November 3, 2008 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

Charlie Cole was our energetic Toastmaster with a theme that kept us groaning and laughing – favorite humorist.

• Jane Sanford opened with Prayer & Pledge celebrating differences and calling for tolerance.
• Dugg Tankersley was a humorous if not punctual Timekeeper who flashed the red light at anyone who mentioned Obama.
• Kyeli Smith, Grammarian, carefully listened for Ums (they were light) and uses of the word of the day (conducive – tending to contribute to) used by Kylie, Charlie, Anne, Sonny, Cathy and Dugg.
• Anne Child gave a One Minute Toastmaster speech on the various officer roles in Toastmasters and urged people to serve.

Karen Bondy, the Table Topic Master, asked poignant questions on humor of select victims.

• Jim Comer is very serious when it comes to the political campaigns. He found humor in Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric.
• Megan Morris finds humor in the Daily Show and Colbert. But most of her entertainment time is dedicated to and internet phenomenon of tracking fanatics of the World of Warcraft – an online elf & dwarf game the consumes its players.
• Fred Maynard – tied Most Improved – told us about the humorous movie "O Brother, Where art thou" a humorous take off on the Odyssey which is "bleeding from the eyes painful." It is the story of trying to get home and doing the right thing.
• Gordon Baker – Best Table Topic – appreciates the biographies of Will Rogers. His humor was about what we did. "Every time there's a joke, it becomes a law." Will theorized that no one person can destroy this country.

Mary Buker – Halloween History – Dressed as a Halloween clown, Mary told humorous stories of Halloweens past. Her husband would decorate the house and used a loud speaker to scare the kids as they approached the door. She believed kids invented Halloween a day when they can be out late on a weeknight, be mischievous and get lots of candy. She will never think of Raggedy Ann the same way as her friend dressed as a pregnant Ann. She won everyone's stomachs (if not their hearts) when she tossed out candy as we yelled "Trick or Treat".

Glenn Nielsen – Best Speaker & tied Most Improved – Are you at Risk – Glenn warned us that the #1 crime is identity theft. With odds of 1 in 700 of being caught, it is a lucrative crime. He backed his statistics up with stories of credit card abuse, how people obtain your information (from your mail, from business they rob, to buying it on the interntet). But not only is there credit identity theft, there is medical identity theft and criminal identity theft. You never know when you will be find wrongful information in your records. He suggests using www.debix.com to protect your identity.

Sonny Sonntag – A Waste of Time – Sonny told the suspenseful story of being sent to the superintendant's office in high school… to be informed he would be teaching math classes for a week. The students commented that he explained math so that it made sense. But in college he fought the system to test out of Math 101 and Math 102, in his freshman year, in his sophomore year, and in his junior year. Finally, in his senior year the dean exerted his authority and required everyone to take the test in order for the dean to sign their diplomas, "there will be no exceptions". The classes were a waste of time. This was the only year the dean held office and the next dean allowed exceptions.

Cathy Lovelady, General Evaluator, introduced the other evaluators and felt the speakers were well prepared with unique speeches. She note that the hand off between roles was not smooth in some exchanges.

• Antoinette Griffin – tied Best Evaluator – Antoinette evaluated the Table Topics. Karen did an excellent job of introducing the questions (not too long, not too short) but forgot the vote request until prompted by Charlie. Jim is a great speaker but did not explain what Sarah Palin said, potentially leaving some in the room uninformed. Megan is excited to be speaking to us but has some hand clasping and looks up when thinking. Fred immediately answered the question but also had hand clasping and looked down while thinking. Gordon made his answer meaningful by relating how Will Rogers influenced his life but repeats certain hand gestures to the point of overuse.
• Dan Naden evaluated Mary. He applauded Mary for dressing the part and doing so discretely after the meeting started. She personalized the speech with many great stories. She stood to one side of the lectern, perhaps to look at notes and needs to work on allowing the audience time to laugh.
• Jerry Barrett evaluated Glenn. Glenn did a great job of persuading us with facts, stories and illustrations. He started with a question, had engaging eye contact, open gestures and good vocal variety. Glenn wove humor into a serious topic. There were a few times when he spoke too fast.
• Jonathan Huizingh – tied Best Evaluator – evaluated Sonny. Sunny used surprise and evoking feelings of superiority to bring humor to this speech. He opened with the suspense of "why would Sonny be sent to the superintendants office" and kept us on the hook for a while. Slowly and intentionally Sonny proved his case for fighting for exceptions to taking the course and we all related to his story. He wanted to say "102" before "101" and seemed to pause thinking of the next line but recovered well from both. Then Sonny ended with another great surprise about the fate of the dean.

Parting comments:

• Guoen Wang learned a lot from the speeches today.
• Tanya Martin-McClellan smiled many times today, a great way to start a Monday.
• Steve Gonzales was motivated to different action by each speaker.
• Sylvester Levario enjoyed coming to Toastmasters to wake up on a Monday morning.
• Pace Smith gave feedback to Mary – Don't leave your nose on the lectern.

Official business:

• Congratulations to Antoinette Griffin for winning the division evaluator contest.
• Awards were given to Jonathan Huizingh and Dan Naden for bringing in the most guests during the contest period.
• Jerry Barrett announced that Balcones Toastmasters won the Jack Rabbit Dash award in our area for getting the term off to a great start by turning in officer selection and dues promptly and getting participants signed up for contests.