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David Cay Johnston

2010 CAA Recipient

At the June 23, 2010 Annual Awards Banquet, Postprandial Toastmasters awarded the prestigious Communication Achievement Award to local author David Cay Johnston.

This award is presented annually, “To a member of the Rochester community who has distinguished himself or herself as a leader or spokesperson for a worthy cause, who through, word and deed, epitomizes exceptional accomplishment within his or her field of endeavor.”

Johnston is an investigative journalist with the New York Times who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 2001, “For his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms.”

He retired from The Times in April 2008 after 13 years there and has continued his career as an author, lecturer and commentator about issues relating to equity in the tax code.

His latest book in print is Free Lunch, a national bestseller exposing massive transfers of wealth from the poor, middle class and affluent to the super rich.  He is also the author of Perfectly Legal, a national best seller on our tax system that won the 2004 Investigative Book of the Year award.  His first book was Temples of Chance, an expose of the casino industry.

His nomination for this award stated that, “Whether or not you are interested in the subject matter that Johnston writes about or agree with his point of view, it’s clear that he embodies the spirit of the Communication Achievement Award by effectively communicating his message to a variety of audiences through print, broadcast media and public speaking.  He is locally and nationally known for his work, lives in our community and would be a positive addition to our distinguished list of award recipients.”

Past recipients of this award have included Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, Businessman Thomas Golisano, Non-Profit Executive Jean Howard and the late Andrew Langston, Owner and Chairman of WDKX radio.

Johnston’s remarks at the banquet were focused on effective communication and delivery of a person’s intended message to his or her audience. He was well received by the Postprandial audience with several members hoping for a longer speech.  As many of us know, leaving your audience asking for more is significantly better than having them wish you will stop!  Congratulations to David Cay Johnston on his award this year.

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A Historic Meeting

by Mark Frisk on May 30, 2010

Our May 26th meeting will go down in Postprandial history as one of our greatest.

Why, you may ask?

Was it that every facet of the meeting ran smoothly? That the Table Topics participants, Speakers, and Evaluators were unusually good that night? Perhaps it was the “back to the future” theme of “Graduation” that caused this meeting to stand out.

While all of the above points are true — it was indeed an unusually good meeting — the May 26th meeting will go down in Postprandial history because we officially inducted five — count ‘em — FIVE new members into the club. Not one, not two, not three or four, but FIVE.

Wow.

To add the icing here, all five of our new members are already Toastmasters and have belonged or still belong to another club. In some cases, the new member chose Postprandial after a rigorous vetting process during which he or she attended meetings at several clubs in the area, only to land at Postprandial.

We are honored, and humbled.

So three cheers and hats off to Melissa LaMark, Jean Publow, Matt Buffan, Paul German, and Mick Schoenberger!!!

Welcome aboard! We’re thrilled to have you in the club and know that you will each make great contributions to Postprandial.

Here are the results of the evening’s contests:

Table Topics

  • Runner-Up: Matt McDermott
  • Winner: Melissa LaMark

Evaluator

  • Runner-Up: Fred Beer
  • Winner: Drew Martin

Speaker

  • Runner-Up: Dara Grieger
  • Winner: Kelly Roland

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Now That’s Entertainment!

March 10, 2010

We had a bit of a smaller crowd for our March 3rd meeting, but the excitement level was high, do doubt owing at least in part to the evening’s theme: Now That’s Entertainment! Allison Moreland did a superb, smooth job as our Toastmaster, ably assisted by Table Topics Master Mark Frisk, Chief Evaluator Fred Beer, [...]

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Nominations Open for Postprandial's 2010 Communication Achievement Award

March 1, 2010

Fellow Toastmasters, Each year our club recognizes and honors someone outside of the club who has distinguished himself/herself as a leading communicator or spokesperson. This is our Communication Achievement Award (CAA for short). The process is simple, and it depends 100% on your nominations! Here’s the timeline: April 28: All nominations completed and returned to [...]

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Postprandial Kicks Off the New Year

January 13, 2010

We had an exciting time at our first meeting in 2010. The theme was “New Beginnings,” which led Toastmaster Mark Emblidge to undertake a brief discourse on the “Department of Redundancy Department.” The meeting was held in the upstairs room at Sanibel Cottage, which is a little tight for our group, but, as one would [...]

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Postprandial's Kate Olsen is District 65's Toastmaster of the Year!

November 9, 2009

A message from Dave Pope, Postprandial Toastmasters President, 2009-2010: The District 65 Toastmaster of the Year is awarded to an extraordinary member whose enthusiasm is so contagious it rubs off on everyone in the district; the industrious volunteer who is eager to perform any and all meeting assignments; the exceptional individual making uncommon efforts to [...]

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Sunday Crosswords — September 30th Meeting

October 10, 2009

We had a blast at our 9/30/09 meeting, with its awesome theme of “Sunday Crosswords.” Special shout-outs go to Allison Moreland, who did a superb job as Toastmaster in her very first turn in that role. Her custom-made giant Toastmasters crosswords puzzle was a hit, with members sticking around after the meeting to make sure [...]

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Contest Night Notes

September 20, 2009

A report from Ed Oberhofer, Postprandial’s VP of Education: It is my pleasure to announce and congratulate the winners of our club contests held on September 16th.. The Evaluation Contest was won by Mark Emblidge.  Ed Oberhofer was the runner-up. The Humorous Speech Contest was won by Dave Pope.  Kate Flanagan was the runner-up. All [...]

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Around the Campfire–September 2nd Meeting Notes

September 10, 2009

Who doesn’t love a great campfire story? No one! Which is why the theme for our September 2nd meeting, “Around the Campfire,” was such a great choice. It inspired some truly creative stories and wordplay. In addition to the welcome guests in attendance, there were several other attendees of note. We were delighted to see [...]

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Postprandial Toastmasters Summer Picnic: August 19th

August 18, 2009

On Wednesday, August 19th, in place of our regular meeting, Postprandialites will gather for our annual picnic. If past experience is any guide, a ton of fun will be had by all, both regular members and guests. Speaking of guests, the event is open to everyone, including friends and family members. So members, feel free [...]

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