An unexpected power outage prevented us from meeting on January 14th. The meeting was postponed one week, remaining unchanged in both roles and theme. A week after, on Monday 21st—even if some last minute changes modified the agenda—we had a very good meeting…again! We brought all the energy and power back!
We started off our meeting with a great theme: Pets!
Our President, Grace Weltman, introduced the Toastmaster: Karina Gaete Llanos. Karina fulfilled the role of Toastmaster for her third time, and she is getting more comfortable with this meeting role.
Larry Savell, who assumed the role of Grammarian at the beginning of the meeting, chose to soar as Word of the Day. To soar, a verb meaning to increase very quickly in amount or price; or to rise quickly upward to a great height. As it is usual in him, Larry did an outstanding job that included introducing a new word to members, commenting on language usage during the course of the meeting, and providing examples of eloquence. Although the word was conveniently written and placed in sight, only three speakers made use of it during their speeches.
We had an entertaining session of Table Topics led by Roman Messick who did a stunning job as Table Topics Master—and he was a first-timer! Roman is a pet lover; he has two miniature poodles—and he shared with us that one day he would like to have a house with a big backyard for his dogs to run around. The Best Table Topics Speaker ribbon went to Maryam Solhjou.
Shelly Lipanovich introduced Mentor’s Moment by reminding us first, how full of ideas the Toastmaster Magazine contains, and secondly defining our clubs actions. In this respect Shelly stated that:
- We want to help you on your journey to improve your public speaker and leadership.
- We share the work. If everyone had one duty, no one would feel left out or overworked.
- We follow up. When we check in with each other, we keep each other motivated and it helps up stay on track.
- We celebrate our accomplishments. Success without acknowledgement seems meaningless.
Thank you, Shelly, for your inspirational words!
The audience had the pleasure to listen three great speeches:
▪ Anne Marie Knudsen (ATMG/CL) shared her speech on Project#3 of the Competent Communicator Manual, Chore or pleasure. Anne Marie reminded us how important is for a pet owner to be responsible of and enjoy quality time with his or her pet. Anne Marie was voted Best Speaker.
▪ Ivone Duffin (ACS/CL) delivered her speech on Projects#5 of the Speaking to Inform Advanced Manual, Lincoln. Ivone shared with us interesting facts about the beloved President life. Other than that, Ivone is one speech away from her DTM. Let’s go, Ivone! It’s almost done!
▪ Larry Savell, our Club Mentor, spoke on his Project#1 of the Impromptu Speaking Advance Manual: Specialty Speech. The audience enjoyed very much the Everything you wanted to know about public Speaking but were afraid to ask! speech in a Questions & Answers format. Five-to-seven minutes frame of time was not enough! Larry was voted Most Improved Speaker. Larry shared with us that, after almost 30 years at Toastmaster, the Most Improved Speaker ribbon was a “first-timer” in this ribbon collection! Better late than never, Larry!
The evaluation team –Maryam, Grace and Vaishali—led by the General Evaluator, Bill Bau, highlighted the speakers’ strengths and weakness in an encouraging way, and offered specific suggestions for improvement.
Maryam, who evaluated Anne Marie’s speech, highlighted Anne-Marie’s sense of humor and the use of personal examples to complement her speech. Maryam suggested avoiding the use of the lectern when delivering a speech. She shared with us that one of her Professors used to say “Once you have not the lectern in front of you, you feel naked. Therefore, you better start feeling naked from the very beginning!”
Grace, who evaluated Ivone’s speech, made us notice that given the complexity of the project, Ivone resolved to speak about a character of History and she managed to show the character’s more simplified and humanized side. Grace took the Best Evaluator ribbon.
Vaishali, who evaluated Larry’s speech, directed her attention towards his emphasize on reading to improve the use of grammar, being consistent on the Toastmasters’ projects, and on practicing, practicing, practicing.
Bill gave a detailed general evaluation of the meeting. He gave precious advice on how to improve our public speaking and encouraged all participants to keep on practicing. Bill took the Best Program Manager ribbon.
The Motivation Award went to Larry Savell for stepping in as Grammarian and Speaker. Thank you, Larry!
We look forward to seeing you again! Next meeting will be on Monday 28th from 7:00 to 9:00pm at Coco’s Restaurant.
Let’s enjoy of a good week!