very-well done speech. And the theme for demonstration was perfect. Even the audience got a chance to try it. For me that was kind of magic:)
Me dancing could also cut as a new thing:)) I found it was difficult to explain dancing steps to the audience which is not paricipating. Thus, they cannot grasp the whole fun of it. Next time (if there will be next time) i'll make some one dance with me.

Who else wants to show what you can do?

Surviving First Toastmasters Meeting

2008-04-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

This has been my very first time at the meeting. There were over 15 people-most of them from SoftServe. Being a new person there, I was called to try to give my first small impromptu speech on a given topic (common practice with the beginners). The theme I had to speak about for 2 minutes without any preparation turned out to be Philosophy of life: should we take life serious or not. I morally supported the first 4 speakers because I realized that it was very hard to talk about different things for 2 minutes. Feeling that my turn may come too, I was trying not to be nervous; however, it was extremely difficult to control the emotions. My heart was pumping so hard that I could hear the beat in my ears and my mouth got really dry. I was thinking what kind of challenge was awaiting for me and whether I would be able to accept it from the Toastmasters.

When every guest got a chance to speak my time has also come. Doubting for a few seconds, then I stepped on the floor while everyone’s eyes were watching me. The topic was quite deep, and I was thinking how to unveil it well in 2 minutes while being evaluated by attentive Timer, captious Ah-counter, precise Grammarian, and prudent speech evaluator. I started to speak and my hands immediately moved to the pockets because I couldn’t figure out what to do with them yet understanding it was wrong. When I saw green and yellow sign on the Timer’s devise I knew that I was reaching the final point of my speech. Without a blink of my eye I saw a red sign—had to finish the speech. Hurrah!

I felt a huge relive going back to my seat. Being a part of auditory it seemed to me so simple to go and speak in front of the people: it’s easy to get up and talk about general things without much of thinking and preparation, all you need is a good English vocabulary and ability to put the words together. Hell No!! Go try yourself?

Yulia Kovalyova

Is laziness a virtue or a vice?

2008-03-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I was always convinced that laziness is a vice. However, after our Toastmasters meeting last Wednesday, i started to doubt it.
Bohdan, one of our Toastmasters, have delivered a speech with the interesting message - laziness is good, you just need to know how to use it. Never thought that being lazy can actually help you become effective at work? Maybe his speech was so well done that he managed to alter my attitude about laziness. Here are some of the tips Bohdan shared with us:

Delegate your work to someone else

Don't rush to do the task, if you wait sometime, it may won't be needed anymore

Automate routine work (this might take some creative thinking)

Maybe I should try that, will see how effective my work will get. Although so far procrastination did no good to me but added up more stress....

When do we meet?

2008-03-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Lemberg Toastmasters meet every Wednesday at 7:40pm in the facilities of SoftServe by the address: 52 V.Velykogo Street, room 110

We welcome everyone who wants to consider joining our club.
In order to be present at the meeting, please contact our VP Membership – Yaroslav Kisylychka at cyberspetz@gmail.com

Our Officers

2008-03-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

President - Lyuba Lazarenko
VP Education - Olena Koronenko
VP Membership - Ira Pantel
VP PR - Yulia Kovalyova
Treasurer - Sasha Sheremet
Secretary - Ira Pantel
Sergeant at Arms - Ivan Kravets

Our Club Mentor - Yulia Usova.
Yulia has initiated the establishment of our club in November 2006 and has been giving us her continuous support ever since.

Feminism: pros & cons

2008-03-10T04:16:00.000-07:00

On the threshhold of Women's Day during our last Lviv Toastmasters meeting we had a vivid discussion about feminism. Two our devoted Toastmasters presented their Get to the Point speeches about this movement. Olena Koronenko with her speech "Wolf in a Sheep's clothing" was quite convincing about feminism being an evil to the society, whereas Yulia Kovalyova could give us the proves of a woman's superiority. I personally after her speech wanted to jump up and sing this famous old song "I'm a Woman" by Melinda Doolittle (originaly sang by Peggy Lee) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JUBSaWnms4

Bohdan Rak as a Table Topic Master developed the theme of feminism in a more detailed mannare involvening some of the guessts of the meeting and it's permanent participants.

Who can join Lemberg Toastmasters?

2008-03-10T01:46:00.000-07:00

Our members are the people who share the goals of mastering public speaking and leasdership skills. So, anyone who speaks English (upper intermediate level minimum) and is willing to speak in front of the audience, and meeting new people can join our club.

What benefits one can get from Lemberg Toastmasters Club?

2008-03-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

It's been proven that communication and presentation skills are crucial to success in a working place and in everyday life. People pay high fees to get trained in those skills, whereas Toastmasters club offers a much less expensive option to become a confident speaker in informal and friendly environment. So as a member of the club you:
· Become more confident
· Get rid of stage fear
· Learn to communicate effectively
· Learn to express your thoughts clearly
· Improve your presentation skills
· Learn to motivate and to persuade
· Increase your leadership potential
· Reach your professional and career goals

Who are the Lemberg Toastmasters?

2008-02-29T06:32:00.000-08:00

No, we don't propose and don't make toasts!

Lemberg Toastmasters Club is a non-profit organization with the vision of empowering people to achieve their full potential through improvement and development of their public speaking, communication, and leadership skills. Toastmasters offer inexpensive, interactive, friendly, supportive, and simple programs to help every member become more self-confident and successful.