East Bay Toastmasters - Club 9389

This Little Library has something to say. Defend Our Constitution.

January 12, 2026
Toastmaster of the Day Aki led the meeting with a challenge: Showdown at Noon. Word of the Day was "climactic," sometimes confused with "climatic," which is weather-related, as opposed to a "climactic" Gary-Cooper-showdown-at-High-Noon. Beware!
Esther gave a speech/presentation on "growing"🌱🪴 a speech, while TableTopics Master Dana kept us on our toes, virtually speaking, with topics ranging from principles to live by, courage, first decree as sheriff, and defining personal victory. Guest Erica took home the ribbon for Best TableTopics! 😻
We will take a break next Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and will be back online on Monday, January 26.
See you soon!
-- Chiye

January 5, 2025
East Bay Toastmasters kicked off the new year with an in-person meeting where two members stepped up to give their ice breakers, and the rest of us followed with “get-to-know-me” TableTopics speeches. In a fun twist, each speaker called on the next speaker with a brief introduction, citing a thing they knew about the speaker. Our guest for the evening, Kathleen, jumped right in and tied with RoDevia for Best TableTopics. Chiye led the meeting as Toastmaster of the Day, with the theme of the evening being, “Let Me Tell You (A Couple Things) About Me.” Grammarian Don gave us “Revelation” as Word of the Day. And if you weren’t there, you missed out on the many revelations unveiled— but as they say, what happens at East Bay Toastmasters, stays with East Bay Toastmasters!? 😎😂Happy New Year, everyone! See you online next week. 🌞🥳 - Chiye.

October 6, 2025 Aki served as Toastmaster and we examined compost from all of its “regenerative” aspects. Dana came prepared with TableTopics that challenged us to recycle and restore our thinking into life affirming (gold) nuggets. Marc was voted Best TableTopics for his thoughtful conclusion that “to be in the moment and appreciate what you have” was the lesson he found in nature. Debbie gave a speech about sharing her home with strangers, and lessons learned. We also celebrated Pathways level completions for Dana, Chiye, Pat and Niki. No meeting next week in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day, but we’ll be back on zoom at our next meeting on October 20th. Hope to see you there!

October 6, 2025
Aki served as Toastmaster and we examined compost from all of its “regenerative” aspects. Dana came prepared with TableTopics that challenged us to recycle and restore our thinking into life affirming (gold) nuggets. Marc was voted Best TableTopics for his thoughtful conclusion that “to be in the moment and appreciate what you have” was the lesson he found in nature. Debbie gave a speech about sharing her home with strangers, and lessons learned. We also celebrated Pathways level completions for Dana, Chiye, Pat and Niki. No meeting next week in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day, but we’ll be back on zoom at our next meeting on October 20th. Hope to see you there!

September 15, 2025 Javier took on the role of Toastmaster of the Day (ToD) for the very first time and had us thinking about the "Joy of life's winding road paths." Our Grammarian, Catherine, gave us "fortuitous" as the Word of the Day. In fulfilling the objectives of the Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring, Dana reflected back on her days as the Bowling Green HS Twirlers, and impressed us with glittering costumes and nifty moves. She recalled how she and her best friend were fortuitously shepherded by a coach who raised their twirling game to the next level. If we were all so fortunate to have had mentors like that! As TableTopics Master, Aki had us thinking about life's twists and turns, discoveries, and what happens when we take chances. Our guest, Fernando was voted Best Table Topics, for sharing what happened when he set aside his carefully laid plans in favor of taking a risk and embarking on an adventure. As of October next month, East Bay Toastmasters will be meeting in-person on the first and third Mondays of each month. We will continue to meet online, on Zoom, the remainder of the month (second, fourth, fifth Mondays). Guests are always welcome, and we hope you can join us in-person or on-screen! - Chiye, GE

August 11, 2025

Our theme was "A World Tour," and Aki was our Toastmaster. The Word of
the Day from our Grammarian, Catherine, was "peregrinate," meaning to travel or wander around from place to place. Pat provided our Timer
support and delivered a powerful closing thought for the meeting. Kym
kept us on our toes by keeping track of our use of filler words. Antonio and Dana provided speech evaluations.

We had two excellent speeches. Debbie delivered a research-based speech on the topic of the pros and cons of Tipping. Aki gave his umpteenth Ice Breaker speech on his World Tour, highlighting three places that have had a significant impact on his life: Japan, Mexico, and California.

Table Topics was led by Coach Esther, who had asked such insightful
questions about travel and individuals' World Tours. The winner of
Table Topics was Kym, who recounted the cultural impact of her time in
Honduras.

We had three guests (two returning) who participated in Table Topics and
added fun and depth to the meeting.

This was a meeting that caused me to confirm the sustaining value of
Toastmasters.

Respectfully,

Dana, General Evaluator

July 21, 2025
We had an awesome East Bay Toastmasters meeting this Monday. The theme was “Move Your Body!” The word of the day was kinesthetic. An excellent Ice Breaker was given by one of our newest members. We learned about the member’s family and self-identity. Also, there was another superb speech which extolled the value of attending college. The third speech compared the value and utility of e-book readers to physical books. We had two Level 1 completions recently. Those members were awarded pins and certificates. The table topics questions were enjoyable and thought provoking. Best Table Topics was awarded to Aki who demonstrated the kinesthetics of a dynamic speaker.
Overall, we had fun and learned a few new things.
- Aki, General Evaluator

Meeting Summary for July 14, 2025
Chiye was our Toastmaster of the day and our theme was Good Trouble, inspired by civil rights activist John Lewis. Good Trouble Lives On!

We had Aaron Van, the division D director, conduct a New Officers Induction ceremony, thanking officers who served during this past year, and formally installing the new Executive Committee for the coming term.

Our Word of the Day was banter.

Catherine gave a fantastic speech from the Presentation Mastery path entitled, “Don't Sleep on Confidence,” which was evaluated by our award-winning evaluator Aki.

Chetera led a Table Topics session with prompts surrounding civic engagement.
Our guest, Charisma, was voted Best Table Topics for her answer, where she spoke about the Target boycott and the impact individuals can have.

We had a great meeting tonight!

Kaylee, General Evaluator

July 7, 2025 Meeting
Antonio led our first meeting of the Toastmasters' year with a theme of Summer Road Trips. The Word of the Day was Junket, a pleasure trip often funded by someone else (hello, politicians!)
We had two guests, one speaker and evaluator. Debbie's speech on the Lumbees was informative and intriguing. Chetera gave an exemplary speech evaluation.
Like a good road trip that never runs out of snacks, Aki kept us cruising with fun, thought-provoking questions during TableTopics. Dana took home the Best TableTopics ribbon as she took a detour from unexpected local foods to warn us about traveling with the Baxters. We were promised a full accounting of that road trip from hell when Dana treats us to a full 5-7 min speech on the topic in the near future.
Join us next week on July 14 (online), and in-person on July 21. Guests are always welcome!
- GE Chiye A.

No meeting tomorrow because of Memorial Day weekend, but here’s a little peek back to our May 5, 2025 meeting!

A double toastmaster’s theme for this meeting! Chiye was our Toastmaster of the Day and gave us the theme “What’s in a Name?” before realizing it was also square root day (5/5/25), so we added that as well!

Antonio was our General Evaluator and kept our meeting moving with a great TAG team: Catherine as timer, Aki as ah counter, and Don as grammarian! Don gave us our word of the day: trepidation 😳😱

We got two fun speeches from Chiye and Dana. Chiye’s was on theme, talking about what’s in a name. Dana’s was a reflection of how work has changed dramatically since she began her career!

Pat was our table topics master and led us through questions that straddled both themes! Our guest Charisma won table topics after sharing the story of whether she liked her name. Real blast from the past with the Avon catalog reference.

Hope you join us again next week on Monday, 6/2!

May 19, 2025

We love our in-person meetings - it’s always much more fun to see and interact with each other face to face!

This meeting’s theme was Passion Project.

Our Word of the day was infatuation.

We had 2 speeches. Our first speaker Javier took us on a tour through Bolivia. Our second speaker Catherine gave a fantastic icebreaker spearhead.

Table Topics was led by Debbie and the winner was Javier!

Overall it was a very smooth meeting, capped by a sweet treat at the end!

Come join us next time on Mon 6/2 at 7pm PT via Zoom!