February 19, 2007 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

Balcones Toastmasters February 19, 2007 Chapter 3407 District 55 Minutes of Meeting

The meeting was opened by President Jake North. We started just a couple minutes late as the manager overslept and we got out podium, banner and flag only at the last minute.

A short but sweet Prayer and Pledge was led by Harry Savio who also relished serving as Sergeant at Arms once again.

Geoji George was a first time visitor.

JD Stewart served as Toastmaster. He promised to have the meeting completed ahead of schedule. He also filled in as impromptu grammarian of the day selecting "Punctual". Timer was Phil Hallmark.

One Minute Toastmaster was Scott Perry. Using the word of the day he told us of the Three P's of Toastmasters: be Present, be Prepared, Pitch in.

Table Topics Master was John McMillan who made it interesting with "what's bugging you." Table Topic participants were:

• Harry Savio – filling his second roll of the day, said the City of Austin was his frustration. He is especially critical since he's a former city employee.
• Phil Hallmark - filling his second roll of the day, express his disdain for urban sprawl but admitted being part of the problem.
• Hollis Baker – winner - spoke of the skeleton in his closet - being a liar... shall we call it embellishment, story telling, or bending the facts of science.
• Amanda Garner - most improved - told us that as Mayor she will work on environment, public policy, and health initiatives.

Speaker #1 Jonathan Huizingh - "Tip of the Iceberg" - recalled his trip to Bangladesh: wearing a lungi (commando!), observing the hard manual labor for little reward, and being thankful for the riches he has here.

Speaker #2 Vladimir Garner - winner - "Psychic RAM" - relating to us all his struggle in life to complete the to do list and the release he found by writing down his lifetime "to do's" on index cards and then either completing, re-negotiating or deleting them from his list

Speaker #3 Diane Graden - "74 women will die in Texas today from cardio-vascular disease." She is a heart survivor here to tell us we all need to be aware of this #1 killer of women.

General Evaluator was John Beall. Table Topics evaluator was Karen Bondy - Harry got a softball question but his response was very conversational. Phil apologized to Harry for being upset with urban sprawl with great gestures. Hollis weaved in Mark Twain with great gestures. Amanda stepped right into the role and had a great ending with "I may not be the one you voted for, but..." I hope to be the mayor you look up to.

Evaluator #1 for Jonathan was Amanda Garner - His lungi demonstration was great, good use of humor and body language. He gave us a broad spectrum of issues: education, social system, economy. His summed it all up with how it was a humbling experience and how he appreciates his "riches" even more.

Evaluator #2 for Vlad was Anne Child - He clearly expressed his ideas, used humor, brought us in with participatory questions. He used the "triad" effectively as he parsed his to-do list into 1) to complete 2) to re-negotiate 3) to delete. to tame the to-do list.

Evaluator #3 for Diane was Jake North - winner - When Diane speaks "You get Diane" with all her honesty and straight talk. She is passionate about her topics. Her prop of 74 hair bobbles representing each death was great but Jake suggested she use something harder that would have a real audio impact too.

Control of the meeting was turned back over to Jake. He mentioned 2 other speaking opportunities (I encourage Jake to fill in the details):

• Spring Speech contest - for inspirational speeches

  - by March 20th for Area M32
  - by April 11th for the division

• Test speaker needed for near by group

  Wednesday February 19 - 11:30
  They are practicing evaluations.

The week of 3/12 is Spring Break. We decided we would have our meeting as normal that week.

Amanda and Priscilla were voted into our group!

Jake read the schedule for our next meeting on February 26th. Check out the details at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/

As promised we ended ahead of schedule!