April 4, 2009 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

Karen Bondy was the master of segue’s as our Toastmaster of the Day. Her theme was Spring Cleaning.

• Fred Maynard started the meeting with Prayer & Pledge, thankful for coming together and mindful of those experiencing difficult times.
• Jane Sanford counted few Ums and Ahs as Grammarian. Her word of the day, “nonplussed” (perplexed), was used by Harry, Gordon, Megan, Charlie and Guoen.
• Time Keeper Gordon Baker tried valiantly to keep us on time but had to deal with 3 over-7-minute speeches when he expected only one.
• Jerry Barrett’s One Minute Toastmaster speech urged evaluators to “accentuate the positive”(catch them doing something right) and “iminish the negative”(suggest improvements but list only half as many negatives as positives).

Charlie Cole, Table Topic Master, asked various questions pertaining to Spring Cleaning.

• Jason Boehle is always cleaning something when there is any season change. For Spring he is going to live a little and enjoy Austin more.
• Dan Naden – Best Table Topic – Dan’s most ambitious spring project is working on his yard. He now has a sprinkler system and will re-sod, put in dillo dirt and plant flowers. One day his yard will look as good as his neighbor Zach’s.
• Mark Hicks’ favorite cleaning remembrance was when he started cleaning the backyard. His wife joined him and got the physical and mental release she needed.
• Harry Savio got his car stuck in a snow bank in the spring but his Forest Service boss pulled him out. Harry cleaned up the bunkhouse until it shined but unfortunately it still had mice due to being storage for feed too.

Steve Gonzales – Grits, Biloxi, and Beans – Steve entertained us with stories of what certain words remind him of. Grits – In “My Cousin Vinny”, Joe Pesci said “sure I heard of grits, I just actually never seen a grit before.” This is the first word Steve learned to spell at the tutelage of his grandfather “gr”-i-t-s. Biloxi - brings back a memory of his mother and father making a recording in Biloxi announcing their engagement. Buffalo – is a word his daughter learned from her reading books and proclaimed with each large animal they drove past on their way to Colorado. Beans – His grandmother used to say, “Oops, I must have stood on a frog” when she had bean gas. Steve ended with a song about beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Priscilla Oehlert – Best Speaker - Easy Conversation – Priscilla used to feel that title was a dichotomy but now feels meeting strangers is an opportunity to learn. There are four levels of conversation 1) small talk, 2) fact disclosure, 3) viewpoints and opinions and 4) intimacy. Connect with the person to whom you are speaking with eye contact and a smile. Listen and show that you want to be with them. Validate their importance. ACE – Appreciate, Connect, Elevate. She then did a role-play with Anne Child as they met at a party that showed her technique. This was followed by a feedback session.

Bruce Solberg – Most Improved – My Journey at RISE Austin (www.riseaustin.org) – This was a 3 day event with 122 sessions for entrepreneurs, a SXSW for small business. He went to learn about networking & websites and to make his wife happy. Networking is about relationships, not transactions. Introduce people to those who would benefit from knowing them. The corners of your home plate are to know your impact, passion, and uniqueness. This will help you make your networking sustainable. He learned about a good website tool but then learned it would not solve his wife’s catalog website issues. He learned that our education system is not producing entrepreneurs. People have to do things to learn from their failures in order to succeed.

Mary Buker was General Evaluator. Karen does good introductions. We need to get people’s names right and use only the time allotted to our presentations.

• Guoen Wang evaluated Table Topics. Charlie was relaxed, called peoples names before asking questions and kept the questions short. Jason had a good voice and energy but showed tension in his hands. Dan gave us inspiration. Mark captured our attention; the whole room was quiet. Guoen liked Harry’s admission of being nonplussed.
• Megan Morris evaluated Steve’s awesome, vivid anecdotes. Everyone was wildly entertained and there was lots of laughter. He started holding his hands at his waste but then relaxed. His used a variety of voices, and facial & hand gestures. He had a brave ending.
• Dugg Tankersley – Best Evaluator – Dugg evaluated Priscilla. She was effective in telling us the format of her presentation. Role-plays are difficult to make accomplish your goal. Her omission of the promised acronym was an effective way to test us. She looked relaxed and had great eye contact but did rest her hands together in front of her.
• Glenn Nielsen evaluated Bruce. Bruce had humor interspersed in his presentation. He put a lot of info in his presentation and could have relied on a visual prop to avoid referencing his notes. He spoke fast. Practice speaking slowly then when you deliver the speech, it will come out just right.

Comments:

• Sonny Sonntag can always say there was something outstanding at Balcones Toastmasters.
• David Gaddy – This is a great place to be on Monday mornings.
• Mike Prentice acknowledged that it was wonderful to have a full house.
• Jim Comer was heartened by the support of 4 Balcones Toastmasters at the speech contest.
• Sylvester Levario attended also but left before comments were made.

Business:

• Jim Comer won the Division L speech contest and will now proceed to the regional contest at the conference May 1-2.
• Guoen announced that Balcones Toastmasters won the “Son of Jack” award for bringing in new members.
• Great input has already been received for the Balcones Toastmasters Survey. If you have not taken the survey, please provide your feedback here. The survey closes this Friday 4/10. The current Spring potluck picnic top requested day is April 25.