July 28th 2015 Theme: Moonwalk

“That's one small step for man, one giant step for mankind.”~~ Neil Armstrong

Welcome to the fourth and final meeting in July blog. Today, we had 5 guests attend our meeting. 

Alice was our toastmaster of the day.

The GAT(e) team was: Grammarian – Jung, Jackie as the Ah Counter and Diana as the Timer.

Naser was our first speaker today.  He gave his 4^th

Speech from the Storyteller Manual. The title of his speech was “Prince Eklavya”. He completed his speech within 10 minutes.

Naser shared with us the story of a prince named Eklavya who was born to a tribal chief in Indian subcontinent. As Eklavya grew up, he developed a desire to be the world’s greatest archer. In the absence of a master teacher in his small tribal community, he approached Dhrona (the best teacher in the kingdom who taught the royal princes). Even though Dhrona refused to teach Eklavya, Eklavya made a mud statue of Dhrona, considered Dhrona as his guru, and practiced archery in front of the statue. In few years, Eklavya became a master archer.

One day, Dhrona found an animal completely trapped in a cage of arrows without a single wound. When he discovered that it was Eklavya who mastered this level of archery regarding Dhrona as his guru, Dhrona demanded Eklavya’s right thumb as the guru dakshina (repaying the teacher after studies). Without hesitation, Eklavya cut his right thumb and offered to his guru. Dhrona made such a shrewd demand to keep the reputation of the royal princes.

Barb was his evaluator. She very much appreciated the story that Naser chose from his cultural background to share with us. She liked the descriptive opening, the body gestures and the moral of the story. As a suggestion, she offered him to include more vocal variety.

Barb was voted the best evaluator.

Our second speaker was Andrew. He offered his 2^nd Speech from the Competent Communicator Manual, Project #2 – Organize Your Speech. The title of his speech was: “Three Practical Steps to Protect Yourself Online.” He completed his speech within 7 minutes.

Through his speech Andrew showed us the risks involved in the world of internet. He shed light on the fact that there are people on the web who disguise themselves as ISP vendors, or antivirus companies. They try to persuade you to run their code on your computer. This allows them to plant some of their data in your computer and access information thus compromising its security. When such a thing happens, the only solution to be safe is to wipe off all the data.

He also suggested an effective way of choosing passwords. Instead of all the crazy letters and special character passwords, he advises us to use a sentence which is easy to remember.

Andrew was voted the best speaker.

Amritha was his evaluator. She admired the topic that Andrew chose which is very relevant to the present day.

She appreciated the well-organized flow of the speech. As a suggestion, she offered him to have a firm stand on the stage instead of the casual to and fro movements that he had. 

Liz was our Table Topics Master today. The question that she chose was “If you could be any age from 1 week, what age would you choose?”

 

Julie chose to be 2 years old. She would then have the freedom and energy to run around, throw tantrums and then act as if nothing happened the very next minute. 

Jessica chose to be 7 years old. At 7, she was dressed as a tomboy following her dad in his warehouse and enjoyed every moment of life.

Amritha chose to go back to 12. At 12, she lived with her family in a beautiful neighborhood, amazing friends and teachers who supported and challenged her.

Robert very cleverly chose to be 104. Since he has seen all the years from his childhood till date, he is curious to know how life would be when he is 104. How would the world look?

Hadaya chose to be 20. He shared with us that life during his University life was joyful with his friends. He misses them now and hopes to bring the vibrancy of those years back to his life now.

Liz chose to be 12. At 12, she was a fearless free spirited girl riding horses. She described a risky horse riding experience she chose which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Julie was voted the best table topics speaker.

Towards the end of the meeting, Andrew and Jackie were awarded the Certificate of Achievement for completing their Ice Breaker Speech.

Our members attending numbered 16 and were:  Alice, Amritha, Andrew, Barb, Dan, Diana, Grace, Jackie, Jessica, Julie, Jung, Liz, Naser, Pauline, Robert and Sep along with 5 guests:  Fran D., Hadaya, Marlon K., Shreya K., and Yash K.

Our active membership total currently is at 32.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amritha Imandi, Secretary

Public Speaking Northwest #9406