April 30, 2007 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

Balcones Toastmasters April 30, 2007

Chapter 3407 District 55

Minutes of Meeting

• The April 30th meeting was opened by President Jake North.

• Sonny Sonntag served as Toastmaster. He picked the "anticipation" as a theme and gently guided us through the program.

• Prayer & Pledge was lead by Amanda Garner. Amanda also served as Sergeant at Arms.

• Timer was Rick Bradstreet. He fulfilled his duties well with Nancy's assistance.

• Matt Carlin was Grammarian and the word for the day was "emphatic". It was used by Sonny, Hollis, Frank, Rick and Harry. Jake used educated language. He liked the following word usages: Jon - docile, Mary - projectile tears, John M - satirical.

• One Minute Toastmaster was Jim Comer - 0:45 - brevity is the "soul of wit."

Table Topics Master was Hollis Baker. Hollis invited 7 newly elected presidents to give their first speech in office.

• Vlad Garner - 0:43 - Vlad recently took over the presidency of the Garner household and will make the big decisions.
• Frank Peters - 0.44 - Frank emphasized that he does not want to be president. Don't elect him again next year.
• Nancy Davis - 0.46 - Nancy bravely admitted she was drawing a blank.
• Jake North - 1:06 - Jake cleverly is the president of "people who cannot say no"
• Darlene North - winner - 0:50 - Darlene, president of the money saving club urged us to 1) use coupons 2) save $5 today 3) figure out our net worth. These will make us responsible independent retired people.
• Karen Bondy - most improved - 1:07 - Karen is the president of civility. Question people with "what is a nice way to say that?" until we are all civil to each other.
• Jonathan Huizingh - 1:01 - As president of the U.S. he will fight against frivolous lawsuits and bad driving.

Speaker #1 Jon Beall - 9:26 - "Economics of Chickens" - Jon enlightened us about farming world wide. In the Netherlands they have no fences, just docile cows between canals. Spain has rain in the north, none in the south but a billion olive trees. Mexico has huge citrus plantations and small multi crop sustenance farms. Tortilla riots in Mexico are being caused by farming practices in Iowa where anything less that 15,000 acres is considered a farm in transition.

Speaker #2 - Jennifer Wagner - 8:50 - "Vision of the Future" - Jennifer expressed her fears of the future having been a substitute teacher recently. There is little discipline displayed by today's students from grade school through high school . Kids do what ever they want, even at home. She urges competition between schools like is done at the university level to improve quality. Also she urges us all to practice and encourage self learning.

Speaker #3 Mary Buker - winner - 6:09 - "Working With What You've Got" - Mary told her story of buying a use car. She described the decision process... coming to the conclusion that it was time to depart with her blue pony, searching for the perfect car and then haggling with the used car salesman and her effective use of crying to get the price she wanted.

General Evaluator was Antoinette Griffin. She enjoyed Matt standing by his word of the day as he introduced it and Rick tapping on his glass as a speaker exceeded his time.

• Table topics evaluator was John McMillan - 4:50 - John humorously and gently prodded for further information from our presidents. Vlad, why do you want to become president of the family? Frank gave great details on being awoken at night to discuss urgent matters with neighbors. Nancy showed courage in standing before the group. Jake, what other president positions do you hold? Karen presented an impressive platform but could have used an example of incivility. Jonathan used good satire.

• Evaluator #1 for Jon was Anne Child - 1:30 - Jon organized his speech from personal, to around the world and circled back to the US and then Elgin. He gave great examples of farming and what intrigued him with the different practices. Jon used good gestures and humor but his speech was long and could have use a more compelling conclusion.

• Evaluator #2 for Jennifer was Harry Savio - winner - 3:03 - Jennifer is a naturally talented speaker. She has a ready smile and good use of humor and gestures. She really had three stories in her speech and could have focused on just one and developed it just a bit more. She had the audience captivated.

• Evaluator #3 for Mary was Steve Helmke - 3:43 - This was Mary's vocal variety speech and she picked a great story as a topic. Crying was effective. She engaged the audience and had good eye contact except perhaps with those on the side up front. Mary could work on pausing a bit longer to allow the audience time to laugh and for dramatic effect.

Timer and Grammarian gave their reports. Phil Hallmark likened Vlad's president of the family to "My Big Greek Wedding" reminding him that he maybe the head but the woman is the neck.

Sonny concluded saying he anticipated learning the name and person of everyone the group. Jake reviewed the schedule for our next meeting on Monday May 5th. Future schedules are available at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/ . We adjourned right on time.