Thursday - February 28th - Meeting Notes & things to come

"Well, here's another nice mess you've got me into!"

• Nathan Wilkes commanded the meeting. Leading us onward with an Oscar's theme. In honor of the oscars, extra points were given for the use of movie quotes.
• Dan Pratt gave his second speech from the CC manual. It was very interesting, introducing us to the disign work that Dan does. The material was techinical, but delivered with Dan's excellent humor, and a visit from the Governator.
• Deron told a touching story, that contained no movie quotes.
• Eric Wales, took on the roll of Table Topics Master, doing an excellent job giving questions that gave the participants plenty of material to speak on.

The next two week we are having a contests. Members interested in the speech contest should start working on their speeches now. You have two weeks. Next week will be the Table Topics Contest.

We have room for one speech, and rumor has it Karen Lang had expressed an interest.

I invite would-be contestants to submit their names by Monday.

I'll be the Toastmaster for the meeting.

We shall also need an evaluator, a general evaluator, and several people to act as judges.

Good luck

Meeting Notes - February 21st.

Nathan Wilkes, jumped out of a plane.  He did so on purpose.  He landed safely, which I am sure, was a great relief to him, and it made for a great speech.

 

We like dedication in Toastmasters.  The clubs purpose is to help improve communication and leadership skills.  We do this through the practice of setting goals, acting upon those goals, working hard to write, prepare, and deliver speeches, and helping each other by providing feedback.   Sometimes it is difficult to think of something to write.  I discourage others from performing dangerous acts in order to obtain material.  Jumping out of planes is taking the dedication too far.  It did make for an excellent speech, though.

 

Mike Angel followed Nate's jumping story with a humorous missive on the true value of money.  Mike's speech was from the "Humorously Speaking" manual, and his goal was to open the speech with a humorous story, and end the speech with a humorous story, both stories were to support a theme.  His stories did, and a good laugh was had at the expense of Lucky Jack his protagonist.

 

Eric Peterson challenged us all with Table Topics that were very entertaining.  Nick, it turns out, is, or was, every bit the dare devil as Nate is. 

 

Next week...

 

Toastmaster: Nathan Wilkes

General Evaluator: Eric Peterson

 

Speakers:

Deron White

Dan Pratt

Evaluators:

John Wierzba

We need a second evaluator.

Table Topics: Eric Wales

 

We also need:

Timer, Ah-Counter, Grammarian, and a Word du Jour.

 

E-mail myself, and Nate with changes, conflicts, worries, funny stories, and roles you would like to fill.

Happy Valentine's Day Meeting

Have you ever wanted to create your own Valentine's Day card? We had the chance today. Table Topics master Connie Pshigoda asked us to create a message inspired by eclectic objects in her grab bag. We gave Hallmark card company some stiff competition. Our poet literaute Mike Angel won for his impromptou poem inspired by a hammer. Yes, that's the tool used to pound nails!

We welcomed guests Brendon McMillian and Don Lindgren. Our red-sweater clad Toastmaster Dave T. tempted and inspired us with Valentine's chocolate kisses and trivia. Speaker Karen Lang challenged us to consider why we attend Toastmasters using the "Emergenetics" model while Mike Angel told us the legend of the infamous scout aviator Red Baron. Mike won best speaker.

Evaluators John Wierzba and Gary Fuller offered constructive tips to our speakers and also pointed out their strengths. Gary won best evaluator.

General evaluator Janet Reese connoted (the word of the day) a few suggestions for next time--fill all the roles in advance and save interpersonal discussions for post meeting. Speaking of next time, consider an open job below or prepare for the one you have.

Lineup for Feb. 21:
Toastmaster: Nick S.
Speakers: Nathan Wilkes and Mike Angel
Evaluators: Dave T. and Deron White.
Table Topics: Eric Peterson
General Evaluator: John W.
Grammarian/ah-counter: Connie P.
Timer: you?
Word of the day: you?

See you next week!

General Evaluators Notes from February 7, 2008

Winter Wonders

It's a little known fact that birds flying low is a harbinger of a storm, and that a breast bone from a goose may indicate what kind of winter we're in for.  Don't believe me?   You should ask Connie Pshigoda.  Connie our Cordon Bleu source of plains wisdom lead the Triskelion Club's meeting today.  She kept us on task and moving through the meeting, while filling the spaces with information from the theme she chose for today, Winter Weather Oddities and Other Folklore.

 

Speeches

 

We listened to speeches by Dave Trupek and Mike Angel. 

 

Dave spoke on Stagflation "lite" using a chart Dave demonstrated that while the economy is experiencing mild inflation, and a slow down, it hasn't quite hit stagflation.  Certainly, not the stagflation the US experienced during the 70's.  Nick noted, and this is a lesson to other Toastmasters, that Dave dressed the part of a professional.  Appearance is not an item we often criticize, but it can't be ignored how effective dressing the part can be when delivering a speech.

 

Mike Angel shared the story of his incarceration with us.  A blue streak of a tale that began with the purchase of a puppy, followed by losing the puppy, to finding the puppy at the shelter, to discovering an unpaid fine, to visiting the Grey Bar Hotel, and back home to his puppy.  What wouldn't you do for "Man's Best Friend."

 

Definitions

 

Gary Fuller treated us to a different sort of Table Topics today.  We played a game.  We had to give a definition for suderific, or psuedorific, or sudorific, or sederific; we didn't know which, but we had to give a definition in any case.  Then we were to guess who gave the proper definition.  Dave Trzupek was the man on the inside, providing the proper definition for sudorific, which sounded implausible at the time. 

 

Guests

 

We were pleased to be joined by Mr. Steve Gollob.  Steve bravely joined in with the Table Topics.  We look forward to seeing Steve again.

 

Next Week - Roles and Needs:

• Dave Truzpek may be Toastmaster, if anyone would be so kind as to understudy for him it would be appreciated.
• Nick will be the General Evaluator
• Karen Lang is scheduled to speak.
• Nathan Wilkes will be giving his 4th speech
• John Wierzba will evaluate
• Gary Fuller will as well.
• Connie Pshigoda will provide the table topics
• Dan Pratt will utilize his engineers training to provide timing accurate to within .000001 second.
• The Grammarian Role is available
• As is Ah Counter
• As is Word of the Day

D.

More notes from TLI, Jan. 19, 2008

Deron and I (Janet) presented a workshop at Saturday's TLI held at Johnson and Whales culinary school campus near Stapleton. I'll give you my handout at the next meeting.

I felt like we should have given a food demo, but we didn't. I saw our fearless president Eric Peterson there as well as PR VP Dave Truzpek and membership VP Nick Samoylov. I would estimate that several hundered TMs were in attendance despite the snowy holiday weekend.

At the plenary session, a guest TM honcho stressed "friends never let friends give non-manual speeches." In other words, everyone is required to give manual speeches at Toastmasters meetings. That should be easy to do given the wide variety of speech manuals available to those who have completed their first 10 speeches.

TM merchandise like manuals, books, ribbons, etc., was available for sale. I found an interesting advanced manual that I plan to tackle. I have to involve fellow TMs, and you may be one of them!

I highly recommend TLI, especially for officers' training. But any member can gain new insights about running meetings, recruiting and retaining members and speaking eloquently.

Notes from TLI

Competent Leader Program Termination:June 30th, 2008 is the deadline for "grandfathered" Toastmasters who are working under the old Competent Leader program. Member's who have not completed the Competent Leader under the old program will have to complete the new program to obtain the Competent Leader.

Advanced Leader Bronze Members who have their Competent Leader are considered to be equivalent to having obtained the new designation of Advanced Leader Bronze, and may begin working on the Advanced Leader Silver Award.

Assigned Roles This is a hotly debated topic in the VP of Education class. Some clubs do it, others don't, the ones who do it like it, because it increases efficiency. Others say it drives members away. Triskelion's have talked about this from time to time, and will continue to. Feedback on this subject is requested.

Meeting Notes - January 17

Nick Samoylov commanded today's meeting as Toastmaster. January 17th is the birth date of Benjamin Franklin, and he served as the theme for today's meeting. Nick filled the dead air with interesting facts about Ben, and even brought in an omnibus containing all of Mr. Franklin's Almanac's for members and guests to peruse.

A little known event, that was omitted, is that Ben liked to wear a towel on his head, as seen in the picture to the left. No one knows why. It is suspected that Ben, a constant experimenter, had an accident with a new hair dye he had been developing utilizing some left over ink from the presses. Always ready to announce his successes, but contumacious about his failures, Ben chose to wear a towel without explanation. When asked about it, he'd respond contemptuously, "Well, what are you hiding under that wig buster?"

Mike Angel did the heavy lifting today providing our one prepared speech. With this speech Mike completed his first Advanced Manual, the Interpretive Reading Manual. The assignment was to present a famous speech. Mike presented Patrick Henry's, "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death, a speech that Patrick Henry delivered to Virginia's House of Burgesses. It was a pleasure hearing the speech in it's entirety. The catchphrase is no shibboleth, but the culmination of a well reasoned and well argued position. Mike did a very good job presenting the speech stepping outside of his soft spoken style to project the force and passion of the words.

Eric Peterson was our Table Topics master, and in the spirit of Ben's birthday provided us with questions based on facts about Ben Franklin.

As General Evaluator I, Deron White, did my summing up. Nick did an excellent job running the meeting. My main critique is that we have fallen into the habit of running past 12:45. As a lunch club of professionals this is critical: starting on time is human; finishing on time is divine.

Next week:

We will be treated to a speech by Dave Trzupek with Janet Reese evaluating. Mike Angel has stepped forward to ply us with Table Topics. Deron White will be Toastmaster. That leave the following roles to be filled:

• General Evaluator
• Speaker #2
  
• Word of the Day - or even Joke of the Day
• Ah-Dinger (counter)
  
• Grammarian
• Timer

Please e-mail me as Toastmaster if you wish to fulfill a role.