Please note that our July meetings will be held on the 2nd and the 4th Mondays due to the July 4th Holiday.  July 12 and July 26

In August we will be back on our regular 1st and 3rd Monday meeting Schedule, but will add a 3rd meeting on the 5th Monday.    August 2~August 16~August 30

Mark these dates!  See you on July 12th!

Sgt. at Arms Keith Schroder gaveled our sixteen SRT members and three guests to order at 6:00 p.m. sharp.  Claudia Brogan stood in as acting president since our president Bill Kovach was out with cervical problems.  Merrilee Morris, Toastmaster for the evening, had a packed program of four speakers.  Once again it was not only an evening of very diverse speakers, but an evening of information as well as entertainment.  Merrilee’s theme for the evening was “A Trip Down SRT Memory Lane.”   General Evaluator for the evening was Claudia Brogan.

Paul Johnson was first up to speak doing a project from the Success Leadership Series called “Parliamentary Procedures in Action.” It was based on Robert’s Rules of Order.  His first objective was to help us quickly gain a working knowledge of this seemingly arcane subject.  Objective number two was to do this without putting us to sleep.  Paul did a wonderful job with a handout, some humor, enlisting Iris Grimm as an assistant and a lot of fun audience involvement.  Paul once again demonstrated that he has a gift for taking a complicated and dull subject, such as Robert’s Rules of Order, keeping us totally involved and learning and then even leaving us a bit bereft when his talk concluded.  Yep, we wanted more!  He could never put us to sleep!

Next we had the joy of listening to our newer member, Beatrice Sherer.  Her speech “Take the Opportunity” used humor to deliver her message.  Her message was beautiful and humor is definitely her gift.  We met her grandfather at his big roll top desk cooking the books, actually keeping the books, huge ledgers for his roofing business.  Beatrice dreamed of being like him.  The bathroom mirror scene was not only memorable, but great.  She was totally on message when she advised each of us to thank that special person who’d made a significant impact in our lives.

Following what was supposed to be a brief break, our Toastmaster introduced our third speaker, Kelly Vandever.  Her speech, “From Foe to Friend ~~ Twitter:  A Love Story” taught us the three steps we need to take when it comes to learning a new technology.  They are look, learn and leap.  Sometimes technology comes at us so fast that we might feel overwhelmed.  Look for the experts, the knowledgeable leaders and learn all you can about the new technology.  Then you learn to communicate via this new tool.  Finally you take the leap adopting and using the new technology.  Kelly is up to 55 tweeters a month!  Wow!

Our final evening’s speaker was Steve Cohn, CSP.  His speech, “What the BP situation says about your customer relationships,” took a current news event and made it a lesson on customer service.  Audience involvement found members sharing how they answer their phone, how they would deal with irate, unhappy in your face customers, and how we can deliver the best in customer service.  Steve is a walking handbook in that field.   We are so fortunate to have his polished presentations filled with research and advice via club meetings all fee-free!

Claudia called on her evaluation team for their reports.  Ericka Butler was pleased with the use of her Word-of-the-evening, salubrious as well as with our use of grammar.  Timer Cindy Cannon reported two of our speakers stayed within their requested times, the other two were a little over.  Our camera person Keith recorded three of the speakers.  Claudia gave her recommendations as General Evaluator and then morphed into our acting president.  Claudia requested that we respond to the e-mail she’d sent requesting our availability on the club’s scheduled meeting dates.  Members were encouraged to volunteer to become club officers.  A busy and lively discussion ensued.

So here we are folks, extending Memory Lane up to and including June 21, 2010.  I miss the folks that have come and gone from SRT since 1997, but we’ve learned a great deal from them and been blessed by their friendship.   SRT’s Memory Lane is studded with members who are glittering gems and some even add a bit of gold paving with their talents.  Seriously, it just keeps growing more salubrious because of each of you.

Toastmaster:  Merrilee Morris

Speakers:  Paul Johnson                           GE:  Bill Kovach

Bea Scherer                                                    GR:  David Flach

Kelly Vandever                                             TR:  OPEN

Steve Cohn                                                      CP:  Keith Schroder

Please contact the Toastmaster with your speech information and your introductory material.  The meeting starts promptly at 6:00 p.m.  Let’s go!

Have you ever noticed how good it is to be back at an SRT meeting when you’ve had to be absent for a couple of meetings?  For me it’s much like a home coming, reconnecting with kindred spirits, welcoming new members, and remembering returning visitors.  Equally as important as the “People Fix” is the speech fix.  Monday evening, June 7, 2010 was a mind, heart and soul fulfilling evening.

Toastmaster for the evening, Cindy Cannon, had four, very diverse, speakers on the agenda, while Keith Schroeder had a top-notch evaluation team in place.  First speaker, Iris Grimm, put the meeting in gear with her speech, “Choosing Your Next Best Friend.”  Iris spoke to inform, raise awareness and encourage pet rescue through adoption. We saw the statistics, the cruelty, and learned of a group working to make the Cobb County Animal Shelter a no-kill shelter.  We also met Sophie and learned why and how she came to be chosen for a friend’s mother.  Iris’s heart felt talk was packed with great and useable information.

Bill Kovach was next up to the lectern.  He hummed and ah’d and told us about, you know, deciding to become a Toastmaster.  Now, twenty years later, from his wet icebreaker to Division Governor,  from Speakers Roundtable to the National Speaker’s Association, he still believes your voice is a tool that can lead people to higher performance levels.  He ended with a pitch and a form for SRT members to volunteer to become club officers for this coming year.  We each got a form and hopefully several of them were filled out and returned to our President, Bill.

Break time was followed by Cindy Light’s speech entitled, “Lessons I Have Learned from My Grandmother.”  With a wink of the eye and a touch of humor, Cindy took us back to China when she was three years old and her country was in the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution.  We learned of Uncle Wong’s treachery, the Red Guards coming for her father, her fish bowl smashed, her gold fish jumping on the floor, her mother roughly taken from her, and her older brother trying to explain things.  The actions of Cindy’s grandmother taught Cindy, wisdom, kindness, and to always believe.  In closing Cindy told us how these memories are always with her, that they never go away.  Likewise, our memories of Cindy’s lessons learned speech will never go away.

“Good Enough” was the title of Dwayne Smith’s motivational speech.  He made us rethink and reflect on attitudes we sometimes have regarding being “Good Enough.”  He encouraged us to say, “I am not good enough.”  He then proceeded to tell us why we might not be good enough.  He described how we hit comfort zones and sort of get stuck in “Good Enough” when we could and should become even better and move on.  In summary, Dwayne told us that “good enough” was just a stop along the way and that we should keep on walking.

Keith and his evaluation team presented their reports.  Keith suggested ways to “keep the show going” when folks were slow coming back from break.  (The Toastmaster should start speaking, but refrain from introductions.) He also suggested a FoodMaster be assigned to co-ordinate snacks for the meetings.  Lastly he suggested that we avoid phrases in our evaluations such as “This is the best . . . you’ve done.”  How can you top it with a later speech?

President Bill Kovach thanked our Toastmaster Cindy Cannon for putting together another excellent evening of speeches and evaluations.  Our three guests made positive comments on our meeting.  It’s certainly no enigma as to why our meetings are so mind, heart and soul fulfilling!