February 25, 2014 Theme: Olympics Part 2

Lynne was our Toastmaster today. She chose Olympics Part 2 as our theme. She shared many interesting facts about the Olympics as we know them today. She also discussed Para Olympics and Special Olympics.

Elaine was our first speaker today.  She completed project 7 in the CC manual.  The title of her speech was: Death of a Loved One, What Comes Next. With sensitivity and humor, Elaine gave us an idea of what to expect when someone dies who has not prearranged burial.  She discussed options and costs associated with them. Her personal experience through the death of her mother was a gift to us. We now know what to expect and can make plans in advance to relieve the stress at the time of our loved ones passing.

Ash was our second speaker today.  The title of her speech was Monster Trucks. This is Ash's winning speech from our club competition. She gave us examples of how her life experiences are like monster trucks. She doesn't fall, she crashes like a monster truck.  Also like a monster truck she is powerful and can soar. Ash tweaked this presentation to prepare for the Area Contest which will be held in March. We wish her much success!

Note our membership / guest drive is continuing.  All guests and their members will be put in a drawing for a $10 Starbucks card.  Drawing will be Tuesday April 1st. No fooling, we hope you will be a winner.  Must be present to win.

February 11, 2014 Theme: Speech and Evaluation Contest

Today we veered from our standard meeting format to have a club contest.  We had two categories: International Speech and Evaluations.  Ash and Kate participated in the speech contest and Barb and Eileen competed in the evaluation contest.  The winners will represent our club in the Area contest.

Pat Sultan, our Area Governor, was our guest today.  She provided the target speech for the evaluation contest.  Though both Barb and Eileen gave excellent evaluations, Barb won the contest.  She will move forward to the area competition.

Both Kate and Ash gave inspiring speeches. Ash spoke of how her life was like a monster truck.  Sometimes she was very powerful and she soared.  Other times when she wasn’t careful she would crash and hurt herself and those she cared about.  Kate spoke of how she overcame a mental roadblock by taking on a huge physical challenge. Both speeches inspired members to face challenges with fearlessness and grace.  In the end, Ash won the speech contest and will represent our club in area contest.

We ended our contest with starting a membership drive.  It will run from February 11^th – March 25^th.  Every guest and every member who brings a guest will be entered into a drawing to win a $10 Starbucks card. Drawing will be held at our April 1^st meeting.  You must be present to win.  No foolin’ ….you can be a winner!

February 4, 2014 Theme: Success

Srvanthi was our Toastmaster today.  She chose "success" for the theme. She tied the theme into how to be successful at anything we do. A key to success is setting goals and taking action to complete them.

Elaine was our first speaker. She completed project 6 in the CC manual. The title of her presentation was I am a Weightlifter. At the last minute Eileen adapted her speech to tie more closely with meeting's theme. She spoke of how you can successfully reach your fitness goals. Your biggest obstacle is you.  Once you accept that you can make a program that works for you, you will be able to successfully reach your goals.

Ash was our second speaker.  She also completed project 6 in the CC manual. The title of her talk was Earth's Greatest Treasure Lies in Human Personality.  Ash spoke of how she worked successfully with a diverse group of people to reach a common goal. In just four hours this group with several diifficult personalities wrote a internationally acclaimed program on Bullycide.

Today Robert and Ash received the Nickel award for successfully completing five speeches. Help make our meetings even more successful by joining us. All guests will entered into a drawing to win a $10 Starbucks gift card. Cheers to eveyone's success!

January 28,2014 Theme: Protecting Your Private Data

Kathy was our Toastmaster today.  The theme was Protecting Your Private Data.  Kathy shared her expertise on how we can safeguard our personal information.  Keeping our data secure prevents fraud and identity theft.  Kathy’s knowledge was beneficial to all of us.

Robert was our first speaker today.  He completed project 7 in the CC manual.  The title of Robert’s presentation was: Go Forth and Multiply.  Being a Mathematician, Robert shared with us 3 unique ways to do multiplication when we don’t have a calculator.  The first was called Japanese Line method.  This technique uses visual counting and adding.   The second method was called Lattice.  The Lattice technique uses single digit multiplying and adding.  The third method was the Ethiopian Peasant technique.  This used multiplying, dividing by 2 and then selectively adding.  Robert demonstrated these procedures by solving 25x45.  Most importantly Robert showed us that Math can be interesting and fun.

Ash was our second presenter.   She completed project 5 in the CC manual.  Ash spoke of how she coped with a serious car accident and an invasive burglary by her involvement with United States Junior Chamber.  Due to her dedication to raising scholarships and her vast community service Ash was named Outstanding North Carolinian 2012.  Ash didn’t just survive, she thrived! 

 Today table topics were included in our meeting.  Linda was our Topicmaster.  Carrying over last week’s theme of Chinese New Year, Linda selected 3 members to speak about items related to the celebration.  Linda is our youngest member but her skills are very advanced.  All her presentations are thoroughly prepared and presented in fun, interesting ways.

 Our meeting was enhanced today by our guests Scott and Tommy.   Tommy quietly observed while Scott jumped right in and participated in table topics.  Guests are always welcome whether they just want to observe or are comfortable participating.  Please join us.

 

 

 

January 21,2014 Theme: Chinese New Year Festival

Yanhong was our Toastmaster today. She chose Chinese New Year celebration as the theme. This is the longest and most important  Chinese celebration. The dates change every year but they are always the first 15 days of the year of the Chinese calendar. This year it will be January 31st to February 18th. It is clebrated with family feasts and fireworks. People wear red clothing because red symbolizes fire which according to ledgend can drive away bad luck.

Linda was our fisrt speaker.  She completed project 4 in the CC manual.  The title of her speech was: Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance.  There are 55 ethnic minorities in China.  Their dances reflect emotion and tradition. Using her computer, Linda showed us vivid pictures of Chinese ethnic minorities life and dance traditions. Linda also thrilled us by demonstrating herself some of the beautiful dance movements.

Kate was our 2nd speaker.  She completed project 10 in the CC manual. The title of her speech was Footprints. Kate shared that by overcoming a physical challenge, it mentally prepared her to achieve any goal she wanted.  Kate couldn't swim more than a lap in a pool, had never ridden a bike with gears and had done very little jogging. However in 2003 she completed a triathalon. This accomplishment changed her thoughts from "I can't" to "I can if I really want to."

Jean our VP of Education shared with us what judges are looking for in the upcoming international speech and evaluators contest. So far Ash and Kate will compete in the speech contest, but we need volunteers for the evaluation contest. If interested sign up on our duty roster.

Jim Dosh was our guest today.  He liked us so much he decided to join our club.  Welcome Jim!  Whether they join our club or not, guests are always welcome.  Hope to see you at our next meeting.

January 14,2014 Theme: Gift Game Happiness

Today we veered away from our standard meeting format to have a white elephant party.  This is where everyone brings a wrapped gift (white elephant) that they already received, but no longer wanted. The gifts are put in the middle of the table and numbers are randomly handed out. When a person's number is called they can choose an unopened gift or steal one from somebody else who has something they want. The goal is to go home with a better gift than the one you brought.

Robert was the Toastmaster/host of the party. Instead of talks everyone participated in Table Topics.  Each person took 1-2 minutes to explain why they had the best present ever.  Every good party needs food so we had a pot luck as well.

Pat Sultan our Area Governor was our special guest today. She inducted the 2014 officers and participated in all the festivities.  Guests are encouraged to join us because they always enrich our meetings.  Hope you will be joining us next week.

January 7, 2014 Theme: Inspirational Quotes

Kate was the Toastmaster. She chose inspirational quotes as the theme to motivate us in our new year's resolutions or any new endeavor. She shared quotes from politicians, professional athletes and celebrities. A quote by Arthur Ashe stated: "Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." Kate related this to Toastmasters.  Some our best speeches come from knowledge we already have.  Toastmasters is about developing and fine tuning our leadership and speaking skills.

Our first speaker was Linda. She completed speech #3 in the CC manual. Linda spoke about the college entrance exam in China called Gaokao.  It is a very harsh exam that can determine a student's future. She shared information on its history, structure and benefits.

Our second speaker completed speech #4 in the CC manual. She spoke of courage. She spoke of challenges she courageously dealt with as a child, college student and young adult. She shared that sometimes courage doesn't roar. Sometimes courage is just getting out the door.

Both our speakers taught us something new.  Our diverse group enriches all of us with their knowledge and life experiences.  We start where we are, share what we have and move forward together.  Come join us next week. Guests are always welcome.