Early Riser's 27Jan09

Theme of the Day: Facing the Winter "Blahs"
Blah's this morning waiting in the cold for someone with a key!!! First time in a long, long time this occurred.


Attending: Bud, Laura, Kelly, Mark, Tony, Theo, Connie, Tryphine, Neil, Claire, Josie and 2 guests, Preet and Jeri.

Toastmaster of the Day: Laura


The Prepared Speeches at this meeting:
1)Bud Rubin, "Life in the Cool Country", Competent Communicator Manual Speech #6 (Vocal Variety) time 5-7 minutes

2)Kelly Brant "Cylons and....", Speaking to Inform Manual, Project #5, 6-8 minutes

Table Topics: Theo
paraphrases of some questions/replies: Tryphine (my favorite food in the winter is soup--soup with beans); Josie (what I like to do in winter: stay indoors and play scrabble--like aikido)

Early Riser's TM Jan 20 2009

Happy Lunar New Year! and Welcome to our new US President.
Theme of the meeting: Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ox or Water Buffalo

Attending: Claire, Theo, Bud, Stephanie, Mark, Tryphine, Kelly, Josie, Daohua, Laura, Tony, and guest: Natalie.

Toastmaster of the Day: Josie

The Prepared Speeches at this meeting:
1) Laura Caplan, “Getting to Know You,” Project: Speech #1 in Interpersonal Communication manual

2) Claire Chang, “Balancing Your Life with Feng Shui,” Project: Speech #8 in Competent Communication manual, time: 5-7 minutes

3)Stephanie Charles, “Legacy,” Project: Speech #10 in Competent Communication manual, time: 8-10 minutes

13Jan09 Early Riser's meeting

Theme for the day: US Presidential Inauguration

Historical factoid shared by Laura: 20th Constitutional amendment established details of beginning and ending of Presidential term. In particular, the Presidential term starts in January, not March, as was the case before the passage of the amendment .

Attending: Josie, Jane, Kelly, Mark, Laura, Theo, Tony, Bud, Daohua, Tryphine, Neil, Connie

Toastmaster of the Day: Stephanie


The Prepared Speeches at this meeting:
1) Neil, "Volatility in the Markets", Competent Communicator, project 2. Evaluated by Stephanie

2) Josie, "Do you have leadership goals?",Competent Communicator, project #7. Evaluated by Tryphine

3)Theo, "Secret of Technology", Competent Communicator, project #2. Evaluated by Claire

Other Roles at this meeting:

Table Topics Master: Laura.
Notable quote, paraphrased : " The reason the time for the change in start time for the Presidential term was because it was also the start of the end of Prohibition" (Bud)

Inspiration: Daohua
WordMaster: Mark, featured word="slog"
Timer: Bud
Ah Counter/Grammarian: Tony (lots of "soft ah's")
General Evaluator: Connie
Joke of the Day: Kelly

6Jan09 Early Riser's Meeting

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first meeting of the year. Good to see people again, after a 2 week break.

Meeting brought to order at 6:30 by Bud.

Attending: Bud, Josie, Laura, Jane, Mark, Theo, Daohua, Tryphine, Stephanie, Kelly, Connie

Toastmaster of the Day: Bud

Theme for the day: Doing something new this year

The Prepared Speeches at this meeting:
1) Mark, "It will be a Great Depression", Competent Communicator, project #3, time 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Laura. Funny and positive speech about to view the depression as a Great (as in wonderful) time.

2) Daohua, "Home", Competent Communicator, project #8, time 5-7 minutes . Evaluated by Connie. Touching story about being forced to move away from home at a very young age.

3)Tryphine, "Love to Dance", time 5-7 minutes. Evaluated by Jane. Get up and dance! Fun speech about the swing, cha-cha, and salsa; and we got to participate!


Excerpts from Table Topics:
Josie: "Resoluiton to make no resolutions"
Pieter: "Resolutions are best kept in a safe"
Jane: "What motivates people to keep resolutions? Perhaps action needs to precede motivation."
Laura: "I'm going to change my eating habits. Sniff, Sniff."

Meeting adjourned at: 8:00 am