Welcome Guests

July 24, 2007
13 attendees

A great turnout of members and guests were treated to a visit from Area 41 Governor Michael Gholampour. Michael visited the club to meet the membership and to discuss during one of our featured presentations. Interesting and informative, members were asked to complete a brief survey after his speech. A copy of the presentation will be made available for members to review at their leisure.

Sergeant at Arms Cynthia Jimerson followed with our invocation and pledge. Cynthia’s invocations always get the club off to a positive and thoughtful approach. Vice President of Membership Paul Burke provided our Word of the Day. Placed in the rear of the room in direct view of the podium, members are challenged to use it during the course of the meeting - definitely a great vocabulary builder.

Today’s meeting began with a welcome to our guests; we may have to build more time into the schedule as we’ve had a growing number of visitors each week. In addition to Michael, we welcomed Todd Mitsuhata and Raynard Price, who was visiting the club for a second time in as many weeks.

New member Jennifer Gill started her journey by delivering her first project, the Icebreaker. It is truly amazing to find out the other details about our co-workers. We often have an idea based on our relationship with that person in the office environment, but we’re often pleasantly surprised to find out how rich and colorful our peers are.

Jennifer, using a map of Africa as a prop, she detailed her travels through the mother continent including a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. She neatly tied the presentation together by stating how appropriate it seems that she has been moving around most of her life and now her profession is about providing transportation services for Angelinos.

Stop in and enjoy today’s show; bring a friend and a lunch and we’ll see you at noon today. Today’s presentations are:

Kathy Hendry - Advanced Communications Program (Interpretive Reading) Project 4
Joe Simpson – Advanced Communications Program (Special Occasion Speeches) Project 5

On the fly or Can I Buy You a Drink?

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
15 Attendees
Word of the Day - Bastion

How many of you have been faced with the following scenario? You’ve been asked to participate in a meeting that starts at 10am. While you gather with other attendees you get a call or a head pops into the conference room. Your supervisor is running late and you are asked to conduct the meeting until (s)he arrives. What do you do?

Attendees of today’s meeting witnessed one such occasion. Due to a variety of reasons out of our control, we often have to take life as it comes, wing it so to speak.

Our featured speaker was unable to present her presentation during the meeting and we needed to improvise. Part of what Toastmasters is all about is to teach you how to think on your feet and to deal with unexpected situations. Participants perform various functionaries; discuss table topics and present projects to a very supportive and constructive group of peers.

Without second thought, the club decided to extend the table topics to cover for the opening in the program. Club President Joe Simpson served as the Table Topics Master and after a brief debate over the true meaning of the Word of the Day (Bastion) – was it a noun or verb or adjective – we moved briskly through the topics.

The topics started with Joe bringing a large red cooler from beneath the podium and plopping it down on the table. Opening it up, he invited various members and guests to have a drink after they spoke about a topic related to the drink they chose.

For example, Sergeant at Arms Cynthia Jimerson spoke about the benefits of Green Tea; Gene Hargreaves talked about drink boxes and grandkids; member Tony Li discussed whether tap water was any worse than bottle water; Vice President of Education Paul Burke extolled the virtues of vitamin or sports drinks; although he didn’t drink coffee, guest Mike Gainor changed topic and discussed his drink of choice.

Again, being able to improvise and make the best out of a fluid situation is one of things you’ll get practice at here in the Toastmasters @ Metro. What a great turnout (15 total) – bring a lunch and we’ll see you next week!

End of Year Party

As out-going Sgt@Arms, Kathy stretched out the call to order as long as possible, savoring her last chance to be in control of the proceedings. Tony Li inspired us with his invocation: a recitation of a poem about public speaking (look ma, NO NOTES).

“Eye-Contact is an excellent art,
Use it and reach to every heart.

Speak with love, speak with tact,
Speak from the heart, it will have impact”

Soon-to-be Past-President Falan welcomed new visitors Reynard and Gary, and welcomed back frequent visitor David Gold. Then she thanked and praised the officers and members who had made her term as President so successful and fun.

After a brief break for a trip to the food table, Falan introduced the Toastmaster/Table Topics team of Stan and Ollie…er, I mean Bertha and Gayle, in black jackets and bowlers. They treated the members and guests to a rollicking round of topics related to our experiences in the past year. If we had put it to a vote, Paul Burke might well have taken the ribbon for his exuberant exhibition of how, even if you come to Toastmasters speaking Gibberish, you can learn to speak in front of people. Falan remembered all the encouragement and support and growth she experienced as an officer and a gentleman,…oops, I mean an officer and a member; Kathy’s favorite evaluation was the one she gave at the area contest, David was pleasantly surprised by the warmth and the diversity of the group, and Gene and Cynthia each recalled what had surprised them most during the year.

Kathy Hendry