July 26 Meeting Notes

"The hills are alive with abundant wildflowers," toastmaster Janet Reese proclaimed.

Head to the mountains this weekend and check out the beautiful flora including alpine columbine, Indian paintbrush and wild rose. To identify the specimens you'll see, use a wildflower guide. Or, you can use the meeting agenda decorated with common wildflowers.

Speaker Nathan Wilkes kept us in stitches as he described the benefits of "going glossy" (shaving his head by choice). He gets more respect with a glossy head, he's more sexy, and urges us all to try it for two weeks.

Speaker Deron White interpreted several monologues from the Spoon River Anthology. The voices came from the souls of the departed speaking of their lives while sleeping on the hill. Scary! Ghosts actually attended our meeting.

Mike Stablein, with a full head of hair, evaluated Nathan's glossy speech. Eric Peterson evaluated Deron's monologue. Both speakers received high marks; Nathan won best speaker. Mike won best evaluator.

Luyane Trujillo provided table topics inspired by "365 plays in 365 days." Her questions were thought provoking, indeed. Luckily, no one had to act out a play.

Mike Angel, general evaluator, gave us a few tips for improvement. Here's one: include the speech time when introducing the speakers, so the timer knows when to flash the lights.

Next week's lineup includes speakers Carey Bradley and Mike Stablein, evaluators Eric Peterson and Luyane Trujillo, toastmaster Mike Angel and table topics by James. Check out the schedule for open roles and consider one.

Remember to stop and smell the wildflowers! See you next week.

My contest experience

My speech contest experience, in a few words, was eye opening. First, it was
"Wow! I can do it!". Second, it was "Wow! Other speakers are so good!"
Third, it was "Oh, it hurts to lose! I will never ever do it again!" and,
forth, it was "I will do it every time I will have a chance again."

From just repeating the same speech several times in front of the different
audience I got a chance to try different techniques and learn what works and
when and what does not work at all (strange, are they deaf?!). It was
striking to see that different audiences react differently to the same
words, how timing of the punch line can kill the phrase or bring down the
house. I tried pauses of different lengths. I tried my voice at different
volume and variety. I projected different level of energy in different
places of the speech. I tried many things and got a lot of experience.

I saw other speakers co-oping with similar problems. My alertness of a
participant helped me to observe how other speaker deal with the same
issues. I learned from that too. How to do and how not to do things.

I got exposed to a few sec of glory and the dark hole of failure, and
learned how to deal with each of them. The last one was not easy. I was
surprised how "obvious" for me was that "the judges were unfair", when they
did not select me as a winner. Than I learned from my failure even more than
from my victories.

Overall, these few competitions (I went up to the division level only) made
me feel I learned more than from the first ten speeches. Very similar
statements and experiences I have heard from many other participants.
Actually, I heard it from every one I talked to. And I got to know so many
new and interesting people, with some of whom we continue to develop
friendship now - long time after the contest is over.

That is why I am going to do it again and again - every time I can. And I
encourage everybody - new and experienced toastmasters - go ahead, give it a
shot, it worth the pain of failure.

Good luck to you!
Nick

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Meeting Notes - July 19th Flitch Day

I found this little tidbit on the Freakonomics website...

July 19 is Flitch Day, a surviving relic from Medieval England in which married couples appear before a "mock court." Those who can prove that they had "lived in harmony and fidelity" for the past twelve months were awarded a flitch, defined as a "salted and cured side of bacon." According to Thinkquest.org, "very few [couples] 'took home the bacon.'"

We didn't hold a mock court, but we did have an interesting table topics, presented by Tracy Goodman, revolving around the frustrations of the work place. It occurs to me that if we liken our work to a marriage between us and our employers the flitch would never be awarded. The spice of life is drawn from our experiences, and salted and cured bacon is a poor substitue.

We were treated to two very good speeches. Mike Angell provided us with an interpretive reading that lent us advice on finding harmony in our relationships. A careful study and attention to the details of the reading could lead us to earning a flitch, assuming the concurrence of our partners.

As Mike's evaluator, I missed all of Luayne's speech, as I toiled over my evaluation duties. I did get this much. There was a lot of laughter. Since Luayne was giving a speech from the Entertainment, I gather by the response that she hit her mark. It is a mis-fortune that I remain unable to do two things at one time.

We finished up the meeting by inducting Nathan Wilkes and Tracy Goodman to the club.

Meeting Notes - July 12

Dave Trzupek started kicked off the speeches for the meeting presenting his third speech from the CC Manual. Dave spoke on his passion for scuba diving. Dave shared some of his insights into the world of scuba diving and some of his personal experiences.

Mike Stablein also spoke from the CC manual and was charged with persuading with power. Mike's speech title, "Watch your sword," describes the device he used to persuade us to watch our swords. That is, to watch our tongues, which have the power to cut as a sword. Few people could disagree with this bit of advice.

Cindy Castilow stepped in at the last minute and presented Table Topics for the group.

Next week....
Eric Peterson will lead the meeting as Toastmaster. Mike Angell will be speaking, and we have room for another speaker, as well.