June 25, 2007 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
Balcones Toastmasters June 25, 2007
Chapter 3407 District 55
Minutes of Meeting
The June 25th meeting was opened for the last time this term by President Jake North. We had two guests, Julia Perry and newcomer Josephine. Steve Levering returned!
- Lesley Bradstreet led a graceful Prayer & Pledge and served as Sergeant at Arms.
- Hollis Baker tried to be a less flamboyant Toastmaster with interesting comments throughout the meeting. He likes the videos.
- Karen Bondy, our Timer, kept the meeting rolling.
- Rick Bradstreet was Grammarian and chose "ameliorate" (meaning to improve) for the word for the day. It was used by Hollis, Sonny, Priscilla and Karen. Several of us had ums and ahs but they were short as was Harry's "they they." Rick recounted several memorable quotes which I don't remember now.
- Sonny Sonntag was One Minute Toastmaster. He had two tips: 1) Use your personal style for gestures but be selective. 2) Evaluations are personal opinions so use selection and caution in applying the advice.
Table Topics Master was Steve Helmke. He quizzed participants about various aspects of summer.
- Harry Savio - 1:29 - Harry's memory of summer is of the kids in his extended family sleeping on the porch on cots in Waco.
- Anne Child - 1:25 - Anne told of attempting to sail to Kennsua Dam with during Girl Scout camp in New York.
- Jake North - winner - 1:48 - For Jake, summer was roving with the trailer park gang and running to the swimming pool across the hot pavement without shoes.
- Jim Comer - 2:32 - Jim is a proponent of long summers. He feels kids' summers are over scheduled and instead should be full of freedom.
Speaker #1 Mary Buker - 7:09 - "Of cloths, Chocolates, Clouds and Catalonia - Mary shared stories from her vacation to Spain. She vividly described the mountains, beaches, and architecture. She was shocked by the lack of wash cloths and enjoyed the market of sausages, cheeses and fruits. She took pictures of flowers, architecture and tiles. The food, hot chocolate and Catalonia, was marvelous. She was mesmerized by the Sardona (sp?)circle dance.
Speaker #2 - Scott Perry - 4:36 - "A Father's Speech" - Scott was living a moment in the future where he was giving his daughter Julia's hand in marriage to long time family friend Jason Smith. He reminisced about Julia growing to be more like her mother. She and Jason by chance met again after years apart in New York. It was a touching story.
Speaker #3 Darlene North - winner - 7:22 - "So different yet so similar" - Darlene and her sister were close friends through elementary school but grew apart during middle and high school when was a constant competition between them. They both left home around 16 years old. Darlene completed school and went on to get a masters. Her sister worked at Wal-Mart and married the wrong man who was an unfaithful wife beater and alcoholic. She left him and came to live with Darlene. At this point they found friends in each other again.
General Evaluator was Jonathan Huizingh who steadily guided the other evaluations.
- Table topics evaluator was Gordon Baker - 3:30 - Gestures were all centered around the strike zone. Harry is a great story teller but clasped his hands. He will be a great speaker if he encorporates more gestures into his talks. Anne started within the zone but the gestures grew out of the zone during the talk. Jake has good gestures but seemed to have a side-to-side stepping motion. Jim moves boldly into conversation with those seated at the front but then effectively moves back to his central position. He said he was going to get off topic but then didn't so it was an unnecessary diversion.
- Evaluator #1 for Mary was Priscilla Oehlert - 3:39 - Mary's lesson was on entertainment and she accomplished that. She share her excitement, passion and smile. She started with the planning of the trip then gave vivid descriptions of the food and sites. Priscilla's taste buds were going. She had surprise twists about the wash cloths and cat feeding stations. She hesitated as she turned to get her pictures, had constant hand gestures and could have slowed down and used pauses.
- Evaluator #2 for Scott was Antoinette Griffin - winner - 3:03 - Scott stepped out of his comfort zone to give us an emotional speech. He was creative. He was serious the whole time and could have added some light, humorous stories about Julia growing up. He had some lip smacking which may have been from nervousness.
- Evaluator #3 for Darlene was Steve Gonzales - most improved - 2:02 - Darlene was warm, real and natural as she spoke of polar opposites. Her had great transitions from elementary school to high school to leaving home to becoming friends again. She gave good advice throughout. Steve would like to know what happened in her sister's life after living with Darlene and the name of her sister.
Timer and Grammarian gave their reports. Julia Perry and Scott did a quick presentation on ponies, we learned that a pony had to be less than 57" high. Josephine enjoyed today's amazing stories. Steve Levering reported the skills he observed here helped him approach participants at the risk management meeting he attended. We then voted him into the group. Jon Beall enjoyed cooling off listening to entertaining speakers.
Jon Beall reported we were still looking for a treasurer (Harry volunteered) and a President (Jonathan took on that role when Scott volunteered to take Jonathan's VP Marketing place). Jon also said he'd take a spin at the secretary position.
Jake announced:
- announced that Dan Naden completed his Competent Communicator award!
- we are now the largest group in Austin.
- the schedule for our next meeting on Monday July 2nd. Future schedules are available at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/ .
