04/12/05 Geospeakers Meeting Summary

Today's meeting once again showed the club's flexibility and willingness to adapt to changes. Due to the absence of the scheduled Toastmaster, Ann filled in and segued from her role as club President to Toastmaster to Speech-giver. First, she called on Lauri, today's Galvanizer, to help us get our voices warmed up. In the absence of a printed program, Lauri passed around a Groucho Marx routine about going to war over an imagined insult, and we all read a sentence.

Then Ann brought up the items of club business. She handed out Club awards (M&M bars), to the AMAZING people with 100% attendance in the last quarter-Shane, herself, Mitch and Carol. Then she announced that Mitch got a Triple Crown Award for getting all three of the Table Topics awards, congratulated Carol on her first-ever Humor award and Mitch on his inspired introduction to last meeting's "Moods" topic, and finally gave Fran her own M&Ms bar, probably from fear that Fran might grab someone else's and run away, being that she is renowned for loving M&Ms. Also, Fran was congratulated on her new status as grandmother. Neil reported on the proposal from the Toastmasters Spring Business Meeting to realign Areas C-2 and C-3, moving Geospeakers from C-2 to C-3, and away from our two close neighbors, Sunset and SRI. The proposal will be voted on at the next District Conference, May 13-14. The club members were encouraged to think about the matter, and the officers will discuss it at the next officers' meeting.

Then Ann welcomed our two visitors (or re-visitors), Imelda White and Liz Streckert. Shane noted that we need a speaker for the next meeting, and to email him to volunteer. Chris suggested that it might be a good idea to redo past speeches, especially ones that SHE might have missed hearing in the first go-round. Then we moved into our meeting, and Fran introduced the Evaluation Team: Stephanie as Timer, Gretchen as Ah-Counter, and Lauri as Wordmaster/Grammarian.

Ann then took on her third role for the day, and gave a speech from the Better Speaking Manual on Suggestions for Opening a Speech. Encouraging group participation, she listed four guidelines for an opening:

1. Get Attention (start the speech with a snappy, attention-getting few lines);
2. Introduce the topic early in the speech, within the first few sentences;
3. Establish rapport with the audience (with a smile, a welcoming attitude);
4. Limit the introduction to only about 5-10% of the speech time.

Ann went on to give seven Techniques for opening a speech, asking for audience input if any examples came to mind from their own speeches or those of others. The Techniques were:

1. State the importance of your topic;
2. Make a startling statement;
3. Arouse Suspense or Curiosity;
4. Tell a Story or Anecdote;
5. Ask a Rhetorical Question;
6. Begin with a Quotation;
7. Reference the Occasion.

Examples of responses included: Stephanie in her speech on Tips on Toasts, Ann with her anecdote on going kayaking rather than sitting home alone, Neil with a bad pun to set the theme for "The Lowest Form of Humor"; Gary, noting that it cost him $75 to fill up the family cars with gas!!; Gretchen with a "Ladies and Gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true with no names changed to protect the guilty or innocent!"; Chris noting that a rhetorical question works well sometimes and sometimes not; Lauri noting that Ann seems to get positive results by just starting off by breathing deeply; and Stephanie noting that an inclusive introduction for an Interpretive Reading greatly enhances the reading. Ann summed up by saying that these examples are just a few ways that Toastmasters enhances the public speaking of its members.

Next we moved on to Table Topics. Shane said that he had had a bad couple of weeks, so he wanted to find out what makes each of us really angry (to reach into the very depths of our souls and find the black, black cores within…..!). We got some wonderful answers.

Grocery lines make Lauri angry.

Shane mentioned getting cut off in a library parking lot and confronting the cutter-offer with a question as to whether he was there for the Adult Literacy Program since he obviously couldn't read signs.

Stephanie had been annoyed at UPS for not only not delivering a set of pots and pans for her mother for Christmas, but running over the box in the process, and sending it to another state. When she finally yelled at the operator, her father congratulated her with a "That's my girl!!"

Gretchen bemoaned the fact that she is often is assumed to have a bad temper because of her red hair.

Shane noted (in the context of being assumed to be a basketball player just because he is tall) that he is as "physically coordinated as a meatloaf".

Fran mentioned being angry at a husband who felt watching TV was more important than helping bag and carry out leaf refuse (imagine that!!!).

Neil talked about some people (no names mentioned) who don't empty the pockets of clothes they put into the laundry hamper, so that when he does the wash, he has a second chore of picking all the shredded lint off them as they come out of the dryer.

Chris carried on the theme of laundry, with respect to her teen-aged daughter, especially not sorting out pre-worn from still-clean clothes thrown in a heap in her room, and thus re-washing clean clothes. Chris does anticipate that this duplication of effort will improve, however, when her daughter moves out of the house and has to pay for her own laundry.

Liz complained about traffic miscreants, namely the BMW-owning-cell-phone-using-tailgaters that she moved out of the state to get away from and then moved back because she found they are everywhere.

Gary mentioned almost getting mad at his 5-year-old red-haired daughter who didn't want to hold his hand for safety on leaving Geo-Kids and pulled away, running in the street, then stopping and yelling,"You're NOT MY DADDY. I don't know you!"

Imelda finished off the questions by telling us about calming her ruffled demeanor (from an overabundance of houseguests) by walking out at Shoreline, seeing the lovely scenery and having a bird sing just to her.

Awards went to (actually, to everyone-it was a very fun session) Stephanie for Most Humorous, Imelda for Most Eloquent, and Gary for Most Interesting. Now, if we can get all the people who didn't return the trophies from the LAST meeting (doesn't that really make you ANGRY!!?), to bring them back, the nice people from this meeting can get their turn to have them for two weeks.

Lauri finished the meeting with a quote from Popeye, and the meeting was rocked to a close.

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