Meeting Notes - 11 December 2008

It's the week of Pearl Habor Day, so let's review President Roosevelt's Infamy Speech from a Toastmaster's perspective.

• At just six and a half minutes it would fit perfectly into a typical Toastmaster's speech.
• Roosevelt captures our attention with his first sentence: "yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
• He imparts a strong emotional impact and inspires twice as many people to volunteer for service than Woodrow Wilson's speech for WWI
• He uses short sentences and groupings of three: "Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger."
• Roosevelt uses rhetorical devices. It's poetic how he lists the Japanese attacks.

Dave kicked off our speeches with an informative speech on sales persuasion. He recruited Dan to role play in order to demonstrate how it works. Connie gave a very entertaining speech about a family road trip to the Texas Panhandle involving calf fries, skunks, and practical jokes with snakes.

Julie hit us with some tough situational questions for Table Topics. Jason won best table topic speaker by adroitly handling the "What would you do if..." problem.

Linda brought the word of the day: indelible - 1. making marks that cannot be erased, 2. that cannot be eliminated, forgotten, changed.

Our last meeting of 2008 will include:

• Toastmaster: Mike Angel
• Speaker: Linda Holm
  
• Speaker: Don Lyman
  
• General Evaluator: Gary Fuller

Our first meeting of 2009 will feature:

• Speaker: Julie Williams
  
• Speaker: Cindy Castilow