July 28, 2008 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

President Mary Buker gaveled the meeting to order and introduced two guests. Charlie Cole, who is looking for a Toastmasters Club to improve his skills. I suggested he had found pay dirt. Also as a guest was, Mirsa Douglas, president of Central Austin TM. She was looking to find how other clubs run their meetings. I trust she found many good things to take home with her. Welcome guests.

Karen Bondy was our One Minute Toastmaster with plenty of suggestions. Water for the dry mouth syndrome, project yourself, prepare mentally, bring notes, memorize opening, were some of the great suggestions. Thanks Karen.

Kathy Lovelady led us through the exercise of Table Topics. Most of us were able to stumble and stammer for two minutes. I thought Mike should have won, but the God’s of TT gave it to someone else.

• If anyone could sell “Snow to Eskimos” Antoinette Griffin could…and did. Antoinette brought a discussion of water. Bottled water. In fact she brought a half dozen (empty thank goodness) water bottles she tossed around the room while explaining how us Eskimos are buying (Filtered tap water) snow. It got a little dangerous there for a while, but we managed to dodge most of the tossed missals.

• Jerry Barrett’s speech was entitled, “ What Do I Do Next?” Jerry had a water leak into his gasoline tank that may have had adverse effects on his pay scale at work. (Well something like that.) However with his handy way of deciding what to do next he was able to solve all the problems, easily, and quickly by using the following four steps. 1. Make a List, 2. Count the benefits, 3. Count the Cost, 4. Do the Math. Thanks Jerry, good advice.

• Dugg Tankersley took us for a SPIN. No, not in his red BMW convertible. But using his problem solving method may be worth as much as his automobile. He suggested we; ‘S’ review the situation, ‘P’ pinpoint the Problem, ‘I’ measure the Implications, ‘N’ understand your Needs. With these ‘SPIN’ tools one can solve all problems. I found it remarkable we had two speeches bringing problem solving solutions on the same Monday morning.

Chief Evaluator, Gordon Baker had a full staff of evaluators with the “Good, Bad, and Ugly” news. Glenn did TT, Priscilla evaluated Antoinette, Anne scored Jerry, and Dan took Dugg for a SPIN.

Antoinette won BEST Speaker, Glenn won GOODEST evaluator, and Jerry took the WHITE ribbon home.

HB