Mixin’ Things Up

Attendance 9 (1 Guest, 1 Distinguished and 7 Regulars)
Meeting Duration – 12pm-12:55pm
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Although we are creatures of habit and our days often consist of routine and order, it is exhilarating to add the spice of spontaneity into life’s smorgasbord. During officer training this past summer, Toastmaster’s officials offered ideas on how to keep clubs fresh and growing. Having a themed, humorous or a backwards meeting was suggested as ways to add variety and interest.

Being a valued long-time member and our most recent past-president, Gene Hargreaves (Vice President of Membership, Treasurer) spiced up Tuesday’s meeting with another twist. Instead of following the typical meeting format, Gene asked that each attendee be ready to talk for three to four minutes about something we were very familiar with. We are all professionals/experts at what we do or have a hobby or interest that we could ramble on and on about.

The key to this exercise, as is the case with meeting roles and functions, is to put members in situations similar to those you may come across in your daily responsibilities. As Gene mentioned in prefacing this exercise, just imagine your supervisor randomly asking you during a meeting to give an update – you’d either sink or swim in front of your colleagues!

Being able to quickly formulate an organized response, complete with the basics of any speech – an introduction, discussion of a few ideas and a tidy conclusion - are the keys to good communication.

Our impromptu speeches were as follows:

Kathy Hendry (Sergeant at Arms) spoke about her love of fabric; Tony Li discuss the virtues of good communication skills; Joe Simpson (Vice President of Public Relations) talked about the “Magic Button” or the key to being able to communicate technical ideas to non-techies; Our winner, Cynthia Jimerson, spoke about her love of teaching young children as part of her Sunday school duties at church. Very heartfelt and delivered with Cynthia’s usual soft spoken and warm style, her compassion came across to the audience loud and clear. Great job! Bertha Bruner (Vice President of Education) spoke about Divine Intervention. Random events in a certain order can ruin your day or affect your life. Her near miss at an intersection analogy really brought her point home.

Frank H. Clarke, III ATMB, held class for new members of how to effectively use gestures and body language when delivering a speech. A former Toastmaster of the Year award winner, Frank's skills were definitely on display. His speeches always have a sense of humor intertwined and his pleasant demeanor is always a plus. He used the floor, working both from the podium and moving near to the audience during the course of his presentation. He also interacted with the crowd asking members to guess what activity his gestures portrayed. A very unique and interesting presentation indeed...

So keep your thinking caps on and offer suggestions on how we can continue improving our club. A special thanks again to our guest from the LAUSD, Craig Sorbom. Hope to see you again next week!

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