January 6th 2015 Theme: New Years' Resolutions

Every man regards his own life as the New Year's Eve of time. ~Jean Paul Richter

Happy New Year! Today we had our new Officer Installation Ceremony and were graced with four guests. Dave was our toastmaster. The GATE team was: Pauline as Grammarian (Pithy*), Jean as "ah" counter (countess?), Jim as Timer,  and Kathy as General Evaluator.

(*A true test word for those that lisp.)

Amritha was our first speaker today. She completed the 1st project, known as the "ice-breaker", from the Competent Communication Manual in 5 minutes. Her topic was "A Glimpse Of My Life".

During her speech, Amritha traced her journey from Chennai, in Southern India to Bellevue, WA and from being a dutiful daughter to being a wife and mother of 2 children and 2 pets.  Her path to our toastmasters club came from her decision to stop being fearful when speaking in front of a group of 1^st graders. Lynne was her evaluator and pointed out her confident and poised manner. Each was best in their respective categories.

Our second speaker, Barb, completed her 1^st project from the advanced Speaking To Persuade Manual. The name of her speech was "Going Up?".

Barb pointed out in her introduction, that we all try to persuade others by selling a product, a service or ourselves. She talked about 3 aspects of selling: Listening, offering benefits rather than (technical) features and developing an elevator pitch (a 30 second response to: What do you do? or What is this?).

Combining a Computer Presentation, Role play with Alice, and having us give elevator pitches in pairs that were created on the spot made for an energized, insightful 16 minute speech. Linda was Barb’s evaluator and was very impressed by the variety of ways that she reached out to rivet the audience's attention.

Kathy gave a very positive general evaluation of the club meeting roles and segments effectiveness. 

Alice received a certificate, known as "the nickel award", for completing 5 speeches, the midway point to her goal of becoming a competent communicator.

Attendees were: Linda, Lynne, Jean, Jim, Robert, Barb, Pauline, Alice, Amritha, Kathy, Dave along with four guests today: Naser. K., Kim B., Alex Y. and Jung K. 

They all enjoyed our meeting very much and said they’d like to come back and join our regular meetings in the future. In fact, Naser and Jung both joined our club today.  We welcome them warmly. This brings our membership total to 19.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [comments encouraged] ~~~~~