Elections - Vote Early, Vote Often

It is the time of year that we need to elect new officers. A ballot has been formed, but there is still space for members to get involved.

Here is the ballot as it currently stands...

President....................... Eric Peterson
VP of Education.............. Deron White
VP of Membership........... Position is open to volunteers
VP of Public Relations..... Nick Samoylov
Secretary & Treasurer...... Mike Angell
Sergeant at Arms............ Mike Stablein

No electioneering will be tolerated outside the voting room. Electioneering inside is acceptable. Anyone not in attendance risks nomination and confirmation. Anyone wishing to take on a leadership role is welcome to toss their name into the hat.

Table Topics for the upcoming meeting will be used to allow the prospective officers an opportunity to explain why they should not be elected.

Meeting Notes - May 25

Paul Sadowski stepped in and led the meeting as the day's Toastmaster. We listened to two speeches both from the advanced manual, Speeches by Management.

Guido Sullam gave his first speech with our club. Guido's presentation was on Risk Management. The presentation outlined an approach to measuring and prioritizing risk, followed by methods to address the risks.

Cary Bradley gave a speech on social responsibility standards. International Organization for Standards is developing the standards for social responsibility under topic number ISO 26,000.

The contestants for best speech received equal votes. Votes were split equally for the best evaluators as well. Everyone did an equally good job.

Eric Peterson split the prizes into equal parts and distributed to the co-winners.The TableTopics challenge was to support or defend such feckless propositions as, "Luster improving shampoo's should be banned from pet show competitions," or "Prize monies should be equal between winners of cat shows and dog shows." Mike Biggs took first prize for his argument supporting, "Cameras should be installed in Wash Park to stop speeding joggers."

What's On My Bookshelf - An Ice-Breaker

What's On My Bookshelf?

Imagine you found yourself alone in a stranger's house, and you want to know about the people who live there. What would you look at?

My wife, Serena, would look at the pictures. She always notices the pictures. My son and daughter would look for toys, or substitutes. Myself, I would look at the available reading material. One can learn a lot about people by what they read. Here is what you would learn about me, if you were to peruse the books in our family room.

First, you will notice that we are not the tidiest people. Scattered on the floor are children’s books, The Poky Little Puppy, Good Night Moon, and others. There are children here, which is my excuse for the sloppiness. I am the dad of Charlie and Ainsley; both share their parent's enjoyment of books. Neither has learned to pick up. As long as the kids continue to exhibit an interest in reading however, we are willing to tolerate a few books lying around.

Neater, but not quite tidy, are two stacks of books occupying opposite ends of the couch. At one end of the couch, you will find a neat stack of books with titles suggesting matters of romance, child rearing, and education. The romance novel gives away the owner of this stack. It belongs to Serena, who is, a teacher, a dedicated mom, and a fabulous wife.

At the other end of the couch is my stack of books. On top, for pure pleasure there is a copy of, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby, a hilarious book about a soccer fanatic. This is a fitting book for me because I am a huge soccer fan. I am a sports fan in general, but Soccer holds the top spot since I started playing when I was six and stopped at 35. I have since filled the void by coaching, participating as a Director of a local youth club, and by becoming an even more rabid fan.

Next in line, is a book entitled, A Short History of Nearly Everything. A work of pop science, it combines several of my interests. I have always loved ideas for their own sake, and their influence on events in history. I spent my undergraduate years tailoring my studies to the “intellectual history” niche of historiography. Science fascinates me. As with my interest in intellectual history, I am fascinated with how the progression of science affects society. This book scratches all those intellectual itches.

The third book is, The Bootstrapper's Bible. I manage a small mortgage company that my father started in 1991. Accounting, marketing, technology, and personnel all compete for space on my schedule. Sometimes it is the best job in the world. Other times it is misery. It is always a lesson. That is best part.

The final book is untitled. It is my notebook. Flipping, through the pages we find: to do lists, lists of goals, grocery lists. We also find, memories and the remnants of story ideas. I live a simple but evolving life. Inside my notebook, plans for the future compete for space with admonishments to, “Fix the disposal.” Many of the plans will never see the light of day. Sometime they do. For instance, inside, there is a resolutions-list containing the line, “Join Toastmasters. Learn to speak.”

Taken all together, I think, these books paint an accurate picture of me. I am: a father, a husband, a reader, a sports fan, perhaps a bit of a geek, a professional, and a learner. It is not a complete picture. I know. I, myself, am still watching, and waiting, for much of the rest to fill-in.

~2005

Meeting Summary in Verse - May 17

Meeting Summary

Eric Peterson

called to order

Toastmaster today:

That chair is yours, sir."

Speech One

From new member

Dave's Icebreaker

He's a risk taker

Speech Two

Janet Reese

"Assert yourself

with grace and ease!"

Evaluation

by Johnny Dubya

fast paced fun

for our club, y'all

Next up Stablien

with critique

a little humor

tongue in cheek

Table Topics

by yours truly

Little Bull

we hardly knew ye

Votes are in

Dave and Dan

and our man John

deserve a hand

That's all this week

Eric said

Thanks for joining

come again

Mike

Meeting Notes - May 17 - Raising the Bar

Eric Peterson was our Toastmaster for today's meeting. He introduced the theme for the meeting, "Raising the Bar." Eric's been working on a degree in electrical engineering, raising the bar for himself by furthering his education, his career, and, by getting straight A's. Eric noted that our participation in Toastmasters is an effort to raise the bar for ourselves personally, by improving through practice our speaking skills.

Congrous with today's theme, Dave Trzupek, won the Best Speech honor for his Ice Breaker. That is an achievement for his first speech. What set Dave's speech apart from most Ice Breaker's was his presentation. He didn't require notes. He appeared comfortable being in front of a room, moving about, engaging the audience with eye-contact, and utilizing body language. He demonstrated good vocal variety.

Janet Reese, gave an advanced speech from the Interpersonal Communications manual, that addressed being assertive. The speech offered a four point approach to being assertive in addressing a concern with other:

1. State the problem.


2. Explain your feelings


3. Specify a solution


4. Describe the benefits

Apparently, much of the assertiveness training I received on the Gilbert Elementary play-ground is no longer in vogue. I am convinced that this is a good thing.

Dan Pratt, took the honors for the best Table Topics. Mike Angell challenged the participants to tell a joke or draw from the tote. Dan chose to do both, he told a joke and then drew from Mike's bag-o-stuff a ice-scraper. Thinking quickly Dan demonstrated how an ice-scraper may be used to clean up kitty litter, or may be modified to attract attention in order to flag down cars when one is in need.

Good luck and good bye to Jenny...

Jenny Tybor, has taken a job that is intruding on her further participation with our club. While we are happy for her, we are sad for ourselves. Jenny did give credit to our group for her confidence in the job interview process. We wish Jenny luck, and hope she enjoys the new challenge. Mike Angell has shared his thoughts on Jenny's move with us....

An Ode to Jenny

An Ode to Jenny

Little Red Riding Hood

She was part of our club

at least while she could

Red headed Jenny

so sweet and so fair

We'll miss you at the meetings

We'll wish you were there

But tears of sorrow

become tears of joy!

Yes, we're happy for you

and your new employ

Health food and such

keeping us fit

Nutrition and such

You've got a knack for it

Jenny, Jenny

Don't forget us

Heck, join another club

if you wish to respect us

Jenny Jenny

Don't be a stranger

You're welcome anytime

We'll see you later

Mike

Meeting Notes - May 5th - The Bigg Save

Mike Biggs, our VP of Education, stepped in as today's Toastmaster, noting that he's charged with filling the roles for each meeting. The downside of this duty is that when no one steps forwards to fill a role he is called upon to step in. He stepped in ably, harmoniously combining this unplanned role with the planned role of Table Topics Master.

We were treated to two speeches today. First, John Wierzba gave an advanced story telling speech that addressed the perils of mis-communication resulting from our newest electronic medium. It was an excellent speech, well crafted, well rehearsed, and it took first place for the best speech today.

I gave the second speech, a speech from The Leadership Excellence Series, on Visionary Leadership.

Table Topics, were presented by Mike Biggs who asked a series of questions sharing the device, "Would you rather....?" As an example, Paul Sadowski answered the question, "Would you rather go to jail for a crime you didn't commit, or go to jail for a crime you did commit?" Paul replied, "He'd rather not go to jail, for a crime he didn't commit."

We had a guest today, Karen Lang, who we goaded - nicely of course - into participating in Table Topics. Karen spoke well and earned the prize for Best Table Topics. She was concerned she'd be nervous. We hope to hear more from her in the future.

Photos

Photos of members proved effective, especially the swearing in ceremony.

Mike

Meeting Notes - May 3rd - Good words from good eggs

Often times a Toastmaster will choose a theme for a meeting, something to set the tone, the mood, the ambiance, or just something to fill the dead air.

I was today's Toastmaster, and I attempted to wing it more than is usually advisable. Our good General Evaluator, Dave Trzupek, was generous with his evaluation. Surely, the criticism, "a printed agenda would be helpful," was justified.

Without theme or agenda, we moved right ahead with the speeches As a happenstance would have it, a theme emerged from the speeches.

Nick Samoylov started us off by telling us a tale of a search for Fabrege's riches. It seems a desperate search of the egg artist's apartment ended badly when the would-be hiding spot turned out to be something entirely, and humorously, different.

Mike Stablein was up next, and began his speech by having a conversation with some eggs boiling away in a pan. The eggs had one chief complaint, and that was, it is too hot in the boiling water. Mike spun from this the moral of his story, that when you are feeling, "too cooked," get out of the water, act and change your situation.

Gary Fuller then subjected the, heretofore unspoken members, to Table Topics based upon our commitments as Toastmaster members. The resulting speeches were personal in nature, sharing what the speakers have received from our toastmaster's experience, what we hope for, and what we can do to make the experience positive for others.

There was a brief induction ceremony at the end of the meeting when we officially swore in six new members. Many of the inductees have been around for a while, this being a ceremony that, in my estimation, occurs bi-annually.

We were very pleased to have Karen Mehringer, a recently published author, visit the club.

D.