Feb 15 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

 Comments:

 

The mood was definitely competitive as members partook in the club's 2011 speech contest.  Did I notice sweaty palms and red faces?  Late minute memorization?

 

Our fearless leader Thomas reminded us that a smile and a handshake between contestants following the match was both good sportsmanship and good karma.

 

As both a participant and observer I feel this array of speakers was the best ever. 

 

According to Chris Holton, the vote was close.  However we had a clear cut winner in both the Speech and Table Topics.  Mark Darfler told us "Enough is Enough" mixing bites and punches for the double speech award whammy!

 

Supporting our club in case Mark either gets bitten by a dog or cold-cocked by an irate boxer are Bonnie "On-the-Edge" Mcmanis for the Speech Division contest and Elizabeth "No Need for Luck" Leary in the Table Topics Category..

 

A special thank you to the TM members who organized, staged and successfully ran our contest.

Feb 8 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Announcements

Club Speech Contest – Tonight!! Everyone is encouraged to attend our first club contest of the year. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes

Toastmaster Fari Pour Ansari opened our meeting and got right to business.

Sarah provided our Thought for the Day by discussing the Year of the Rabbit and how it is supposed to be a lucky year. I’m for that.

Two new members introduced themselves to the club with Icebreakers –

Yulanda spoke about her upbringing in Taiwan and share with us how she is analytical and persistent. She also wants to be seen as a force for good.

Elizabeth talked about breaking down barriers for women, especially in the world of chess. She became the highest ranked female chess player in the country in the 70’s.

We look forward to hearing more from Yulunda and Elizabeth in their next speeches.

Speaking from the Technical Presentations manual, Mike used power point to build and deliver an interesting talk on https to a non-technical audience. Clearly his Q&A session pointed out that there were more technically-savvy audience members than yours truly. I did take away the importance of making sure my email, Facebook and Twitter traffic utilize https for security from prying fingers at coffee shops.

With only three prepared speeches, we were lucky to have time for a large group of Table Topics participants – Each participant chose a year at random and after I read the news highlights from that year for the group, they spoke about what had happened in their life during that year. Among other things we heard about unsupervised teen parties, Oakland late at night, marriage proposals and high school.  I know everyone enjoyed getting to know our members on a more personal level.

Join Toastmaster Thomas Cloney for our first club speech contest of the year tonight, Feb 15^th at the social hall.

Feb 1 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary‏

Announcements

Welcome to our newest member, Tracy! She and five other new members were inducted into the club without incident.

Upcoming Event - Club Speech Contest – Feb 15^th. Everyone is encouraged to attend our first club contest of the year. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes

Toastmaster Chris Holton broke tradition by NOT throwing things into the audience while talking about our theme for the night – Super Bowl XLV. He regaled us with hints and tips for how to sound remotely knowledgeable about football while watching the big game. My favorite was how to call the guys with the hair pouring out of their helmets “beasts” with a straight face.

Again, we had a full roster with 4 diverse speeches gracing the meeting;

New member Tom introduced himself to the club with his Icebreaker – we heard about his love of golf, Orinda, his new wife, and his dog. We look forward to hearing more from Tom in Speech 2.

Mikhail presented Speech 9 from the Competent Communicator manual (CC) – he brought forward the idea of no homework being a glorious change in education and persuaded us with power to see the movie about the pressure American kids are under, “Race to Nowhere.”

Speaking from the Storytelling Manual, Project 2, Mark used vivid imagery to paint the scene of one young surfer’s experience at the world-famous surfing contest, Mavericks. Mark equated the riveting tale of a near death experience to everyone’s struggles with reaching personal goals.

Lise described her plan for a high performance leadership project, a Toastmasters Movie Night, and asked our members to join her team to make the movie night a reality for our friends, family and community. Lise will speak more soon about the details of her plan.

We were lucky to have time for a large group of Table Topics participants – The most memorable line I wrote down was from Lee talking about a patient he flew for the Angel Flight program – “A blind guy flying an airplane to a nudist camp.”

Join Toastmaster Fari Pour Ansari for our next meeting Tuesday, February 8^th at the Social Hall.

Jan 25 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Announcements:

Congrats to our club contest chair – Scott Lambert.

Upcoming Event - Club Speech Contest – Feb 15th. Everyone is encouraged to attend our first club contest of the year. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Gordon Steele kept the theme of throwing things into the audience alive into a second meeting by tossing a football at the crowd while talking about our theme for the night – Games.

Four diverse speeches graced the meeting;

Chris H persuasively and passionately encouraged our members to change our election process from one of habit to one that follows our club’s constitution – i.e. real elections.

Mike brought an historical battle alive in our meeting with his vivid tale of The Charge of the Light Brigade, concluding with a reciting of Tennyson’s famous poem by the same name.

Stephanie’s teasing title – Make Love to Your Audience – led to her demonstration of how to use eye contact and facial expression to connect more strongly with your audience.

Fari entertained the audience with fascinating tales of Mullah that highlighted some of the quirks that make us human.

Join Toastmaster Chris Holton for our Super Bowl-themed meeting next Tuesday, February 1st in the Social Hall at Temple Isaiah