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:
… 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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April 29, 2008 by Merrilee Morris.
The First Baptist Church Sandy Springs surprised us last night, April 28, 2008, when we arrived and found the temporary wall between the two meeting rooms open and a dozen or so round tables set up with table clothes and all. Several members commented on arrival, “This is truly a Speakers Roundtable meeting.” President Pat Schmalzried called the meeting to order and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Iris Grimm was our Toast Master for the evening. Merrilee Morris was General Evaluator. Pat, our President and acting Sgt at Arms, also served as our Grammarian. Volunteering as timer was Donna Satchell and Rui Li as our camera person.
Our first speaker of the evening was Kelly Vandever rehearsing her speech for the International Speech Contest this weekend. Kelly’s speech was totally polished, laced with humor, rich with Jody’s vocal characterization, and enriched with visually strong and meaningful gestures. Kelly wanted us to draw blood with our evals, but she didn’t leave us much to scratch at. She’s searching for a more appealing title than “The Arm Exercise.” You’ve got a winner, Kelly!
Speaker number two was Bill Kovach. He’s usually so warm and friendly, but this evening he was throwing things out of a bag all over the floor. That got our attention. Bill spoke on “Taking Out the Trash.” Plastics are not biodegradable. A disposable diaper will hang around a 500 years before sunlight breaks it down to smaller and smaller pieces. He spoke of Gyres which are areas in the ocean where debris fragments accumulate. Bill referred to these gyres as cesspools we couldn’t flush. He cited research that warned us of neo-natal malformations, diabetes and even obesity if we don’t start protecting our environment and ourselves from the all the plastic we toss into our world.
We had a six minute break of cookies, chips and dip, snack mix and donuts. Yes, much of it was in plastic containers!
The evening’s last speaker was Claudia Brogan. She spoke from the “Speeches by Management Manual” The Briefing. Claudia’s briefing was on the valuable use of time. Her handout of Time Quadrants kept us in step with where her discussion was taking us. What’s urgent, what’s not urgent, what’s important, what’s not important, what’s a necessity, what’s deception, Claudia gave us examples and tools for using our time in meeting our work goals. She then fielded a good five minutes of questions. Claudia responded to the questions with appropriate and insightful answers. She is definitely a master in her communication field.
Closing reports were brief. Rui Li recorded one speech on DVD, Kelly’s. Donna Satchell informed us that Kelly’s speech was 7 minutes on the nose. Bill 15 seconds over on his trash talk and Claudia used an extra minute for her speech, “It really is all about time.” Pat found a couple of ahs and ums. She also noted that Claudia had used the word of the day, “unelectable” twice! Merrilee Morris complimented Iris on her brief, yet informative introductions. Iris ran a professional, timely and fun meeting.
President Pat Schmalzried asked members to volunteer to be on a nominating committee to put forward member names for our new officer slate. New officers assume their positions in July. The new scheduled (May and June) was emailed to members 4/28. Roles for May 5 are as follows:
Toast Master: Claudia Brogan
Speakers: Iris Grim, Keith Schroder, Pat Schmalzried
General Evaluator: Vicki Willard
Grammarian: Paul Johnson
Camera Person: Bill Kovach
Timer: Paul Poodt
Respectfully submitted:
Merrilee Morris for Deborah Hill-Flach
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April 22, 2008 by Merrilee Morris.
This evening’s meeting of Speakers Roundtable (4/21/2008) visited a wide variety of speech topics and speaking styles. It began with Keith Shroeder leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then giving President Pat Schmalzried control of the meeting. There were 12 members present and one guest. Our guest, Peter Muchtogo, is a member of the Alpharetta Toastmasters club and was invited to visit Speakers Roundtable by Kelly Vandever.
President Pat also served as our Toastmaster for the meeting so slid easily from President to the role of TM. First on the agenda, she introduced our General Evaluator for the evening, Keith Schroder. His team included Claudia Brogan, Timer; Merrilee Morris, Grammarian; and Paul Poodt, Camera Person.
The first speaker of the evening was Rui Li. Rui delved into her Story Telling Manual to bring us a Chinese Folk Tale. It was about an old and wise man who lived on his country’s border. Rui pulled on her imaginary beard and gave the old man’s advice in her surprisingly deep, gruff voice. The moral of the story was to be patient and wait, that good things can and do come out of bad things. Everyone was pleased with her sagacity and speaking skills.
Next, it was to stand, turn, and face the wall. At Pat’s direction, we then faced forward and sat down. She proceded to introduced our next speaker, Paul Johnson, who was no where to be seen. Apparently he had taped his Interpretive Reading which Pat pretended to start. Thus Paul began his reading of “Maud” Scene 1, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Voice booming through the room our invisible reader led us through Maud’s stream-of-conscious thoughts on living and dying. Paul returned from behind the door to receive his glowing evaluations.
We enjoyed a scrumptious 10 minute break of dips, chips, subway sandwiches, angel cake, and other goodies.
Our third speaker for the evening was Bill Hosken. Bill’s objective for the speech, which was on China, the Giant, was to effectively deliver a non- politically correct speech on a hot political topic. He dealt with the lack of freedom in China, their pollution, the manufacture of fake products, their economic impact, the list of concerns was documented and long. Then he turned the focus to the country that had allowed and even caused the current problems in China and the world today, the U.S. Bill was not booed or stoned by his evaluators, but rather praised on his ability to present both sides of a political hot button with sagacity.
Next Pat called on Keith for his evaluation of the evening’s program. Rui Li’s speech was the only one recorded by Paul. The speakers and evaluators had their double clutches, ah’s and filler words duly noted. The Timer reported that all but one speaker fell within the requested time. Toastmaster Pat delivered excellent introductions for all three speakers and kept the meeting snug and on time.
Sliding back into her President’s role, Pat congratulated Iris Grimm on achieving her ATM Silver. She reminded us that Kelly Vandever will be competing in the International Speech Contest on May 2 & 3. Speakers Roundtable business cards, designed and created by Paul Johnson and Deborah Hill-Flach were distributed in 25 card packets to the members that were present. Members not present should contact Paul Johnson for their card packets.
The meeting was adjourned exactly on time.
Respectfully,
Merrilee Morris on behalf of Deborah Hill-Flach, secretary-treasurer.
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February 12, 2008 by Merrilee Morris.
Speakers Roundtable members experienced another stellar club meeting this evening. President Pat Schmalzried, after a long period on stand-by, returned to not only conduct the meeting, but also to act as our Sgt. at Arms. Welcome back Pat! By the way, we had 14 members and one guest (Deborah Romann) present for the meeting!
Pat’s second duty was to introduce our stressed-out, tennis playing, hospital visiting and Peach Tree navigating, Dunwoody housewife, Vicki Willard, as our Toast Master. Vicki presented an evening crammed full of great speeches and even greater evaluations. The word of the evening was Bupkus courtesy of our ever challenging grammarian, Paul Johnson.
Paul Poodt took to the lectern as our first speaker. He spoke on Prisoner Visitation Support (PVS) in the Federal Prison System. This is a side of Paul few of us knew he was involved in. He spoke with compassion for the men imprisoned for many years, moved from penitentiary to penitentiary, their family hardships, and how they become lost to their family and friends in the prison system. He softened our perceptions and hearts toward the average prisoner.
Iris Grimm, working on her ATM Silver, presented a speech from the Better Speaking Skills Manual titled A Strong Impression. What could have been a bit of a snoozer type speech, Iris made exciting and interesting through audience involvement and demonstration. It was all about first impressions and the importance of powerfully opening your speeches. She used her virtual power-point to list and discus various openings, such as the quote, the story, a rapport builder, or a provocative statement or question. She then gave us three reasons to create powerful openings.
Our 10 minute break consisted mainly of sweets and lots of conversation. Thanks Pat for bringing the red foil wrapped Valentine heart chocolates.
Our evening culminated with a speech by Steve Cohn, Expectations in Business. Steve never disappoints us with his ability to deliver strong, captivating, and educational speeches. Surprisingly, most business folks have difficulty listing their clients’ specific expectations of them. His intro was especially powerful and positive from US Mail to CompuServe. The risks of not knowing, meeting and exceeding your clients business expectations can impact the financial health and success of your business.
The Evaluation Team wrapped up the meeting. CP-Bill Hoskens reported he had recorded Paul Poodt’s speech. T-Bill Kovach provided us with the speech times, a little over the requested times, but not grossly in violation. GA-Paul Johnson reported that six people had actually used word BUPKUS. He also suggested that we “record” and not “tape” member’s speeches since we use a video cam and DVD’s. He also caught our ums and ahs with flair. GE-Merrilee Morris congratulated Vicki Willard on keeping our program on schedule. Vicki’s introductions were interesting and well done in spite of some confusion regarding the three legged pit bull puppy. To me, Toast Master meetings are a total success when members come away educated, entertained and enriched. Now that’s meeting and exceeding our Toast Master expectations.
- Merrilee Morris
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November 21, 2007 by Merrilee Morris.
Wow, what a meeting! I’m still energized, spiritually fed, and just plain overwhelmed at the caliber of our SRT Club Meeting last night. From the moment Keith Schroder called us to order and our Acting President, Paul Johnson, acted, we were in for a totally off-the-chart Toast Master evening. Keith also served as the General Evaluator with Paul Poodt as timer, Mike Himelstein as grammarian, and Kelly Vandever as camera person. Hats off to Kelly as she filmed all four speeches her first time at the lens!
Peter Gibson was our charming and witty Toast Master. He kept the meeting on track with four speakers, even entertained us with jokes he’d learned from his son while the DVDs were formatting. First up to speak was Donna Satchell. She more than inspired us with her speech, The Phone Call. She encouraged each us to make a special effort to thank individuals who had made important differences or contributions to our lives; that it was never too late. She gave a polished, professional and inspirational account of her 15 year in-the-making thank you phone call and the moving written response she had received.
Paul Johnson somehow turned a story telling project into a lesson on the dangers of complacency. His speech, The Bears were NOT Goldilocks’ Problem was entertaining, informative and oh so fun! Paul took an old folk tale and with humor and insight turned it into a unique and contemporary business lesson.
Following a Toast Master Gibson Rui Li teaser, we took a short break enjoying chocolate donuts, deviled eggs, and water.
True to his word, Peter introduced Speaker #3, Rui Li who gave her Icebreaker (audition) speech. With a twinkle in her eye, a sparkle in her voice, and her arms gesturing the way, she zipped us through China, California, and landed us smoothly in Atlanta at the CDC, all under the title of A Generation “X.” We learned what a wonderful Toast Master fanatic she is via humor involving family and friends. Her parents know one word in English; Toastmasters. We know one word in Chinese, Rui.
Next on the program was our 4th speaker, Linda Love. Linda’s title was Flakes. Linda is a baby boomer, who came of age with the Feminist Movement. Her developing career as a news reporter, caught her life up not only covering this movement, but becoming a part of it. She shared many heartfelt thoughts with us about the price many boomer women paid by pursuing careers and listening to the flakes in the feminist movement. Linda’s experience is a moving testament to some of this movements consequences.
Ah, closing time following the Evaluation Team reports, and no one wants the evening to end; not the members in attendance nor our three guests, Osker Hofer, Rui Li and Cindy Light. We move on to Club business and unanimously vote Rui Li membership in Speakers Roundtable. We welcome and congratulate Rui.
This was close to a 10 Wow night. Thank you everyone!
Next week: Toast Master: Deborah Hill-Flach
Speakers:
Dave Flach
Jon Schwartz (exchanged with Paul)
Mike Himelstein
GE:Merrilee Morris
GR:Linda Love
TR:Steve Cohn (replacing Donna)
Camera:Jon Schwartz
It sounds like another Wow night for Speakers Roundtable.
Verbose Merrilee Morris, Acting Secretary for Deborah, signing off.
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