https://www.atomicwindbags.org/

Atomic Windbags Toastmasters, 2001 Riverside Drive, Chattanooga, TN (2026)

08/28/2026

We had a great Toastmaster’s meeting today!

Our Toastmaster theme today was about the game of BINGO. Our Toastmaster shared a lot of history and fun facts about Bingo. We learned that it started in Italy in the 16th century. An interesting fact we learned was that ⅓ of online Bingo players range from ages 25 to 34 years old. It was shared that Harvard University studied Bingo and found that it boosts brain health! Who knew! We also had a Bingo card to play a targeted Toastmaster game of Bingo!

Our first speaker, Jennie Hobbs, spoke on how to interview to ‘Put Your Best Foot Forward’. She shared with us how a great interview starts with 3 stages: before, during and after the interview. She brought to light the importance of preparing a resume to peak people's interest, and to make sure to know your own information on your resume. Another tip is to research the company. Prior to the interview she talked about using the 'wonder woman' stance to give yourself confidence! It’s also important to be nice to everyone in the setting you interview! After your interview, write a personal hand-written thank you note and bring up something in the interview to help them remember you.

Our next speaker talked about a past ski vacation, ‘Down the Mountain I Went’. We learned about what to wear on a ski trip out west, including the big boots. Even if you’re not an avid skier, you can still enjoy the beautiful mountain views, crisp fresh air, and some great hiking.

Next, our Table Topics segment, hosted by our Table Topics Master, Blair Brown, kept with our theme of Bingo and gave us category of themes she wrote on a Bingo Card. Participants were given a variety of speech topics! Thank you to Spencer Wakefield, one of our newer guests, for stepping up to give us a Table Topic speech as a guest! Nice job Spencer! Congratulations to our winner this week, Vangie Hill, for an inspiring speech she made up about, ‘Traditions you Never Give Up’. She shared how her family plays Bingo every Christmas and prizes include swag that her and her husband get from golf outings and running races throughout the year.

We concluded by recognizing two of our members in completing Toastmaster Pathway achievements! Congratulations Jennie Hobbs for achieving Level 1 and to Vangie Hill for achieving Level 2! Great job to both of you for all your hard work!

Our next fun outing will be at White Duck Taco for a Trivia night on September 28th at 6:30pm. All are welcome to join us! We always have a lot of fun and laughter together!

We have a great group of supportive, organized, and positive people who are committed to personal and professional growth. Our next meeting is on September 10th at 11:45am-12:45pm at Kenco Logistics off Amnicola Hwy.

We would love to have you join us!

Hope to see you there!

07/28/2026

Good Morning!

We gathered for another Toastmaster's meeting this past Thursday, July 23rd.

This was an odd meeting as we had no scheduled speeches, which is truly rare for our club.

Our Toastmaster for the meeting, Justin Grierson presented throughout the meeting about a local, non-profit that he works closely with, the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.

We had plenty of time for the Table Topics segment. Club President, Vangie Stahl Hill, volunteered as the Table Topics Master.

Volunteers were challenged to speak on any Podcasts or books they've come across that were interesting and worth sharing.

We had many members and even guests speak on this topic for 1-2 minutes each. Table Topics is one of my favorite segments as it provided an opportunity to speak "off the cuff."

We concluded our meeting by awarding the winner of Table Topics, our guest and hopefully future member, Clayton Whitfield. Really well done, Clayton!

We have a great group of supportive and positive people who are committed to personal and professional growth.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, August 13th from 11:45am-12:45pm at Kenco Logistics off Amnicola Hwy.

We would love to have you join us!

Feel free to visit our website: https://atomicwindbags.org/

Hope to see you there!

07/11/2026

Congratulations to our Table Topics Award winner and honored guest, Shikya! Trever Ehrlich presented the award today. We love to see guests volunteer to speak during Table Topics. It is a courageous act. Shikya did fantastic!

07/11/2026

We had our first meeting with our newly elected officers at Atomic Windbags Toastmasters this past Thursday, July 9th.

Our new Club President, Vangie Hill, opened the meeting by welcoming members and honored guests. Vangie took a few minutes to positively reflect on the last year, celebrate our accomplishments, and acknowledge our newly elected officers.

Our Toastmaster for the meeting, Lanny Wingrove, then took the reins and spoke throughout the meeting on the topic of his choice: Honey Fraud.

Yes, that's right, we learned that honey is the 3rd most faked food in the world. Honey laundering is rampant throughout the world, so be sure to buy local and check labels.

Next, Jennie Hobbs gave a presentation she is preparing to deliver at her workplace titled "Growing Leaders who grow Communities."

At Toastmasters, we often practice a speech we plan on delivering in the "real" world so that we can get constructive feedback in a safe environment to ensure the best success for delivering the speech outside of Toastmasters.

Next, we went into our Table Topics segment, where our Table Topics Master, Trever Ehrlich had us play "What's in the Box?"

Volunteers were challenged to speak on what was in the box by describing the contents as they were or deceiving the audience by describing something in their mind. Our group took turns guessing what was in the box and whether the speaker had lied or not.

We then invited up our Speech Evaluator for the day, Sue Wickstrom, to give her observations of what went well with Jennie's presentation and what can be improved upon.

We concluded by recognizing Lanny Wingrove for his achievement in completing Level 2 of his pathway of choice - Motivational Strategies. Well done, Lanny!

We have a great group of supportive and positive people who are committed to personal and professional growth. Our next meeting is on July 23rd at 11:45am-12:45pm at Kenco Logistics off Amnicola Hwy.

We would love to have you join us!

Hope to see you there!

06/26/2026

Congratulations to our Table Topics Award winner, Cristian Toledano! Vangie Hill presented the award today. We had some wonderful speeches to make it a hard choice. Thank you everyone and nice job, Cristian!

06/26/2026

We had another wonderful Toastmasters meeting this week at Atomic Windbags! Our Toastmaster, Sandy Vecchi, inspired us with the story of Grand Canyon river guide Kelsey Pfendler, who is currently rowing solo across the Pacific Ocean on a remarkable 2,400-mile journey from California to Hawaii. Sandy challenged us to consider the questions that likely inspired Kelsey’s adventure: Why start? Why now? Is it worth it? She reminded us that each of us has our own version of a “Hawaii challenge” - a personal goal or dream that may seem daunting at first. The key is not having the entire journey mapped out, but simply taking that first step. As Sandy put it, we don’t need to have the whole journey figured out- we just have to start rowing.

Next, Chrissie Holland, delivered an informative and moving speech that offered insight into the challenges of alcoholism from a perspective that many who have not experienced it may not fully understand. She described the profound effects alcoholism can have on the mind, body, and spirit, emphasizing that for many people struggling with alcohol dependence, simply deciding to stop is not possible. She also explained that, physically, reintroducing alcohol can trigger a reaction similar to an allergy, creating an overwhelming craving for more.

Our next speaker, Lanny Wingrove, spoke on, "The Art of Making Macarons”. He shared in detail with us the history of Macarons from France and their journey to America. He told us the ingredients and walked us through the technical steps required to create these delicate French pastries. To top it off he generously shared samples of his own handmade macarons, which were absolutely delicious!

Next up our Table Topics section. Thank you to Justin Grierson for initiating our personalized Table Topic Awards. When a member accomplishes the Level 1 Toastmaster Pathway, they can get the Golden Table Topic Award and when they win the Table Topics at a meeting, they will receive a token to insert in their personalized Golden Table Topic Award. Thanks Justin!
Our Table Topics today was led by Vangie Hill. We picked a topic that gave us a choice to speak on ‘This or That’ which was harder than we thought to choose only one. We had several very personal speeches. Nice job Cristian Toledano on winning the Table Topic award today!

We also voted on our Toastmaster Officers for the upcoming year. We have a great group of supportive and positive people who are committed to personal and professional growth. Our next meeting is on July 9th at 11:45am-12:45pm at Kenco Logistics off Amnicola Hwy. We would love to have you join us! Hope to see you there!

06/16/2026

Congratulations to our Table Topics Award winner, JustinGrierson. Our Table Topic questions to speak about were about the theme of Summer. We had some through-provoking questions that were met with fondness as many eager participants shared about past summer vacations and dream vacations.
The award was presented by Sue Wickstrom. Great job, Justin!

06/16/2026

We had a great meeting at our Atomic Toastmasters this past week!

As Toastmaster, Trever Ehrlich, shared with us information about the book ‘The Day the World Came to Town’. He talked about the history of Gander, Newfoundland, Canada – how and why it was established. He gave us information about its surprising connection with transatlantic flights, and the inspirational role it played on 9/11. Thank you Trever!

Vangie Hill’s speech was titled “Distill it Down; Use Your Verbs”. This was her Level 2 Communication Speech. The speech focused on the power of simplifying our writing or speaking communication. She gave a micro-English lesson on the three types of verbs and the superpower of verbs of manner. Very interesting and helpful!

Table Topics were led by Sue Wickstrom, and the theme revolved around summer. The questions were thought-provoking and were met with fondness as many eager participants shared about past summer vacations and dream vacations. Justin won the coveted Best Table Topic award. Great job, Justin!

Many of our members enjoyed a recent social event at ‘Top Golf’ that our club sponsored. Our members are excited to plan the next event!

One of the most exciting announcements that occurred during this meeting was that our Atomic Windbags reached the”Toastmasters Distinguished Club designation”. This is the 3rd time for the club to reach this level and it’s been a very long time since the last time! The 10 Distinguished Club Program (DCP) goals are grouped into four categories: Education, Membership, Training, and Administration.

Lastly, our officer elections will be held at the next meeting. We hope you can join our very welcoming group of people who are committed to personal and professional growth. Our next meeting is on June 25th at 11:45am-12:45pm at Kenco Logistics off Amnicola Hwy. We would love to have you join us!. Hope to see you there!

05/29/2026

Congratulations to our Table Topics Award winner, Vangie Hill, presented by Ghyrn Wakefield. We enjoyed your heartfelt speech! Thank you and great job, Vangie!

05/29/2026

We had a full house at our Toastmasters meeting today at Atomic Windbags! We had no scheduled speeches for a change today, so we improvised and gave everyone a chance to shine with our Table Topics segment! We enjoyed some creative, improv speeches!

Our Toastmaster, Blair Brown, started us off with the topic, “Can You Picture Things in Your Mind? Aphantasia”. She asked us to picture a scene in our minds: a rocket ship crash-lands on a planet, and an alien approaches the spacecraft. What do you see in your mind when you visualize this scene (see the picture behind Blair Brown)? When she showed us the picture of the five options and asked us what picture we visualized. We imagined the scene differently in our minds. Aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily create mental images, meaning seeing blank when asked to visualize. We learned the opposite is hyperphantasia which is the ability to see vivid images.

Next, Ghyrn Wakefield was our Table Topics host and did a wonderful job! Thank you, Ghyrn! We picked from a variety of topics from the theme of “Seasons of Transition”. which several of our guests, including first time speakers, stepped up to give some great responses. It was a hard decision to make because we had a lot of great, spontaneous speeches! Congratulations Vangie Hill for picking the theme of a ‘New Weird Chapter in Life’ to speak about. She talked about her journey of becoming a grandmother!

We truly have an exceptional group of fun and supportive people committed to personal and professional growth. You are welcome to join us at our next meeting on Thursday, June 11 th from 11:45a-12:45p at Kenco Logistics off Amnicola Hwy. Hope to see you there!

Atomic Windbags Toastmasters

08/28/2026

07/28/2026

07/11/2026

07/11/2026

06/26/2026

06/26/2026

06/16/2026

06/16/2026

05/29/2026

05/29/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Organization

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request