The First Local Speech Contest has taken place in Lviv

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:)