October 1, 2007 Minutes

From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)

Balcones Toastmasters October 1, 2007

Chapter 3407 District 55

Minutes of Meeting

The October 1st meeting was opened a by President Jonathan Huizingh.

Jerry Barrett led off the meeting inviting, nay, urging us to participate in the upcoming Humorous Speech Contest.

Antoinette Griffin served as Toastmaster and brought back memories and expectations of Fall.

• Priscilla Oehlert led Prayer & Pledge and handled Sergeant at Arms easily.

• Jonathan Huizingh was the Timer and reported everyone was pretty much on time.

• Steve Gonzales was Grammarian and chose "radical" in its many interesting forms for the word for the day. It was used by Harry and Steve Levering.

• John Allert was One Minute Toastmaster - John gave us 4 tips to warm us a speech: 1) use people words 2) use stats with a pulse 3) tell self deprecating stories 4) use people's names.

Table Topics Master was Scott Perry. Scott built upon the theme with varied questions about Fall.

• Steve Levering - 1:30 - Steve feels rejuvenated by the crisp cool air of fall and rev'd up anticipating football games.

• Glenn Nielsen - winner - 1:35 - Glenn hates football. He feels others think this de-masculates him so he references blogs so that he can be conversant about games and player.

• Anne Child - 1:43 - Anne tied smells, sounds and sights of Fall all back to the falling leaves. To really experience Fall go to New England.

Speaker #1 - Harry Savio - winner - 7:35 - "Simple Pleasures" - Harry spoke about the recent Special Olympics bicycle competition in which his son Daniel competed. It was a time full of hugs and many moving moments. This brought back memories of Daniel being sick at 6 months old and holding his little baby in the hospital. His other sons are strong, tender and loving due to growing up with Daniel. Daniel won two (fake) gold medals and Harry is proud. He tells us to value life and it's simple pleasures.

Speaker #2 - Melissa Lynott - most improved - 5:10 - "Living My Dream" - Melissa presented a wonderful ice breaker. She grew up in West Virginia nursing wounds of lipstick on her dolls. Though this valedictorian was urged to be a doctor but she insisted she wanted to be a nurse. After two years her school, W Va. Wesleyan College, was going to shut down the nursing program but the students protested and got them to reinstate the program. She feels fortunate that she is living her dream.

Speaker #3 - Steve Helmke - 5:35 - "The Unexpected Visitor" - Steve set the scene for a beautiful weekend at Enchanted Rock with his wife and three year old daughter: the Majesty of the pink granite outcropping, climbing to the top with his daughter on his shoulders, picking the perfect campsite next to a creek. But that evening a persistent raccoon broke into their cooler with its creaking henge to devour their eggs.

General Evaluator was Mary Buker. Mary was impressed that John Allert covered 4 tips well in one minute.

• Table topics evaluator was Gorgon Baker - winner - 2:40 - None of the participants connected with the audience by saying "good morning." Steve L. started and ended with high energy. Glenn always has strange stories and ended oddly with "There you go." Anne could have used more energy in her ending.

• Evaluator #1 for Harry was John McMillan - 3:45 - Harry's presentation was like watching a Robin Williams movie with his sharing about humanity. John could see the awards ceremony with Harry's details. He wove the simple pleasures throughout the speech nicely. He could have given some statistics or definition of Downs Syndrome.

• Evaluator #2 for Melissa was Jerry Barrett - 2:10 - The point of an ice breaker is to speak and not faint. Melissa did that and more. we got to know her and how her desire to become a nurse bloomed. Her speech was well organized, she did not use notes and she even included visual aids. Melissa could use pauses for better effect. She has energy and is determined.

• Evaluator #3 for Steve H. was Jim Comer - 3:15 - Steve took control of the room. He had great descriptions. Steve had fun telling the story with his sound effects and pauses. We had fun listening to him. However his first word was "Well" and he included a "so."

• Timer and Grammarian gave their reports.

• Jennifer Wagner agrees that everyone really should enjoy a New England Fall.

• For Arthur Vanderbilt, Autumn brings excitement of going to school, something he is looking forward to as he goes back to college.

• A visitor, Juanita, said the meeting was great.

• Hollis Baker reminisced about Liberty Hill having one yellow blinking light.

Jonathan reviewed the schedule for our next meeting on Monday October 8th and we adjourned on time.

Future schedules are available at http://www.balconestoastmasters.org/schedule/ .