Travel Talkers Toastmasters

SHARE YOUR STORIES

Welcome to Travel Talkers Toastmasters!

We invite you to Travel Talkers Toastmasters on Thursday, December 18th, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific (-8 UTC). Our meeting theme is Family Gatherings. Join our meeting to share your family traditions and family gatherings.

Travel Talkers Toastmasters will not meet on December 25, 2025, and January 1, 2026. Join us on January 8, 2026, for our first meeting of the New Year.

Our meetings are for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members to share your joy of travel. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. Let’s hit the road for storytelling and inspire each other to embark on new travel adventures. Mark your calendars for an unforgettable evening with the Travel Talkers community!

You are invited to join us and bring a friend. Thursday, December 18th, 6:30-7:30 pm Pacific (-8 UTC).
Register for the meeting link: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing your plans and trips.

We meet on Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30pm Pacific time (-8 UTC). Use the link to register for our Zoom meetings.

Guests are always welcome at our meetings! We look forward to meeting you and hearing your travel stories.

Travel Talkers Toastmasters, club number 04670726, District 101, Division A, Santa Clara, California. We are an online club with members from all over the world.

Why Toastmasters?

Travel Talkers

Travel Talkers Toastmasters–State Fair
Carnival rides, livestock exhibitions, fried foods and concerts can all be found at the State Fair. In the United States, State Fairs are held in every state in the Summer and early Fall. Similar events are held in Australia, known as Royal Shows and in Canada, known as Provincial Exhibitions. State Fairs in the United States have been held since 1841. Originally a competitive event for livestock and farm products, State Fairs have evolved over the years to include ferris wheels, corn dogs, music concerts, and other competitions–pig races, BBQ cook-offs, pie-eating contests. This year the Texas State Fair is introducing southern-fried Cornbread Sausage Bombs. These deep-fried cornbread bites are advertised as representing the four major Texas food groups: cornbread, smoked sausage, pimento cheese, and jalapeño.

Our Travel Topics Master, Jacqueline, asked us to share stories about our visits as children or adults to a State Fair and what we liked about the experience. Tym shared a story about his mother-in-law winning the prize Hereford calf after correctly guessing the animal’s exact weight. Kit remembered watching a movie of the musical “State Fair” projected on a screen in her living room and then begging her parents to take her to the State Fair. Meghan shared stories about both the Texas State Fair and the California State Fair.

Toastmaster Elvira Moss was our guest speaker at the meeting. Elvira shared her speech, “Leadership Styles Unveiled,” with our club. She revealed the essence of leadership, what leadership means, and how we can empower others. She encouraged us to be empathetic, effective, and consistent leaders and challenged us to commit to continuous growth and learning. She reminded us to make leadership fun and to lead with our mind and our heart.

The Destination Master for the meeting, Preetha Menon, provided these clues for a city:
- This city has three UNESCO world heritage cites, one of which is Fatehpur Sikri. The city remained the power center and capital of an empire for most of its glorious period.
- This city was the birthplace of Hindi and Urdu literature,
- This city has the largest Sloth Bear rescue facility.
- This city is the largest exporter of shoes after China.
If you guessed Agra, India, you are correct!

The theme of our July 11th meeting is “Travel to Experience Migrations.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing stories of your adventures. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about traveling. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, July 11th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters
Travel Talkers

Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Theme Parks
Many of us love to visit Theme Parks. According to a survey conducted in the first quarter of 2024, 61 percent of respondents in the United States enjoyed amusement parks. Theme park corporations in the US, UK, and China rank in the top ten by most number of visitors worldwide. The Disney Experience theme parks worldwide hosted over 157.3 million guests, making Disney Parks the world’s most visited theme parks, with United Kingdom-based Merlin Entertainments coming in second at 67 million guests. Theme Parks was the topic of our June 20th meeting. Our members and guests shared their experiences visiting theme parks as children and then returning to that same theme park years later as adults.

Our Travel Topics Master, Kit Myers, shared phots from Theme Parks in Europe, the US, and the Bahamas. We talked about rollercoasters, water rides and theme park food.

Meghan Burns presented the final speech of her Level 1 project for Presentation Mastery. Her speech, “It’s the Journey and the Destination” was a revised version of the speech she had given at the May 16th meeting. She incorporated the suggestions given by her evaluator to enumerate each tip to provide structure and to enhance the Zoom background to emphasize her tips about activities during airport layovers. Everyone appreciated the enhancements Meghan added to her speech. We enjoyed hearing her tips for how to spend time while waiting in airports–explore the shops, relax in the lounges, get a massage, watch the planes takeoff, and listen to the tower instructions to the pilots.

Our second speaker, Lisa Hamil, shared a poem with us, “The Stately Hills,” and a photograph of the view that inspired the poem. She asked us questions after reciting her poem about our reaction or feelings about the poem and the photo of the hills of this National Monument in Utah.

The Destination Master for the meeting, Helen Josephine, provided these clues for an area somewhere in the World:
- This area of Great Britain was designated a World Heritage site in 2017 and it is the largest National Park in Great Britain.
- Known for England’s highest mountain Scafell Pike (3,209 ft (978m) high) and sixteen major lakes, including Windermere, the longest and largest lake in England with a length of 11 miles (18 km) and an area of 5.69 square miles (14.73 km²), and Wast Water, the deepest lake in England (259 ft (9 meters) deep).
- This area is intimately associated with English Literature of the 18th and 19th centuries including poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge,and the children’s book author Beatrix Potter who is known for the Peter Rabbit books.
- Tourism is this area’s major industry, with about 12 million visitors each year, mainly from the UK, China, Japan, Spain, Germany, and the US. Hikers, trekkers, bicyclists, and mountain bikers flock to this area for its miles of open road and beauty. The Coast to Coast or Sea to Sea Cycle Route (C2C) is a 140 miles (230 km) cycle route opened in 1994.
If you guessed the Lake District in Great Britain, you are correct!

The theme of our June 27th meeting is “State Fair.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing stories of your State Fair adventures. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about traveling. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, June 27th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters
Travel Talkers

Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Find Joy in the Journey
Finding joy in the journey means savoring every moment and learning from every adventure. We enjoyed exploring this theme at our June 13th meeting. Jacqueline Maynard-Campbell presented her speech, “One More Time, Israel!” about her trip to Israel in 2014. She revised the speech she had given on May 9th to include more photos and details of the journey. As she shared her story, we felt the joy she experienced. Our second speaker at the meeting, Kit Myers, gave a speech about mentoring and the influence and guidance provided by the Mother of the host family she stayed with during her high school study abroad program in Belgium.

Our Destination Master, Vernitta Brown, provided these clues for a continent.
- This is the world’s 2nd largest and 2nd most populous continent.
- This continent has 1.4 billion inhabitants.
- This continent has 54 countries.
- The ancient name of the continent is Alkebulan, which means “mother of mankind.”
If you guessed Africa, you are correct!

The Travel Topics Master of the meeting, Samantha, asked us questions about what we loved about traveling and if we had any favorite traveling buddies or habits. Tym commented that even perfectly planned trips need adjustments due to weather and airport closures. Our guest Tracy Baker revealed that his best travel companion was himself. Lisa Hamil practices her speeches and recites poetry on long car trips. And David commented that his favorite way to travel is by car with his Dad and brother, Issac.

The theme of our June 20th meeting is “Theme Parks.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing stories of your theme park adventures. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about traveling. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, June 20th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters
Travel Talkers

Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Forgettable Flights
The theme for our June 6th meeting was forgettable flights. We’ve all had the experiences we would like to not remember–the rude passengers, the overbooked flights, the lost luggage, the 24-hour delays. Once when flying from San Francisco to Dallas for a business trip, my suitcase never arrived in Dallas. Several phone calls later, I discovered that my luggage was still in San Francisco. My presentation was the next morning at 11 am and there was no guarantee that my suitcase would arrive in time. Lucky for me, I found a Neiman Marcus near the Convention Center and I had time to go shopping before my speech. I submitted the bill for my new outfit to United Airlines for reimbursement. When my suitcase finally arrived, it was a mess of wrinkled clothes from being drenched in fog in San Francisco and then baked in the hot sun in Dallas.

Tym Myers was our speaker at the meeting. His speech, “Drip, Drip, Drip,” was about the great Canadian Maple syrup heist in 2011-2012. Seventy precent of the world’s production of Maple syrup is from Canada. The country has a Maple syrup storage complex with a combined capacity of 133 million pounds (216,000 barrels) in three warehouses that can hold the equivalent of 53 Olympic-sized swimming pools of Maple syrup. At full capacity, it would represent a value of $400 Million. From this Canadian storage facility for Maple syrup in Quebec thieves stole nearly 3,000 tonnes of Maple syrup, valued at C$18.7 million over several months in 2011 and 2012. First they transported each barrel to an off-site location, drained the Maple syrup, replaced the syrup with water, and then return the barrel to the storage facility. Later, to speed up the process, they just drained the barrels on-site and did not refill them with water. The empty barrels were discovered during a routine inspection and then the missing syrup was discovered. The theft was featured in the Netflix documentary series Dirty Money in season 1, episode 5, “The Maple Syrup Heist.” Tym used vocal variety and body language in his speech to engage the audience.

Our Destination Master was Samantha. She provided these clues for a country:
- Second-most biodiverse country in the world.
- Mandatory for radio and public television to play the national anthem at 6 am and 6 pm everyday.
- The world’s leading source of emeralds.
- The third largest exporter of coffee in the world
- National throwing sport is Tejo. Heavy metal disks are thrown into clay pits covered in gunpowder and landmines. 9 points to the player that scores a hit and a bulls-eye in the same throw.
If you guessed Columbia, you are correct!

The theme of our June 13th meeting is “Find Joy in the Journey.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing the stories of your journeys. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about finding joy while traveling. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, June 13th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters
Travel Talkers

Travel Talkers Toastmasters–Forgotten Destinations
Abandoned hotels, ghost towns and empty school buildings are interesting and sometimes very popular travel destinations. We explored the topic of Forgotten Destinations at our May 30 meeting.

Our Travel Topics Master, Judith Ferber, asked us questions about forgotten monuments, grand hotels, and other historical places that have been abandoned. Meghan shared that in Rome there is a church, The Basilica of San Clemente, with three layers of history, a wealthy house and two basilicas, all built one on top of the other. Tym talked about his adventures visiting airplane graveyards in Arizona and Southern California. Helen talked about how nature will reclaim abandoned buildings and monuments as it did at Chernobyl, the site of the devastating nuclear reactor incident in 1986.

Airplane Graveyard

Chernobyl

Abandoned school

The lower level of the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome

Our impromptu Destination Master, Kit, gave us these clues about a country:
- This country has elephants and monkeys.
- Both gold and diamonds were discovered in this country.
- This is the southern-most country on the continent.
- A famous landmark of ths country is on the southern tip.
if you guessed South Africa, you are correct!

Kit Myers presented her Presentation Mastery, Level 2 project speech on Communication Styles. She used stories from her life to illustrate how she learned to communicate in different languages to different audiences. Her personal copy of The Little Prince in French helped her to communicate with visitors from another country. She learned basic Dutch slang words from beer card descriptions and conversations at a local ale house in Belgium when she was a High School foreign exchange student. In her conclusion she recommended that a good technique is just to “throw it out there” if you are not sure of the word or the pronunciation. Your companions will help you.

At our June 6th meeting, the theme is “Forgettable Flights.” Join the Travel Talkers group for a fun evening sharing your stories of destinations and airplane flights. This event is for all travel enthusiasts. Engage with fellow members as they share their stories about exotic vacations, scenic locations, and travel challenges. Focus on your public speaking skills and get valuable feedback in a supportive Toastmasters-style environment. The meeting is on Thursday, June 6th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific time. We want to hear about your travel and adventure plans.

Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting.

We look forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters