Mar. 10th, 2015 Theme: Food For Thought: A Few Tidbits

Time flies like an arrow; Fruit Flies like a banana. ~~ Groucho Marx

Welcome to our "just before pi(e) day" and "just before the ides of March" meeting blog. On this day, we had 3 guests come to visit us.  

Lynne was our toastmaster who conducted a delightful and entertaining meeting. She offered such stimulations as the origins of a Baker’s Dozen, Cottage Cheese and Ice Cream. The source of these were from a book called: Why does popcorn pop? By Don Voorhies  

The GAT(e)  team was: Jessica as Grammarian (Essential), Kimberley as the Ah Counter, Jim as the Timer.

Barb was our first speaker of the afternoon. She completed the 5th project (The Oratorical Speech) of the Advanced Interpretive Reading Manual within 8 minutes. Her speech title was "Dawn And Mary".

In her speech, written by Brian Doyle in Sun Magazine, Barb told of the commemorative events that occurred on December 14, 2012 in Newton, Connecticut Sandy Hook Grade School, where the Principal named Dawn and the School Psychologist named Mary ran toward the sound of gun shots to defend the children of the school.

Jean was her evaluator. Jean observed that Barb dressed professionally as a speaker and thought the words "Jumped or Leapt or Lunged" were repeatedly voiced very effectively. She wanted the spoken "pop, pop, pop" to be extremely loud.  Her other recommendation was for Barb to speak more confidently during the beginning of her speech.

Jean was voted best Evaluator.

Our second speaker, David P. completed his 1st project (The Ice Breaker), from the Competent Communicators Manual within 8 minutes. The name of his speech was "That’s Me". David, as a 2 year old, was introduced to an African American named Marvin. He generalized this by assuming all African Americans were named Marvin and called them that until age 5.

His older sister Sarah, who normally met him after school to walk home with him, didn’t one day. He was scared and walked home alone. When he saw her again, he said to her: "You made an earthquake in my heart!" 

He recovered from a brain injury due to an auto accident as a 14 year old and relearned how to finish verbalizing thoughts. A two year mission to Mexico allowed him to learn Spanish and relearn English. He now is in a people oriented job as an insurance broker and has his wife Natasha and 9 month old Gretchen to offer positive heart murmurs.

David A. was his evaluator. He shook hands with the speaker. He liked the show and tell of the head scar and the "earthquake" quote. He noted that David unnecessarily used the word "and…" as a place holder (and sign to others not to interrupt him because he isn’t finished talking). He suggested breathing deeper and more often and not to fuss with his wedding ring; to look around the room rather than up and down; to use natural hand gestures and move back to be seen by the entire audience.

 Naser, our contestant for the Area Level International speech contest on March 25, gave his speech again as our 3^rd speaker. (See the March 3 Blog, below this one, for the initial description of "What Does Great Mean?"). In this version, he made it clear that his son did not accept that greatness is equated with eating broccoli. His own heroes are not famous people, but they are meaningful people to Naser and he offered a call to action that you can achieve greatness through your own heroes, as they inspire you.

Naser won the best speaker award today.

Linda, our contestant for the Area Level Evaluation contest on March 25, was his evaluator. She liked the opening dialog between Naser and his son because the theme and title of the speech was voiced by the son. She admired his ability to maintain good eye contact, actively use the stage area and stay moving. She was pleased with the development of the theme: the son’s question, Naser's question, Naser's dream, Naser's heroes, Naser and your potential greatness. She recommended that he maintain the energy of the latter part of the speech shown in the first part; make the best friend’s impact on Naser be a story to remember; and to make the son more real by using a cuddling gesture.

 Our humorist was Pam, who told a very funny story about a man’s considerate concern for his wife and her perceived auditory infirmity.

Attendees were:  Linda, Lynne, Jean, Jim, Robert, Barb, Pauline, Jung, Grace, Dave A., Dave P., Diana, Kimberley, Jessica, Naser, Pamela, along with guests: Satish A., Preston K. and Sue F. One of our guests, Preston K. joined our club today (instead of last week, as erroneously reported).  Our membership total is now at 26.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [Discuss or comment] ~~~~~