Friday, November 13, 2015

Nov 10th 2015 Theme: Festival of Lights

"Let this diwali burn all your bad times and enter you in good times." — Unknown

Welcome to the second meeting in November blog. 

                    Amritha was our toastmaster of the day.

The GAT(e) team comprised of: Grammarian – Julie, Ah Counter – Pauline, Timer – Dan Dan

Lynne was the first speaker of the day. She completed her Project #1 from the Story Telling Manual - The Folk Tale. Her speech was titled “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” Duration of her speech: 7-9 mins.

Lynne started her speech by vividly describing the mountains of Norway where 3 brother billy goats lived - a small one, a medium one and a large one. They soon ran out of grass and had nothing to eat. They knew there were meadows up in the mountains across the river. But in order to reach there, they had to cross a bridge under which an ugly scary troll lived who loved to eat goats for dinner. 

Though the billy goats were scared, they decided to proceed moving towards the meadows one after the other. For the rest of her speech, Lynne enacted out in a very humorous and engaging manner the conversations that each billy goat had with the troll while crossing the bridge. She depicted how the small and medium billy goats tricked the troll and how the large billy goat charged the troll and threw him into the river. The three billy goats lived happily grazing on the fresh green meadows.


Jessica D. was her evaluator. She appreciated Lynne on her strong story telling abilities which were filled with humor, body gestures and vocal variety with a distinct voice to each character. As a suggestion, she offered Lynne to may be come up with a moral from the story that the audience could benefit from.





Our second speaker was Barb. She completed her Speech #2 from the Persuasive Speaking Manual – Conquering the Cold Call. The title of her speech was “A Cold Day in...?” Duration –  10 to 14 mins.

Barb started her talk by asking questions that directed the audience's attention towards the process of making big investments. She spoke about the cautious mindset any one might have while purchasing expensive items from an unknown sales person. 

Barb then role played with Grace where she demonstrated how to make a cold call to a stranger (Grace in this scenario). In the conversation that followed with Grace, Barb started out by getting to know Grace and her family and then she proposed some investment plans (cold call). Towards the end of Barb's speech, she turned to the audience to get their opinion on how successful she was on selling the cold call to a stranger.

Linda was her evaluator. Linda acknowledged how well Barb got audience's attention using questions, the impromptu role play with Grace was performed and how towards the end she opened up to the audience for questions. As a suggestion, she offered Barb could use more body gestures. 

Both Lynne and Jessica D. were voted best in their respective categories. 





Chizuko was our table topics master of the day. The table topics speakers were - Pauline, Robert, Naser and Lynne. They were given a scenario - one of Chizuko's friend is visiting Seattle from Japan. The speakers were asked to suggest places in various categories where she could possibly take her friend.


Pauline spoke about the scenic places that one should not miss in Seattle. She suggested visiting the beautiful gardens across Seattle, the Science Center and city of Seattle when lighted up. If the person appreciates nature, a trip to Mount Rainier,  hiking or a visit to the hot springs would be fun.






Robert spoke about the museums around Seattle that one should not miss. He shared his experiences while visiting the Art Museum of Seattle and UW gallery - the latter being more interesting when compared to the former. In either case, one must be willing to walk around.




Naser spoke about the restaurants to visit in Seattle. He suggested Denny's where our club meets, so that her friend could have the double benefit of experiencing pure American lunch along with the opportunity to attend our meeting.




Lynne suggested things to do in the evening. As per Lynne, ferry rides are a great afternoon trip with the scenic mountain views. On the return truip, one can see the whole skyline of Seattle lit up. Reserving a table on the space needle restaurant would take care of their dinner with spectacular views of the sunset.

Naser was voted the best table topics speaker.


Our humorist was Robert who shared a joke on Van Gogh's family tree. 

Members who attended the meeting numbered to 17 and were: Amritha, Andrew, Barb, Chizuko, DanDan, Grace, Jan, Jean, Jessica D., Jim, Julie, Linda, Lynne, Naser, Pauline, Robert, and Warren.

Our active membership total currently is at 30 with Warren as our newest member. Welcome Warren!!!

Respectfully Submitted,

Amritha Imandi, Secretary
Public Speaking Northwest #9406

3 comments:

  1. Amritha, you are also so thorough and detailed. You do a great job!!

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  2. Since I couldn't stay for the whole meeting, I delighted in knowing about Chizuko's Table Topic questions. The suggestions on what to see in our area were fabulous.

    Amritha, your outfit brought the Festival of Lights alive. I liked your clay candle holders too. Thank you for sharing this precious Indian Tradition.

    Lynne made me jump 3 times with her mean old troll. What a story teller!

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