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| Jeff Morrical, CC |
Our President, Debbie Gregori, DTM opened the meeting with her usual reminder to our members to be certain that they were evaluated in their CL manuals for the contributions they would make during the meeting.
"Get Up And Grow" is her chosen theme. A subtitle may be "The Job Isn't Finished Until The Paperwork Is Done!!"
New Business:
None. How bout that?
Old Business :
Peter Gregori, CC Sergeant-At-Arms reminded our members that we are abandoning Yahoo Groups as our conduit for group communications and migrating the Katy Toastmaster membership to the free website http://katy.toastmastersclubs.org/.
Jim Harrington, DTM gave us all some very significant information regarding the upcoming District 56 Fall Conference that will take place on Saturday, November 8, 2014. On the District 56 Website the start time is listed as 7:00 AM. What they meant to say is that registration begins at 7:00 AM. The activities will commence at 8:30 AM.
Theme and Explanation of Duties
Balance Between Family and Work
Jeff presented us with an egregious lie about the General Evaluator, Walt Butler, while introducing him. Had he not given us a clue it may have been unforgivable. Walt? Caterpillar? Oh Deere.
Walt's Evaluation Team:
Grammarian: Michelle Perzan - her words of the day were STABLE and STABILITY.
Ballot Counter: Amy Duncan
Ah Counter: Floyd Spencer
Listen Master: Linda Goldberg, DTM
Timer: Vrushali Patil
Greeter: Bryan Clark
Prepared Speeches
Neha Sinha - CC Manual #4 How To Say It
Fear of Failure
Neha offered us insights into lessons learned through the process of competing in the "Humorous Speech Contest". She had taken first place at our club contest and the area contest. She competed in the Division N contest this past Saturday and won third place.
Neha had some keen insights into the subject that were fresh in her memory. Some of her observations that are particularly noteworthy;
"success does not give the lessons that failure does." Neha Sinha referred to the two first place finishes and compared them to the results of the Division contest.
"success does not give the lessons that failure does." Neha Sinha
Neha took and gave us lessons from Thomas Edison. When asked about the many failures that led him to some of his inventions he replied that they were not failures but that he had "found 10,000 ways that do not work."
Debbie Gregori, DTM - Speaking to Inform #2
"I Am The Toastmaster !?"
Debbie, as a DTM, has fulfilled this role, that is of Toastmaster, often. What she offered tonight was something for the experienced members as well as the newer members who have never filled this role in a meeting.
She opened with the exclamation and played the role of a newbie. "Oh my gosh. I am the Toastmaster!!"
uh-oh ?
"Oh my gosh I am the Toastmaster ?????"
The guidelines for this role are sorely missed in the Competent Leader manual. Debbie pointed this out. The good news is there are other resources for someone seeking information on how to do it.
There are two pages devoted to this role in the Competent Communication Manual. Besides these
she pointed out that Toastmasters International does have a wealth of information as she referred us to this page:
And again on Katy Toastmasters website there is a checklist of sorts, built around a Meeting Agenda, that points out exactly when and where, during a meeting, that a Toastmaster would speak. The file is named "Toastmaster_Check_List.xlsx.
Madame President let it be known that there are a host of resources available to us. Especially the people maybe sitting right next to us. Experienced Toastmasters. Our mentors. It was not said but she held true to her theme: Get Up and Grow.
Table Topics
Our Table Topics Master was the one and only Ni Bashir. Somehow shopping did not make it as one of the topics. She was well armed and prepared. That was a good thing since one speaker dropped out and we had additional time. (What is that?)
Participating were:
Wil Delgado - "If work allowed you more free time how would you spend it?" Wil, currently being pressed into 55 hours a week, would seek more time with his family.
Lalit Patel - Lalit expressed a desire to spend more time with family.
Jing Zhao - "it's good to be a little bit of a workaholic"
Heleane Stabeneau - Mused about the conniving of a controlling employer.
Jesika Nimmo - Our youngest member "What is most important?" "My boyfriend !!"
Matt Nimmo
Craig Coussons (guest) Empty nest is not really empty.
Ed Shaw (guest)
Cynthia Westbrook - Empty nest? "it's a wonderful feeling when you get them off the payroll"
Evaluations and Awards
Walt Butler delivered a brief but concise evaluation of the meeting and was assited by his evaluation team. We did fairly well. Out meeting began and ended on time. Our Topics Master, Ni Bashir, was very well prepared. This author would point out some things that he could not have been aware of. The Reception team, or "Greeter", performed exceptionally well. A huge shout out to Bryan Clark and Floyd Spencer for making that happen.
The myriad members that make the Sergeant-At-Arms role so much easier. People that set up, pick up and clean up. He does not really see everyone that is doing something. It is all very much appreciated.
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| Cynthia Westbrook |
Best Table Topics
Cynthia Westbrook owns this. The "Phrase That Pays" in this weeks Table Topics was:
"it's a wonderful feeling when you get them off the payroll"
By The Numbers
In Attendance: 27
Guests: 8
