May 17th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Meeting Notes:

For the first time, Jennifer presided over the meeting as our Toastmaster for the evening. Congrats, Jennifer, you made it look easy! 

Mary opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by taking us along on a pocket vacation to stairway walks of San Francisco. She encouraged us to get off the beaten path and become tourists in our own backyard world-class city. Bonus points for those who noticed her stylish San Francisco scarf. 

Kevin presented "the moral of the story" about "Tom's" experience with emergency response training and what it means for all of us. 1. Be prepared and 2. No, you can't drink the water out of the back of your toilet if it has a blue chemical cleaning puck in it!

Brand-new member Rhett entertained and charmed us all with his "aww shucks" southern manners and accent and humorous stories of his life. Welcome to CA and good luck!

Thomas rounded out the prepared speeches portion of the meeting with his vocal variety workshop. He promoted the use of proper breathing, vocal warm ups and enunciation as critical elements to improved speaking. 

Join Toastmaster Thomas Cloney, and all of your fellow Toastmasters tomorrow at the Temple.

May 10th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Announcements:

- Congratulations to our new club officers:

President - Chris H

VP of Education - Karen L

VP of Membership - Chris Y

VP of PR - Greg F

Secretary - Kevin M

Treasurer - Sarah L

Sergeant at Arms - Marissa C

Meeting Notes:

Rae presided over the meeting as our Toastmaster for the evening. She mixed it up a little and used our lack of evaluation forms to an advantage by offering each speaker a round-robin evaluation from the whole club, as well as a written evaluation from their designated evaluator. 

Elizabeth opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by persuading our audience that her hometown of Cleveland, OH is misunderstood. Apparently, it is *not* the armpit of America or the biggest mistake on the lake as it is sometimes called. Elizabeth appreciates Cleveland's fine food and multiculturalism.

Gita presented an inspiring and provocative speech about why she thinks there should be more dog parks in the east bay. Using powerpoint to illustrate her points, the audience was most charmed by the cute pictures of her dogs!

President-elect Chris gave a cozy, fireside chat-style speech designed to encourage us to stop reinventing the wheel at our club. We should create standards for our club based on best practices so anyone can step into any leadership job at the club and be successful. He subtly (and not so subtly) reminded us to do the things we ask other members to do - speak more often, work the manuals and earn DCP points for the club.

Melanie rounded out the prepared speeches portion of the meeting with her speech about Asperger's Syndrome. Melanie shared her personal experiences and insights on the syndrome as the mother and friend of individuals with Asperger's. For more information about Asperger's, please ask Melanie for a copy of her excellent handout of additional resources.

Join Toastmaster Jennifer Chambers, and all of your fellow Toastmasters tomorrow at the Temple. 

April 26th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Announcements:

- Please take a moment to introduce yourselves to our three newest members - Fermin, Marissa, and Kenneth. Welcome!

Meeting Notes:

As Toastmaster, I presided over our Earth Day-Themed meeting for a small but enthusiastic crowd. We were fortunate to have not one, but two members step forward to make impromptu speeches to help fill out our agenda for the evening. Many thanks to Kevin and Mikhail for showing us how it's done! 

Lee opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by practicing a speech he will give to 600+ people at the Walmart World Headquarters. Our impressive audience listened carefully and asked Lee many insightful questions during the Q&A period. Good luck in Bentonville, Lee!

Mikhail stepped up and gave an inspiring and provocative speech about what is the most important thing. With hardly 10 minutes of prep time, Mikhail grabbed our attention with a unique opening technique and kept it through out the talk. 

Kevin also jumped at the chance to speak in front of our audience and spun an amusing and cautionary tale about spinning, sprinkled with witty details about his coupon-clipping friends and others. Way to entertain, Kevin!

Iris fearlessly lead many guests and visitors through Table Topics where we heard several stories about inspiring and memorable teachers. 

Join Toastmaster Tara Courtney, maybe her bird, and all of your fellow Toastmasters next week at the Temple.