February 12, 2007 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
Balcones Toastmasters February 12, 2007 Chapter 3407 District 55 Minutes of Meeting
The meeting was opened by President Jake North. An inspiring Prayer and Pledge was led by Jim Comer who also served at Sergeant at Arms for the day and arrived at 6:17 AM to fill that duty flawlessly!
Lindsey Johnson graced us with her presence as a first time visitor. Amanda Garner returned to join us. Frank Peters served as Toastmaster. The theme was the "Valentines Day" for which he gave us some history. Timer was Diane Graden. Grammarian was filled in at the last minute by Frank Peters. The word of the day was "abrogate" which wasn't used until Sonny started a trend during evaluations.
One Minute Toastmaster was Steve Helmke reminding us that apoloiges are not necessary during speeches.
Table Topics Master was Jonathan Huizingh who kept with the theme with a variety of questions. Table Topic participants were:
- John Beall – winner - offering advice giving several small Valentines gifts making a multiday event
- Darlene North - Dissappointment when her step-father stopped giving flowers and candy to the girls.
- John McMillen – wisely suggesting we celebrate platonic relationships too.
- Anne Child - trying to remember her first crush many years ago.
Speaker #1 JD Stewart - "Selling 101" - teaching us to 1) persent the agenda 2) find out the need 3) describe the benefits and support. Everyone is in sales.
Speaker #2 Lesley Bradstreet - winner - "Taming the To-Do List" - relating to us all her struggle in life to complete the to do list and realizing that taking time to enjoy life and those sharing it with us is more important.
Speaker #3 Jake North - "Shave & a Hair Cut" review the memories - his was taking his cat "Indy" the 20 "wolverine" to be trimmed like a poodle.
General Evaluator was Rick Bradstreet. He also lead us in song to celebrate Lesley, Jonathan & Jake's birthdays this week.
- Table Topics evaluator was Sonny Sonntag - Jonathan's questions were relevant; John B's comments were interesting but he could loosen up with his movements; John M's is much improved but he could speak longer; Anne has good movements but too many "uh"s.
- Evaluator #1 for JD was Gordon Baker - JD tied a physical action to each thought; broke down each point; used humor and was very informative.
- Evaluator #2 for Lesley was Dan Naden - winner - Lesley started with a wonderful personal intro which could have been shorter because Dan wanted to hear about ways to tame the to-do list. She paced the speech well.
- Evaluator #3 for Jake was Karen Bondy - most improved - Jake's first non-manual speech was entertaining with good language and movements creating great visuals. He surrounded the story about his cat with a lesson on capturing memories.
Control of the meeting was turned back over to Jake. Harry commented on Toastmaster training him to be on time for early appointments. Vlad announced his wife Amanda is joining the group! Jake read the schedule for our next meeting on February 19th. Check out the details at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/
