Nov 24th 2015 Theme: Family

“I don't have to look up my family tree, because I know I am the sap.” ~~ Fred Allen

Welcome to the fourth meeting in November blog.

            Barb was our toastmaster of the day.

The GAT(e) team comprised of: Grammarian – Robert, Ah Counter – Jan, Timer – Tobias.

Devi was the first speaker of the day. She completed her Project #3 from the CC Manual – Get to the point. Title of her speech “Changes! Challenges!! Cheers!!!” Duration of her speech: 5-7 mins.

Through her speech, Devi shared with us the various challenges that came into her life as a result of the changes that took place during different phases of her life. But towards the end of each challenging phase, she learnt important life lessons and hence she gives cheers to those challenges.

After graduation, Devi got a job as a lecturer in the same college from where she graduated. While as a student she was sometimes careless, as a lecturer she knew she had the responsibility to teach her students. While living with her parents, she could afford to dump all her belongings on the couch, but after getting married she had to discipline herself.

Moving to Seattle from India was a great change in her life. After the first few months, she started missing her family and felt lonely. But with her husband’s encouragement, she took this change positively. Finally, after giving birth to her son, Devi who was fond of sleeping had to go through many sleepless nights.

 

Amritha was her evaluator. She appreciated how Devi conveyed her message through stories from her life with a well-organized and well-structured speech.

Our second speaker was Naser. He completed Project #2 from the advanced communication Manual – Interpreting Poetry. For this project, Naser chose the poem Daffodils written by William Wordsworth. Duration of his speech – 6 to 8 mins.

Naser was introduced to the poem Daffodils during his school days through his English textbook. During the speech, along with reading the poetry, Naser shared with us how the poem invoked within him strong emotions during his school days that they became his favorite flower though he had never seen it in real life. An assignment given to him by his teacher to describe the poet’s emotions when he saw 10,000 daffodils further strengthened his love for daffodils.

Years later, when he first visited the tulip festival, he got a chance to see his favorite flower. After spending few minutes near those flowers, he started sneezing and rashes appeared - he realized that it his favorite flower daffodil had started an allergic reaction in his body. Naser says even to this day Daffodil is his favorite flower, thanks to the strong emotional feeling that was invoked within him by the poet.

Jim was his evaluator. Jim gave kudos to Naser on his expressive, musical recital of the poem. He appreciated how well Naser blended in humor into his poetic talk.

Our third speaker was Warren. He completed his Project #1 from the CC Manual – Ice Breaker. The title of his speech was “If only I Could…”. The duration of his talk was 4-6 mins.

Through his Ice Breaker, Warren shared with us the following 6 principles that led him through a successful career.

·       Profit – Understand where profit is made in your company and contribute.

·       Risk and Reach out – Move out of your comfort zone and learn to deal with your weakness and learn.

·       Own customers – you have to be a part of the profit, not the overhead.

·       Fake it until you make it – When faced with a situation that you are not sure how to handle, have confidence and proceed.

·       Invent / Innovate – Finding new solutions to existing problems makes you a more valuable resource.

·       Teach – Assume the role of a teacher to learn better.

The first alphabets of Warren’s principles when put together forms the word PROFIT. What a simple way to keep these important principles in mind!!!

Jean was his evaluator. She pointed out that Warren was a natural speaker. With good gestures, eye contact and the use of a white board – Warren gave a wonderful Ice Breaker.

Both Warren and Jean were voted best in their respective categories.

Lynne was our table topics master. Our table topics speakers were Tobias, Andrew, Jan and Amritha.

Tobias spoke about how his family is a link to his present and a bridge to the future. Being a dad to grown up daughters’ who are in in college now, his children have always been there to cheer him up at all times.

Andrew spoke about how his children teach him about life. Having 3 daughters of his own, he is amazed at how quickly they learn. His daughters’ inspire him to learn and be joyful.

Jan spoke about her thoughts on healing the world through healings one’s family. She believes that creating a loving family, we relate to others with love. Love allows to develop a grudge and resentment free world.

Amritha spoke about how by spending quality time with her children, she is able to be a better parent herself. Looking back to her childhood years, she now understands that the time her parents devoted for their children laid the foundation to a strong future.

Jan was voted the best table topics speaker.

Members who attended the meeting numbered to 18 and were:  Amritha, Andrew, Barb, Chizuko, Dan, Devi, Jan, Jean, Jim, Julie, Linda, Liz, Lynne, Naser, Rance, Robert, Tobias, and Warren.

Our active membership total currently is at 30.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amritha Imandi, Secretary

Public Speaking Northwest #9406