June 10, 2010
Hello, fellow Toastmasters! Last night we had a truly excellent meeting. Peggy was a fabulous Toastmaster. She ran with the theme “Computers” and shared with us her recent computer woes. She also shared some history of computers and her earliest memories of computers.
Vicki started the evening out with a silly joke. Then Brian led the evaluation team.
Jacque gave an excellent Icebreaker speech entitled, “What Losing 100 Pounds and Writing a Novel Have in Common.” If you missed it, ask her what they have in common! The speech was well-organized and impactful. She’s off to a great start.
Vicki then ran the Table Topics, asking questions all related to the theme. Amy, Alyce and Brian all answered questions, and Brian won the Table Topics award for his answer to the question, “MAC or PC?”.
Dennis gave a very useful speech evaluation, sharing tips we can all learn. Amy kept the time for all speaking roles. Alyce, as Grammarian and Ah Counter, brought the fun word of the day “foofaraw”. Use it in a sentence today!
Amy closed the meeting with her memorable thought for the day, “When life gives you lemons… throw them back and demand chocolate!”
But before the meeting ended Dennis presented the Toastmaster of the Year award to… Brian Flagg! Congratulations, Brian! It is well-deserved. (See a picture)
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May 13, 2010
The meeting last night was wonderful, as usual. We were entertained and we learned. Dennis Feller was our Toastmaster and he led a flawless meeting with the theme “Acknowledging Accomplishments”.
Brian Flagg gave an educational and interesting speech called “Living the Mission”. He went over the Big Apple Toastmasters mission statement and explained how we all “provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment” and “develop communication and leadership skills”. Everyone at the meeting did evaluations.
Teresa Walters led the General Evaluation Team. Tammi Dick was the Ah Counter. Newest member Jacque Fletcher was the Grammarian with the word of the day “lugubrious” (look it up!). She gave the Grammarian award to Brian. John Jukich was the timekeeper.
Vicki Stephenson led the Table Topics. Peggy, Tammi, Jon and Jacque all participated. Tammi won the award!
Teresa closed with a memorable thought for the day. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/196608
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August 13, 2009
Last night was a great evening at the Big Apple Toastmasters. Jeannette did a fantastic job as Toastmaster. She brought enthusiasm and humor to the meeting.
As the Humorist, Gary used a projector to show us some funny signs, such as “Entrance Only, Do Not Enter”.
Vicki gave a speech from the Better Speaker Series called “Beginning Your Speech”. We learned what elements make up a good speech introduction and some methods for creating the beginning of a speech. She included many personal examples from her own speeches.
Amy F. led the Table Topics and managed to convince all three of our guests to participate! Shaina, Jai and Brenda all did a great job answering questions related to the theme “Undesirable Guests”. Shaina won the Table Topics award for her one and a half minute answer regarding ghosts.
Tracy led the evaluation team and did a great job evaluating how the meeting was conducted. Gary gave Vicki a very useful evaluation with encouragement and suggestions. Susan was our Timerkeeper and Grammarian, with the word of the day “Furtive”. Amy F. was our Ah counter and some of our long-time Toastmasters were caught saying a few “um’s”! It’s good to be kept on our toes.
Jon closed the meeting with some interesting quotes from famous people.
NEWS =======
Don’t get too excited that we had three guests – all live too far away to join our club. BUT they all had a positive experience and may join other clubs in their area.
Our club contest is just two weeks away! Let Brian know if you’d like to compete in the Humorous contest or the Evaluation contest, or BOTH!
We need a target speaker for the Evaluation contest, so let Brian know if you’re interested or if you know someone else who would be. A target speaker can be from another Toastmasters club.
Our brand new club Newsletter was introduced by Vicki, VP PR. You can get a copy on our blog: http://bigappleslices.wordpress.com/newsletter/. You’ll notice many other things added to the blog, such as club photos and recent meeting recaps. Check it out!
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July 30, 2009
Vicki was the Toastmaster at last week’s meeting. We had a lot of fun with the theme “social networking”. We talked about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and CuteAsHell.com (where Vicki revealed her pets do social networking).
Tracy gave an enthralling speech called “Job Traits Required”. She shared that when she began studying modeling as a career, she discovered she didn’t have all the necessary traits. She advises us to save ourselves some time by researching a field before pursuing a career in it.
Amy C. did a great job running the evaluation team. Trish was our Grammarian and brought the word of the day “Tweet”. Jim was our “Ah”
counter. Brian was our timekeeper. Jeannette gave a very thoughtful evaluation for Tracy’s speech. Trish gave the Grammarian award to Vicki for thinking up the theme.
Amy F. had several fun and creative Table Topics questions, zeroing in on the “social networking” theme. Trish, Vicki and Susan stood in front of the group and gave great answers. Susan took home the award for her report on the high school reunions she’s attended.
Susan then ended the night with a quote: “Dream like you will life forever, live like you will die tomorrow.”
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July 23, 2009
What a great time we had this evening, despite the fact that I neglected to bring the agenda. This was actually a good learning opportunity for all! Did you ever have to give a presentation only to get to the meeting room and discover you did not have your presentation materials? You are still expected to perform. Notice how Gary filled in and helped recall the evening’s agenda on-the-spot.
Brian opened the meeting with the pledge and mission statement, and introduced himself as Toastmaster, followed by an introduction of the theme for the evening, Sittin’ ‘Round the Campfire. All joined in and had exceptional support for the theme. Gary fulfilled the role of General Evaluator and introduced his team.
The first speech of the evening was given by Teresa Walters, entitled “Scuba Diving”. She used visuals and verbal variety to tell us all about scuba diving and what can be done at the various levels of certification. We all giggled when Teresa relayed a story about her husband speaking to her (or trying to) while under the water (bub bub brrb bub) is how it turned out.
Amy gave her third speech, “Going to the Library” and told us all about why she enjoys the library (and about the $33 fine she had at one time), and also talked to us about the latest book she has read on something about a ‘Rap Vixon’. She gave a very compelling set of reasons why to visit the library this summer.
Susan did a superb job at weaving the camp fire theme into the Table Topics, calling Gary, Jeanette, and Meili to the LECTERN. Jeanette, a long-time Toastmaster was our welcomed visitor, and joined the club (and won Table Topics as well as Grammarian!).
The team of Vicki and Dennis, our very seasoned Toastmasters, gave their usual outstanding evaluation reports of the speeches. Jon was our Grammarian and Ah-counter, and really got into his role! Great job on picking out the interesting phrases and sentences!
Gary, another seasoned Toastmaster, fulfilled his role as General Evaluator with his usual excellence, doing a particularly good job at ensuring LECTERN protocol.
Brian had show and tell for the group assembled, a certificate of excellence for the club reaching the President Distinguished Club for 2008-2009, thanks to our Toastmaster Of The Year, Dennis, and our past President and VP of Education, Vicki and Trish. The club reached 10 of 10 goals on the Distinguished Club Program, a lofty goal for the incoming Officers. But, we WILL achieve!
Stay tuned for details on the upcoming Club Contest at the last Thursday in August. The Club can send four members, so there is no reason why every Member should not participate in the contest.
See you next week! (Don’t forget to bring your Competent Leader Manual. I’ll be checking!)
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July 16, 2009
Fellow Toastmasters, the meeting last week was a memorable one. Nate was the Toastmaster and he ran a seamless meeting with continual references to his theme “Potluck”. Nate said that Toastmasters is like a potluck – everyone brings something different to the table.
Jon J. tickled our funny bones at the start of the meeting with one of his jokes. Then Amy F. introduced her evaluation team.
Our speakers for the night were Amy C. and Kent. Amy’s speech, “Working 9-5″, was all about how to attain work/life balance. Kent’s speech, “Conformity”, talked about two different types of conformity and he encouraged us to think about how we conform. Both speech topics were very useful. I’m sure we all picked up a few tips we can use.
Jennifer asked some excellent Table Topics questions. Teresa, Vicki and our new member Jim all answered very well. Jim took home his first Table Topics award!
Amy F. brought up her evaluation team again. Tracy and Brian gave excellent evaluations to our speakers. Teresa was the Grammarian/Ah Counter with the word of the day “Ruminating”. She gave the Grammarian award to Jennifer for using that word. Rob kept time for all speakers. Amy F. then gave a very nice report on the meeting.
Brian adjourned his first meeting as President!
NEWS ===
- Please welcome our new member Jim!
- Our club earned the 10 out of 10 ribbon! That means our club completed 10 out of the 10 goals Toastmasters International has for clubs each year. Thank you to EVERYONE who contributed to completing those goals. We’ve had a very good year.
- For completing 10 out of 10, our club will receive two free advanced speech manuals. We have almost all of the advanced speech manuals in our red basket. Feel free to look them over. You can even sign out a book to use. When you complete the first manual, the Competent Communicator, for the first time you will receive two free advanced manuals of your own.
- Brian reminded us to always bring the Leadership manual if you haven’t earned the CL (Competent Leader) yet. It’s not hard to complete! Talk to Brian or Vicki for more information.
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July 9, 2009
We had a great time this evening! Jon returned after quite a bout in the hospital. You look super, Jon! We had two special visitors at the meeting; Trish brought her new daughter, Anna, and Joan Reed visited to give a very special award, Toastmaster Of The Year, to Dennis Feller. Way to go Dennis! And, if that was not enough for one evening, Jennifer Pike returned after an extended hiatus to rejoin the club.
Gary was a most excellent Toastmaster, with a theme of “After The Holidays”. Jon provided us with humor, telling us a joke about crossing a women from Wisconsin and a man from northern Iraq (something about a Cheese Curd). Teresa gave her 4th speech from the Competent Communicator manual, entitled “Cabin Life”, a good nexus of stories from life at the cabin. For her sentences that invoking feelings of cabin life, the goods and the bads, as well as the fish story, Teresa received the Grammarian award for the evening.
Brian was the Table Topics Master, and Jenn was the Table Topics winner for the evening with a rousing speech before congress making her pitch for a new NRA-inspired holiday; deer-hunting week.
The meeting closed with several significant agenda items; Amy gave a wonderful thought of the day on forgiveness, Joan presented the Toastmaster Of The Year award to Dennis, and Dennis led the installation ceremony for the new club officers.
