September 15, 2008 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
Evaluator and Tall Tales Contest
Cathy Lovelady opened the meeting at 6:50 after making sure all was in order for the contest. She led Prayer and Pledge asking for blessing on our contestants.
Mary Buker served as the Toastmaster for the event, strictly following protocol.
Pace Smith - "Every obligation can be turned into a desire." Pace gave her second Competent Communicator manual speech as the test speech for the evaluator contest. First Pace explained what an obligation is - a promise to take something onto ourselves. But why do we take on obligations? Because we want to get things done. If we focus on the goal, not the journey, we'll be happier. To accomplish this, rephrase obligation words (must, need to, ought to, should) because these weigh us down. Instead use "want to" and think of how you'll feel when it is accomplished. She and Kyeli removed "should" from their conversations by pointing out its use with "Would you like to rephrase that more positively?" when one of them used it.
Antoinette Griffin - Evaluation Contestant #1 - best evaluator - Antoinette explained that the second CC project is about organization and pointed out that she could follow Pace's various points. Pace picked a subject, psychology, that everyone could relate to and she supported it with specific examples from everyday life. Antoinette appreciated Pace's power phrases " focus on the goal instead of the journey" and "just do what you want to do most." Pace could have enhanced use of the power phrases by pausing after saying them. Pace has great presence and good gestures but held on to her finger too long once. She seemed to look up to the ceiling but usually had great eye contact. Though she had a great conclusion, she could have repeated one of her power phrases to tie it all together.
Kyeli Smith - Tall Tale Contestant #1 - best tall tale speaker - The Bear - (my account will not at all match the energy of Kyeli's presentation) - When Kyeli was six their dad, who was the best, took the family on a camping trip to Colorado - thousands of miles away - where bears live. As Kyeli and her little brother bickered endlessly in their expansive van, her dad reached his frustration point and told the kids "you hush or the bears will eat you" and of course he furthered that threat explaining that children meat is the best. After arriving and checking into a hotel, Kyeli heard scratching at the door. Scared she ran into the bathroom and screamed that the bear was coming to eat her and tried to present her little brother since he was younger and more delicious. Her dad tried to explain that there was no bear but she didn't believe him and insisted that he go kill the bear. Finally after banging and thrashing, the bear was dead and Dad was a hero!
During the breaks for ballot counting, Mary interviewed the contest participants.
Winners:
Antoinette Griffin - best evaluator
Kyeli Smith - best tall tale
Cathy extended thanks to all the volunteers who helped make this competition so much fun.
We adjourned around 7:50.
