DIABLO TOASTMASTERS CLUB 598 NEWSLETTER

“WHAT’S GREAT IN 598”

The Diablo Toastmasters Club is

a community Toastmasters Club

that meets every Thursday at

7 PM at Denny’s Restaurant,

1313 Willow Pass Road,

Concord, CA.

Volume 19, Number 7

July, 2016

The mission of a Toastmasters Club

is to provide a mutually supportive

and positive learning environment in

which every member has the oppor-

tunity to develop communication and

leadership skills, which in turn foster

self-confidence and personal growth.

Publisher: Cindy Johnson, CC, ALB, President

Editor: John Peterson, ACG, ALB

New Club Officers Installed

By Area B-6 Director Hartwig

Following their election by acclamation on May

28th, Diablo 598’s new officers were officially in-

ducted at the meeting of July 7th by Area B-6 Di-

rector (and former Diablo 598 President) Ann Hart-

wig. Several first-time officers were inducted,

which attests to the club’s vitality and the commit-

ment of its many new members!

Pictured below are Ann and her new inductees,

being from left to right: Jose Cobangbang III, con-

tinuing as Sergeant-

at-Arms; Barbara

Hughes, incoming

Secretary; Ashley

Harkness, incoming

VP of Education;

Ann Hartwig; Scott

Carter, incoming

Treasurer; and Cin-

dy Johnson, incoming Club President. (Unfortun-

ately absent for the photo were Mukesh Lal, con-

tinuing VP of Membership, and Dennis Florendo,

incoming VP of Public Relations.)

Club Wins DCP Award For

Year Ending June 30, 2016 By achieving nine of the 10 goals required, Dia-

blo 598 once again won the “President’s Distin-

guished Club” award for the past year. More de-

tails on the DCP program will be presented in

next month’s newsletter. Congratulations all!

Welcome to our new member:

Lynn Finegan

Please support Lynn in every way you can

on her Toastmasters journey!

Diablo 598 Shows Up In

Strength at D 57 TLI

Diablo 598’s newly-elected officers (and two

returning) all reported for duty at Toastmasters’

Leadership Insti-

tute on June 11th,

attesting to their

commitment to

their new posi-

tions of responsi-

bility in the club! Shown in the photo at left, in

the second row of seats going from right to

left, are Dennis Florendo, incoming VP of Pub-

lic Relations; Barbara Hughes, incoming Sec-

retary; Ross Carter, incoming Treasurer; Cin-

dy Johnson, incoming President; Mukesh Lal,

continuing as VP of Membership, and Jose

Cobangbang, continuing as Sergeant-at-Arms.

Ashley Harkness (incoming VP for Education)

missed the event, but since he brings exten-

sive expertise to his role (years of experience

in this and many other club and District offic-

es!) he was excused. Well done, team!

Kyoko is "11 years old" in the U.S., and "14 years old" in Toastmasters!

Kyoko first came to the U.S. from her native Ja-pan with her family at the age of 11, and lived in Boulder, Colorado for one year. She always want-ed to return, and in 2004 she had the opportunity to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. She stayed for three years during which she fell in love with California. After studying translation in Monterey for two years, she worked in Ohio and then in South Carolina as a translator for Honda Motors. In the summer of 2013, she moved to the East Bay and has been working for a compa-ny as a technical translator in Concord.

She joined her first Toastmasters club in Kuma-moto, Japan, in 2002 hoping to improve her Eng-lish skills. During her time in the South Bay, she was an active member of the Silicon Valley Japa-nese English Toastmasters club. She served as President and earned a President's Distinguished Club Award. Her 2009 speech, "Are You Still Growing?" described her experiences in the Bay Area, including the San Francisco Marathon. It carried her to a District International Contest! Her third club, with weekly lunch-hour meetings on the Monterey Institute of International Studies campus, consisted of faculty members, students, as well as people from the local community.

Every speech inspired her as she was pursuing her dream job of translator. In Ohio, she entered a Humorous Speech Contest. She enjoyed see-ing the audience laugh when she gave her speech: "Eternal Mystery - Women and Men." She joined Diablo 598 in 2013.

Kyoko spends most of her weekends in the wine country of Sonoma County. She loves driving around the area with her best friend. She admires wonderful views and appreciates art works by lo-cal people. Welcome to Diablo 598, Kyoko!

Kyoko Ii

CINDY’S COLUMN

By Cindy Johnson

“What’s Great in 598” is the publication of

Diablo Toastmasters Club 598, Concord,

California.

Publisher: Cindy Johnson, President

Editor: John Peterson

Twice per year, Toastmasters conducts officer

elections, and elections for our club occurred

in late May. We are welcoming in a new team

of officers, and I feel honored to have been

selected as the club’s President! Thank you

for your expression of confidence in me!

A critical member of our new leadership team

is the Vice President of Education, Ashley

Harkness, who will be wearing that hat for the

next six months at least. We are fortunate in-

deed to have such an experienced member in

that key position! Ashley will be responsible

for planning, organizing and directing a club

program which meets the educational needs

of each individual member. He is also respon-

sible for coordinating the club’s weekly pro-

grams and reviewing the next week’s agenda

at the start of each meeting.

This is one area where I see room for quick

and easy improvement. To me, one of main

purposes of Toastmasters is to provide oppor-

tunities for our members to practice speaking.

More members will be able to achieve this

goal if we don’t have to spend 10 to 15

minutes of every meeting filling in the roles for

the following meeting! Achieving this goal will

require all of our club members to take more

responsibility in their own leadership and

speaking goals by signing up for roles in ad-

vance, using our on-line programming tool at

Peoria Design Web. (If you don’t know how to

use it, ask for help!) Let’s all work together to

make a smoother running meeting, and having

more time for Table Topics!