An Ode to the Meeting

Toastmaster Meeting
Janet B. Reese
Assumed today's reins
and lead us
with ease

We had a new guest
yes it is true
Welcome.  Come join
us!
We're so glad to meet you!


Eric the Red
Speaker and
Seeker
Gave ode to benefits
restructures and tweaks here

Mister
Mike Angell
was speaker two
Far South Pole tales
dog sleds and
igloos

Evaluators
Connie and Dan
Connie? sheer grace!
Dan? A
wild man!

Table Topics were primed
Our own Tracy Goodman
flourished
in Springtime
and gave us a grin.

To wrap up Miss Janet
Evaluated
....herself!
a bit strange but true
and all in good health

Next
meeting is set
with speakers galore
Until then, Toastmasters
We'll see
you once more


03-27-08
MPA

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Why compete? March 27, 2008

Roles for next week April 3:
TM: Mike A.
Speakers: Don Lindgren (ice breaker) & Nathan Wilkes
Evaluators: Janet for Don, Eric P. for Nathan
Table Topics: Dan Pratt
Fill a role -- your choice: General evaluator, word of the day, grammarian, ah-counter, timer.

Today's meeting summary

We had a fun and full program today as our guest Dave Bovard observed. Eric Peterson won best speaker for his "company reorganization" briefing, Connie Pshigoda won best evaluator for her insights on Mike Angel's speech, and Mike A. won best tabletopics.

Toastmaster Janet Reese added her speech contest commentary:

Have you ever competed in a speech contest? If so, congratulations! If not, consider the challenge.

I competed in our area M5 contest last Saturday and was happy to win. Joyce Feustel of the Mid Day club won the speech contest and our own Mike Angel placed second.

Competing is a valuable experience--you speak before a larger audience in a competitive setting. Entering a contest, you help to make it more competitive by increasing the number of contestants from your club and area.

The time to prepare is now. Here's how:

The winning formula: Tell a story about an event, person or experience that impacted or changed your life. Motivate and inspire the audience with the lesson you learned that they could take away.

Tell us in 5-7 minutes (without using notes): The story, how you were you impacted, the lesson(s) you learned or the moral of the story.

Start now so you have a speech in your hip pocket by fall when another contest rolls around.

word of the day--- • egregious • ê-gree-jês • adjective
Flagrantly bad, outrageously offensive.
Rev. Wright’s sermons were egregious.

See you next week!

The Open House Meeting - March 20, 2008

Much thanks to the organizers, the open house meeting was fantastic.  There were lots of people, lots of food, and the meeting went well.

Nick Samoylov ran the meeting as our Toastmaster.  The theme was, "What has Toastmasters done for you?" 

I did not answer this question in the meeting, but I'll add this note today:

For me there were a string of events all of which screamed, "You need to learn to speak in front of a crowd."  The one that sticks out most in my memory was a presentation I gave for a graduate level class in accounting.  I was the last speaker in a string of speakers.  I was speaking on an analysis I had performed on State Street Bank and Trust financial statements.  I was bored.  The other speeches were boring.  My speech was going to be boring.  The information was boring.  There just was not much to get excited about.  

As I said, I was last to speak, and so I got up in front of a lecture hall full of sleepy people who looked as bored by it all as I was.  My expectation was that not one of them cared what I said.  There was nothing I could say that would make it interesting.  The well was so poisoned by previous presenters that I could not possibly enliven the crowd. I looked up at the group, and I froze.  All I could think was, "don't look at me."  I pulled my self together and went through the motions.  It was painful.

The next class was a continuation of this one, and we listened to several more presentations that were just as exciting as the last.  Finally, the last guy to speak gave a presentation on the financial statements of Coors.  He used a Power Point presentation as many other had done, but unlike the others he didn't use it as a crutch.  He used it to lighten the mood.  Choosing to use pictures rather than bullet point lists.  The images ended up being a visual tour of Coors operation with him providing a financial tour to go along with it.  It was brilliant.  It was the only presentation that I can recall from the two days of listening to presentations. 

It was quite some time after that class that I actually joined a Toastmasters group.  Here's what I have learned that addresses the issue I had back in that classroom.  The problem I had was that I didn't think anybody wanted to listen to me, I couldn't think why they would, and it didn't occur to me that I could try to overcome this problem.  Toastmasters has helped me address that outlook.  Practice helps, it gives confidence, it helps build your expectation of how the audience will react.  Preparation helps.  Thinking about your audience and how you will engage them is something that you can't wait until the last minute to address.  Practice and preparation are part of an equation that ends with confidence.  With practice and preparation I'm confident, at least more than I ever was, that I can provide a reasonably good speech.  At least I don't want to run for the door anymore.  That's what Toastmasters has done for me.

Our visitors were treated to two very good speeches.  Connie Pshigoda gave an entertaining speech about, "Making Your Own Tracks," which had a very good message about not just following the ruts laid down by others.  Eric Peterson gave a motivational speech entitled "Why Are You Not a Toastmaster Yet?"  Which is a good question, if you're reading this and you aren't one, that's a sure sign you should join up.  Everyone improves with practice.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Table topics or speech

To all,

I can do either table topics or my ice breaker speech.

Regards,

Eric Wales

---

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

Open House Invitation Thurs March 20

Triskelion Toastmaster Open House
March Madness
Phonetics, Food & Fun!
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
11:45 a.m.

---

Triskelion Toastmasters is pleased to invite you to our Open House on Thursday, March 20, 2008, located at the Shaw building, 9201 E. Dry Creek Rd.  Meet in the lobby (west entrance) at 11:30 a.m. where you'll be greeted by a Toastmaster. Our meeting is held from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. 

Please join us for orations, quotations and conversation. Come for the free food.  Come for the fun.  Come learn what being a Toastmaster is all about.  We're a non-profit group dedicated to improving our public speaking skills in the personal and professional arenas.  Speakers of ALL levels are welcome.  

Please RVSP via email to our Club Secretary at Mikeangco@aol.com or contact our club President, Eric Peterson at 303-741-7239 for more details.  If you cannot attend our Open House on March 20th, you are most welcome to attend a future meeting, we meet every week, on Thursday from 11:45 to 12:45.


See you there!

Triskelion Toastmasters