March 12, 2007 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
Balcones Toastmasters March 12, 2007 Chapter 3407 District 55 Minutes of Meeting
The meeting was opened by Vice President Mary Buker.
Prayer and Pledge was skipped but Harry Savio served as Sergeant at Arms.
Diane Graden served as Toastmaster. The theme of the day was "March and what does it mean to you?" Everyone shared wonderful memories.
Timer was Frank Peters who kept us on time.
Amanda Garner was Grammarian and the word for the day was "exaltation" used by Vlad, Diane, Scott, Rick, Priscilla, Jim, Mary & Sonny. She so fully enjoyed the presentations that she forgot to count Ums and Ahs.
One Minute Toastmaster was Vlad Garner who taught his secret of "make a point, take a breath' giving the audience a chance to absorb the thought and you a chance to prepare for the next point.
Table Topics Master was Antoinette Griffin. She kept with the March theme and kept the meeting rolling with varied questions. Table Topic participants were:
- Scott Perry - 1:12 - "What's so great about Daylight Savings Time" - nothing, he has absolutely no use for DST.
- Lesley Bradstreet - 1:24 - She hope to "personally blossoming" by mastering Spanish.
- Rick Bradstreet - winner - 0:46 - The "one type of music" he'd like to listen to forever is Rap, American free form!
- Priscilla Allert – 1:12 - Her childhood memories of March are of flimsy kites that stay near the ground but gave her a free feeling.
Speaker #1 Jim Comer - winner - 9:42 - "Sermon to Myself" - He implored us to recognize and respond to our calling. He met with Stephen Thomlinson who was an economics professor at UT but his calling is writing plays. Jim now recognizes the joy of bringing his "parenting our parents" story to the masses.
Speaker #2 Dan Naden - 7:19 - "Making an Effort" - How much time does any of us have. Don't waste any time, let your those you value personally know that you care about them. Also develop and grow your professional network.
Speaker #3 Darlene North - Most Improved - 6:40 - "Persistence and Getting What You Want" was the funny, informative and revealing story of how she snagged Jake.
General Evaluator was Anne Child.
Table Topics evaluator was Mary Buker - Scott gave us the history of DST and a good wrap up. Lesley has good gestures, told us why she wanted to learn Spanish and even close in Spanish. Even though Rick was ironic with is choice of rap, he stuck with his story . Priscilla was so happy to talk about trying to fly kites. Britton didn't have a personal Spring Break story but related how his professor looked forward to spring break.
Evaluator #1 for Jim was Glenn Nielson - winner - Jim gave a workshop on the way to do a speech. He connected to the audience through emotion, including them in the story. He shared deeply and drew us in with "I believe." Glenn longed for a physical description of the people in his story and noticed Jim twirling his glasses.
Evaluator #2 for Dan was Jonathan Huizingh - Dan used the clock and chain props effectively. He made 3 main points and had a good wrap up. He liked that Dan told us about a different friend for each point. He suggested Dan show a little more excitement.
Evaluator #3 for Darlene was Phil Hallmark - This was Darlene's 10th speech. He chose to title the speech "snagging a bull riding cowboy". Darlene's humor was great and it appeared that she was reliving the moment as she told the story. His only suggestion was to use stage left more.
Diane handed the meeting back to Mary. Mary was able to enlist 3 participants in the Evaluator contest next week: Glenn, Rick & Scott. Dan gave an update on the search for an appropriate video cameras. A digital camera would allow us to upload the video and/or create DVDs of the speeches. The meeting was adjourned on time.
Future schedules are available at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/ .
