Sept. 30th Theme: Flower

Today Pauline was our toastmaster ­and she picked "Flower" as the theme. She told us the meaning of different flowers, for example, white roses stand for reverence and perfection and yellow roses mean friendship and welcome, etc. 

Jean was our first speaker. She completed her 7th talk from the Competent Communication Manual. As Vice President of Education, Jean created a group discussion describing the Toastmaster’s role.

Every meeting is led by a toastmaster who has specific duties for running an efficient and fun meeting. Jean also shared a famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt and encouraged us to overcome our hesitance and worry by stepping into the Toastmaster Role.

She also shared that there are currently 314,000 toastmasters around the world. This means many people are stepping out of their fears and thriving at as the toastmaster of their meetings. 

Alice was the second speaker. She accomplished the 3rd speech from the Competent Communication Manual. Her topic was "Dare to Dream". Alice shared stories about people who have created successful companies and earned great wealth. They are using their money to help the public. Some examples include giving millions of dollars for public education, driverless cars, and high-speed transportation systems.

We had one guest, Nestor Makora. She commented that we were a well-organized club where everyone took on roles with ease while developing important skills. We appreciate her attendance and hope to see her in the future!

Sept 25th Theme: DCP Celebration

Today our club held a celebration for achieving the President’s Distinguished Club Award. We enjoyed a delicious pot luck lunch.

Kathy was our toastmaster. Jean was the Table Topics Master. She explained how we earned this honor and how our individual achievements contributed toward receiving this highest of club awards. This is our third year in a row.

Throughout the meeting, we had a serious of table topics and each member participated. Division governor, Pat Sultan, and Area Governor, Barbara Katz, also shared their experiences serving as leaders in our District. Pat commented that "Toastmasters is a safe place to succeed and to fail, like a pillow catching you when you fall.”  

At the end of the meeting we had a drawing to reward the members who have renewed their dues for the next 6 months. Let’s congratulate Robert on winning the $15 Starbucks Card! 

Sept 9th Theme: The World of Toastmasters

Barb was our toastmaster. She picked "The World of Toastmasters" as her theme. Barb prepared handouts with a map of Toastmasters Regions and Service Levels in Toastmasters International.

One of our members, Pat, who just came back from the Toastmasters International Convention in Kuala Lumpur, shared her excitement about the event. 

Linda was the first and the only speaker. This was her 9th speech from the Competent Communication Manual and her topic was "Food Labeling - Customers’ Right to Know Their Food". Linda did research about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and shared facts about GMOs having fewer nutrients and being more likely to cause disease in humans. She encouraged us to eat more organic food and be aware of what we eat, which sometimes is not what we expect. 

Kathy was our Table Topics Master today; she prepared a serious of questions about Toastmasters. She asked us to talk about “Of The Year Awards.” We spoke about the best club, best website, and new, creative, and fun awards.  Everyone at the meeting got a chance to practice their impromptu speaking. 

 

Next Wednesday we will have our Area's Humorist and Table Topics Speech Contest. Jim, who won our club Table Topics Contest, will represent us at the area competition. Let's wish him good luck! We welcome people to come and see what our toastmaster contests are like.

We know that wherever we go, Toastmasters will always offer us a supportive environment. 

Sept 2, 2014 Theme: Labor Day

Pauline took on Jean's challenge to be today’s toastmaster and she did a great job! The theme was "Labor Day.” Jean brought cupcakes with little American flags. Yummy! :)

Jim was our first speaker. He gave a speech from the third project of Competent Communication Manual. His title was "Elephants, Anxiety, and Public Speaking.” In his speech, Jim shared his favorite African proverb which uses an elephant as a metaphor to refer to obstacles in life. Anxiety can be like an elephant for many when it comes to public speaking. Jim showed us how to use our mental powers to deal with anxiety in a positive way. 

 

Barb was the second speaker.  She accomplished her second project in the Interpretive Reading Manual. She picked the poem The Highway Man by Alfred Noyes. Barb's great vocal variety and different character voices really kept our attention throughout the poem’s story. 

Today we were honored to have Jean's old friend, Ralph. He is the founder of Toastmaster's Advanced Club, Extraordinares. Ralph joined our meeting as a guest. He volunteered to be the evaluator for Barb. Ralph believes Toastmasters is a life changing event. We could see his spirit by his dedication to Toastmasters throughout his career. His example is a big encouragement for all of us. 

August 26, 2014 Theme: Judging

Barb was our toastmaster today and she picked the theme "Judging" because we were having our Table Topics contest. She shared that the most important thing about judging is fairness, which is using the same criteria and standards in scoring each of contestant's performance. 

Before the contest started, Anna was our first speaker. She gave a toast as the maid of honor at her best friend’s, her sister’s, wedding. She pretended we were the wedding party with the bride and groom. Anna did a fine job expressing her happiness as she gave her blessings to the newlyweds.

We had 3 contestants for the Table Topics competition, Robert, Linda and Jim. Each of them got the same topic and gave a speech on ‘what natural phenomenon they would like to see if they could witness it in a safe place.’ They all did a good job. Robert won the second place award and our winner, Jim, will represent our club and move on to the Area Table Topic Contest that that will be hosted on Sept 17th.

We had two guests, Sherry and Adriana. We were very glad to have them and hope they can come back in the future. 

August 19th, 2014 Theme: Health Tips

Linda was our toastmaster today. She picked the theme "Health Tips.” Linda had observed her friends' different life styles as they returned to school from their different countries. This made her look into some helpful ways for improving people's health with both food and lifestyle tips. 

Barb was our first speaker. She did the 1st Project from the Advanced Manual "Interpretive Reading" and her title was "The Cat That Walked by Himself". The story was from the book The Just So Stories written by Rudyard Kipling. Barb used great vocal variety to closely draw our attention to the wild cat who walked by himself.

Jean was our second speaker. She finished the 4th Project from the Competent Communication Manual by sharing how to use the Competent Leadership Manual. Jean showed us how our duty roster, our gold star chart, and our Competent Leadership Manual work together. Her goal was to help us get leadership credits for each of our weekly roles.

Jerry was our third speaker. He finished his 9th speech from the Competent Communication Manual. Through his power point demonstration, Jerry showed us different categories of fire and what type of extinguishers we need to put them out. He noted that the fire extinguisher outside our room at the Seattle Times Building is a universal extinguisher and can put out any type of fire.

We had one guest, Grace, who was invited by Alice. She enjoyed our meeting very much and decided to join our club. So let’s welcome Grace for being part of our toastmaster family! 

August 12th, 2014 Theme: Anniversary

Jim was our toastmaster today and he picked "Anniversary" as the theme for the meeting. He spoke of some special anniversaries such as everyone's birthday, and to him particularly today is the wedding anniversary with Jean, congratulations! Also Jim did research on anniversaries that have a positive significance such as Columbus finding the new land in 1492 and a negative anniversary such as 9/11 in 2001.

Alice was our only speaker. She talked about her favorite restaurant "Tao Ban Woo" in Taiwan and what she observed after many visits that made this restaurant successful. She believed that this restaurant not only has yummy food, prompt customer service, and clean environment, but also simple pricing on the menu and unique company constitution that set it apart from its competitors. 

We had a good time sharing our experience and comments on different anniversaries during the Table Topics time. We're glad to see Jerry again and have him share his 25 years of service anniversary as a fireman in Bothell. 

We had one guest Damian join us; we would like to see him return in the future.