March 19, 2007 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
Balcones Toastmasters March 19, 2007
Chapter 3407 District 55
Minutes of Meeting - International Speech & Evaluation Contest
It was a very special meeting. The meeting was opened by Vice President Mary Buker.
An impromptu Prayer and Pledge was lead by Harry Savio who served masterfully as Sergeant at Arms.
Phil Hallmark served as Toastmaster. He briefed us on the rules of the contests and introduced us to each judge, speech contestant and evaluator contestant.
Timer was Lesley Bradstreet who had extra duties of timing moments of silence between the contestants.
- Speaker #1 Antoinette Griffin - 2nd place winner - "I'm Not Here to Motivate You" - Antoinette gave us a no-nonsense look at accomplishing our goals. Face it, motivation does not do it, we are motivated to do the things we are really good at. To achieve all our other goals it takes 1) self discipline and 2) a willingness to do something poorly until you do it well. She gave great examples from her own life (her husband starting an exercise program and herself taking on the speaker contest instead of the evaluator contest... thus reaching out of her comfort zone) and ended with a wonderful quote from John Maxwell's book "Failing Forward" and I paraphrase "Motivation is a trap... just do it!"
- Speaker #2 Jim Comer - 1st place winner - "The Wheel of History" - Jim acknowledged the most of us will never be remembered once we're gone but hopefully we each have a chance to touch history. He recalled a time as a sophmore at Trinity University that he skipped a biology lab to go see the Kennedy presidential motorcade. He spontaneously bought a rose and wrote a note "Welcome to Texas... from a conservative." He seized the moment, ran a couple blocks pushing his way through the crowd, muscled past the secret security and shouted "Jackie, take it!" It brought a smile to her and JFK's face just one day before the horrible event in Dallas.
Guest Speaker Alec Nichols - From the IBM group - Vacationing with distant relatives has its challenges. Alec told us of the extreme challenges of taking youngsters on a narrowboat. A narrowboat is a "squished, squashed and stretched RV floating on water." He spoke of the close quarters, tight knots, and frayed emotions. His eloquent ending warned us that "a 'no access' vacation is an accelerated way to share who you are with the people you love."
- Evaluator #1 was Glenn Nielson - 3rd place winner - Glenn cleverly spoke of the three "S"s of a speech. The first 10 seconds of a speech establish the Substance of the speech and if we are interested in listening. Alec caught our attention by talking about an experience different than any most of us have had. The Sizzle of a speech is accomplished with body language and voice inflections. Alec's British accent drew us in and he effectively used body language describing the boat. But the pace of his speech was the same pace throughout, he could have varied the pace and made better eye contact. The Soul of the speech is how the speaker involves the audience. Alec involved us with laughter and Glenn would have enjoyed more stories.
- Evaluator #2 was Rick Bradstreet - 1st place winner - Rick noted that Alec was comfortable as a speaker and did not get rattled when he blanked out on his next point. While Alec's accent was charming but clarifications on some idioms would help. Rick wanted to hear more about living in tight quarters. He also suggested Alec change the focus of the talk from "Tips to consider" when taking such a trip to "Reasons not to take" such a trip.
- Evaluator #3 was Scott Perry - 2nd place winner - Scott commented on Alec's good setup mentioning hassles with other types of family vacations, but here's one you don't want to try. Alec's voice quality and energy were good and he didn't speed up so we could understand his accent. The structure of the speech was good with a humorous opening. Scott thought Alec should cut from 5 points down to 3 but his transitions between points were good. Alec has a good presence but did turn his back on the audience once. He had good vertical movement but could add some horizontal movement.
The Chief Judge Jonathan Huizingh tallied the votes from our visiting judges (Jenelle Menyweather, Jas Truano, Carol Begenski... and one other fellow from Central Austin whose name I have forgotten), prizes were awarded and pictures taken of the participants. Many thanks were given to our early rising visitors.
Future schedules are available at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/.
(I apologize for butchering the names of our guest judges and speaker.)
