Goal Achievers Toastmasters

This coming Monday, June 22, 2026, Goal Achievers Toastmasters International will be having a Table Topics-a-thon meeting. That’s right, one whole meeting devoted to short, impromptu speaking. The theme is:

Beyond ABC: Exploring the Many Ways We Communicate

When we think of communication, we often think of speaking and writing. But humans have always found creative ways to share ideas—through symbols, pictures, gestures, stories, alphabets, characters, glyphs, signs, and even emojis.

On Monday June 22nd, we’ll take a journey through some of the many ways people have communicated across cultures, across distances, and across time. Along the way, we may encounter ancient scripts, mysterious symbols, favorite letters, curious characters, and perhaps even invent a few of our own.

Whether you would like to answer a question or simply join the conversation, feel free to join us and bring:

• a favorite letter, character, or symbol
• an unusual alphabet or writing system
• a fascinating language fact
• a mysterious script from the past
• a memorable communication experience
• or simply a question you’ve always wondered about

No expertise required—just curiosity.

We look forward to exploring with you the many ways humans make thoughts travel from one mind to another. Please join us next Monday—we’re a virtual club on Zoom and start at 7 pm PDT.

Attached is a flyer on how to contact us for access information, or click here:

https://goalachievers.toastmastersclubs.org/

Hope to see you there!

The theme for tonight’s Goal Achievers meeting was “The Inner Child Speaks” and the Word of the Day was:

Whimsical, adj; Used to describe something that is playfully fanciful, imaginative, or unpredictable

We had two speeches:

❶ My Blissfully Vague Summer Plans

Mindy delivered her Ice Breaker speech, which was tailored to one’s inner child, and her whimsical bucket list for the upcoming summer. She has 5 goals, and giving this online speech accomplishes one of them! She has a wonderful, well-packed summer ahead of her.

❷ Jenna Flynn Update

Jim gave an update on Jenna, who is related to him (his cousin’s daughter) and plays on Stanford’s Water Polo team. She is doing very well at the collegiate level, and according to some is ranked 3rd in the U.S. There will be a celebration at the Olympic Club this weekend, which Jim will attend to see whether she and the Stanford team win more awards.

Table Topics was run by Bill, who had a list of questions regarding how those who volunteered to take them on interact with their Inner Child, what kind of conversations go on, what language these discussions are in, and whether anybody fights with their Inner Child and, if so, who wins.

Next week will be one of the most challenging agendas in the Toastmasters’ world of meeting agendas:

The Backward Meeting.

It may be a challenging meeting to pull off, but it is always entertaining, and it keeps everybody on their toes from the opening—oops, I mean the closing—of the meeting, through the Evaluation portion, Table Topics, Prepared Speeches, and ending with the opening.

If you’ve never attended a Backward Meeting, please join us next Monday, June 8th. It promises to be entertaining and worthwhile—no matter how well we manage to keep it on track (and we’re pretty good at it, having done these meetings several times already!).

Please join us next week. Attached is the flyer for the meeting.

I’m enjoying chess more than French!