Oscar Night 2016 Awards

Last Thursday NightVision Toastmasters held its 2016 Oscar Night. It was a night of party and food. We celebrated the club’s achievements over the year, as well as the many achievements of our wonderful members. If you missed the meeting, here are the awards that were handed out and the award recipients.

Albus Dumbledore Teaching Oscar—Kevin Krebs

• Kevin Krebs receives the Albus Dumbledore Teaching Oscar for always being a pillar of this club ever since he joined NightVision Toastmasters. At times quirky, at times philosophical, he has delivered many information speeches and educational sessions, and has served countless terms on the executive team.

Cheetah Oscar—Kevin Lee

• Kevin Lee receives the Cheetah Oscar for being lightning fast with completing his Competent Communicator (CC). When we challenged club members to complete their CC before the end of the last term in June, this individual took on the challenge without any hesitation. He completed the final few speeches of his CC manual in record time—3 speeches in 5 weeks. Not only that, he even entered one of his speeches shortly thereafter into his first toastmasters speech competition.

Mama Bear Oscar—Jenny Qian

• Jenny receives the Mama Bear Oscar for being a mentor and leader of the club. This individual has been our club’s Mama Bear, both figuratively and literally, for as long as any of us can remember. She is our ambassador to the Toastmasters community, and to the animal kingdom. She subdued a bear on her way to Whistler, and forged friendship with our squirrel friends in a snowball fight.

Evin Twin Oscar—Jan Salcedo(‘s alter ego)

• Jan(’s alter ego) receives the Evil Twin Oscar. This individual is an outspoken funnyman. Unlike his other half, he is brash, bold, even slightly arrogant. He literally stole the show from his other half in his icebreaker speech.

Punk Rock Comedian Oscar—Terry Russell

• Terry receives the Punk Rock Comedian Oscar for being our resident punk rock expert. This individual is front and centre and loves talking about his punk rock side. He always delivers hilarious speeches and Table Topics, and is a natural at engaging the audience in a humorous way. One of his highest achievements this year in Toastmasters was advancing to and competing in the Division B Humorous Speech competition.

Low-Key Comedian Oscar—Robert Lion

• Robert receives the Low-Key Comedian Oscar for being an unassuming funnyman. This member joined us this year as an unassuming and relaxed person. But every time he got up to speak, he showed us his natural ability to be engaging and hilarious in a very low-key way. He turns even the most mundane support roles into captivating descriptions and evaluations, and hasn’t shown any nervousness yet.

Most Eager Ocar—Jackie Cao

• Jackie receives the Most Eager Oscar for trying to join us at Night Vision Toastmasters at her very first meeting. This individual is our very newest member. I had the opportunity to meet her on her second visit to our club, when she pulled me aside and wanted to join right there and then! Even though it’s only been a short while, we can already see she will be a good fit for this club. We look forward to learning more about her in her many speeches to come.

Jumping Right In Oscar—Lisa Liu

• Lisa receives the Jumping Right In Oscar for taking on a club officer role very shortly after joining toastmasters. This individual is one of our newest members. Even though she has only been with us a short time, she has already overcome fears at meetings. She has recited a poem, delivered an Icebreaker speech, and was even elected on to next term’s executive team. We’re sure she will do a wonderful job in her new executive role.

Megaphone Oscar—Michael Fraser

• Michael receives the Megaphone Oscar for always speaking loud and clear. This individual has a voice that projects to the back of the room without even trying. He has the natural voice projection many of us try for years to achieve.

Monet Painting Oscar—Patricia Oikawa

• Patricia receives the Monet Painting Oscar for always vividly painting beautiful images in our minds. This person is great at transporting us through time and space with her very vivid descriptions. Once she took us on a tour of European history, as told through her experiences travelling. More recently she got us thinking what it would be like to be a dog.

Badass Oscar—Ryan Smillie

• Ryan receives the Badass Oscar for breaking rules. Although we don’t know this member very well yet, we already know he likes to break the rules. In his recent icebreaker, he told us some life stories, a few of these stories included some illegal activity in his youth … but don’t worry, we won’t repeat it! We’ll keep your secrets safe.

Optimus Prime Transformer Oscar—Sullivan Li

• Sullivan receives the Optimus Prime Transformer Oscar for quickly transforming into a new and confident speaker. This individual has transformed in a few short months from a quiet and shy newcomer, to a much more confident and composed speaker. He was even elected on to next term’s executive team.

Dirty Minds Game Oscar—Brian Mak

• Brian receives the Dirty Minds Game Oscar. This individual is mischievous, and has a wicked sense of humour. He once led the club through a hilarious but R-rated session of table topics, challenging club members to decipher and explain the meaning of dirty but not words. Recently rejoining the club, we look forward to more humour from this individual in the new year.

Winter Mittens Oscar—Odette Wilson

• Odette receives the Winter Mittens Oscar for being such an enthusiastic and warm member of our club. This individual warms us not only with her infectious laugh, but also with touching stories like one about her father’s poetry event. She has seemingly unlimited supply of energy, demonstrated by the speed at which she delivers speeches, and also an endless source of laughter and positivity.

President Barrack Obama Oscar—Jason Yu

• Jason receives the President Barrack Obama Oscar for being our fearless leader for the past 12 months. He has led the executive team, chaired montly executive meetings, and generally ensured the club ran smoothly in the background. Even though he doesn’t speak quite as well as Barrack Obama yet, with continued practice from toastmasters, he hopes that one day he will.

That’s it for 2016! We’ll be off on break for two weeks. Join us again at our first meeting next year on January 5th, 2017!