Officer Meeting Minutes

PUBLIC SPEAKING NORTHWEST

December 7, 2021

 

Meeting started approximately 1:00 p.m.

 

Officers in Attendance: Lynn C., Barb, Nancy, Lynne D., Kate

Written reports: Mara and Jinxin

 

Announcement:  Elections for new officers will be held next week.  All current offices have agreed to continue in their current roles.

 

Minutes from the November meeting were not available.

 

Officer Reports

Report from VPE Nancy: 

·      We have 6 goals completed for the DCP, because many members are completing levels.  We have a good chance of being President’s Distinguished this year if we have 20 members on June 30,2022.

·      Nancy reminded us to sign up for officer training.

·      Nancy has published a new club calendar and reminded us of upcoming events, including officer training (December and January), our traditional White Elephant party in January, and the club’s speech contest in February.

 

Report from VPM Kate:

·      We have had 4 inquiries about the club this month, and 2 of those people have been guests.  We have had 5 guests in the last month, and we currently have 16 paid members.  Kate is aware that one member (Nevin) may drop out when he starts classes.

·      Kate will not continue as VPM beyond June 30, 2022.  She will do a “Succession Plan” to ensure a smooth handover and to fulfill one of the requirements for Level 5 of her Path.

 

Report from VPPR Mara:

·      We now have an active “Google My Business” account.  Mara requested that we all review the site.

 

Report from SSA Lynne D:

·      Lynne requested that Toastmasters add a step in the agenda, reminding the Zoom meeting host to start recording speeches and evaluations.  That step will provide a smoother transition for everyone.

·      Lynne and Mara continue looking for a location for us to have on-site meetings.  No luck so far.

 

Report from Treasurer Jinxin:

·      Jinxin is willing to continue as Treasurer, but she has had difficulty dealing with PayPal. After discussion, we decided to rename our PayPal account to Treasurer@gmail.com and Barb agreed to let PayPal use her email and social security number, because they already have this information for her personal PayPal account.

 

Report from President, Lynn C

·      Lynn’s new job presents challenges for attending every meeting.  We agreed that she can use a substitute to run the meeting if necessary.  Ordinarily, the substitute would be Nancy.  If Nancy is not available, another officer can substitute.

 

·      We will have officer elections next week.

 

The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:50 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

December 7, 2021

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

 

Announcements 

Our Vice President of Education (VPE), Nancy, announced that Mara has completed Level 4 of the Engaging Humor Path.

 

Members in Attendance (in alphabetical order): Barb, Jessica, Jim, Jinxin, Kate, Kelly, Lynn C., Lynne D., Nancy, Nguyet, Robert, Warren

 

Guest in Attendance: Maria Cubacha (former toastmaster, some years ago)

 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Lynne D, opened our meeting at 12:00 p.m.

 

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C.

 

The meeting theme was: December Special Days

The word of the day was “merriment”

 

Our Toastmaster was Nancy, who mentioned the commonly known holiday celebrations in December.  Then she kept us entertained naming some of the national  special days in December including, for example:

December 3 – National Socks Day

December 7 – National Cotton Candy Day and National Dog Manicurists Day

December 15 – National Wear Your Pearls Day

December 17 – National Ugly Sweater Day and National Maple Syrup Day

 

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian – Jessica.

Ah Counter – Nguyet

Timer – Robert

General Evaluator – Warren

 

Our Speaker was Jinxin with her speech, “Shaking Up Your Diet,” 5-7minutes. Jinxin was doing a Persuasive Speech, Level 3, Presentation Mastery, and she was very successful persuading us to take personal responsibility for limiting the salt in our diets.  She started by telling us that frozen meals (TV dinners) have an excessively large amount of salt in them.  The recommended amount of salt that we should have each day is 200-300 mg.  Americans eat 60% more than that.  Salt is a slow killer; 3 million American deaths are attributed each year to salt intake.  She suggested eating home-cooked meals made of unprocessed ingredients.  Jinxin pointed out that some foods have a lot of salt in them, but the salt is masked by other ingredients.  Bread is a good example of that.  One slice of bread has 172 mg of salt.

 

Our Evaluator was Kate who explained the objectives for Jinxin’s speech and complimented her on hitting every single objective.  She also commented on the great title and very effective conclusion.

Our Table Topics Master was Lynn C who asked us to act like we were interviewing for jobs related to the National Days of theme of the meeting.

 

Kate was asked to apply for a hair stylist job for monkeys, building on her award-winning experience as a hair stylist for lions.

 

When asked to be a foot model for socks, Jim extolled funny socks, saying that funny socks demonstrated a person’s personality and helped develop spontaneity and creativity.

 

Barb was interviewed for a job inventing new flavors for cotton candy.  She suggested using the flavors of vaping products, including fruit, mint, nuts and marijuana.

 

For dog manicurist day, Lynne D suggested calling it “dog-acurist” day.  She recommended adding nail polish in different colors to match the doggy outfits, along with designs such as pictures of cats.  This led her to propose National “Cat-acurist” Day.

 

Jessica was hired for the position of bubble bath consultant, suggesting new scents for bubble bath for National Bubble Bath Party Day.  She thought champagne would be a good scent, because it is also known as “bubbly.”

 

Maria explained how she would make an interesting short film about grass growing, using flowers blooming, butterflies dancing over the grass, and other creatures to create color and interest.

 

Nguyet explained how she used exclusively food products for her painting, and she mentioned many food products including maple syrup.

 

Warren gave a detailed plan for acquiring ugly sweaters, including where to buy them (Goodwill) and at what time of the year (the week between Christmas and New Years.  This was in reference to National Ugly Sweater Day.

 

Jinxin applied for a job as a diver for pearls, in response to the question about National Wear Your Pearls Day.

 

Our General Evaluator, Warren, commented on the “insanity and preposterousness” of the meeting, referring to the laughter created by the wonderful table topics and other humor.  Warren complimented the efforts of the toastmaster, the GATE team, the evaluator, and especially the Table Topics Master.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

November 30, 2021

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

 

Announcements 

Our Vice President of Education (VPE), Nancy, announced:

·      Kelly has completed Level 1 of the Presentation Mastery Path

·      Jinxin has completed Level 2 of the Presentation Mastery Path

 

Members in Attendance (in alphabetical order): Barb, Jessica, Jim, Jinxin, Kate, Kelly, Lynn C., Lynne D., Mara, Nancy, Nguyet, Robert, Warren

 

Guests in Attendance: None

 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Lynne D, opened our meeting at 12:00 p.m.

 

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C.

 

Our Toastmaster was Kate, who shared information about original movie inventors (Thomas Edison, Mayer, etc.) and how they invented movie practices, for example, special effects.

 

The meeting theme was: Let’s Go to the Movies!

 

The word of the day was “adaptation”

 

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian – Lynne D.

Ah Counter – Lynne D.

Timer – Jessica

General Evaluator – Robert

 

Our Speaker was Nguyet with her speech, “What’s For Dinner.” This was her Ice Breaker, 4-6 minutes.  In her speech, Nguyet talked about how dinners had become bonding experiences, celebrating family occasions and meeting new friends from many different countries.  She also talked about Thrive, the start-up company for which she is the User Experience Designer.

 

Our Evaluator was Warren who recognized Nguyet’s success with the two goals of the ice breaker, introducing herself to the club and learning how to organize a speech.  He complimented her on her use of humor, made a few gentle suggestions, and concluded by saying that she had accomplished a fantastic start to her career as a toastmaster.

 

Our Table Topics Master was Jinxin with questions about famous movies. 

Nancy talked about the Harry Potter movie and books.  Kelly explained her admiration of the actor Sean Connery.  Robert discussed his first experience seeing Gone with the Wind.  Jim said that the movie Home Alone was his favorite Christmas movie of all time. Jessica shared her enjoyment of the Godfather movies and Scarface.  Lynne D told us about the first horror movie she saw as a young child.  She also mentioned that Davy Crockett was in the movie, and at the time she believed that Davy Crockett was married to Betty Crocker.

Our General Evaluator was Robert who presented a very humorous evaluation.  In the beginning he commented on the Zoom names of a few toastmasters and appreciated the new tradition of clapping out loud for ice breaker speeches.

Meeting adjourned at 12:59 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

October 19, 2021

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

 

Announcements 

 

Today, our new member induction ceremony was performed by Nancy for Jessica Smail.

 

Look forward to a Zoom (holiday) dress up meeting on October 26, 2021.

 

Members in Attendance (in alphabetical order): Jessica, Kate, Kelly, Lynn C., Lynne D., Mara, Nancy, Nguyet, Robert, Warren

 

Guests in Attendance: None

 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Lynne D, opened our meeting at 12:00 p.m.

 

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C.

 

Our Toastmaster was Nancy

 

The meeting theme was: Celebrating October!

 

The word of the day was “scrumptious”

 

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian – Nguyet

Ah Counter – Jessica

Timer – Lynn C

General Evaluator – Mara

 

Speaker #1 was Kelly with her speech, “Get Your Zoom On.” This was her Presentation Mastery path, Level 1-2: Evaluation and Feedback.  5-7 minutes

In her speech, which took 6:42 minutes, Kelly demonstrated using virtual background PowerPoint slides, how to create virtual background PowerPoint slides .

 

Speaker #2 was Warren speaking about, “Make Your Mentor A Winner.” This was his Visionary Communication path, Introduction To Mentoring.  5-7 minutes

In his speech, which took 8:09 minutes, Warren disclosed the two-way contributions between mentors and proteges and the distinction between mentors and coaches. He kept us on the edge of our chairs as his internet connection became intermittent.

 

Evaluator #1 was Kate with a very complete evaluation, recognizing Kelly’s innovation and warmth of presentation and suggesting adjusting her Zoom settings to uncheck “mirror my video” to properly point to a location behind her.

 

Evaluator #2 was Nancy with an admiring evaluation, recognizing Warren’s clarity of thought and storytelling and suggesting adjusting his monitor/camera, so that his entire head could fit into the screen rectangle, rather than leaving the top of his head to our imagination.

 

Our Table Topics Master was Robert with unthematic random questions. 

Lynne D. told of her favorite ancestor – her Grandmother as her namesake.

Nguyet talked decisively about not being willing to change places with anyone for a month, thank you very much.

Jessica looks forward 10 years from now to seeing her kids grown and her house remodeled.

Kate confessed that her favorite phone apps involve scheduling, personal and team.

 

The General Evaluator was Mara who commented on Nancy’s adroit self-fulfillment as Evaluator #2 and Toastmaster. She also liked the Table Topic speakers, the Evaluators, and the Gate Team reporters. 

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:59 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Katz, On behalf of

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

October 12, 2021

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

 

Announcements 

 

Today, our new member induction ceremony was performed by Nancy for Nguyet Ly and Nevin Kalaf

 

Look forward to a Zoom (holiday) dress up meeting on October 26, 2021.

 

Members in Attendance (in alphabetical order): Jessica, Jinxin, Kate, Kelly, Lynn C., Lynne D., Nancy, Nevin, Nguyet, Robert, Warren

 

Guests in Attendance: None

 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Lynne D, opened our meeting at 12:00 p.m.

 

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C.

 

Our Toastmaster was Lynne D.

 

The meeting theme was: Stormy Weather

 

The word of the day was “whirlwind”

 

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian – Nevin

Ah Counter – Nguyet

Timer – Jessica

General Evaluator – Warren

 

Speaker #1 was Kate with her speech, “The Amazing Pacific Octopus.” This was her Presentation Mastery path, Level 4 Elective, with Q&A Session.  15-20 minutes

Her speech, which took 18:02 minutes, Kate enthralled us with information and insights of the Pacific Octopus.

 

Evaluator #1 was Nancy with a very cogent evaluation, recognizing Kate’s warmth of presentation and suggesting how to combine the presentation and Kate into the same rectangle.

 

Our Table Topics Master was Lynn C. with lots of stormy questions. 

Robert told of his 1^st and last rented sailboat experience on Long Island Sound.

Kelly talked her wish to meet favorite celebrity, RuPaul, for fashion tips.

Jinxin let us know that her favorite extreme weather was Snow.

Nevin outlined his favorite activities inside his home, while a snow storm was outside.

Nguyet talked about her fortunate missed cruise to the Caribbean, which encountered a storm and was stranded for two weeks.

 

General Evaluator was Warren who commented on agenda preparation, overlooked General Evaluator introduction, and complemented the toastmaster on her most memorable Seattle Area storms. He also cited excellent Table Topic speakers, the Evaluator, Nancy, and Gate Team reporters. 

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:58 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Katz, On behalf of

Barbara Katz, Secretary

Officer Meeting Minutes

PUBLIC SPEAKING NORTHWEST

October 5, 2021

 

Meeting started approximately 1:00 p.m.

 

Officers in Attendance: Lynn C., Barb, Nancy, Mara, Jinxin, Lynne D.

Members in Attendance: Kelly, Caryn

 

Announcement:  Our club has won the Super Seven award and a $75 gift certificate because all seven of our officers attended officer training during July or August.

 

Minutes from the September meeting were approved.

 

Officer Reports

Report from VPE Nancy: 

·      We have earned one point toward our Distinguished Club award, and are well on the way toward earning several more points

 

Report from VPM Kate:

·      When Kate receives inquiries about our club, she copies her responses to the VPPR and President. When a guest has filled out an application, she copies the Treasurer.

·      We lost 5 or 6 members and now have 16 paid members

 

Report from Treasurer Jinxin:

·      The mysterious $30 payment has been identified as membership dues from Mercedes.

·      Jinxin reported that we have $1,236.58 in our checking account.

·      Jinxin has received the letter from Barb and has uploaded all documents to PayPal so that she can be the owner of our account.  No response from PayPal yet.

 

Report from VPPR Mara:

·      Mara suggested that we have a virtual Halloween party at our October 26^th meeting, with costumes and spooky stories. All agreed. She will begin promoting this event.

·      Mara and Lynne D continue to look for a location for in-person meetings.

·      Mara is signing up our club for “Google My Business.”

 

Report from SSA Lynne:

·      Lynne picked up supplies at our former meeting room in ISO, and the supplies are stored in her basement.  While at ISO, Lynne happened to see Karl, our former member who arranged for that meeting room.  Karl said that ISO would like to offer us a meeting room again, but it is not feasible at this time.  No budget.

 

New Business

 

Caryn told us about her other club’s experience doing hybrid meetings.  Their conclusion was that they could make it work, but it was not as satisfying as a virtual meeting or an in-person meeting.  Therefore, they are not doing hybrid anymore.

 

Caryn talked about how her other club explains the outline of the meeting at the beginning of each meeting.  Guests say that they appreciate this a lot. Their meeting is divided into three parts:

1)    Prepared speeches, hosted by the Toastmaster

2)    Impromptu speeches, led by the Table Topics Master

3)    Evaluations, led by the General Evaluator, including the evaluators and GATE team reports.

Caryn also talked about how much energy there is in their in-person meetings, how uplifting they are, and their Covid protection procedures.

 

Discussion

 

There followed an open-ended discussion on various topics.

 

Lynn C had several ideas on making our virtual meetings more fun:

·      Inviting a special person to our meeting,

·      Having a special themed meeting every month. 

·      She suggested a brainstorm to find out how/if the club is meeting the needs of the members, to restore the “spark.”  Kate suggested that we use the higher level projects to accomplish this; for example, a panel discussion or a Q&A session.

·      Celebrating accomplishments. Kate suggested maybe sending cards via snail-mail.

 

Jinxin said that she had followed-up with her company to see if they have a meeting room that we could use, but the company does not have one.

 

Kelly suggested using library rooms for our meetings, but this is not feasible because of library rules. Kelly also suggested doing Facebook advertising, and Mara agreed.

 

The meeting adjourned at 2:10 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

October 5, 2021

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

 

Announcements 

 

WELCOME to our new members, Nguyet Ly and Neven Kalaf

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Mara who has completed Level 3 of Presentation Mastery. 

 

KUDOS to Nancy for the very nice presentation of Mara’s Level 3 award.

 

Members in Attendance (in alphabetical order): Barb, Caryn, Jessica, Kate, Kelly, Kristin, Lynn C., Lynne D., Mara, Nancy, Warren

 

Guests in Attendance: Nguyet Ly and Nevin Kalaf

 

Our Sergeant at Arms, Lynne D, opened our meeting at 12:00 p.m.

 

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C.

 

Our Toastmaster was Barb.

 

The meeting theme was: Dragons

 

The word of the day was “slay”

 

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian – Jessica

Ah Counter – Jessica

Timer – Kate

General Evaluator – Lynn C.

 

Speaker #1 was Mara with her speech, “Turning Paper into Real Money – Legally.” This was her ice-breaker speech for Presentation Mastery path.  5-7 minutes

In her speech, Mara talked about her book series, Little Books of Big Business

 

Evaluator #1 was Warren with a very complimentary evaluation, recognizing that Mara’s speech was impromptu.

 

Our Table Topics Master was Kristen with lots of dragon-related questions. 

Kelly told of her Elvira costume that won 3^rd place in a contest.

Jessica talked about her favorite fairy tale, Rapunzel, that was updated and re-imagined by Disney in their movie “Tangled.”

Nguyet related a story about her past when she was cooking soup but forgot the water and started a fire in the kitchen.

Nevin described trips to Thailand with his family.

Caryn talked about Shrek, the movie about a dragon and ogres

Nancy said that she treasured freedom more than anything.

Kate talked about how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed and enhanced the teamwork in her agency.

Lynne was asked about her good luck charm, and she responded by talking about the things that make her feel blessed.

 

General Evaluator was Lynn C who recognized the toastmaster for contacting Kristin before the meeting so that Kristin would have lots of TT questions ready.  Lynn also recognized Warren and Kristin.

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary