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.