Congratulations Amanda, Doneen, and Toasters!

Amanda and Doneen receive
their membership pins from
Gary Johnson, our Toastmaster
of the meeting.

Today was a big day at Toasters club with lots of reasons to celebrate. Two of our newest members delivered their Ice Breaker speeches and the club learned that it is the first club in District 23 to complete the requirements for a President's Distinguished club for 2015-2016.

Doneen Fitzsimmons introduced us to the many names she's been known by during her life. From Neener to Mom to Mrs. Fitz and many others in between.

Amanda Norfleet told us that she is sometimes called the Coupon Queen but prefers the term Money Saving Princess and let us in on some of her secrets.

Congratulations Doneen and Amanda and welcome to Toasters!

Along with all the Ice Breaker excitement, Toasters learned that it is the first club in District 23 to achieve all of the goals necessary to become a President's Distinguished club during the 2015-2016 year. The official announcement of President's Distinguished status won't happen until April, but Toasters has already achieved 9 of the 10 goals (the 10th should be completed soon, too) and renewed all of our members prior to the April 1st deadline.

The club celebrated this news with cookies that were sent by the District Director.

Cookies!

Viva Elvis!

Elvis is in the building

Toasters Toastmasters club in Lubbock, Texas, celebrated Elvis' 80th birthday today with the meeting theme "Viva Las Vegas!"

Tracy Thomason, the Toastmaster for the meeting, dressed up as as Elvis from his Aloha From Hawaii concert.

Both Tracy and the Table Topics Master, Kim Davis, played Elvis songs from their phones to spice up the meeting.

Happy birthday, Elvis! We're all shook up from celebrating!

Eddie Retires

A Toastmaster for over 20 years and a member of Toasters Toastmasters club here in Lubbock for over half of that, Eddie Payne recently announced that he'd be retiring from his job at X-Fab.  To fulfill his and his wife's plans for the future, Eddie is also retiring from Toasters club.

Toasters threw a party for Eddie today and honored him with an engraved clock.

We'll miss you, Eddie, and we hope you wake up early once in a while and come and visit us!

Jan gives Eddie his gift

It's a clock!

Toasters Toastmasters Club

Farewell to Sam!

Sam gives a speech evaluation during
his last meeting at Toasters.

This morning Toasters bid Sam Musoke a fond farewell during his last meeting with the club.  A long time member, Sam came to Lubbock from Africa and now finds himself in the enviable position of moving to Hawaii for work.

Per Toasters tradition, we celebrated his new job and last meeting with a pot luck breakfast.

We'll miss you Sam!

Anniversary Party In The Bag

On Saturday evening, eighteen of us gathered for a lovely meal at the Lubbock Women's Club to celebrate Toasters' 25th anniversary. It was great to see two of the founding members of the club, Ruth Ann Bridges and Patty Freier. Patty shared about how Toastmasters met a need for training in public speaking and how to conduct meetings at Methodist Hospital, back before that kind of training was available. Brent Majors from Methodist knew Bob Barnhill and Bob helped get Toasters started 25 years ago. Appropriately, Bob was with us on Saturday night. As Patty said, it is very gratifying for an idea and project you started to still be viable and healthy twenty five years later!

We also got to share some of our Toasters' bloopers--those are always good for a laugh! Another former member who was able to attend was Cindy Meason--it is always great to see Cindy!  Former member, Uwe Beltz and his wife, Katherine, were welcome guests as well.  It's is always great to see our former members because they're family! We were also so pleased to have Robyne Vaughn and her husband, Mark, in attendance. It was a sweet time of fellowship and celebration, and we wish that more could have attended. Kyle and I are already thinking about our 50th anniversary in 2038, so please mark your calendars!

Click here for photos from the party.

Toaster is Gonna Party Like A 25 Year Old!

There was a Toastmasters Club born in Lubbock, Texas. The members named themselves Toasters Toastmasters, Club 896. The Club grew from an infant, into a teenager, and finally into an adult.

Those who were in the Club when it reached the mature age of 25 decided they better get busy and celebrate before they reached old age and weren't able to!

Help us celebrate this auspicious occasion:

What:             Dinner
When:            Saturday, May 4, 2013
What Time:     6:30 PM
Where:            Lubbock Women's Club, 2020 Broadway
Cost:              $15 per person

RSVP:            By Wednesday, May 1
                       to: Vickie Sigler acactuswren@yahoo.com