August 26, 2008 Meeting

Bud opened the meeting promptly at 6:30 AM sharp.

What an amazing meeting. We had a full house with 17 attendees. Two of the attendees were guests: Pam (returning after about a year! Nice to have you back.) and Tsilla, who was checking out the club and thinking of joining.

Attending: Stephanie (our Toastmaster for the day), Ann, Donna, Laura, Arash, Lee W., Connie, Daohua, Theo, Lee D., Tony, Kelly, Bud.

Donna gave us the Inspiration for the day: When you do anything, be sure to do it with body and soul. (This is my paraphrase.)

The theme of the meeting was Pranks and Jokes. As Toastmaster, Stephanie treated us to many stories about pranks and jokes that happened while she attended Caltech. Many of the pranks were elaborate. The one I remember in particular was the one where two students altered the scoreboard "Caltech"  at a football stadium featuring lower case letters. When the manufacturer of the scoreboard heard about this, they were more impressed than annoyed, because they hadn't designed the board to feature lower case letters.  They ended up offering the two students jobs (after the students dealt with their legal issues)!

Awards at this meeting:

Best Speaker - Daohua

Best Table Topics - Tony

Best Evaluation - Laura

Connie received her Advanced Communicator Bronze award, having completed all ten speeches in the Competent Leadership manual. Connie received two lovely champagne flutes from the club in a gesture of congratulation. Great going, Connnie!

Speeches at this meeting:

1. Daohua, "Vocal Variety"; Competent Communication manual speech #6 (vocal variety), 5-7 minutes. Actual time: 06:52.  Evaluated by Claire.

2. Theo, "Mental Flexibility: Increasing Your Conceptual Fluency"; the conclusion of Theo's Advanced Communicator Gold. 20 minutes. Actual time: 17:52. Evaluated by Laura Caplan.

Note: All evaluations were within the time limit.

Other roles at this meeting:

Grammarian: Ann

Ah-Counter: Kelly (who counted instances of the members using the word "so" as well. This was an eye-opener)

Timer: Arash

Word Master: Lee D.

Table Topics Master: Connie

General Evaluator: Josie

Joke Master: Jane (click here for the visual jokes Jane shared with us: humor for lexophiles!)

Announcements:

Remember that there is no meeting next week. This is a first for the club.

Get your club dues in as soon as you can. Remember the contest is coming up: Evaluation contest and Humorous Stories contest. Stay tuned.

Meeting adjourn: 8:05 AM

August 19, 2008 Meeting

Greetings. 

Our meeting promptly began at 6:30 AM

The Toastmaster for this meeting was Lee W. The theme was "Our U.S. Currency." Lee W. offered some thoughts about money and shared observations about the symbols that appear on actual legal tender, notably the one and five dollar bills. The meeting was complete when Lee performed a magic trick on a real five dollar bill: apparently, there is a hard-to-find hole right above President Lincoln's head that's big enough for a ball point pen to slide easily through without tearing it. I'm still looking for it.

Attending: Lee W., Stephanie, Kelly, Daohua, Connie, Lee D., Theo, Claire, Jane, Laura, Bud, and Josie.

Daohua offered the day's inspiration: "True wisdom is not in never falling, but in getting up again after you fall." --Confucius (Excuse my paraphrase.)

Awards at this meeting:

Best Speech - Laura

Best Evaluation - Kelly

Best Table Topics - Kelly

The speeches at this meeting:

1. Claire, "Reward Comes with a Price"; Competent Communication manual speech #6 (vocal variety), 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Kelly. Actual time: 08:05 :( A great speech that unfortunately went overtime.

2. Laura , "The Dark Side of the Bright Lights"; Entertaining Speaker manual speech #2, 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Stephanie. Actual time: 08:10. Note: Laura endured TWO interruptions during this speech from passersby intent on getting directions for locating the AA meeting a few doors down. We basically just had to halt the meeting and Laura's speech right there. Speech time was "recalculated" to be under 7 minutes.

3. Connie, "Toast to Title IX"; Special Occasion Speech manual, speech #1 (making a toast), 2-3 minutes. Evaluated by Theo. Actual speech time: 02:40. Nice going, Connie.

Note: All evaluations were within the time limit.

Other roles at this meeting:

Grammarian/ah-counter - Bud

Timer - Daohua

WordMaster - Josie; the word was lucrative

TableTopics Master - Jane (Jane had engaging questions about designing the look of money and inventing ways of taking and processing money at vending machines.)

General Evaluator - Lee D.

Announcements and closing remarks by Stephanie:

Stephanie reviewed the schedule for next week. There are still many openings for joining the upcoming Humorous Speech and Evaluators contests. Lastly, remember to fill out the back of your manuals with information about the speeches you have done. Stephanie also brought a large tracking chart to help you as well. Remember your club dues for next month before September 26. See the emails for more information.

The meeting closed at 8:00 AM.

August 12, 2008 Meeting

Hello again. Meeting minutes follow.

The meeting began at 6:33 AM. Claire was the Toast Master. Our president, Ann, opened the meeting with the recognition of Stephanie as a Distinguished Toastmaster. Congratulations, Stephanie! Stephanie officially completed the requirements for DTM last week with the panel discussion about the High Performance Leadership Mentoring Project she did along with Kelly and Jane. At this meeting, Ann presented Stephanie with two lovely Toastmasters wine glasses to honor Stephanie's achievement.

The Theme for this meeting: The Olympics Games

Reminder: The date to turn in club dues is September 26, 2008. Please see the email that Ann sent, or speak with Bud, our Treasurer, if you have questions. 

Attending: Claire, Ann, Bud, Stephanie, Donna, Theo, Daohua, Kelly. We had two guests today: Sumita and Mike. Thank you for coming! When asked, each of our guests said they need public speaking for the jobs. We were happy that they took home applications for membership to our group.

Awards at this meeting: 

Best Evaluator - Kelly

Best Table Topics - Donna (three in a row!)

Best Speech - Ann

Kelly offered the inspiration in the form of the story of Lin Hao, the second-grader who survived the May 12 China Earthquake that killed over 69, 000 people. Credited with keeping the spirits of his trapped classmates up by singing songs and then going back into the rubble to rescue two of his fellow students after getting freed himself, Lin was recognized at the Olympics Opening Ceremony among the many people who worked tirelessly to save lives. The story, Kelly said, illustrates the value of "looking at what needs to be done instead of looking for fame and glory." See more about Lin's story at this site.

Speeches:

1. Ann, "My Road to the Olympics," speech #1 in Competent Communication manual, 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Kelly.

2. Bud, "Some Things about the Bahai Faith," speech #3, Competent Communication manual, 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Josie.

Note: All speeches were in time limit. Three speeches had been scheduled, but one speaker could not make it today.

Roles at this meeting:

Timer - Donna

General Evaluator - Stephanie

WordMaster - Donna, word: vigorous

Grammarian and Ah-Counter- Theo

Table Topics Master - Daohua (the theme was movement, activity, and the Olympic Games)

Announcements: Stephanie announced the Humorous Speech contest and the Evaluation contest that is coming up. Kelly signed up for the Humorous Speech contest. See Stephanie for more information or if you are ready to sign up.

Meeting adjourned by Ann at 7:55 AM.

August 5, 2008 Meeting Minutes

Greetings. Nice of you to drop by. Meeting minutes follow. 

Ann was our Toastmaster and started the meeting promptly at 6:30 AM, but there was a slight delay and rearrangement to the expected agenda. So, things really didn't start rolling until 6:45 AM. Technically, the late start was due to me (Josie) not setting up all the wires (projector, computer, screen and Internet connection) in time for the meeting start. There was a PowerPoint presentation on the agenda! No wonder we don't do this often! There are many details to love, especially that all-important detail of allowing enough time for computers to do what they do best... ;-). Still, in spite of the setback and late start, the presentation happened with just a few glitches involving power cords and sound.  The Early Risers made it happen in a supportive and fun way. Thanks for your patience, everyone. 

Attending: Kelly, Ann, Stephanie, Jane, Claire, Laura, Tony, Theo, Donna, Lee D., Daohua, and Josie

The Theme: Staying Positive. Attendees shared some great ideas for how they stay positive--everything from embracing adversity and deep feeling to taking walks, eating nice meals, and doing "extreme" ironing.

Announcements: Upcoming Competitions in September, and the 50th Anniversary of the Early Risers Toastmasters. Stay tuned for more details.

Awards for this meeting: 

Best Table Topics: Donna

Best Evaluation: Claire

Best Speech: The HPL Panel: Stephanie, Jane, and Kelly

Speeches:

1. Josie, "Dwell in Possibility: Yes, we're blogging meetings," speech #4 in Competent Communication manual, 8 to 10 minutes; evaluated by Claire

2. HPL Panel members Kelly, Stephanie and Jane, moderated by Claire, "Mentoring Resources for Early Risers Toastmasters"; High Performance Leadership project completion, 20 minutes. This panel went over the goals and accomplishments of the project as well as notes on the process, which seemed to be satisfying and positive for all. Of note, some very positive things came out of this project: mentoring resources and guidelines which will be available to members soon; the Mentoring Coordinator role, whose main task is to assist the VP of Education with all things related to mentoring. Mentoring doesn't just happen at Toastmasters. It is truly out in the world, and so it is a great skill to build. The panel presentation was evaluated by Lee D.

Note: All speeches were completed in the alloted time.

Table Topics Master was Laura. The theme was, "Is Happiness Overrated?" This spirited discussion included tips for being happy: embrace what you really feel! don't listen to news radio! eat your greens! when faced with adversity, find a quiet space and do what you love and repeat to yourself, "This too shall pass."

WordMaster was Ann, and Stephanie counted the uses of the word, sanguine.

General Evaluator: Daohua

Ah-Counter and Grammarian: Tony

Meeting adjourned by Ann at 8:05 AM once the awards were made. See you next week.

Oh! The Possibilities!

Greetings! A lot of great stuff happens at meetings, and this blog can be a special way to experience the meetings. Below is a simple embedded video that references the popular YouTube website for playing video. Check out Arnie Buss in this video clip of an NPS Toastmaster meeting of a couple of months ago. Arnie's speech entitled, "Listen," featured in this video here, won 2nd place at the District Competition this year. Congratulations, Arnie.