August 13, 2007 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
Balcones Toastmasters August 13, 2007
Chapter 3407 District 55
Minutes of Meeting
The August 13th meeting was opened a few minutes late by President Jonathan Huizingh.
- Mary Buker led Prayer & Pledge and served as Sergeant at Arms.
- Steve Levering wittily served as Toastmaster. This theme was memories of your first day back as school.
- John McMillan took a turn as the Timer using the stop light fixed since last week by Steve L.
- Dan Naden was Grammarian and chose "fugacious" (meaning short time or fleeting) for the word for the day. It was used by Sonny, Steve L, Jerry, Anne, Jack and Frank. He dutifully counted Ums, Ahs and You Knows from most all of us.
- Priscilla Oehlert was One Minute Toastmaster - Priscilla encouraged us to develop our listening skills by 1) acting like a listener 2) making eye contact with the speaker 3) responding with facial expressions and 4) focusing on the speaker.
Table Topics Master was Sonny Sonntag. Sonny asked participants varied questions
- Jim Comer - 2:10 - Jim's pet peeve is hypocrisy. He described politicians and religious leaders advocating about morals but then getting caught in various sex acts. He is angry for the affect on society and sad for the lie these people live.
- Gordon Baker - winner - 1:44 - What Gordon doesn't like about Toastmasters is speakers phrases that are his pet peeves 1) "at this point in time" is no longer that time 2) "thank you" - speakers shouldn't thank the audience 3) "if you will"... means nothing.
- Glenn Nielsen - 1:45 - Glenn likes going to Toastmaster meetings as he travels and being known as the Texas Toastmaster. But wishes one group with many non native English speakers would learn the language first so he could understand them.
- Jack Frick - 1:23 - Jack likes seeing changes in people who come to Toastmasters. One woman's first effort at Toastmasters was simply to say her name to the group. Later she confidently appeared on TV.
Speaker #1 - Jack Frick - winner - 5:08 - Jack gave an impromptu speech on how to give an impromptu speech. After being pegged as the speaker at an event when the keynote speaker's plane doesn't arrive on time 1) open with "Wake up!" this concerns you 2) speak generally on the topic 3) speak specifically and then 4) call them to action. At the end aim for the bull's eye.
Speaker #2 Jonathan Huizingh - most improved - 6:03 - "Cheap Airfare Tickets" - Jonathan researched getting low fares by using airfare search engines on the web, then going to specific airlines, don't forget Southwest and JetBlue that are not in the search engines. Be flexible on your travel times to get lower fares. For international flights, book to London and then find local carriers.
Speaker #3 - Hollis Baker - 5:14 - "John Steele"- Hollis vividly described going to watch the sun rise with a friend in the country over a cup of boiled coffee. Arriving before dawn, he "couldn't have come at a better time."
General Evaluator was Glenn Nielsen. Glenn evaluated the evaluators. Jerry was good, Anne could have picked less harsh words, Harry built up the speaker, and Gordon gave us a lesson.
- Table topics evaluator was Jerry Barrett - 4:09 - Jim made good use of the pause, had some nervous pacing and said "thank you." Gordon was organized, had 3 points, and used humor and pauses. Glenn has a conversational style, avoided the topic brilliantly but forgot to thank the table topics master. Jack was distracted and used widow hands.
- Evaluator #1 for Jack was Anne Child - 1:55 - Jack had wonderful energy. He had good gestures and pulled in the audience by mentioning names and actually reaching out, touching John and asking for a topic. His speech was organized starting with an introductory story, a solution to the speaker problem and built in table topic speech. He summed it all up with a powerful conclusion.
- Evaluator #2 for Jonathan was Harry Savio - 2:55 - Jonathan has improved. He started with humor and really researched his topic. He could work a bit on eye contact by really staring people in the eye. Siting some resources for how he did his research would have led credibility.
- Evaluator #3 for Hollis was Gordon Baker - winner - 3:04 - Hollis is a master at noticing the details ("tune of the gravel under the car) but had great references that allowed you to fill in (the "gate that has seen better days") and gave action to inanimate objects ("darkness fled"). His suggestion "you need a bigger audience"
Timer and Grammarian gave their reports. Frank Peters used the word of the day in his apology for arriving late.
Jonathan reviewed the schedule for our next meeting on Monday August 20th.
Future schedules are available at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/.
Videos will be uploaded to http://www.esnips.com/web/BalconesToastmasters/?v=667987&source=ws .
