Dawn Yawn Toastmasters

We're off and running! Happy New Year Dawn Yawn!

Mary Wang, online from Texas, won both the Most Improved and Best Speaker Awards at our first meeting of the new year. Club President Aaron Cure is holding up the awards in front of Mary on the screen.

Chris Anderson was honored for Best Table Topics speech, and
Beth Boaz won the award for Best Evaluator.

Welcome to Rouven Krauer who visited in person but will usually be joining us online from Steamboat.

We have many people participating online.

Guests are welcome!

Come improve your speaking skills and enjoy the companionship and encouragement of our club members.

Do you need to improve your public speaking? Begin the new year with a fun group of people to help you do that! We meet every week online or in person, and you'll still have time to get to work. 7 a.m. mountain time each Wednesday in Lakewood, Colorado. Email me for the details: [email protected] or check out an earlier post.

Here are bios of just two of our members....more to follow in later posts.

Come visit us -- in person or online. Dawn Yawn Toastmasters meets every Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. in Lakewood Colorado. Sunrise Sunset Restaurant on S. Wadsworth.

We have a highly supportive environment for improving speaking and presentation skills, and we have a lot of fun getting together each week.

Here are two of our very talented members:

Alex Benko has been a member of Toastmasters for 25+ years starting in Dallas and then in Denver. He is ESL as Hungarian is his first language. He has a passion for volunteering and believes in paying it forward. He joined Dawn Yawn in 2022, the fourth club in his speaking journey. He is in the real estate business and works for Your Castle Real Estate.

Beth Boaz has been a Toastmaster for over 40 years, is currently a member of 4 Clubs., and has earned Toastmasters' highest designation, Distinguished Toastmaster. She has enjoyed serving a 2-year term on Toastmaster's International Board of Directors, and has won contests in Speech Evaluation, Impromptu Speaking, Humorous Speaking, and Inspirational Speaking. Outside of Toastmasters, she is retired from the US Bureau of Reclamation after a nearly 40-year career as a Civil Engineer and Project Manager.

Dawn Yawn Toastmasters on September 17, 2025

Theme of the Day: Homecoming

Word of the Day: Reminiscence (or variations on this word)

Presiding Officer: Nancy Graves

Toastmaster: Alex Benko

Esteemed Awards Winners

Best Evaluator - Clare Kennelley

Best Table Topics Speech - Marty Kuhls

Lemon Award - Stan Farshtei

Most Improved - John Googins "It's All in the Numbers"

Best Speaker - Chris Anderson "Lemonade"

A grateful "shout out" went to new member Stan Farshtei for stepping into the roles of Grammarian AND Table Topics Master!

Thanks to Chris's speech, the meeting included a candid discussion of the history of our club's unique Lemon Award and how the role of the Ah-Counter should be used. This is the award given, in good humor, to the person who said the most filler words such as ah, um, you know, so.... There is wide discretion given to the Ah-Counter to give the award to people who might have used fewer filler words than someone else, but didn't express themselves clearly in other ways. It was agreed that we all benefit by having our awkward speaking habits brought to our attention so that we can improve.

Each speech is evaluated by someone from the club assigned to evaluate a particular speech, and then feedback is given to the speaker directly, as well as in writing or by email from everyone else attending. This honest, constructive feedback is the BEST way to improve speaking skills.

Next meeting: September 24, 7 a.m. at Sunrise Sunset Restaurant in Lakewood Colorado. The club invites visitors to attend. Come stop by or join us online. We have international and local members online at every meeting.