Breaking through 3 Feet of Ice

Attendance 9 (3 Distinguished, 2 New and 4 Regulars)
Meeting Duration – 12pm-1:00pm
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Last week I reported on the pleasure of having access to a great resource in our veteran members. Tuesday’s meeting showcased the enthusiasm and promise in our new crop of members. Two of our club’s newest members shined during this week’s program.

After a positive and motivating invocation by Cynthia Jimerson (where does she get such inspiring tidbits?), we got the Word of the Day from Drena Graham (Spontaneous). Club Co-President Falan Guan recapped her experience at judge’s training held at the Cal Trans building downtown and other company business (contests, dues, etc).

One half of our newest pair of members, Paul Burke, took on the role of Table Topics Master. Paul displayed an extremely animated and vivacious side that had previously been unseen. He asked members to take a minute to talk to a CEO. Imagine getting through to the head of any company on the topic of your choice. What would you say?

Falan had a very sympathetic tone to her presentation (take things in stride and don’t be impatient) but most members had a few choice words for owners of the Universal remote (Table Topic winner, Joe Simpson), Gene Hargreaves extolled the virtues of a multi-headed golf club and Bertha Bruner described difficulties of programming her VCR.

The highlight of the meeting was our other new member Tony Li’s Ice Breaker prepared speech (pictured left). Deeply emotionally and eloquently delivered, he introduced himself to group. Taking us through the reasons why he joined the group and why he’ll accomplish his goal of becoming a better speaker: 1) A Supportive and Loving Family; 2) Good Education; and a 3) Strong desire to Succeed

Tony displayed amazing poise and gave his audience a glimpse into his family values. He also tied in ancient proverbs that brought his points home dramatically (Breaking through 3 Feet of Ice, A Journey of 1,000 Steps). We definitely have a fine Toastmaster in the making…

Reminder: Club Dues are due October 1. Contact Gene with any questions you have.

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Veteran Leadership

Attendance 9 (3 Distinguished and 6 Regulars)
Meeting Duration – 12pm-1:00pm
Tuesday, September 19, 2006

This week’s meeting showcased one of our group’s strong points – its veteran leadership. In addition to sporting winners in Toastmaster Int’l competitions, past district/area governors and advanced leaders and communicators, we have long-time members to look to for guidance. We hope that they'll continue to serve as a vital resource on how to perform various functionaries within meetings and improve as leaders. This wealth of knowledge helps provide a “how-to” for new club members and visitors alike and is much appreciated.

Garth Garrett, CTM (member for two and a half years) served as Toastmaster for today’s meeting. As mentioned in last week’s report, his flair, control of the podium and creativity are extraordinary! As referenced in his opening, his modesty regarding his talent (being from the Midwest) only makes his delivery more appealing.

Next up was another club jewel, Pauline Lee, ATMG (pictured left) who honored us with Table Topics. Each member in attendance was asked to choose any magazine that they’d would serve as editor and why.

Here are the choices:

Paul Burke – The Economist, Field and Stream and Mad Magazines
Cynthia Jimerson – Home and Garden
Tony Li – Toastmasters
Gene Hargreaves – Dining and Food (Best Table Topics)

Pauline was very energetic, with a pleasant and engaging manner with animation in vocal variety and body movements. She moved effortlessly around the entire room and stressed the importance of transitioning at the podium from within her dialog. Her transitions and introductions incorporated comments from speakers on both ends of this segment of the program showing awareness as well. We can all improve by using her example!

Joe Simpson (Best Prepared Speech) presented the eight project in the Communications and Leadership program, Get Comfortable with Visual Aids. Entitled, How to Sell the Unknown, it described the creative process in developing a film for an upcoming Agency initiative (TAP).

Bertha Bruner, Vice President of Education, presented project three, Get to the Point, a moving description of domestic violence shelters and what we can do to help. Entitled, Not All fairy Tales Have a Happy Ending, it was very thought-provoking and well done.

The meeting closed with very helpful and constructive evaluations by Vice President of Membership, Gene Hargreaves (Best Evaluator) and Pauline, closing statement by our General Evaluator, Paul Burke and comments by Co-President Falan Guan.

Reminder: Club Dues are due October 1. Contact Gene with any questions you have.

Feel free to provide comments regarding the meeting or this Blog entry by clicking the COMMENTS link below.

The Ability to Improvise

Attendance 9 (1 Guest, 2 Distinguished and 6 Regulars)
Meeting Duration – 12pm-12:50pm
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

One of the key abilities that any Toastmaster should have in his/her arsenal is the ability to think and communicate ideas on their feet. Being able to prepare for and deliver a presentation is also important, but responding quickly and effectively can go a long way in your business day. This week’s meeting gave the group an opportunity to put that concept into practice and we shined brightly. Due to a scheduling issue a portion of today’s program would not be presented (prepared speeches). How would we handle it?

The meeting began with an inspirational invocation by Vice President of Education, Bertha Bruner; Toastmaster Joe Simpson introduced Cynthia Jimerson with our Word of the Day, braggadocio. Not to brag or boast but Drena Graham’s Table Topics were outstanding! Table Topics were extended as the featured item on the agenda to round out today’s program.

Based on the book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman, members and guests were asked to discuss how technology effects the way the entire world reacts to it.

How does it effect customer service (Paul Burke); how will we raise our kids (Cynthia); how to teach our children (Garth Garrett); how we grow up utilizing technology in your profession (Co-President Falan Guan); not being afraid of technology as adults and children (Joe); and how quickly technology changes and purchasing software (Jay Fisgus). To close the program, this thought-provoking book garnered such a response that members continued to riff ideas in a roundtable forum.

Congratulations to our Table Topics winner, Garth! He exemplifies creativity, flair and an extremely quick wit when in front of an audience. He is a valuable example of being able to entertain as you need to speak at a moment's notice. Also, kudos goes out to Tony Li for making his first trip up to the podium during today’s meeting as well.

Finally, anyone interested in either participating in upcoming contests or taking the role of Area Governor should contact Falan for more information.

Thanks again for pulling together and presenting another exciting meeting even when things don’t go as planned. See you next week!

Feel free to provide comments regarding the meeting or this blog entry by clicking the COMMENTS link below.

A Visit from a Toastmaster Area Governor

Attendance 14 (1 New, 1 Second Visit and 1 Guest and 11 Regulars)
Meeting Duration – 12pm-1:10pm
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

This week’s meeting began with a welcome to our guests in attendance and a short address by Area 41 Governor Hsiao-Bai (Bob) Wu. In addition to some words of encouragement, Bob gave an overview of the Toastmaster International organizational structure and made a call to members regarding our vacant Area 40 governorship. As described, governors try to visit multiple clubs and observe as often as they can. Anyone interested in taking on the vacant Area office can contact club officers and we’ll forward your information on to Bob.

Today’s meeting took on a different form than many recent ones. Our program included three prepared speeches instead our customary two so Table Topics and Word of the Day weren’t included this week.

Angelia Watkins was first up and performed like a veteran in her Icebreaker (Speech 1). Speaking on the virtues of being kind and a good deed she performed. She pleasantly described in detail on how she communicated basic information (hand gesturing the numbers 4-4-4 or making a circle to describe a bus) and helped a lost pair of non-English speaking visitors from China travel to the other side of town on the bus system. Her warm manner and emotional delivery easily won the audience over and received high marks from Falan Guan during evaluation.

I (Joe Simpson) presented my fifth speech, Your Body Speaks describing membership for the ladies in attendance into an exclusive secret society - Foot. The goal of this speech was to demonstrate use of body gestures and Garth Garrett’s evaluation was a great example of the same. It opened with a call for a cheer, was very energetic and was very constructive in demonstrating how to strengthen this type of project.

Kathy Hendry completed her tenth speech (Inspire Your Audience) in the Communications and Leadership Program, Inspire Your Audience. CONGRATULATIONS on this accomplishment! Donning a headset, visual aids and her usual wit, Kathy described the reasons why we procrastinate. Drena Graham’s evaluation was very positive and during our guest roundtable, Paul Burke’s comments were very thorough and insightful. His comments seemed as if he were a seasoned evaluator. Everyone’s comments and input was appreciated and is ALWAYS welcome.

Feel free to provide comments regarding the meeting or this blog entry by clicking the COMMENTS link below.