“Fear is the mother of foresight”. ~~ Thomas Hardy
Welcome to the third meeting in June blog. Today, we had 3 guests attend our meeting.
Sue was our
toastmaster and offered empowerment and encouragement based on the book by
Susan Jeffers called: Feel The Fear …And Do It Anyway
She observed that fear is much less a psychological problem than an
educational problem. It affects speakers and musicians. It is important to
accept the fear within ourselves and move on anyway.
The GAT(e) team was: Kathy as Grammarian (Reminiscent), Jung as
the Ah Counter, and Jean as the Timer.
Jim was
our first speaker today. He gave a
talk from the Leadership Excellence Series. It was entitled “Developing A Mission Statement” and was delivered within 15 minutes.
His
talk distinguished a vision statement from a mission statement. His objective
was to clarify organizational jargon and transform these terms into a personal
life mission whose goal is to realize the personal vision.
A vision is a non-specific statement of
long term purpose. Whereas, a mission is a broad statement that
describes what daily activities occur to achieve the vision.
For a
personal vision, the question, “what is your direction?” should suggest a one
sentence epitaph on your tombstone. (How you want to be remembered.)
For a
personal mission statement, write down successive versions and ask: Does this
further my vision? Display your mission statement to keep it alive and visible
and updatable.
Linda was his evaluator. Linda appreciated Jim’s introduction that was spoken by Sue
to set the tone for the talk. She also liked the Star Trek metaphor and the readings Preston and Lynne gave for the Toastmaster vision
and mission statements, respectively. She suggested that Jim give equal time (facially) to
both sides of the audience despite equipment obstacles in the
speaking area.
Our second speaker was Dave.
He offered his 4th
Speech from the Competent Communicator’s Manual (Project #4 – How To Say It). His
speech was called: “Why
Do I Coach?” and was
completed within 7
minutes.
Dave has 4 children and as part of their upbringing,
coached Soccer, Basketball, Baseball and Lacrosse. He enumerated 10 reasons for
his decision to coach:
• Enjoy being around youngsters, their banter, and
special time in their lives
• Offer a positive influence on atheletes and teams
• Offset the scarcity of coaches
• Have and take the time to coach
• Feel and smell the field prior to a game
• Share the feeling of kids doing their hard working best
• Help them develop a positive work ethic
• Help them develop good sportsmanship and deemphasize
Winning/Losing
• Meet and make friends with kids’ parents
• Become a better person by coaching
Dave was
voted best speaker.
Barb was his evaluator. Barb felt that Dave’s
speech used vivid images, precise words, and short sentences like “seeing a sea
of kids with sticks”. The speech was well structured and the use of notes worked well to give the 10
reasons why.
She
recommended that Dave talk while standing still, vary the rhythm of the talk
and leave the speaking area as he shakes hands with the toastmaster.
Our third speaker was Preston.
He did his 2nd
Speech from the Competent Communicator’s Manual (Project #2 – Organize Your
Speech). His speech was called: “What
Is Paid Search?” and
was completed within 7 minutes.
Preston explained what Paid Search or Pay Per Click means in the
realm of search web sites like Google – which uses Adwords, Bing, and
Yahoo.
He
distinguishes the Search Market,
which uses keywords. In this market, the advertiser bids on one or more key
words and selects a bit amount. This is compared with the Display Market, which deals with pictorial ads and the advertiser
bids “impressions” or the number of times an ad is shown. These pictorial ads
show up in search engine results (ads, local lists, and organic links).
Naser was his evaluator. Naser complimented Preston about his insight in providing a new, informative view of
Google search, where ads are ranked and advertisers are asked how much they
want to pay Google to show their site.
Naser suggested that Preston
offer a “takeaway” for this topic that the audience could use for themselves.
Naser
was voted best evaluator.
Nicki,
our newest member, was the Table Topics Master for today. Her topic was for a
volunteer to describe a person, place or thing from childhood suggested by a
written, starting letter picked from a basket.
Robert
picked the letter M and launched into a memory of discovering m&m’s candy.
Alice described a time when a boy offered gestures that he liked Alice while she, herself, was experiencing low self-esteem.
Alice described a time when a boy offered gestures that he liked Alice while she, herself, was experiencing low self-esteem.
Alice
was voted best table topics speaker.
Attendees
were: Linda, Jean, Jim, Lynne, Naser, Sue, Robert, Barb,
Pauline, Julie, Kathy, Anisha,
Chizuko, David, Grace, Alice, Nicki, Sepidah, Preston, Jung, Diana as well
as 3 guests: Andrew H., Srichand V, and Pratap B. Our active membership total remains
at 26.
~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the
Secretary [See, say then comment] ~~~~~
So comprehensive, Robert! You do such an awesome job capturing the detail and the spirit of each meeting. It's a pleasure to read.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't able to attend last week, but Robert, your recap made me feel like I had been there!!
ReplyDelete