Lordy, did we have a great Speakers Roundtable Toastmaster meeting last night or what!?  We should have put signs out on Glenridge Drive and charged admission.  Heck, we should have had a billboard up on I-285.  But wait, let’s take a peek at the December 7^th meeting schedule and see what we are in store for!  Rui Li is speaking; total charmer, total joy.  Paul Poodt, witty and laid back with a great accent is also a scheduled speaker.  Finally, can you believe it, the Mad Martini man, Jon Schwartz or his alter ego will also be speaking.  Bill Kovach will oversee the evaluation team which consists of Claudia Brogan as grammarian,  Merrilee Morris as timer, and Donna Satchell as camera person.  Hey, Sgt at Arms Keith Schroder, get out our check book and order us up some signs!  We’re headed for another great evening of speeches.

Toastmaster for the evening, Steve Cohn, sprinkled in suitable quotes as he introduced each speaker.  First up was Claudia Brogan and her speech, “A Community of Practice.” Through audience participation she introduced us to and defined “Community of Practice.”  Working together and thinking together will help those in Public Health stay focused and use time and skills wisely.  Claudia cited the seriousness of the H1N1 virus and the need to model and distill the information as a community of practice.   We broke up into groups of three or four, and when she said “go,” we opened up little white boxes of puzzle parts. You guessed it, as little Community of Practice groups; we put our puzzles together in record time.  Claudia asked several strategic questions based on our puzzle participation.  It was all a set-up, but we dove in, had fun, and learned.  Loved her final quote, “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go with a group.”  Great job on the intro for your seminar, Claudia.

Speaker number two, Rich Hart, gave an ACL manual speech, “Humorously Speaking, Project 1” entitled “The Seed of Accountability.” While seated on a stool, Rich gave us a brief history of his resume at age 18.  He then took us with him as he interviewed for a job with an elderly gentleman.  “Well son, I see you are Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.” were the first words out of the interviewer’s mouth.  Rich leaped from his stool, putting both hands on the table, and, calling the interviewer “Son,” proceeded to tell him “You bet I’m the Jack of all trades, I’m proud to still be learning, growing, and reaching.”  He got the job!  Rich wants us to know that there are three things that help us find what the unique things are that we want to master in our life.  Those three things are individuals, opportunities, and environment.  Rich delivered a great message in a well honed speech.

Yeah! A seven minute break and some of Vicki Willard’s awesome warm spinach dip and chips. If there were other edible items, most of us didn’t notice.

Toastmaster Steve let us know that the clown’s friends all went to his funeral in one car.  He then introduced Vicki Willard as Ida Louise Clairborne, who presented “The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral . . . Dying Tastefully in the Mississippi.” Ida Louise addressed us new comers in Woodville. Mississippi on the importance of selecting the best schools and the best merchants, but suggested that even more important was the selection of a church.  She highly recommended St. James Episcopal over the other churches.  The church cemetery, it was noted, was conveniently located directly across the street from St. James.  She then went on to discus your neighbors in the cemetery, not around it, but in it.  Be careful picking your spot.  Of course you’d want to be by the FFW’s.  (Finest Families of Woodville)  Nothing was sacred and down-home examples were paraded through each topic; from telling no lies in your obituary, to the proper selection of music, and flowers.  We moved on to the reception and the proper foods to be served.  “Pimento cheese spread is the glue that holds the South together.”  In closing, Ida Louise brought us to the restorative cocktail to alleviate all that funeral stress.  Amid the laughter, we all became experts in Hosting the Perfect funeral, in Woodville, MS at least.

Steve sprinkled in a Yogi quote, “If you don’t go to other’s funerals, they won’t come to yours.”  With that, he called up the evaluation team headed by Rui Li.  Paul Johnson recorded all three speakers one even using a personal video cam. Merrilee Morris found little to complain about as grammarian and much to rejoice in.  Likewise, Rui Li felt Steve Cohn had done an outstanding job as our Toastmaster for the evening.  She commented on the quality of the speeches and expressed her joy at being a part of the evening.  Then it was down to club business, discussing and voting in four new members, packing up or eating up left-overs, picking up, and then heading home on a TM high!

Speakers Roundtable has a stellar club ambassador in Kelly Vandever. As VP of Membership, she not only exemplifies, but extols the values of our advanced club. Many of our guests mention they were invited by Kelly. Paul Johnson is also responsible for a number of visitors as is Bill Kovach. Thanks to each of you for putting our best SRT face out there.

Our parking lot attendant, President Bill Kovach, did a great job with semaphores, getting us and 10 guests to our temporary meeting room on Monday evening.  The good news is that our next meeting on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 6:00 will be back in the big conference room in Building E at 5775 Glenridge Drive.  Here is our agenda for November 16th.

Toastmaster:  Steve Cohn       GE: Rui Li   TR: Iris Grimm
Speakers: Rich Hart                    CP: Paul Johnson

Cara Iovino                                        GR: DonnaSatchell

Vicki Willard

Please confirm your role with Steve or find a replacement.  Steve conducts a well organized and fun meeting, though he’ll have to stretch himself to be as sweet, graceful, and gracious as last night’s Toastmaster, Donna Satchell.  She tied the entire meeting together with peanut butter and a smile.  We were pleasantly shocked to learn that November is National Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month.  A great teller of stories and peanut butter lover, Paul Johnson was first to speak.

Paul’s mission was to deliver a touching story from the Storytelling Manual, Project #4.  That’s exactly what he did in his speech “A day to Decide, A Day to Remember.” We met Paul’s mom through the eyes of toddler Paul, clanging pans and playing space ship in the kitchen cabinets, grade schooler Paul, chunking mortar out from between the bricks of his home,  teenager Paul, playing in band, and adult Paul, loving son.  To his amazement, she’d been a patient and understanding mom throughout his life.  She retired to Florida in 1979 and their in-person visits became limited, even in the years following the death of his father.  However, the day came in 2006 when his mom at age 87, decided it was time to move close to Paul and his family.  In 2008, she was diagnosed with advanced cancer and given barely two months to live.  Paul compared life to a vacation and gave us three guide posts.  Life, like a vacation, is over before you know it.  Live according to your beliefs, experience life, do things that create a history, and finally gather memories, these are shared and processed experiences.  Even if your mom doesn’t set the car on fire, or own a dolphin bathroom rug, make each day a day to remember.  Paul has a lot of wonderful memories.

Peanut butter must be 90% peanuts to be called peanut butter.  Our next speaker is 100% Toastmaster, our SRT President, Bill Kovach.  His speech, “That Darn Dog”, was to be entertaining and of course, it was.  Bill used his dog Baby to focus on annoying habits which limited her experiences.  Bill drew her yard paths, on the white board, creating a triangle comfort zone which Bill aptly called her terror barrier.   People, like Bill’s dog Baby, stay within their comfort paths, rarely venturing towards the woods or to what they haven’t experienced.  When this collection of habits comes to rule our lives, it is known as a paradigm.  Bill listed three keystones for breaking out of habit limiting behavior.  1.  A strong desire, 2. Reinforcement of realistic goals, and 3. Total belief, there is no half-stepping.  Bill passed out cards and asked us to list habits we wanted to break.  He showed us the tattered card list he used it to reinforce breaking his annoying habits.  He interspersed his talk with an enlightenment story, his battle with cigarettes, and then suggested books he’d read and highly recommended.  An entertaining and motivational speech, Bill!

We had a no-food break but found satisfaction chewing the fat with our guests and each other.  Guest Oscar Hoffer’s name was drawn for table topics.  He entertained us with how to motivate your children through falsehoods and collusion with your neighbors while out trick or treating.  I hope I got that right, Oscar!

GE Kelly Vandever called on her evaluation team.  Keith recorded Paul and his disk was formatted and ready.  Timer Jon Schwartz reported that Paul’s speech was within his requested time.  However, Jon gave a couple of “A hems” to Bill for exceeding his time and to Claudia for her non-30 second eval!  Rui Li pointed up several excellent turns-of-phrase and a couple of speaking misdemeanors, but declared meeting ahs and ums missing.  Kelly praised Donna for a well run and fun themed meeting.  We now know that most smooth style peanut butter fans are East Coast folks and yep, West Coasters like it chunky.

If you haven’t bookmarked www.toastmastersatlanta.com, do it now!  Bill thanked Rich Hart for facilitating our meeting place.   Thanks to each of you for attending our meeting and straining to be on your best behavior for our guests.  Their feedback was positive, even glowing!   SEE YOU ALL ON NOVEMBER 16TH AT 6:00