June 9th 2015 Theme: Success

“Success is getting what you want; Happiness is wanting what you get”. ~~ Dale Carnegie

Welcome to the second meeting in June blog. Today, we had 4 guests attend our meeting.

Barb was our toastmaster and offered printed insights about success (on the other side of the Agenda Page) with worldwide quotations including this one from the USA: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.  

The GAT(e)  team was: Preston  as Grammarian (Indicative), Naser as the Ah Counter, and Grace as the Timer.                                    

Lynne was our first speaker today. She completed her 10^th speech (Project #10 – Inspire Your Audience) from the Competent Communication Manual. The speech was entitled “A Banquet Of Choices” and was delivered within 12 minutes.

Her title refers to Life as the multiple choices. She has learned that it is never too late to be what you are meant to be. It’s exciting to look at the future with great expectations. For Lynne, her first course was to try Toastmasters, then become a Yacht Club officer and then become a Rear Commodore. For the future she would like to taste being a Vice Commodore and then a Full Commodore. She is much more comfortable with being a leader.

Lynne was voted best speaker.

 Kathy was her evaluator. Kathy indicated that Lynne showed good eye contact, body language and vocal variety. In keeping with the Banquet analogy, she suggested specific appetizers (steps toward taking Yacht Club leadership) and perhaps a desert (Successful Opening Day 2015).

Our second speaker was Dave (A).  He offered his 3^rd Speech from the Competent Communicator’s Manual (Project #3 – Get To The Point). His speech was called: “Social Security Retirement: Things To Know Before You Claim” and was completed within 9 minutes.

Dave used a series of powerpoint slides that introduced themselves for a limited time only. He explained the Benefit varieties of Social Security from the points of view of oneself, a spouse, a surviving spouse and an ex-spouse. He also discussed the timing of starting to draw benefits among the ages of 62, 66 and 70 and the effect on monthly payment size and the ultimate amount of money given to you in each case, should you live a very long time.

 Amrita was his evaluator. Amritha felt that Dave’s speech satisfied its purpose, to factually and clearly indicate the salient options as to when to draw Social Security benefits. The Graphs were especially compelling for visual learners. She liked the idea of knowledge = power and Dave’s unique humor.

Our third speaker was Linda.  She offered us a speech from the Successful Club Series. Her speech was called: “What’s The Power Of Evaluation?”  and was completed within 14 minutes.

Linda told why Evaluation is so important:

• Offers Face to Face feedback

• Offers improvements to make in the future

• Offers a way to build and maintain self-esteem

Evaluators should plan their responses based on the Speaker’s need:

- Talk to speaker before meeting starts

- Get the CC manual to record your reactions

- Note the manual and evaluation objectives

- Listen and take notes.

She related that in the Bruce Meeker Evaluation Workshop, it is helpful to use

• 3 column table with Column 1 (Characteristic), Column 2 (Done Well), Column 3 (Recommendation)

• Mind map to depict strengths and weaknesses

The Evaluator supplies the following (personalized) structure:

Opening, Objectives, Strengths, Improvements, Other Strengths, Summary, Closing/Conclusion.

Alice was her evaluator. Alice complimented Linda about using the Frog/Bird metaphor (from Amritha’s Speech the previous week). She liked her humor, pleasant smile and encouraging conclusion.  Alice suggested greater facial variety and a more dramatic depiction of the animals.

Alice was voted best evaluator.

Attendees were:  Linda, Jean, Jim, Lynne, Naser, Sue, Robert, Barb, Pauline, Jackie, Kathy, Amritha, Anisha, Chizuko, David A., Alice, Grace, Sepidah, Preston as well as 4 guests: Julie H., Gaby P., Nichole M., and Emory J. Our active membership total has been increased to 26, since Sepidah and Nichole joined during the week and today respectively.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [You think? then comment] ~~~~~