Officer Meeting Minutes

PUBLIC SPEAKING NORTHWEST

April 19, 2022

 

Meeting started approximately 1:10 p.m.

 

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

 

Minutes from the March meeting were approved.

 

OFFICER REPORTS

 

Report from VPE Nancy: 

·      Excellent news: Meera became our 20^th member. We only need one more Level 2 to be perfect, with 10 points!  Every member renewed! 

·      Sending out roster ahead of time worked well.

 

Report from VPM Kate:

·      EVERYONE renewed, including Nevin & Jessica who we expected to drop because of their busy schedules

·      At the in-person meeting, Giri said the he would like a meeting to be in-person and streaming at the same time.

Report from VPPR Mara:

·      The focus on the in-person meeting was tremendous, good turnout.

·      Ongoing promotion is good,

·      We got $50 for the open house.  Mara would not suggest having Open House and In-Person meeting so close together again.

·      Giri, Randy, Tobias, Julie were guests at the in-person meeting, invited by Mara. She had personally called some former members.

 

Discussion regarding in-person meetings:

·      Mara reported that she had personally recruited roles in advance of the meeting.

·      Warren wants to speak at an in-person meeting

·      Lynn C expressed kudos to Mara as Toastmaster of the meeting, providing guidance and making everyone feel safe.

·      Toastmaster for the May in-person meeting is not decided yet.

·      Diana (guest) liked the meeting a LOT, but may not join, even though Lynn C offered to pay her expenses to join.

·      In the future, the toastmaster should explain the amount of time that guests have for feedback. We were not able to get feedback from all guests because one guest took too long at the meeting

·      Mara posted photos of in person meeting in Facebook.

·      We may be able to have the in-person meeting in June at ISO.

 Report from SSA Lynne:

·      Lynne came early, did all the set-up, and solved problems with the room.

·      We got a larger room than expected.

·      There is a new contact at Country Inn and Suites and Lynne has established a relationship with the new person.

·      Next in-person meeting will be in the Country Inn conference room, with a large table, but not a lot of room to move around.

·      Being SSA at the meeting had been a large time commitment

·      It had been fun working with Mara, great input, reliable

 

Report from Secretary Barb: Nothing to report.

 

Report from Treasurer Jinxin.

·      We have $1402 in our bank account

·      Country Inn hasn’t charged us yet.

·      We will get money from D2 to offset Zoom costs

·      Trouble with PayPal – Jim is still the only one who can change things; makes Jinxin nervous.  Despite many attempts, we have not been able to solve this problem.

 

OLD AND NEW BUSINESS

 

Kate agreed to check out the size of the table in the conference room of Country Inn, how many it seats.

 

Discussion of officers for the next term:

·      Maria would be good for some role

·      Kelly would be good for PR, and probably would accept it

·      Amy or Kristin could do the Zoom recording

·      Barb will replace Lynne as SAA, with Robert’s help

·      Nancy is willing to stay on as VPE

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

 

 

Meeting Minutes

April 19, 2022

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

Announcements: Our next in-person meeting will be in two weeks, in Room A at Country Inn.

Members in Attendance: Amy, Barb, Jean, Jim, Kate, Kristin, Lynne D, Mara, Maria, Meera, Nancy, Robert, Warren

Guests: Dan Sakaki, from Richmond, Canada, Unicorn Tribe Toastmasters Club

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

Opening Comments were presented by our President pro temp, Nancy, who welcomed our guest and talked a little about “Toastmaster Tourism.” At the end of the meeting, Nancy offered Kudos to Lynne for handling the recordings and always starting our meetings on time.

The meeting theme was: “Earth Day”

The word of the day was “Verdant,” meaning green, as in a verdant forest. A second meaning is naïve or new, as in verdant college students.

Our Toastmaster was Mara, who provided thoughts, ideas, and history about Earth Day, which was created in 1970 by a U.S. Senator.  Ever since, Earth Day has inspired events by people around the world. Earth Day is always celebrated on April 22^nd.  

 Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian –Amy

Ah Counter – Warren.

Timer – Lynne D.

General Evaluator – Barb

 Speaker #1 was Kristin, with her speech, “Leadership and Personality Tests,” 5-7 minutes.  In her quest to increase her knowledge of leadership, Kristin recently took several personality tests and shared her results with us. She provided a chart which showed her strengths based on the Clifton tests, taken 8 years ago and recently. One of her strengths is WOO= Winning Others Over.  The Toastmaster leadership test said that she was bureaucratic, which surprised her at first.  In the Myers-Briggs test taken at work, she was revealed as ESFJ, (Extrovert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) particularly good for “teaching and preaching.”

Table Topics

Maria showed Memes and asked questions regarding Earth Day.

Meera talked about the things from earth that she would like to introduce to another planet.  She said “animals,” and she also mentioned all the coffee grown in Nepal. The meme said, “Save the earth – it’s the only planet that has coffee.”

Amy was asked to talk about how she manages with the rotating differences in daylight between summer and winter. Both she and her fiancé suffer from the SADD syndrome in winter, so they create very light spaces in their house to counteract that. In the spring and summer, they go outdoors as often as possible.

Jim said that if he was colonizing another planet, he would bring vegetables to one of the outer rings of Saturn.  He thinks that the Fountain of Youth might be found there, and he would welcome the chance to be verdant again.

Robert, when asked about an event that hadn’t had enough preparation, said that he enjoys doing events spontaneously. He mentioned his 45^th birthday party as an example, in which none of his friends knew each other but still enjoyed themselves exploring their connections to him.

Warren was asked, “What would you want planted in your honor?” Warren’s immediate response was that he would like planted something that provided support and food, such as orange or apple trees.  He added, “Something with seeds, that continues to help society after I am gone.”

Dan responded to the meme, “Earth is the only planet that has cats,” and was asked which animal he would take to another planet.  He talked about his love/hate relationship with cats. He loves cats but they spark his allergies.  Dan concluded with his love/love relationship with dogs.

Jean was asked, “Do you remember your re-usable bags when you go shopping?” Jean responded that Jim remembers.  Jean forgets the bags, but not what goes into them. Because of her age, she doesn’t like talk about “old bags.”

Evaluator, Nancy, said that she loved the topic of Kristin’s speech.  Nancy said that Kristin is no longer a verdant speaker. She excelled at immersing herself in the topic, sharing joy, and leading with her heart.  Nancy commented on the good introduction and suggested using pauses as transitions between the tests.  Nancy said that using Power Point is challenging, and suggested minimizing use of words during set up. She called it a great speech with good delivery.

General Evaluator, Barb, commented on how enjoyable the meeting had been and suggested that members arrive 10-15 minutes early to join in the interesting discussions before the meeting.  Barb called out the great job done by Nancy in evaluating Kristin’s speech, including the sandwich method and specific suggestions.

Mara concluded her toastmaster duties by giving riddle jokes about Earth day.

Our guest Dan, said that he liked that we had presented the club Mission Statement, and he offered praise to Maria because she nodded and smiled to make Table Topics speakers feel comfortable, not intimidated.

Robert provided a great joke at the end of the meeting.

The meeting ended on time.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

April 12, 2022

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters 

Members in Attendance: Amy, Barb, Jean, Jim, , Kate, Kelly, Kristin, Lynn C, Lynne D, Mara, Maria, Meera, Warren

No Guests

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

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C

The meeting theme was:  “April Showers”

The word of the day was “pluvious,” relating to or characterized by rainfall.

Our Toastmaster was Nancy, who gave us MANY interesting tidbits on humans showering, the largest group of people who showered, typical length of showers for men and women, in what countries people shower most frequently, etc.

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian –Maria          

Ah Counter – Maria.

Timer – Lynne D

General Evaluator – Kate

Speaker #1 was Amy, with her speech, “A Universal Symbol of Hope,” 5-7 minutes.  Amy engaged us immediately with the picture she described of a one-horned, white animal, and then she surprised us by saying that the animal was a rhinoceros.  Then she gave us the history of unicorns, the symbolism, and how the unicorn has been spoken about over the years.

Speaker #2 was Jim , with his speech, “You Choose.”  Jim told us a brief history of Demosthenes and the evaluator who told him that he was a terrible speaker.  Jim told us that his toastmaster’s goal this year was keeping his speeches to 5-7 minutes. Then he explained the many ways that he had been working to attain that goal.  Then he challenged us, “What important difference do you want to make? How do you plan to do it? Choose to take it or leave it.”

Evaluator #1 was Warren, who complimented Amy on her word choice, use of adjectives, and the phenomenal pictures she created with description. He suggested that she not read her speech, but use bullet points to improve eye contact.  

 

Evaluator #2 was Mara, who said that Jim was a better speaker than most.  She added that she had not been able to suss out the structure of this speech, and that he had been relaxed and engaging. 

Table Topics

Kelly had apparently spent a lot of time creating pictures of famous people alongside club members wearing similar outfits. She asked members to comment on the fashions as if we were Joan Rivers. 

Maria was shown a picture of herself next to Diane Keaton in top hats. She commented on the appropriateness of the pose.

Kristin was asked to comment on the picture of Warren and President Bush.

Mara commented on the picture of Nancy and Diane Lane.

Barb talked about the picture of herself and Robert, back to back, wearing plaid.

Jean commented on the picture of Jim and Johnny Carson.General Evaluator, Kate, commented on Barb’s use of the phrase, “Let me see,” as a good way to avoid crutch words, said it had been a great topic, and appreciated seeing speeches from a relative newcomer and a veteran speaker.  Kate complimented the Evaluators on use of the sandwich method, and Kelly on the fantastic table topics.

Nancy provided some humorous riddles.

The meeting ended on time.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

April 5, 2022

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters

What a glorious meeting! It was so wonderful to see and hug each other, old friends, and past members.  There was so much energy and laughter throughout the meeting.  The room was a perfect size and nicely arranged.

Announcements 

1.    Kudos to Lynne D and Mara for all the work that they did making this happen!

2.    Next in-person meeting is May 3, 2022.

Members in Attendance: Barb, Jean, Jim, Jutta, Kate, Kelly, Lynn C, Lynne D, Mara, Maria, Warren

Guests in Attendance: Dianna (friend of Lynn C.), Giri, Julie Hutton, Randy Barber, and Tobias.

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

Opening Comments by our President, Lynn C

The meeting theme was:  “Welcome Back”

The word of the day was “Live,” rhyming with strive. The other pronunciation of the word, rhyming with give, was not allowed.

Our Toastmaster was Mara, who explained the conventions of an in-person meeting that differ from an online meeting.

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian –Jean            

Ah Counter – Lynn C.

Timer – Jutta

General Evaluator – Warren

Speaker #1 was Kelly, with her speech, “BreakTHROUGH the Bondage,” 5-7 minutes.  Kelly had a very well-organized, well-delivered, and dynamic speech about body language. She described some of the standard poses, gave hilarious examples, and told us about her breakthrough: using the gestures that come naturally to us; gestures don’t have to be “orchestrated.”

Speaker #2 was Maria, with her speech, “My Pet Poops Breakfast.”  Maria explained how her husband wanted to have a homestead – while they were living in Anaheim, ½ mile from Disneyland.  In Washington, they now have chickens and she is known as the “crazy chicken lady.” Very humorously and vividly, Maria described the first steps in becoming a chicken owner, some of the ordinances, tips on coops, chicken predators, and the different types of chickens. She ended by telling us the advantages of being a chicken owner.

Evaluator #1 was Barb, who complimented Kelly on the organization of her speech, the energy she put into it, and her wonderful use of body language. Barb suggested that Kelly talk more slowly and ask the Toastmaster for 6-8 minutes so that she didn’t have to rush when delivering all her content.

Evaluator #2 was Jim, who complimented Maria on her well-organized and funny speech. He mentioned the many puns that Maria had in her speech and said it was very humorous.

Table Topics

Kate led Table Topics, and said that her questions were simple, like min-icebreakers. 

Julie Hutton volunteered, answering the question why she came to Toastmasters and why she came back.  Julie said that she came for big smiles and explained how much she is enjoying (addicted to) South Korean Ramkan, which I think is a TV series.

Tobias was unanimously “voluntold.” He talked about car commercials that he enjoyed and driving a ladder truck for the fire department.  He explained how he enjoys skirting around conventions, for example, wearing his hair in a mullet and a rat-tail, and wearing a half-mesh t-shirt instead of his uniform.

General Evaluator was Warren, who said that it had been an unbelievably good meeting to kick off in-person meetings. He praised the organization, the emails, how well the Toastmaster explained the in-person rituals, the Table Topics master for picking good people to respond, how both evaluators offered specific, concrete ways to improve, how Jim used the sandwich method and summary.  Warren concluded with calling this a very positive meeting.

Our guest Dianna said said that she had fun, liked the various roles which to her meant accountability, and asked a few questions.

Guest Randy said it had been fun and lively, with laughter and familiar faces. We ran out of time for feedback from the other guests, but stayed afterwards to chat.

The meeting adjourned at 1:04 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary

 

Meeting Minutes

March 29, 2022

Public Speaking Northwest Toastmasters 

Announcements  

1.    In Person meeting next week.

2.    Meera is our newest member.

3.    Dues are due by March 31. See emails from Jinxin and Nancy.

Members in Attendance: Amy, Barb, Jim, Jutta, Kate, Kelly, Kristin, Lynn C, Lynne D, Mara, Maria, Meera, Nancy, Nguyet, Warren

Guests in Attendance: Guy K (fiancé of Amy) and Joshua Reeves, colleague of Lynn C.

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: “Step Out of Your Comfort Zone”

The word of the day was “Ameliorate,” meaning to make something better

Our Toastmaster was Kate, who kept us on time and shared some thoughts about expanding our horizons by being willing to take small risks.

Our Gate Team was:

Grammarian –Nguyet        

Ah Counter – Nguyet

Timer – Maria

General Evaluator – Kristin

Speaker #1 was Amy, with her speech, “Like a Deer in the Headlights,” 4-6 minutes.  Amy told us symptoms of her stage fright and how she has learned to reduce it. One symptom of her stage fright she was “incomprehensible word vomit,” in other words, babbling.  She said that singing karaoke had helped her a lot with stage fright.

Speaker #2 was Mara, with her speech, “Learn Big with Little Books.”  April is financial literacy month. She described the basic communication styles that she had incorporated into her big books: 1) Direct (short and sweet); 2) Supportive (calm and steady); 3) Initiating; and 4) Analytical (lots of data)

Evaluator #1 was Warren, who complimented Amy on the research she had done, her narrative style and use of dialogue. He suggested more direct eye contact with the camera. He concluded with praise for her clarity, vocal variety, organization, and delivery.  Warren called it a very good “kick-off” speech.

Evaluator #2 was Nancy, who complimented Mara for weaving the four communication styles into her books as well as using her books as samples of the styles. Nancy noted the natural (not virtual) background, allowing Mara to keep her face and the books in the frame.  She suggested watching out for the glare on her glasses and the book covers.  Finally, Nancy reminded us not to say “thank you” at the end of the speech, because the audience should thank the speaker.

Table Topics

Lynn C lead another session of fun and lively Table Topics.  She proposed that we be game show contestants and asked us to speak in various styles.

Jim took on a gangsta role, to describe his first or best concert. Since rock concerts weren’t invented when he was a child, he described watching the presidential debates on the television, jumping up and down and doing other “motion stuff.” Jim concluded by fading away as he moved his chair further and further from the camera.

Guy followed directions to act like a statue as he described his first concert, “Boys Like Girls.” He held perfectly still and with no facial expressions.  Excellent job.

Lynne D was asked to act like a 5-year old girl at her first concert.  She talked about watching the Beatles on TV.  From the young girl’s perspective, their hair styles were weird, and the girls in the show were screaming so much that Lynne couldn’t hear the music.  In her little girl persona, Lynne ended her speech perfectly by saying, “How stupid is that!”

General Evaluator was Kristin, who mentioned that table topics was full of energy, Warren’s evaluation was positive, Nancy’s evaluation was constructive and specific, and praised Kate for managing the schedule so that we ended on time.

Guest Comments: Our guest Josh commented at the end of the meeting that he was impressed with how comfortable we were with each other and how much fun the meeting was. Guest Guy was impressed with how candid and personal the members were.

The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary