Meeting Notes - 4 December 2008

The Holiday Season is in full swing. That means much partying and roistering about.

The Triskelion Toastmaster's meeting on the 4th was no exception. We were all treated to speeches by Mike Angel and Brendan McMillan. Mike gave an advanced speech on how to be a Distinguished Toastmaster. Brendan gave his Ice-Breaker speech. Both speeches were very enjoyable and well presented.

The theme of the evening was "Holiday Parties" and Table Topics followed on that thread. Our members acquitted themselves well in answering question such as: "How do you politely decline a Holiday Party invitation from your boss?"; Or, "How do you include people of various religious traditions?; Or, "How do you handle a situation where your bosses wife is a little too friendly with you? The answers were clever, enlightening, and entertaining.

Up next week we have a near full slate of speaking engagements and a few openings for others to step into:

Toastmaster: Don Lyman
General Evaluator: Deron White

Word of the Day: Linda Holm

Speakers:
Dave Trzupek
Connie Pshigoda

Evaluators:
Mike Angel
TBD

Table Topics: Julie Williams

Ah Counter/Grammarian: Dan Pratt
Timer: TBD

Triskelion Toastmasters 11-20-2008

The Word of the day was appreciativeness

Toastmaster Eric lead the way today. Speaker one was the Notorious Dan Pratt who shared with us holiday laughs and witty thanksgiving puns. Thanks a Lot, Dan.

Speaker two was new member Jim Stephens. Jim regaled with Thanksgiving stories of Food, Family and Football. After emphasizing the true meaning of the holiday, including historical and spiritual perspectives, Jim left us with a call to action - watch football!

Evaluators were Linda, Connie and Mike respectively. Gary tackled table topics with his Thackerayan enthusiasm.

Reminder: No meeting next week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday!

Roles for December 4th are as follows:

Toastmaster: Deron
WOD: open
Speaker 1: Mike
Speaker 2: Brendan
GE: Connie
Eval 1: Julie
Eval 2: Gary
Table Topics: Carolyn
Ah Counter/Grammarian Eric
timer: open

Please sign up for a role. If you signed up for a role and I missed it, please let me know.

Triskelion Toastmasters 11-13-2008

Triskelion Toastmasters
Meeting Summary
11-13-08

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Today's meeting was lead by yours truly. Our word of the day was Imperativeness, a noun that means urgently demanding attention.

We were blessed with two ice breakers today.

First, new member Carolyn told us about her life and times as a corporate attorney. She has also spent a great deal of time managing non-profits and fundraising. In response to her glowing speech, out next meeting is scheduled to be a black tie event at Del Frisco's. Bring your spouses. Silent auction to follow table topics. Just kidding.

Second, new member Jim Stephens told about his life beginning in Alabama. Jim is a journeyman that worked with NASA. He personally had a hand in putting the Saturn C5 rocket into orbit. Rumor has it Jim has political ambitions. Perhaps he and Nate can compare notes. Jim won best speaker.

Speeches were evaluated by Brendan and Ed respectively. Brendan won best evaluator. Ed countered with a win as Best Table Topic speaker. Table Topics were lead by the illustrious (notorious?) Dan Pratt.

Our guest today was Eric's cubicle neighbor, Suzanne.

Roles for next week:

Toastmaster: Eric
Speech 1 - Julie
Speech 2 - Dan
General Eval - Linda
Eval 1 - Mike
Eval 2 - Open
Table Topics - Cindy
Timer - Open
Ah Counter - Open
Grammarian - Open
Word of the Day - Connie

Good meeting everyone.

Reminder: No meeting Thanksgiving day. Although you are free to dazzle your family with a speech before carving the turkey.

~Mike

Toastmasters 11-06-2008

Meeting Notes from November 6, 2008

Meeting Theme: Post Election Blues (or Reds)

Word of the Day: Resolution

Toastmaster was David Trzupek and he opened with his thoughts about the election by borrowing lyrics from J Giels Band “I’ve had the blues, the reds and the pinks and as a Republican, this past election stinks!”

Dave did congratulate Barack Obama but he still wonders why if a black man from Chicago can become President of the US then why can’t the Chicago Cubs get into the World Series?

Our first speaker for the meeting were Jason Carty who gave his ice-breaker by starting out with the bold statement of “I have failed” which was not quite like Martin Luther King Jr “I have a dream” but got our attention.

Our second speaker was our club President, Mike Angell. Who inspired us all to volunteer to speak and be active in TM. He used colorful sports analogies and makes me want to run out and give a bunch of speeches.

Karen Lang and John Wierzba provided insightful, helpful and sound evaluations.

Table Topics were provided by Linda Holm and she did a great job of getting us to provide our off the cuff responses to her questions to describe the meaning of common metaphors and phrases.

Our best speaker was Mike Angell, our best evaluator was Karen Lang and our table topics best was Eric Peterson.

Thanks for a great meeting!

Toastmasters 10-30-2008

Change: It’s A Constant

Toastmaster Connie Pshigoda opened today’s meeting with nine members and two guests. The theme for the day was Change. It’s all around us but often we fail to acknowledge or appreciate it.

Gary Fuller stepped up as Speaker informing us of the traits of a Spokesperson. He opened by asking his audience to recall a memorable spokesperson. His speech project came from the Advanced Speaker Manual on Leadership.

Eric Peterson effectively evaluated Gary’s speech.

Linda Holm opened the way for all kinds of crazy Table Topic tales from our Halloween memories. Don Lyman took the award for the best tale of his 15 minutes of fame as a “rock-star-turned-clown.”

Todd Rys challenged us with the Word of the Day: Perfunctory.

Welcome visitors, Robert and Jason! Please visit us again.

Next week’s roles:

GE-Eric Peterson

Speaker #1 – Mike Angel

Evaluator #1 – Karen Lang

The meeting closed with encouraging lyrics from Jimmy Buffett’s song: Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude: Keep laughing! Keep changing!

Toastmasters 10-23-2008

Toastmasters was held in our spacious and comfortable new meeting room. For all who felt cramped in the old room you will be much more relaxed in the new setting.

Dave Trzupek showed us the way to survive these turbulent economic times with an informative speech. His five steps of action gave us all a way to take some control of our future.

Dave was evaluated by Ed Johnson.

Next, Karen Lang gave the 10th speech from the CC book focused on inspiring your audience. Congratulations to Karen for completing her Competent Communication manual. She now plans to focus on helping each of us reach our goals in her role as VP of Education.

Karen was evaluated by Connie Pshigoda.

During Table Topics each person talked about a time in their childhood when they got into trouble. Gary Fuller told us of a time when his brothers, friends, and he were playing army and launching grenades (rock) at each other. Gary's rock found its mark and sealed his fate.

For next week’s meeting, Connie will be our Toastmaster and Linda will be our Table Topics Master. All other roles are open. See you then!

Best Regards,
Don Lyman

Triskelion Toastmasters Thursday 10-2-2008

Here are the meeting notes from Triskelion Toastmasters Thursday 10-2-2008 meeting,

Toastmaster was Eric Peterson

Speaker today was Todd Rys who did his icebreaker and told us of fun childhood memories of family vacations that stretched from “90 minutes north of Mexico to 90 minutes south of Canada” and wound up at a ranch in Montana with plenty of outdoor fun.

Todd was evaluated by Julie Williams.

Table Topics were hosted by Dan Pratt who had tell stories of head games, sports games or table games. Gary Fuller won best table topic for a story of tackling his opponent in football, a play that ultimately caused a 30 yard gain for the other team. J

Mike Angell was General Evaluator.

Roles for next week include:

TM Julie Williams

Sp 1 Dan Pratt

Ev1 open