June 30, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

We had an eventful and enlightening evening tonight, with 11 members and 1 guest.

Our SAA Keith Schroder welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to the flag.
Our acting president Claudia Brogan welcomed us and then introduced Deborah Hill, our Toastmaster. Deborah was dressed in red, white and blue in honor of Independence Day. She gave us many fun tips about the holiday, and we now know that at least 158 other countries also celebrate their own Independence days throughout the year.
GE: Iris Grimm
GR: Claudia Brogan
Timer: Dave Flach
Camera Person: Kelly Vandever

Our speakers:
Paul Johnson gave a very informative and professional speech called, “Getting What You Deserve.” He gave us tips and examples on how to get what you want without saying “no” or compromising yourself.

Merrilee Morris took us on a fascinating educational journey all the way from her Minnesota roots to where some 20,000 Civil War refugees settled in “Americana”, which is now present day Sao Paulo.  She’s no jingoist, but it is evident Merillee loves her (our) country.

Claudia Brogan lead a very productive discussion about what we should do when we have a low attendance at our meetings. She’s going to send an email summarizing the exciting ideas we came up with.

Many goodies were enjoyed during the 5 minute break.

Our new club business included thanking and dismissing our outgoing officers, and welcoming in our new ones (including a surprise last minute vote-in!). Our new officers are:
President: Claudia Brogan
VP of Education: Iris Grimm
VP of Membership: Vickie Willard
VP of Public Relations: Paul Johnson
Treasurer: Deborah Hill
Secretary: At large (we’re thinking of rotating this job each week)
Sergeant at Arms: Kelly Vandever

Vicki Willard gave us some fantastic news. We have a new place to meet, and have voted to begin meeting there August 1. It’s a very large room with a stage, tables, chairs, parking, storage for our suitcase (!), kitchen, library . . . and it’s FREE. The location is in a senior resident’s building on Peachtree Road, next to St. Phillip’s Cathedral. Happy, happy days. We may consider changing the time to a bit later, if people need a little extra drive time.

We started on time and ended late (because of our lively discussion of club business).

My Best and last,
Deborah Hill
Your Out-Going Secretary

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June 23, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

We had a three enlightening and entertaining speeches tonight, presented to and by our 9 members and 1 guest. Our guest served as SAA. Pat Schmalzreid our president was also our qualified Toastmaster. She ran the meeting smoothly, and filled us with interesting quotes.  Her team consisted of:
GE: Jon Schwartz
GR: Merrilee Morris
Timer: Dave Flach
Camera Person: Kelly Vandever

Our speakers:
Iris gave a very professional reading (so well done, it was difficult to tell it was read) that opened our eyes to the unhealth of the medical industry. We’re losing our good doctors and Iris helped us understand why and how. She also convinced us that MD coaching is the way to go.

Cara Iovino gave her Ice Breaker speech tonight. It actually consisted of enlightening stories about how chiropractic saves lives (including her brother’s). We all loved it so much (and her) that we voted her into the club.

With little cooperation from her projector, Deborah Hill delivered an enthusiastic keynote speech. The speech told us how we can reframe limiting beliefs to recession proof our lives. She also read from her new book: Unlimited Life.

Our break was short and sweet (in a grapey way).

Our meeting started late as we awaited the drop-off of the DVD camera. But, we were able to whiz through and finish on time.

See you next week.

My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary

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June 17, 2008 by Merrilee Morris.

What a wonderful sight to arrive at Toast Masters and find the parking lot filled with cars. Claudia Brogan, our VP of Education stood at the door guiding members through the throng of children to our meeting room. It was tempting to go the VBS route since they were so young and bubbling over with excitement. However, our TM meeting was equally exciting and bubbling over with great speeches, on the mark evaluations, and good snackies. Nine members and two guests were present.

Guest Margaret Edinburgh called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Margaret is a visitor from an IBM TM Club invited by Kelly Vandever. Our Toast Master, Paul Johnson, kept the meeting moving and fun with his impromptu “It’s in the Bag” theme. Yep, the camera, the flag, the eval forms, the plates were all in the bag and the bag never appeared!

Rui Li was first on the program with her interpretive reading “Alone with a Tsunami.” She took us to the serenity of a lazy pleasant beach day, the sand, the surf, the sky. The Tsunami shattered this solace snatching people from their loved ones and friends. The aftermath seemed surreal.

Bill Kovach followed with another powerful reading, “St Crispin.” He set the stage wonderfully letting us feel the bone weariness of the English as they faced a much larger contingent of French troops. This is Shakespeare’s King Henry V’s rousing speech to the troops before the Battle of Agincourt. Bill’s powerful reading had us ready to take up arms and charge the French.

Following a break of scones, cookies and seasoned green bean chips, our 3rd speaker, Paul Poodt gave us a warm talk on fathers. Paul’s father was 53 years old when he was born, worked hard, but found time for his family. He discussed the death of Tim Russert and also asked for some personal audience input on fathers. Paul’s speeches calmly unfold, bring us fresh insight, and enrich us.

GE Pat Schmalzried called on her team for their reports. Iris Grimm informed us all speakers stayed within their allotted times. Claudia Brogan provided us with our grammatical report card for the evening.

GE Pat morphed into President Pat and we held our club elections. The slate of officers:

• President: Claudia Brogan
• Treasurer: Deborah Hill-Flach
• Sergeant at Arms: Kelly Vanderver
• VP Public Relations: Paul Johnson
• VP Education: Iris Grimm

… was approved by a voice vote. We are still in need of a Secretary and a VP of Membership. New officers assume their offices July 1, 2008. A special thanks to each of you for stepping forward and carrying the SRT administrative load!

The schedule for June 23 is as follows: TM: Pat Schmalzried, S#1: Iris Grimm, S#2: BUS: Claudia Brogan or Cara, S#3: Deborah Hill-Flach. GE: Jon Schwartz, TR: David Flach, GR: Merrilee Morris, CP: Bill Kovach.

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June 11, 2008 by Paul Johnson.

First, become a member of Speakers Roundtable.

After you log in, click on the [Write] link at the top.

Take the text you want to post (like your member info) and paste it into a plain text editor like Notepad to strip out all the formatting. Then copy it from Notepad and paste it into the Post window.

Add a title, like “Paul Johnson, AC-S”

Your photo should be about 100 by 100 pixels. If it’s not, you can resize it and save it using a (free) program like Irfanview.

Below the Post window, click on the [Upload] tab, then browse to where your photo is on your hard drive. Enter a title, like “Paul Johnson, AC-S” and click [Upload]. Click on the [Browse] tab, then drag and drop your photo to the top left of your Post text (in front of the first word of the first paragraph).

Click on your photo, then click on the menu icon labeled [Insert/edit image (Alt+m)]. Change the field for “Alignment” to [Left], and enter [10] in the “Horizontal Space” field.

Click the [Preview] button and you can see what it looks like. Use the [Edit] arrow to continue editing. Use the formatting controls for Bold, Italics… Click [Save and Continue Editing] whenever you feel like it.

Now it’s time to pay attention to the options on the right. Under Categories (click the + to expand) choose Members (for your Bio; for other postings, choose the appropriate Category).

When you’re set, click [Publish].

If you want to change a post, click on [Manage] and select [Edit] next to the Post you want to work on.

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June 10, 2008 by Donna Satchell.

Donna Satchell is a Professional Speaker, Success Skills Trainer, Author, and President of STARR Consulting & Training, an organization dedicated to motivating, training, and helping individuals and businesses achieve collaborative and personal success.   

Donna’s trademark, Just Get Serious™, is her life and business philosophy.  She is serious about developing herself into the best person she can possibly be.  Donna is equally serious about creating presentations that are engaging, interactive and help people get results through practical tips, tools and techniques.  This is accomplished through motivational speeches, teleclasses, and a five-session training program focusing on customer service, teamwork, communications, time management, and presentation skills.   

Donna holds a B.S. Degree (Summa Cum Laude) in business administration from
Mercy College in New York. She is a member of the American Society for Training & Development and is on the Advisory Committee for DeKalb Technical College.  Donna is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is the past recipient of the NSA Georgia Chapter’s Spirit Award for outstanding commitment. 

Donna earned her CTM in and 2001 and her AC-B in 2002 while she was a member of Stone Mountain Toastmasters.  She joined Speakers Roundtable in August 2007. 

To get details about Donna’s programs, watch videos of her presentations, read her personal/professional development articles and sign up for her free motivational newsletter, please visit www.JustGetSerious.com

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June 3, 2008 by Claudia Brogan.

We had a rollicking good time at the June 2 SRT meeting. Lucky for us that things went so well, with a humble number of 5 members present. But the great gift of the evening was *Kelly V’s* outstanding work to invite guests~~ so we had a bounty of very talented, jump-right-in guests who helped make the meeting lively and engaging.

Our acting Sgt at Arms Rui Li started us off, then Acting Pres. Paul Johnson welcomed us, then Meeting TM Rui Li took things from there. Our five great guests were: Brian McClellan (to practice for Region 8 event), Shawn Toombs (who wants to come back again), Peter M. (his second visit), Patricia (referred to us by her friend Donna S), and Oscar (longtime friend of the club).  What a talented group! Let’s just say, they enjoyed themselves greatly, were well welcomed & active during the meeting, each got time with our excellent VP membership to gain some info, and each one suggested they just may be back. Congratulations and thank you, Kelly!

Brian delivered his practice speech for the Region 8 event, and wow’d us. The title “Get it? Got it. Good” was an engaging, heartfelt, masterfully-delivered speech about the trials and tribulations of learning how to be a good parent.  Then Claudia delivered a practice speech she’s working on, titled “3 Key Tips for Connecting with Your Audience, and One Bonus Take-Home Prize.” Ideas were presented for techniques that speakers can use to honor listeners in their audience by valuing the experience and expertise of those listeners, as well offering practical tips (not just theories) and ways to engage so that listeners feel included.

Rui provided two Table Topic opportunities—our guests Sean and Oscar both rose well to the occasion, delivering 4 minute speeches and reveling in the fact that they got to receive 2 minute verbal feedback segments also. (Guest Sean confessed afterwards he’d not spoken extemporaneously like that before, which you’d never have guessed. He had us in the palm of his hand!).

Bill timed us well, Oscar listed closely for benevolent-users, Kelly did the camera work, and Paul evaluated The Whole.

All in all, a festive, high-spirited evening….with five engaged guests and five hard-working members. Each person in the room had their hand in making this meeting a success! Kelly proved, once again, her excellent skills at rousing guests, and all put out the welcome mat.

See you next time!

Acting Sec, Claudia Brogan

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June 1, 2008 by Paul Johnson.

Paul Johnson is Trouble Breaker #1 at Shortcuts to Results, the firm that creates Trouble Breakers™ who break past trouble and make things happen. Paul delivers education, consulting, and speaking programs that let clients discover and use business breakthroughs. The results: more revenues, more productivity, more simplicity, and more confidence.

As The World’s Only Professional Trouble Maker™, Paul eagerly takes the “road less traveled”. His unique experiences allow him to create the Shortcuts to Results™ that enable him to deliver exceptional results for his clients. Learn more at www.troublebreaker.com

Paul Johnson earned his CTM in 1998, and then began developing his professional speaking career. Paul joined the Speakers Roundtable Club in 2005 during his term as president of the Georgia State Chapter of National Speakers Association. He earned his AC-B in 2006, and his AC-S in 2008.

Paul co-founded the Technology Marketing Association in Atlanta, and is also a member of the International Federation for Professional Speakers. Read Paul’s engaging articles on leadership, marketing, sales and production at www.paul-johnson.com.

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