March 22 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Announcements:

- Dues are due! Please get your check to Chris Young or go on our website to use the new Paypal option. Don't make Chris have to come hunt you down, people.

- "Fond Farewell/ Haven't Seen You in Forever" Evening - Haven't been to a meeting in awhile? Taking a break from Toastmasters? Please join us tomorrow night for a special evening to honor those we miss and those who are moving on. We'll raise a glass in celebration and wish you well. 

- Our Club Needs You! - Officer elections are coming up soon. Our club is run entirely by volunteers and we need *you* to help it continue to run smoothly. Our board meets once a month for 45 min. before our regular meeting. Free training by Toastmasters Int'l included for all officer positions. Please contact Patrick for more information.

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Chris Young opened our meeting with the theme - Birthdays. Turns out Chris chose our meeting to celebrate his birthday (while insisting he had big plans for the weekend). Now that is dedication, folks and don't think for a moment that we don't expect the *same* from all of you.

Special shout out to Josh for his mellifluous presentation of the word of the day - Chortle.

Tracy opened the prepared speeches part of our meeting with Speech 2 from the CC manual - effectively and efficiently providing a blueprint for how to eliminate stress from moving. Having hardly ever left the hamlet of the greater Lamorinda area myself (I just find that semi-rural atmosphere so compelling....) I'm completely awed by the thoroughness and execution of her approach. 

Heather told a hilarious story about being locked out of the house for her second speech from the Storytelling manual. Weaving in tiny details about her ordeal, we felt like we were right there are she tried in vain to break in, had to walk 3 miles to her own house in uncomfortable sports sandals, struck out with the locksmith and ultimately had to drill out the lock to get back in because, you know, the cat was getting hungry. 

Marzi used Speech 2 to share the benefits of hosting a Cultural Fair at her preschool.  Students and their families will have a chance to change their attitudes and understanding of other cultures through cultural exchanges including food, drink and dance. 

 The multitude of birthday stories provided by the Table Topics participants reminded me of candy bursting out of a successfully wacked pinata. Orchestrated by our supreme bandleader, Chris Holton, *almost* every member and guest without a role was able to toot their own horn and participate. We heard about The Big 50, fantasy all white birthdays and the ever trepidatious 21 shots on a 21st Birthday.

Strike up the band tomorrow night with Toastmaster Chris Holton in the Social Hall.

March 8 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Area Speech Contest – Tomorrow Night - Everyone is encouraged to attend the area contest hosted by our club. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

 

Meeting Notes:

 

Toastmaster Mary Furman  opened our meeting with the theme - Hometowns. We heard about many hometowns throughout the evening.

 

Tara thrilled and scared us a little with details of a lusty pacaderm mistaking a Passapachyderm female pacaderm. Bumped along forpachyderme were two dutch tourists who fortunately came through the experience unscathed.

 

Four terrific speeches from the Competent Communicator manual dazzled our members:

 

Josh gave his Icebreaker and shared with us about how being hit in the head with a baseball bat as a child not only put a hole is in head requiring 50+ stitches to cover, but also instilled a level of fear in him he has struggled to overcome. Josh certainly showed no fear giving his first speech to our club. Impressively, he used no notes for his talk. 

 

Mikhail used Speech 10 - Inspire your Audience to inspire us to practice forgiveness of others. He shared how he wished he had talked more to his Mom before she went in for surgery she later died from. And he encouraged all of us to forgive our loved ones. Congratulations Mikhail on achieving your Competent Communicator award!

Presenting Speech 6 - Vocal Variety - Melanie gave life with her voice to stories about people and food. We felt like we were there with her at the party when her tightwad friend showed up with stale Danishes and proceeded to cut them up into small pieces and then make a huge show of offering them around to guests. I won't forget soon her description of her male friend who borrowed a young girl's bathing suit and despite all guesses to the contrary, looked good in it.

Elizabeth tickled our senses with her Speech 2 Get Organized on how to take a wee dram of whiskey. A whiskey enthusiast myself, I was swept away with rememberences of Scotland during her talk remembrances five senses are engaged during whiskey sipping. Although samples of the delicious elixirs were not provided, promises of future tastings off site were made.

Patrick combined hometowns with juggling when he provided a new table topics experience to the club. He started a story and then in the middle, threw a ball to the next victim, err, participant, and had them continue the story while weaving their own hometown into it. The result was a story about a small town dealing with a rising crime rate, Orinda's famous pink awning, design review hell and kids throwing rocks at each other in London.

 

Join Toastmaster Thomas Cloney for our area contest on March 15th at the social hall.

March 1 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Announcements:

 

Area Speech Contest – March 15- Everyone is encouraged to attend the area contest hosted by our club. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

 

Meeting Notes:

 

Toastmaster Stephanie Brown colorfully opened our meeting with the theme - Color My World. If you are male and your favorite color isn't green - congrats! You are an outlier. (Anyone, anyone?)

 

Melanie thrilled and scared us a little with details of her recent skiing adventures. Appropriately incorporating the colors black and blue into her tale, she laughingly recalled two major collisions she experienced out on the slopes. Here's to many more (safe) adventures, Melanie!

 

Two more new members introduced themselves to the club with Icebreakers this week–

 

Tracy shared with us how she knows she must walk through the fear of public speaking instead of trying to go around it. Her well organized and inspiring speech (including a segment about love between accountants) earned her the best speech of the night ribbon!

 

Iris shared a photo of her grandmother, Rosie, and talked about how she bucked the binds of her family by moving from Hungary to Germany alone. Iris, herself, has a similar life story. She also moved to a new country alone. 

We look forward to hearing more from Tracy and Iris in their next speeches.

 

Speaking from the Technical Presentations manual, Mike effectively used power point to build and deliver a highly technical presentation on home theatre systems. His Q&A session confirmed  yet again that there were more technically-savvy audience members than yours truly. Fortunately the "problem" of choosing between home theatre systems is unlikely to arise for me anytime soon.

Mary gave a vivid speech from the Entertaining Speaker manual - we could almost feel the -25F below icy air creeping up our ankles and sinking down the backs of our necks. After hearing about the challenging conditions she endured - including hot tub-side bar service, horse-drawn sleigh rides and hot toddies to go - perhaps I, too, would be willing to risk fingertips and toes for such a winter wonderland experience.

 

Jennifer brought a colorful, new table topics experience to the club - she had each participant choose a color and then speak about the first thing that came to mind after seeing the color. The members were regaled with tales of throwing up, house painting experiments gone wrong, the frustration of finding "summer colors" off season and teens who love the color black.

 

 

Join Toastmaster Mary Furman for our next meeting on March 8^th at the social hall.