How To Organize A Potluck Picnic

A successful potluck picnic requires planning. This evening barbeque took place at a private yacht club but the same process applies for events at other places too.

The organizer started sending out reminders weeks in advance. The annotated aerial map gives an example of the attention to detail.

Menu
Good times require good food (and a tent in case of rain). To ensure variety, the menu was pre-decided. Attendees where asked to choose what they wanted to bring.

Appetizers

• Potato chips
• Pretzels

Salads

• Potato Salad
• Garden Salad
• Caesar Salad
• Eggplant Salad with Noodles (vegetarian)

Main Course

• Hamburgers (16 + buns)
• Chicken/Turkey Burgers (8 + buns)
• Sausages (12 + buns) 
• Veggie Burgers (8 + buns)

Desserts

• Summer Dessert
• English Trifle
• Cookies
• Ice Cream

Drinks

• Pop
• Water
• Juice 
• Beer
• Wine

Miscellaneous

• Condiments (Ketchup, Relish , Mustard, Pickles)
• BBQ Utensils, Lighter
• Plates/Napkins/Forks/Cups

Speeches
No one's in the mood for long speeches at a picnic (or many other places). This was the final event for the current club executive (and a Toastmasters event).

Organizer
Introductions. Thank the host for arranging use of the private facilities. Invite the current President up to wrap-up the year.

Current President
Thank everyone for the year. Invite the incoming President to welcome everyone to their new role.

Incoming President
Finishes up. Thank the previous executive. Looking forward to a great year. Welcome the new executive.

Fun
After the short speeches, the festivities continued. To preserve memories, photos were taken but no video.

Links

• photos from the actual event (Meetup)
• Sheltering your potluck picnic from a storm (new)

PS What would you add or do differently? There's plenty of room for your comments below

Table Topics: Summer Foods

During Table Topics, everyone gets a chance to talk about a randomly-selected topic for 30-75 seconds.

Word Of The Day: Anthropomorphic or Delicious (members who don't use the word pay a fine)

Today's topic was Summer Food. Table Topics Master Yvonne Grieg had a novel idea. She brought full page magazine photos of tantalizing food. We played the role of food critics and described a randomly selected dish. Foodies had an advantage.

Best Table Topic: The coveted ribbon for best table topic went to Kevin McGlashan. He had us laughing as he mimicked a southern accent and described the food by colour. His dish had yellow and green but not enough red.

Links

• image courtesy of Alexander Kalina (Ukraine)

Speech 9: News Worth Knowing (Jonathan Holowka)

(posted on behalf of Jonathan Holowka)

This was my 9th speech from Goodyear Toastmasters entitled "News Worth Knowing".



Here are the links to the articles and websites I referred to.

News articles I referred to:

• Large Asteroid almost hits us June 4
• Teleportation within 30 years or less
• Invisibility a reality?
• China shuts down airport over a UFO
• FBI: Air force investigator recovered "UFO's"

Citizen Journalism websites:

• The Examiner (I incorrectly referred to this as "The Explorer" during my speech)
• Helium
• Associated Content

Collection of online speeches:

• TED - Ideas Worth Spreading

Welcome

This is the official blog for Goodyear Toastmasters. Members will share content to help you and give you a sample of what we do.

This blog will also serve as an archive of our member and club accomplishments. All members are invited to contribute content or comments. You choose the format you prefer: text, audio, video or a combination.

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