May 12th, 2015 Theme: Birthdays

“I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn’t have one. So I bought a cake.” – Mitch Hedberg

Welcome to the celebration of the double anniversary of Toastmasters and our Club meeting in May blog. Today, we had 10 guests and a single digit aged child and infant with us.  

For this special meeting, Jim was our toastmaster and hosted a catered meeting with the theme of birthdays. (One of our guests, Nate S. celebrated his birthday today as well.)

There was no GATE team nor any Speech Evaluators.  

Jean was our only speaker today. She completed her 1^st new speech from the Competent Communicator Manual Project 1. The speech was entitled “The Ripple Effect” and was delivered within 15 minutes. 

Jean first talked about Ralph Smedley (1878-1965), who designed and created Toastmasters on March 24, 1905 (unofficially), meeting in a room at YMCA (men only) in Bloomington, Illinois. The purpose of the Toastmaster Club was to teach members how to speak, conduct meetings and plan programs. Regardless of where Ralph relocated in the YMCA network, the clubs he founded did not survive his absence. Finally, in 1924, in a brand new YMCA in Santa Ana, CA, the first Toastmaster International Club (#1) occurred on October 22, 1924 and in 90 years has grown to 313,000 members in 126 different countries. To replicate the club organization and structure, he wrote a pamphlet about the 10 rules for Public Speaking. [See more information about Ralph Smedley  and  Toastmasters history.]  
Early meetings offered 3 minute speeches,1 Minute evaluations and 1 minute table topic talks.

   

Jean  next talked about the founding of our Club, Public Speaking Northwest (#9406). It was begun in 2003 in Bothell and moved to several places including the Bothell Police Department, until it finally found it’s current location at the Seattle Times Building.  At that time, There was a course called the Speechcraft.

Jean concluded her speech by inviting the audience to sing Happy Birthday to Ralph (in a picture on a chair) and to our club.

 

Barb was the Table Topics Master for today’s meeting. She invited volunteers to talk about What Toastmasters means to me, first in their native language and then translated into English.  This was a very exciting way to hear multiple languages spoken. [As far as I could tell, Toastmasters is pronounced “Toastmasters” in all the non-English languages.] 

 

Naser spoke in Malayalam incredibly fast and then translated it into English, also very fast. All I could get was that he talked about Toastmasters.  :-) 

 

Alberto, one of our guests, spoke in Mexican and disclosed that he came here to learn to speak English to supplement the one course he took. He was also startled as he noticed that the Mexican Restaurants here didn’t serve real Mexican food. For example, sour cream is an American condiment and rice and/or beans are eaten and served at home, not in a restaurant.

Amritha conversed in Hindi (which was derived from Sanskrit) about Toastmasters allowing her to offer her ideas and a place to ask for help.

 

  Jung who spoke in Korean, talked about all the holidays that Korea celebrates in May:

May 4: Labor Day; May 5: Children’s Day; May 8: Mother’s Day; May 15: Teacher’s Day (as well as an ancient King’s Birthday)

Grace talked in Chinese (Mandarin?), about a story of two wood cutters who had a contest to see who could cut more wood. The younger wood cutter cut wood continuously with no breaks; The older wood cutter cut wood for an hour and then took a 5 minute break. The older wood cutter won the contest and when asked how come he could cut more wood, he said, he took a 5 minute break to re-sharpen his saw.

Chizuko spoke Japanese, about her 7 years of experience and living in several places in the United States and Canada and is now residing in the Pacific Northwest.

Announcements:

Pat Sultan, our Division E Governor, announced a presentation by Bruce Meaker, DTM about Effective Evaluations. He will be appearing at the Willows Voices Toastmasters Club located at 11715 North Creek Parkway S. #110 in Bothell, WA on June 5, 2015 at 7AM-8AM.  

Jim announced that he will be working on organizing a Toastmaster Club for Kids. This is called a Gavel Club. It will be starting up later in the summertime. Diana has been instrumental in causing this to become a soon-to-be reality. Help and support were requested by Jim.

Attendees were:  Linda, Jean, Jim, Robert, Barb, Lynne, Naser,  Sue,  Pauline,  Grace, Chizuko, David A., Diana, Kathy, Kimberley, Preston, Amritha, Jung as well as 12 guests: Nate S., Donna H., Mia, Yan Z., Diana’s Husband Howard W, Diana’s Daughter, Jackie M., Pat S., Alberto,  Tensina K. and baby Alina (See above), and Yosh I.  

 
Jackie M. joined our club today. This increases our membership total to 28.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [Why not comment while I’m away?] ~~~~~

 

May 5th, 2015 Theme: Cinco de Mayo

“Cinco de Mayo makes me long for a world in which all holidays are conveniently named after the dates on which they fall.”. ~~ Author Unknown

Welcome to the first meeting in May blog. Today, we had 2 guests and an infant with us. 

Dave A. was our toastmaster and offered information about the origin of the Cinco de Mayo Mexican holiday. It is a celebration of the Mexican Army's victory over France during  the Franco-Mexican War on May 5, 1862.  The battle was fought at Puebla and is considered a minor holiday inside Mexico.  In the U.S. however, Cinco de Mayo not only celebrates the victory at the Battle of Puebla, but is a celebration of the culture and heritage of the Mexican people (along with an abundance of drinking).

The GAT(e) team was: Sue as Grammarian (Convivial), Grace as the Ah Counter, and Diana as the Timer. 

Naser was our first speaker today. He completed his 1^st speech (A Folk Tale) from the advanced Storytelling Manual, Project 1. The speech was entitled “A Folk Tale” and was completed in 6:20 minutes.

Naser interpreted a story about a Donkey who wanted respect from the members of the village he lived in. He didn’t get any, so he got fed up and left the village and went into the forest. He finds a dead lion and decides to wear the lion skin to frighten the village people. In the end, the people realized that the donkey was behind the lion skin and they laughed. The moral of the story was: Be yourself; if you want to be someone else, keep your mouth shut.

Naser was voted best speaker.

Jean was his evaluator. Jean liked the extent of audience participation in the opening of the speech as well as the traveling segments (involving rhythmic clapping). She said that stories are the best way to let an audience learn something new. She was pleased that Naser used all the features of the Competent Communicator’s manual in this speech. She appreciated the suggested moral action of the story to get respect while being ourselves.

 

Our second speaker was a guest speaker, Nate S.  His speech was called: “About Me”  and was completed in 7:15 minutes.

Nate S. talked about his upcoming birthday on May 12, how he got a scar on each of his forearms, his difficult family life and a lament of the lack of leaders in the world today.

 

Jim was his evaluator. Jim complimented Nate S. on his courage in speaking impromptu and taking a personal risk to do so.  He also noticed his self-effacing attitude and some confidence in expressing his spoken messages. He suggested that as he speaks more in the future, do so with increased confidence so it builds and brings out that there is something important to say.

Jim was voted best evaluator.

Pauline was the Table Topics Master for today's meeting. She offered famous quotes for speakers to expand upon.

Jim spoke about the Stephen Hawking quote offered to his children. Jim admired the surmounting of his ALS chronic illness and his extraordinary longevity to persevere and contribute to mankind’s knowledge of the Universe.

Sue talked about Margaret Mead’s quote: “You’re unique, just like everyone else”. She admitted to playing an unnamed musical instrument, appending a smiley face on her resume, which resulted in an interview and consequent job, and suggested that she follows the rules, but not always.

Linda discussed the Yin and Yang in her life. Yin represents the night, down, darkness and calm; Yang represents the day, the sun, happiness and excitement. She thought that BioRhythms  (now a calculator app) is a good way to show the balance in your life among the Intellectual, Physical and Emotional spheres of our lives.

Linda was voted best Table Topics Speaker.

Nate S. was given the Winston Churchill quote: “You have enemies? Good! That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”  He agreed with the sentiment and noted that the world around us has evil or challenges to be overcome.

Some Announcements:

• Naser announced that he will be distributing the next meeting’s party announcement electronically to members and guests.  

• Barb announced that there is now Wifi (password protected) in the Seattle Times Meeting Room that is available to us. 

• She also announced that we have won a ribbon (for the club banner) for getting 6 new members in February and March 2015. 

• Finally, she mentioned that we have been recognized as a distinguished club as of April 29, 2015, and there will be a Dinner at Renton Technical College on May 29, 2015 to celebrate.

Attendees were: 
Linda, Jean, Jim, Robert, Barb, Lynne, Naser,  Sue,  Pauline,  Grace, Chizuko, David A., Diana as well as 2 guests: Nate S. and Jing L. + her infant as shown above. Our membership total remains at 27.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [Let your fingers do the typing and comment] ~~~~~

 

 

 

Apr. 28th, 2015 Theme: 5 Steps To Mastering Those Nervous Ums And Ahs

“It’s never too late to enjoy childhood.” ~~ Tom Robbins

Welcome to the 4th April meeting blog. Today, we had 5 guests: 3 young and 2 younger yet with us.  

Jim was awarded and accepted his Competent Communicator Certificate on completing his 10^th speech last week and in so doing, completing the Competent Communicator Manual.  

Linda was our toastmaster and offered a practical number of ideas for reducing crutch, filler and “It’s still my turn to speak” placeholder sounds like um and ah, among others. Of particular merit was her suggestion to sing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with randomly interspersed ahs and ums in the lyrics and then speak the lyrics of Hey Jude without using ums and ahs. This brings the needed contrast so that you can hear the jarring, interspersed sounds.

The GATE  team was: Grace  as Grammarian (Flourish), Sue as the Ah Counter, and Chizuko as the Timer. Kathy was our General Evaluator for today’s meeting.  

 

Robert was our first speaker today. He completed his 4^th speech (A Dramatic Talk) from the advanced Entertaining Speaker Manual. The speech was entitled “All Under Heaven” and was delivered in 10:40 minutes. The talk was adapted from an original film script written and directed by Tommy Tang. Robert excerpted responses in two interviews, one given in 1988 and the other in 1992. 

Robert portrayed the fictional character named Don Knudson, a well established engineer and architect, who capped his career in 1988 with a commission by NASA to design the first space sculpture dedicated to visually uniting all nations in world peace. By 1992, it was clear that this monument would not be realized.

 

 

Naser was his evaluator. Naser noticed that the audience was listening carefully and was enjoying every minute of the speech. He appreciated in the dialog segments, the good use of hand gestures in the restaurant back room and facial expressions in the phone conversation. The verbal descriptions of the design elements of the sculpture were very clear and could be easily mentally pictured. The climax to the speech was effective and ironic.

Naser were voted best evaluator.

Our second speaker was a guest speaker, Ron R, who has been a toastmaster member since 1992.  He filled in for David P., who was involved, unfortunately, in a minor automobile accident. His speech was called: Ted Talk Excerpt: On Leadership and was completed in 7:37 minutes.

Ron R., when he first joined Toastmasters, slowly began to realize that he was acquiring leadership skills. After all, leadership can be thought of as influencing others through speaking and actions. He noticed that people shied away from that label, even though they demonstrated leadership as parents, as a director of subordinates, as an officer or as a business owner. Leadership was considered unattractive, since it implied the possibility of hard work.  He offered 3 myths about leadership:
• It requires perfection (you are not allowed to fail),
• You have to be already a leader to lead,

• Someone has to proclaim that you are a leader.

Jean was his evaluator. Jean liked that Ron R. started his talk by saying “I blame you!” in his path to becoming a leader, which extracted instant attention from the audience. She underscored the techniques used in the speech involving groups of three to emphasize points in the audience’s mind. She also enjoyed the anecdote involving the salad, onion and mustard dressing that showed his humanity and humorous imperfection. Jean suggested that he speak a bit slower and do less pacing and rocking, and actually turn his body towards others for fuller focus.

 

 

Kathy was the general evaluator for today’s meeting. She complimented Linda about her flexibility in the meeting agenda and in effortlessly filling a suddenly vacant speaking role. The other members of the GATE team also described and performed their monitoring roles very effectively.

Attendees were:  Linda, Jean, Jim, Robert, Barb,  Lynne, Naser, Alice, Amritha,  Sue,  Pauline, Kathy, Grace, Chizuko, Jung as well as 5 guests: Ron R. Danny C., and Emily G. and returning younger guests: Yosh I., Shreya I.. Our membership total remains at 27.

~~~~~ Respectfully Submitted by Robert, the Secretary [Express yourself and comment] ~~~~~