Inaugural Address

Fellow Toastmasters

Greetings!

We had elections today.  I offer a warm thanks to all our outgoing officers who did a good job in getting us where we are today.  A special thanks to Eric for guiding the ship this past year.  We would not be here today without their dedication and work.  I extend a special welcome to the new club officers.  Here is your line up:

Mike Angell - President
Nick Samoylov - VP Membership
Karen Lang - VP Education
Nate Wilkes - VP Public Relations
Don Lyman - Webmaster
Secretary - Cary Bradley
Treasurer - Tracy Goodman
Sergeant at Arms - Dan "The enforcer" Pratt

It is an honor and privilege to serve as your president elect.  Here's my personal mission statement:

1.  Service Leadership
"Let he who would be the greatest among you serve the rest."  Good leaders do not come to be served, but to serve.  My duty is to serve the best interests of the club and its members. 

2.  Develop Membership
My goal is to promote personal development by helping club members reach their individual goals.

3.  Have Fun
All work and no play makes for a dull club.  We're a fun club now.  Let's continue to support that!

4.  Nurture
Toastmasters should be a safe, nurturing, supportive environment where people feel as though they are among friends.  My goal is to build the confidence of each members, whatever their level of skill

I encourage all of you to send me ideas about how we can improve the club this year.  At the end of the day, I'm only the leader.  It's your club.  Let's strive for excellence in the coming year. 

Best regards

Mike Angell
President-elect

Meeting Ode

The Ides of May

---

The Ides of May
Are upon us
Spring is here
And New life dawns

A little sunshine
a little rain
both received
this glorious day

Karen Lang
was the Toastmaster
Bluebirds sang
from alabaster

Speaker One
Mister Don
gave his icebreaker
with dance and song

Speaker two
Cary Bradley
spoke of her mum
we hearkened gladly

Evaluator
General
was Mister Gary
What a pal

Eval one
and Eval two
were Miss Connie
and you know who

Table Topics
by The John Wierzba
he spun his tales
and received loud cheers.  Ya!

That's all for now
See you next week
We all excel
as each one speaks

~MPA
5/15/08

May Showers

May Showers

---

May Showers are here
Snow coming down
Old Man Winter
Is still in town

Slick Roads, yes
and icy streets
turn on those fog lights!
and turn up the heat!

Toasty Toastmasters
warm in their room
Did give eloquent speeches
their voices did boom

Come on there now
give us a grin
t'will soon be springtime
and flowers begin

To bloom and unfold
with quaint butterflies
emerge from cocoons
and take to the skies

Bees and their honey
sweeten our palate
kids and vacations
lighten our wallet!

Springtime in Colorado
Is but a moment away
So keep on, Toastmasters
plugging away

~MPA 05-01-08

Meeting Notes - MAY DAY

"If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to witness it does it make a sound?"

Does the observer alter the event?  Does an event occur if it is not observed?  Is observation of the results of an event justification for the assertion that it occurred?

Nick gave an interesting speech on Physics and the mis-application of Quantum Mechanics.  If I got it right, Quantum Mechanics is made up of a group of math formulas that describe events in the microscopic world.  These events behave in some strange ways when interpolated to our macroscopic world.  All x-scopic worlds are based upon the perception of the perceiver.  As a result of these dizzying perceptions many pop science, and pop psychologists have misused the strange interpretations to describe experiences that we create from our own perceptions .  We make our own reality, and justify it with the best explanations physicists provide at cocktail parties.  Nick suggested that they all should, STOP!, because they are just anamorphising a bunch of mathematical formulas.

I think I just made up a bunch of new words, and perhaps a theory or two while misrepresenting what Nick said.

After that I continued my run of stumping people with Table Topic questions.  Apparently, my mind just works differently than others.  My wife reminds me of this from time to time. 

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Next week....

Deron is Toastmaster

Eric Wales will give his Ice-Breaker

Eric Peterson will Evaluate Eric

We need lots of volunteers to fill....
General Evaluator
Speech #2
Evaluator #2

Table Topics

Word of the Day

Ah, Grammarian, Timer, Joke of the Day, Applause Captain, and Hookman.


D.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Meeting Ode 04-24-08

April o' April

April o' April
your end does draw nigh
Springtime is here
with relief we do sigh

April showers thou didst
pour forth to renew
the spring flowers that fled
from cold storms that we knew

Today our first speaker
and only one, its true
Was the Deron White
with historical views

Samson, yes Samson
strong man of yore
through Deron's spun tale
did live yet once more

Evaluation
done by yours truly
t'was simple fare, really
t'was only my duty

Table Topics were lead
by Mrs. Connie Pshigoda
eloquent speeches, Earth Day
and our friendly "green" quotas

April o' April
We will miss you so
with your gentle spring days
and cool breezes that blow

MPA
04-24-08

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Leadership

Leadership
What's in it for me
~By: Mike Angell

---

Fellow Toastmasters:

What is leadership?  Leadership is setting the course.  Leadership is putting others ahead of yourself.  Leaders do not come to be served, but to serve. 

Let he who would be the greatest among you serve the rest.

Leadership is not easy.  It requires time.  It requires talent.  It requires your brain.  Most of all it requires love.  You have to love the work.  You have to love what you do.  You have to care about the people that you are doing it for.

Empowerment?  Strategy?  Proactive?  All those things are tertiary.  They flow as a natural consequence of strong leadership. 

Do you have what it takes?  Are you interested in being a leader?  Invariably the question arises - "What's in it for me?"

1.  Personal development - You joined Toastmasters, at least in part, to develop your own speaking skills.  Consider weightlifting.  Do you get strong lifting itty, bitty weights, or do you get strong lifting heavy weights?  Is there pain?  You betcha.  In the end, you will find that you have grown and exceeded your own expectations.

2.  Friendships - Few things in life bring people together more than struggling for a common goal.  Think on your own life.  Are your closest friends born when things were good and comfortable for you?  Or was that friendship born in adversity? 

3.  Career Developement - Yes, that's right folks, at the end of the day each and every last one of us is in business for ourselves.  Some of us are entrepreneurs.  Some of us are wage earners.  Some of us are managers.  Regardless, everyone brings home a paycheck for their families.  Do you know what separates you from the field?  Do you know what makes the difference in an interview?  in the eyes of a potential employer?  a potential customer or client - COMMUNICATION SKILLS!!!!

Fellow Toastmasters I tell you in all sincerity empires have arisen and fallen based on their leaders communication skills.  No one here is trying to found an empire (except maybe John, just kidding)    None the less, you WILL notice a difference in your career.

Do you want to be a leader?  Do you have what it takes?  I encourage you to ask not only "What's in it for me?" but rather to ask "What's in it for the people near and dear to you?"

What's in it for them? The answer, fellow Toastmasters is......
 
A BETTER YOU!

See me if you're ready to step up.  Elections are in June.

Peace
~Mike

April 17, 2008 meeting notes

Our first-time off-site meeting location at EMC2, Dave Trzupek's office, was successful. Don L. gave his ice breaker so aptly for a TM newbie, and Dave T. represented his company's product--online storage services--with a persuasive speech that won us over.

Table topics evolved around change, the operative word today. "Docile" was the WOD and used by everyone. Best speaker went to Dave T., best evaluator, Deron, and TT, Janet.

Roles for next week, April 24,2008:
TM: Don Lymon
Speaker #1: Eric Wales (ice breaker)
Speaker #2: Deron White
Evaluator #1: Nathan will evaluate Eric W's speech
Evaluator #2: Open
Table topics: Open
General Evaluator: Open
Ah counter, grammarian, timer--all open

See you next week!