That's Madam President To You ;-)

As of July 1st, I officially became the President for the Deerwood Toastmasters Club :) After only being in the club for almost a year now, I decided to run for the President position for 2008-2009. The title is a bit intimidating, but I have a lot of great visions for this club besides to keep improving my speaking abilities and organizing my ideas and thoughts fluently. There are always areas for improvement and ways to sharpen my leadership skills, and I firmly believe that joining Toastmasters has made me stronger and face my fear of public speaking boldly.

The English language is not my native tongue, and I joined this club to also help me with my grammatical skills. I am glad that I did join, and I want to give a shout out to my mom for encouraging my brother to join Toastmasters in Fort Myers a couple of years ago, and my brother for "pestering" me to join last year. In turn, I encourage everyone to check out your local Toastmasters club. You can find out more about the Deerwood Toastmasters Club at our website.

I am looking forward to a great year and am blessed with wonderful people in my club. We constantly have new faces, and it's invigorating to see new members join us with full passion and energy to succeed in public speaking as well. Below are the pictures from our club meeting today. Our Area Governor for Division F, District 84, Fred Haley, had graced us with his presence and went over our club goals.

Wayne won the Best Speaker award on his first speech, and I am so proud of him!

2008-09 Club Officers. From L-R: Fred Haley, Kathleen Hazard (VP Membership), Me, Bob Frey (2nd Sergeant at Arms), Doug Polen (Secretary), and Ricky Shook (Treasurer). Missing in the picture are Sandra Murphree (VP Education), Kenyonn Demps (VP Public Relations), and Roger Galler (Sergeant at Arms).