Meeting Minutes - August 30th

Meeting Theme: New Beginnings

Toastmaster
Your Toast host: Gary Fuller

Word of the Day
Vocabulary Dose: Infuse

Special Guests:
Dan
New Member: Heidi

Speakers
Orators Grandiose:
Karen "always leave 'em wanting more" Lang
Nick "The Raven" Samoylov

Evaluators
The Whipping Post:
Mike Stablien
Eric Peterson

Table Topics
Janet Reese

Toasts who can boast the most
Best Speaker Karen
Best Evaluator Mike Stablien
Best Table Topics Mike Angell

Summary:
Nick wowed us with an interpretive reading of Edgar Allen Poe's classic "The Raven". Karen gave her Ice breaker. She told us how much she likes her husband, her faith and her job as a behavioral expert. Mike explained how his parents moved away in a sneaky plan tofinally get him out of their house.

Joke of the Day
A man is having a really bad day on the golf course. By the 14th hole, he's missed one putt too many, and he lets loose with a string of profanities, grabs his putter, and storms off toward the lake by the 15th tee.

"Uh-oh," says his caddie to one of his playing partners, "There goes that club."

"You think so?" said the other golfer. "I've got five bucks says he misses the water."

Meeting Minutes - August 23rd

Triskelion Toastmasters
Meeting Minutes
8/27/07

Toastmaster Your Toast Host: John "coming through in the clutch" Wierzba

Vocabulary Dose: Word of the Day "Diligence"

Orators Grandiose: Speakers
Nick and Eric both gave humorous speeches. Nick discussed his latest escapade to the Ukraine. Banking is a little different there. He handed the teller a large bag of cash. She said "thank you" and threw it in the safe. She gave no receipt. "Come back tomorrow at 9:00" was all he got. Eric told us to "stay in school" :)

The Whipping Post - Evaluators:
Deron and Janet

Most Verbose Boasts: Table Topics by Nate
Topicers included Eric, Karen, Mike A., Gary and our guest Steve

Toasts who can boast the Most: Awards
Best Speaker: Nick
Best Evaluator: Janet
Best Table Topics: Steve

Joke of the day:
Three weeks after her wedding day, Joanna called her mom.
"Mom," she wailed, "John and I had a DREADFUL fight!"
"Calm down, my child," said the mom, "it's not half as bad as you think it is. Every marriage has to have its first fight!" "I know, I know!" said Joanna, "but what am I going to do with the BODY!

Meeting Minutes - August 16th

Your Toast Host
Toastmaster
Cindy "Can I catch a break?" Castilow

Vocabulary Dose
Word of the day - "missing"  adjective  "not present" 

Speaker Grandiose
Deron White - "Uncle Charlie and the snowblower"

The Whipping Post
Evaluator John Wierzba

Strange and Verbose
Table Topics Dave Truzpek

Contestants Arose - Tall Tales Contestants
Eric Peterson
Deron White
Mike Stablien
Mike Angell

Toasts who can boast the most
Best Table topics - Gary
Best Evaluator - John Wierzba
Best Tall Tale - Mike Angell


See you next week

Mike
Secretary/Treasurer

Meeting Minutes for August 9th

Toastmaster:
Paul "powerhouse" Sadowski reprised his role as TM

Vocabulary Dose
Word of the Day:
Cindy "Obligate"

Speakers Grandiose:

Eric and Mike Angell did the same speech: Speech 1 from the Entertaining speakers manual.
Eric "discussed" the new company dress code.
Mike wrote a "scientific" study of life on the beach
Eric got more laughs, but only because he was funnier.


Evaluators:
The Whipping Post
Gary "Grandslam" Fuller
Mike "straight and narrow" Stablien

Table Topics: Truthful ... almost
Our Table Topics Master was none other Cindy Castilow.

Wizard of Ahs
Dan Pratt, Grammarian, Ah counter, Timer

Toast Host:
Gary brought his father in law John as a guest

Toasts who can boast the most:
Award winners
Best Speaker - Eric
Best Eval - Gary
Best Table Topics - 3 way tie. Don't ask me how

Toasts at their Post! Meeting assigments for next week
Cindy Toastmaster
Eric Evaluator
Mike Stablien - Tall Tales contestant
Timer/Ah/Grammarian

Still need
Speaker, evaluator, tall tales contestants,
Tall Tales contest - Area "Tall Tales Contest" is coming up. Open to all

Thanks

Mike
Secretary/Treasurer

July 26 Meeting Notes

"The hills are alive with abundant wildflowers," toastmaster Janet Reese proclaimed.

Head to the mountains this weekend and check out the beautiful flora including alpine columbine, Indian paintbrush and wild rose. To identify the specimens you'll see, use a wildflower guide. Or, you can use the meeting agenda decorated with common wildflowers.

Speaker Nathan Wilkes kept us in stitches as he described the benefits of "going glossy" (shaving his head by choice). He gets more respect with a glossy head, he's more sexy, and urges us all to try it for two weeks.

Speaker Deron White interpreted several monologues from the Spoon River Anthology. The voices came from the souls of the departed speaking of their lives while sleeping on the hill. Scary! Ghosts actually attended our meeting.

Mike Stablein, with a full head of hair, evaluated Nathan's glossy speech. Eric Peterson evaluated Deron's monologue. Both speakers received high marks; Nathan won best speaker. Mike won best evaluator.

Luyane Trujillo provided table topics inspired by "365 plays in 365 days." Her questions were thought provoking, indeed. Luckily, no one had to act out a play.

Mike Angel, general evaluator, gave us a few tips for improvement. Here's one: include the speech time when introducing the speakers, so the timer knows when to flash the lights.

Next week's lineup includes speakers Carey Bradley and Mike Stablein, evaluators Eric Peterson and Luyane Trujillo, toastmaster Mike Angel and table topics by James. Check out the schedule for open roles and consider one.

Remember to stop and smell the wildflowers! See you next week.

My contest experience

My speech contest experience, in a few words, was eye opening. First, it was
"Wow! I can do it!". Second, it was "Wow! Other speakers are so good!"
Third, it was "Oh, it hurts to lose! I will never ever do it again!" and,
forth, it was "I will do it every time I will have a chance again."

From just repeating the same speech several times in front of the different
audience I got a chance to try different techniques and learn what works and
when and what does not work at all (strange, are they deaf?!). It was
striking to see that different audiences react differently to the same
words, how timing of the punch line can kill the phrase or bring down the
house. I tried pauses of different lengths. I tried my voice at different
volume and variety. I projected different level of energy in different
places of the speech. I tried many things and got a lot of experience.

I saw other speakers co-oping with similar problems. My alertness of a
participant helped me to observe how other speaker deal with the same
issues. I learned from that too. How to do and how not to do things.

I got exposed to a few sec of glory and the dark hole of failure, and
learned how to deal with each of them. The last one was not easy. I was
surprised how "obvious" for me was that "the judges were unfair", when they
did not select me as a winner. Than I learned from my failure even more than
from my victories.

Overall, these few competitions (I went up to the division level only) made
me feel I learned more than from the first ten speeches. Very similar
statements and experiences I have heard from many other participants.
Actually, I heard it from every one I talked to. And I got to know so many
new and interesting people, with some of whom we continue to develop
friendship now - long time after the contest is over.

That is why I am going to do it again and again - every time I can. And I
encourage everybody - new and experienced toastmasters - go ahead, give it a
shot, it worth the pain of failure.

Good luck to you!
Nick

_________________________________________________________________
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507

Meeting Notes - July 19th Flitch Day

I found this little tidbit on the Freakonomics website...

July 19 is Flitch Day, a surviving relic from Medieval England in which married couples appear before a "mock court." Those who can prove that they had "lived in harmony and fidelity" for the past twelve months were awarded a flitch, defined as a "salted and cured side of bacon." According to Thinkquest.org, "very few [couples] 'took home the bacon.'"

We didn't hold a mock court, but we did have an interesting table topics, presented by Tracy Goodman, revolving around the frustrations of the work place. It occurs to me that if we liken our work to a marriage between us and our employers the flitch would never be awarded. The spice of life is drawn from our experiences, and salted and cured bacon is a poor substitue.

We were treated to two very good speeches. Mike Angell provided us with an interpretive reading that lent us advice on finding harmony in our relationships. A careful study and attention to the details of the reading could lead us to earning a flitch, assuming the concurrence of our partners.

As Mike's evaluator, I missed all of Luayne's speech, as I toiled over my evaluation duties. I did get this much. There was a lot of laughter. Since Luayne was giving a speech from the Entertainment, I gather by the response that she hit her mark. It is a mis-fortune that I remain unable to do two things at one time.

We finished up the meeting by inducting Nathan Wilkes and Tracy Goodman to the club.