August 2, 2016 - Theme: The Great Debate!

"You know what 'DOUBT' stands for?  It stands for 'Debate On Understanding Bewildersome Thoughts.'" - Gary Busey

Welcome to Public Speaking Northwest’s first meeting in August! Jessica was the Toastmaster of the day, introducing the theme of “The Great Debate” by telling stories of famous debates throughout American History. 

Her GATE team was comprised of the Grammarian, Pauline (Insidious); Ah-Counter, Julie; and Timer, Jung.

 

Nancy was the first speaker of the day, speaking from the Competent Communicator manual, project #4 – How To Say It. The title of her talk was “Adventures in Activism,” which she completed within 7 minutes. Nancy gave us a riveting speech about how she helped champion a movement to turn a dangerous highway into a safer place for drivers. Her passion during her speech and her campaign to help transform the road, convinced us that we are each capable of making a difference. For her emotional speech, Nancy was awarded Best Speaker!

Evaluating Nancy’s speech was Linda. As Linda had missed the first part of her speech, she had the great idea of turning to the audience to do a round robin, where all Toastmasters and guests alike were available to give Nancy feedback – all of which was positive!

 

Amritha was the second speaker of the day, speaking from the Storytelling manual, project #3 – The Moral of The Story. The title of her talk was “Dangers of Instantaneous Reaction,” which she completed within 7 minutes. Amritha told us a folktale about a couple who trusted their baby with a mongoose. The mongoose protected the baby in a dangerous altercation, but was mistakenly believed to have been the perpetrator and immediately kicked out, never to return. The moral of the story is that making a snap judgment could shut someone out who was only trying to help, and that we should all take a minute to stop and think before having an instantaneous reaction.

Barb evaluated Amritha’s speech. She commended Amritha on a job well done, especially with her dramatic pauses, tone, and inflection. She did suggest that more preparation, and a bit more clarity in translation between Indian and English jargon would help to elucidate the story.

 

The third speaker of the day was Randy, speaking from the Competent Communicator manual, project #2 – Organize Your Speech. Randy gave a speech entitled “Diffuse to Develop – Three Steps to Develop Solutions to Client Complaints,” which he completed within 7 minutes. He supplied us with three solid steps for how to appease upset customers: Acknowledge, Align, and Assure. Randy showed us how using these three simple steps is a way that many companies promote healthy customer service. In his presentation, he provided both a handout and a visual aid to assist in his speech.

Evaluating Randy’s speech was Jean. Jean commended Randy on a job well done, and encouraged him to keep going! One suggestion she had was to use the floor space with purpose.

    

Jim was the Table Topics host for the day. He made various expressions and gestures for speakers to elaborate upon. Participants were Linda, Uliana, and Grace. Linda took home the Best Table Topics speaker award!

Finally, our meeting concluded with a general evaluation by Warren and a humorous joke from Robert. There were 15 Members in attendance, including Amritha, Barb, Diana, Grace, Jean, Jessica, Jim, Julie, Jung, Linda, Nancy, Pauline, Randy, Robert, and Warren, as well as 4 guests: John, Uliana, Yash, and Shreya. Hope you join us again next week!

Respectfully Submitted,

Jessica DiPietro, Secretary

Public Speaking Northwest #9406