September 29, 2008 Minutes
From Austin Toastmasters (Balcones, Club #3407)
President Mary Buker opened the meeting only two minutes late. Return visitors were Guoen Wang, Nathan Mallone and Megan Morris who served as Timer!
Kyeli Smith took on the challenge of being Toastmaster and served well. Her theme was breaking rules and flouting social norms.
Megan Morris stepped up to be Timer. She us well and kept the meeting rolling.
Anne Child was grammarian. The word of the day "aweless" (without awe, disrespectful) was used by Karen, Jim, Charlie, Cathy, Jerry and Megan but not Sonny. He broke his own rule! Ums were minimal.
Karen Bondy, One Minute Toastmaster, impressed upon everyone to stay within their time limits. As David Brooks told us, going over steals time from the next speaker and/or delays the end of the meeting. Both are inconsiderate of others.
Antoinette Griffin wielded her rule as Table Topics Master and kept with the rule breaking theme.
- Fred Maynard (1:45) is glad he broke the curfew rule in his hometown. Their initiation tradition was to sneak out from their tents to the grocery store to get some candy and return under the cloak of darkness without getting caught.
- Sonny Sonntag (1:10) broke the rules and got caught but he can't remember specific examples.
- Tanya Martin-McClellan (1:25) is held to rules she doesn't even know exist. If the University sees fit to inform her of the rules, she promises to keep to them.
- Pace Smith (1:02) also couldn't think of a reply to her question so stood there and remarked that it felt uncomfortable.
- Jim Comer (best table topic - 1:26) informed us that rules are important so they can be broken. We all get a rush when we break a rule especially if we get away with it.
Charlie Cole (best speaker - 7:38) gave his icebreaker (for our club). Charlie has an impressive background getting a degree in International Relations, working on Wall Street and for various well-known publishers. He met his wife and moved with her to Austin to raise their now 15-month-old daughter. He likes golf, skiing and traveling (having eaten bugs and ridden elephants in Thailand). He was an adventurous tyke who had his stomach pumped out at least 4 times but yet who guided his buddies flawlessly across a frozen lake in a white-out blizzard so they could get milk shakes at the mall. More interesting stories to come.
Veera Nallam(6:20) also gave his first ever Toastmasters ice breaker. Veera is married to a psychologist and has a child in grade school. He himself is a very smart fellow graduating top ranker of his batch and landing a nice programming job in India. He was enticed to move to the US for another company but forgot to negotiate the salary. From there he moved to being a consultant as programmer / analyst / program manager / product manager. His current contract is with the Texas government on a data mining program to determine how timely people recieve state services.
Jon Beall - "The things they carried" (10:31) - Inspired by a book of the same title and a recent backing trip to the mountains of Colorado, Jon showed us how to stuff everything you need to survive into a backpack... sleeping bag, clothes (that double as a pillow and feet warmers at night), water pumps and purification tablets, freeze dried food that can be fixed and served in a single container, flip flops to relieve boot weary feet. We would all benefit if we would get a pack, get a plan, get the book and take a hike.
Steve Gonzales, as General Evaluator, gave his impression of the meeting in general.
- Cathy Lovelady (3:19) evaluated table topics. Quick thinking Fred could try not hanging onto the lecturn. Humorous Sonny can change the subject if he wants. Using good eye contact, Tanya could use her Marine training to give more vocal variety. With a smile, Pace kept us with her even when she was not talking. Vocal variety and body movement master, Jim has one "um."
- Jerry Barrett (2:46) evaluated Charlie Cole. Charlie had a great introduction and told us all about himself with good vocal variety. He didn't sway (as he was concerned) but rather the opposite and could have use more movement. He suggested getting your elbows away from the body to make bolder gestures. Charlie has great tools to build upon.
- Jonathan Huizingh (Most Improved - 2:55) evaluated Veera. Veera seemed calm and had good eye contact and gestures returning his hands naturally to his side. The speech felt like an interview and Jonathan would like more of a story depicting something important in Veera's life. Jonathan had diffuculty understanding Veera's accent at times. It is commendable he did not refer to his notes though they were handy. Jonathan suggested the use of note cards in the future.
- Mike Prentice (best evaluator - 3:05) evaluated Jon. Jon stretched doing this demonstration speech. He was impressed that Jon had the book and dumped his pack on the floor. Having his notes on the side was distracting and there was too much dead air while Jon was filling his pack. Many folks had trouble seeing what he was doing. He could have asked us to all gather around. Mike asked how this pack differed from Jon's pack when he was in the Marines.
Guoen Wang was glad to be there. As was Nathan Mallone. Megan Morris and Guoen Wang were voted into the group. Welcome!
