From Diane. . .

We had a terrific meeting last week! Jane was Toastmaster, I was General Evaluator and Clock Watcher, and Kelly was the grammarian.

Sarah was the key note speaker and did her first project out of an advanced manual.

• Sarah spoke about her profession, graphic design, and taught us the basics of planning for a graphic design project.
• She allowed us to immediately use what we learned by directing us in creating a no-budget garage sale sign.
• I personally learned some things about basic graphic design projects (including email formats) that I will use regularly.
• Annie was Sarah’s formal evaluator, and is quickly becoming a club leader in providing speech evaluations.

Milt was the table topics master.

• He asked Annie, “What Was I Thinking?” and directed her to speak about a time when she lacked fashion sense. Annie had the winning response telling us about fashion mistakes forever captured in photographs.
• Milt asked Jane “What Was I Seeing?” and directed her to speak about art. She told us about textile art that consistently grabs her attention.
• Finally, he asked Kelly “What Was I Wearing?” It should not be a surprise to any of us that our former Texan member likes cowboy hats and baseball hats.

Jane also gave all of us the opportunity to discuss Election Stories as our theme was elections. It seems we all had an interesting story to tell about past voting experiences. The WOD was truculent.

SUAO Toastmasters Meeting summary 10/20/09

Members Present: Milt, Kelly, Diane, Annie, Sarah
Guests Present: None

Due to an event happening in our usual meeting space, we gathered in the street level coffee shop at The Cookie Cart. Toastmaster Sarah called the meeting to order at approximately 6:40 pm. (The late start should not be viewed as a lack of skill on Sarah's part. She graciously allowed our conversations to finish, recognizing the therapeutic value of deep belly laughter and venting among friends.)

Kelly offered a stunning speech about homophobia, encouraging her audience members to consider where homophobia may be revealing itself in their own life. We provided a round robin evaluation for Kelly's speech.

Diane served as Table Topics Master, and offered a unique twist on this exercise: we answered questions Diane had been asked by her three-year-old daughter!

Milt answered "Are you South America?"
Kelly answered "Why do you go to Toastmasters? What do you do there?"
Annie answered "Is the sun a boy or a girl?" and was awarded a promissory note for the ribbons.

In business, Kelly noted that Table Topics ribbons and Sarah's nametag have both been ordered.

The meeting ended at 7:29 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Annie Rubin
General Evaluator

Taking Care of Our Health

We now have an acting president! Darr has agreed to step in for the rest of this year.

Thanks to Kimberly for being last night's toastmaster. Her chosen theme was Taking Care of Our Health, she's looking toward her upcoming vacation and asked that we not shake hands with her. With bows to smiles and mime routines, the podium was passed from one speaker to the next.

Annie shared the ABCs of Coming Out/Self-Disclosure. Correcting the assumptions about what people believe of you involves a certain amount of uncertainty, keep in mind the following. What is your Attitude about coming out to in each circumstance? What is your Belief about this personal attribute? And how do you believe it will turn out? Confidence, do you have any? And finally, Do it.

In Diane J's family, they don't hit. But in many families they do. With alarming statistics, the warning signs and patterns, Diane explored the topic of Domestic Violence. She also described about how to help and how frustrating it can be to talk to victims of domestic violence.

For table topics, Jane talked about herself and asked connected questions:

• Sarah talked about coming out to her sisters;
• Nancy answered the question about being put on the spot, and then talked about how hidden and surprising domestic violence can be; and
  
• Milt described his very busy day, for which he treated himself to ice cream and coffee (which won him the IOU ribbon).

Fraught was the very popular Word of the Day; nearly everyone used it, some more than once.

Please remember to turn off your cell phone ringer before the meeting starts.

Thanks,
Sarah
General Evaluator

Ownership of Your Thoughts

Thanks to Kimberly for being last night's toastmaster, complete with a theme: Ownership of Your Thoughts.

Sandy gave her Ice-Breaker speech. For those of you who weren't there, you missed not only a fantastic speech, but a wonderful peak inside Sandy's pretty cool past. Sandy, we're looking forward to many more of your speeches!

Diane J. graced us with a speech about -- what else? -- how to say it. We learned about word choice, and why specific words have specific meanings (homosexual, mom, etc.)

Sarah handed out three random table topics questions:

• Annie spoke about reconnecting with her inner-self
• Jane pontificated about awkward lunches; and
  
• FYI all -- Kimberly is afraid of snakes sharks (which won her the IOU ribbon).

The WoD was Transition (used as a verb and a noun); Diane J., Sandy, and myself used it.

Thanks,
Jane
General Evaluator

Late Summary!

And just a wee late, here is a meeting summary from the previous meeting:

It was another speech marathon! Thanks to Diane for toastmastering the evening for us.

I did a speech on a lawsuit I'm working on, Milt talked about (and showed us) the history of hats, Darr, Kimberly, Diane, and Kelly gave wonderful speeches on topics which I can no longer remember (sorry folks), and Sarah gave her 10th (whoo-hoo Sarah!) speech on the importance of saying 'yes,' and 'no.' It was a great evening - get ready for the next speech marathon!

The WoD was parity, and I mis-used it once.

Thanks!
Jane, general evaluator

Meeting Notes: September 22

Though we were small in number, we had a FUN and productive meeting. Sarah was our Toastmaster and performed her duties excellently. Her theme was fall and she invited us to tell stories about either autumn or falling. She wrote the agenda on the board and was efficient and making changes and finding members to fill in for open roles. Jane was our key note speaker. She is working on an advanced manual and her goal was to entertain us. She succeed in her goal by presenting a humorous speech on how to be an ineffective advocate for clients. Her tone, demeanor, and word usage was very serious, which lent and fascinating twist to her presentation. Kimberly was our Table Topics Master and asked questions based on current events. I answered her question as to if the congressman blurting out “you lie” during Obama’s speech to congress was racially motivated. Sandy spoke about how her place of employment is preparing for H1N1. And Sarah told us about her best Halloween. Sandy won the coveted award for table topics and has her name forever inscribed on a SUAO paper toast. Doubling up on duties was myself as the speech evaluator and Jane as grammarian. The word of the day was “conflate.”

Diane J.

Meeting Notes: September 8

We had a wonderful meeting last night. Our theme, introduced by the Toastmaster, Darr, was beginnings and endings. Darr brought humor to the changes in the schedule, including the unfortunate absence of some of our scheduled speakers. Sarah presented her 9th speech. She is a step away from becoming a Competent Communicator. She asked us, the audience, to collectively be her supervisor and she asked us for a raise. She explained eloquently why she deserved a higher income. Nancy, in her evaluation, granted the raise effective immediately. Alexandra presented some FUN table topics on quizzical things that keep her up at night. Scott was asked why it’s a penny for your thoughts, but you are asked to give your two cents worth. Milt was asked why the word abbreviated is so long. And the winner of Table Topics, Annie, was asked how the keep off the grass signs get on the grass in the first place. Her answer was mythical flying custodians. That created great imagery for me, a cross between a stereotypical custodian and Tinker Bell. Annie was able to pull that off while keeping excellent track of everyone’s times. Scott did an excellent job as first time grammarian. His word of the day was a French word (he’s a French instructor – who knew?), soupcon, which means a small amount. If you want to know how to pronounce that, ask him next time you see him. The meeting started and ended on time. There were no guests present, and no members present that have not been mentioned previously in the summary, with the exception of myself.

Diane J.