Happy 2026 and welcome to the January edition of the PB Toastmasters monthly newsletter! 🎉 Here’s what you’ll find in this issue: Announcements Member Highlights 📣 Announcements: Welcome to our new Vice-President of Membership, Kanad B.! And a big thank you to our outgoing VP Membership, Kate R., who has done a wonderful job of welcoming guests and new members. First aid kit . We now have one to treat minor injuries, courtesy of Jen M. It will be stored in the far cabinet i

You’re standing before an audience, an expert on your subject. You’re happy with how your prepared speech went. Now all you have to do is answer a few questions – do you feel your confidence ebbing away? What if you don’t know the answers? What if someone argues with you? What if…??   Here you’ll find some tips on how to handle Question and Answer (Q and A) sessions with self-assurance. This is in addition to two excellent resources you have to learn about this. First, the Q

Announcements: December 16th. Our annual potluck holiday celebration! Music, socializing and an all-Table Topics format. Please let us know what you can bring at pbtoastmasters.com . Member Highlights for December: Welcome new member, Landon A.! Congratulations to the following members: Anastasia S. for completing Level 1 of Presentation Mastery Pathway. Not only did Dylan Y. and Rose T. win our club speech contests (Tall Tales and International, respectively) but they both w

What’s your least favorite type of public speaking? If you said “impromptu speaking” (speaking with little to no preparation), you’re not alone. Yet, we speak spontaneously all the time in casual conversations, meaning that we’re continuously coming up with content while words are spilling out of our mouths. How can we make the process feel a little easier?   Here are some tips to lower anxiety with impromptu speaking, many offered by club member, Patrick K., a longtime Toast

November 8th, 9:30-1:30 (Saturday, at the Logan Heights Library, 567 S. 28th St. San Diego). Be a part of the Area Speech Contests , and see multiple clubs’ candidates compete for the best speaker title! You (and your buddies, whether or not they belong to TM) can come to watch this free event, or be a part of the action as a functionary (timer, ballot counter or judge – contact Amir Shayan to help out; amir@ahsglobalservices.com ). November 18th (in person). Classic cars, cl

Why do we have ah-counters at Toastmasters meetings? That’s easy to answer: filler words can make a speaker look less professional, less confident, less authoritative. Reliance on filler words can be not only distracting, but annoying (my own habit of prefacing random sentences with “so” annoys me whenever I hear a recording). We should aim for 100% eradication, right? That’s the Toastmasters philosophy; the full truth is more complicated. Filler words are a subset of a broad

Announcements November 4th - no meeting.  The Recreation Center will be used as a polling place.  November 18th (in person).  Celebrate classic (and other) cars with our annual El Camino Birthday Party. Our host, Ben P. always brings a delicious dessert. Member Highlights for November Welcome reinstating member, Putu E.! Congratulations to the following members: Brandon W. for completing Level 5 of Innovative Planning Pathway. Kate R. and Nakisa N. for the most Best Table Top

Hello, PB Toastmasters! This is Jennifer Minhas, 3 rd  year Toastmaster on the Presentation Mastery Pathway, now presenting my first blog ever. I am delighted to write today about a topic I find super valuable; that is,  mentoring.   Join me as I will address… What is the mentor/mentee relationship? How does this differ from coaching? How can we make the most of a mentor/mentee relationship? To be honest, I have never had a designated mentor. Early in my career, I was a young

Announcements: Dues are due by the 23rd of this month.  As Treasurer Mat has previously said, you can pay via Zelle, PayPal, or by...

Giving Evaluations Six and a half years in Toastmasters, and I still struggle to give well-structured speech evaluations. I hear others...

News and announcements: August 26th (online).  Having a defined goal and a roadmap for how to get there achieve better results than a...

How do you effectively educate, motivate or inspire an audience through a short speech? It turns out there IS a formula to it, although...

News and announcements We meet in-person the 1st, 3rd and 5th Tuesdays of the month, and online the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays. Please arrive...

The following is my perspective (Elaine P.); there are certainly other ways to approach this. Let’s talk about  how and how much  we ...