Hello to each passionate Toastmaster and to all friends!
In our lives the things are in full swing and again we have something to tell you! Among the regular meetings, conferences and daily challenges of TMs, there is still a lot of energy left to keep on sharing with people something we’re all united by.
Last month Moscow TMs team combined their forces and arranged our very 1st Corporate Toastmasters meeting!
It was warmly hosted by ABBYY – Russian software company, global leader in creating intelligent technologies with core of Data Recognition.
We met with enthusiastic welcome and had a chance to train our Public Speaking skill in the new venue.
This story is about persistent growth of people’s awareness about Toastmasters. Have you ever been so passionate about anything so you weren’t able to keep it just to yourself? 🙂
We’re glad to share with you those moments. Be updated, there is still a plenty of interesting things coming… 😉
Best regards,
Moscow Toastmasters

More pictures on Facebook.

For the first time ever, we’ve had five speakers, and this was not a contest!

1. Igor Pavlov’s second CC manual project, “The Power of Politeness”
2. Olga Makarova’s fourth CC manual project, “Contact with foreign countries in a global world”
3. Irina Chernyaga’s second Storytelling project, “Ioga”
4. Natalia Lapitskaya’s final (fifth) Entertaining Speaker project, “Lesson wasted”
5. Alla Oganova’s final (fifth) Storytelling project, “Two female mathematicians”

 
Alla has won Best Table Topics!

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The points for the meeting can be found below:

Founded on the eve of Perestroika by an American in 1988, the Moscow Free Speakers Club is the oldest Toastmasters Club in Russia and numbers about 75 members. It is English speaking.

So when Daniil Maslyuk, Vice President of Public Relations of this club invited me to be General Evaluator of meeting no. 602 in Moscow, I leaped at the chance. “We definitely would love to experience the Canadian style :-)” he had emailed in perfect English.

Having loved visiting Toastmasters in Paris and New York, Russia was not to be missed.

The meeting was scheduled for 7 pm on October 16th the day of my arrival in Moscow. I wasn’t sure to make it. Luckily I had just spent two weeks in Paris, my birthplace, so jetlag was not a problem and neither was my carry-on luggage. And with two extra hours to my day, (Moscow is two hours behind Paris) I felt the night was young.

But soon it was dark, cold and windy. The rain seemed to fall horizontally as we made our way by taxi to the Famous Gorny Institute of Mining where the Moscow Free Speakers Club gathers bi-weekly. With neither signs nor streetlights, the venue was difficult to find. Eventually, thanks to her flawless Russian, my long time friend Marie Stock found the correct classroom. She and her husband Bob had also agreed to experience Toastmasters in Moscow.

The room was packed. Heads turned. Toastmaster Mikhail Petrov CC greeted us warmly. A great Icebreaker for guests, we were asked to line up in the front, face the audience and speak! No was not an option. Names, occupation and what brought us there. An attentive Grammarian named Natalya Lapitskaya announced she would be listening for sentence structure and correct grammar. This it turned out she did to a tee and was more exacting than most native English speakers. The Table Topics led by Ilya ensued at a humorous clip, followed by two speeches. Given they were delivered in a foreign language (English) and with no notes, these were impressive as were the evaluations.

The meeting was high energy, positive, and well organized. Without exception, members were friendly and welcoming. In addition, Moscow Free Speakers Club has a superb website in flawless and fluid English. A top Toastmasters Experience to be sure, participating in this meeting was a highlight of 2014.

Marie Betteley CC CL President
St Catharines Toastmasters

From District 86 Toastmasters

At meeting #612, we welcomed three newcomers:

Again, we’ve had four speakers!

1. Kate Mikhailova’s fourth project from CC manual, “Dissection and Action“
2. Alexander Kanunnikov’s second project from CC manual, “The Store Wars, Ep.1“
3. Thomas Hulbert’s fourth project from CC manual, “Going the Extra Mile with Steve“
4. Valeria Kholodkova’s third project from Technical Presentations manual, “Moverio“

 
One of newcomers, Dmitry, has won Best Table Topics!

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The points for the meeting can be found below:

We’ve welcomed eight newcomers at meeting #611:

For the third time this year, we’ve had four speakers, two of which were Ice Breakers!

1. Jane Kakzanova’s Ice Breaker, “What we eat? What we drink? What we wear?“
2. Igor Pavlov’s Ice Breaker, “One side of me”
3. Ermer Toktogulov’s sixth project from CC manual, “Perseverance“
4. Natalya Sherstneva’s second project from Storytelling manual, “An Unexpected New Year“

 
The points for the meeting can be found below:

Meeting #610 was the third meeting of the year. There were eight newcomers:

For the second time this year, we’ve had four speakers!

1. Yuri Maksimov’s third project form CC manual, “How to have fun when the odds are against you on a holiday”
2. Natalia Zakharova’s third project form CC manual, “The joke of old days”
3. Bogdan Mikhailov’s fourth project form CC manual, “How to save your backbone”
4. Viktor Babichev’s first project from Public relations manual, “In the realm of the Word Power”

 
Despite that, we finished on time, as per report of Area Governor, Larisa Zorina.

Nick Sapozhnikov has won Best Table Topics ribbon:

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The points for the meeting can be found below:

The second meeting of 2015 was a lot like the first: we’ve had nine newcomers and more people than seats, and the meeting lasted over two hours too!

Ann Sema delivered her Ice Breaker titled “My favorite labor”.

There were two other speakers:

2. Ilya Nefedov’s repetition of sixth project from Competent Communication manual, “The history of time“
3. Denis Shevchuk’s repetition of second project from Speaking to inform manual, “A closer look at ourselves and what we do“

 
The points for the meeting can be found below:

At the first meeting of 2015, we’ve had nine newcomers! The room was packed: at one point there were more people than seats available! Not only that, but we also had one of the longest meetings: almost two and a half hours, and four speakers!

1. Alexander Kanunnikov’s repetition of his Ice Breaker, “Two stories”
2. Ilya Nefedov’s sixth project from Competent Communication manual, “The mirror of yourself”
3. Anna Ponomareva’s repetition of ninth project from CC manual, “Shadows of the past”
4. Natalya Lapitskaya’s third project from Storytelling manual, “Believe it or not”

 
As usual, the tea break was quite lively:

 
After the tea break, Alla Oganova and Daniil Maslyuk both won Best Table Topics:

 
The points for the meeting can be found below:

Meeting #607 was the final meeting of the year.

It was an unusual meeting (see agenda) with following performances:

• Natalya Lapitskaya’s poetry reading, “If all around you”
• Mikhail Petrov’s singing, “Love is everywhere!”
• Margarita Ryndina’s theatrical performance, “Finita la Comedia”

 
First part of the meeting with the above mentioned performances:

Second part of the meeting with Olga Kovtyukh as Table Topics Master:

 

Usually we have three speeches every meeting, but on 4 December 2014, we’ve had FOUR!

1. Olga Makarova’s third project from Competent Communication manual, “Where HAS Rurik come from”
2. Anna Ponomareva’s eighth project from Competent Communication manual, “How to make your life bright”
3. Denis Shevchuk’s second project from Speaking to Inform manual, “A reason why I failed to achieve more”
4. Natalya Sherstneva’s second project from Storytelling manual, “Wind and Twig”

 
There also were TEN newcomers!

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The points for the meeting can be found below: