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July 18, 2008 by Paul Johnson.
The July 21 Meeting will NOT be at the usual location (First Baptist Church), and will be a business meeting for Members of Speakers Roundtable.
If you are a Member and you are planning on attending, contact Vicki Willard or one of the new officers for details.
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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:
… 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 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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May 19, 2008 by Deborah.
Hello Fellow Speakers,
We had a two entertaining speeches tonight and an insightful and action packed business meeting, with 10 members and 1 guest present.
Our SAA was filled extemporaneously by Deborah Hill who welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to an imaginary flag (the person with all of our stuff, including the flag and camera no-showed). Our stand-in president Paul Johnson greeted us, then introduced Peter Gibson, our Toastmaster. His team consisted of:
GE: Deborah Hill
GR: Claudia Brogan (we all learned from her report tonight)
Timer: Merrilee Morris (creatively without our cards or watch)
Camera Person: None (no camera)
Our speakers:
Vinny was back in full swing tonight. Jon Schwartz entertained us with two short speeches meant for video, entitled, “Vinny Vents.” He vented about bottled water, hotel water, customer service and a few other side subjects.
Paul Johnson became three people tonight, as he interpretively and creatively read from the screenplay, “Diff’rent” by Eugene O’Neill.
Our business meeting was well lead by Paul and was very productive. We voted on three resolutions - two approved and one failed. Bill Hosken will send the official resolutions to us soon. We also discussed the priorities of the club and are actively rethinking what we all want out of the club. Claudia will research the initial charter doctrines and we’ll consider defining our club objectives and structure as we are now and want to be.
Merrilee provided us with some glorious date cake, which went quickly (more quickly than Deb’s brown rice chips).
Our meeting started 4 minutes late and ended a touch late.
See you in two weeks. Remember, no meeting next week. Have a fun Memorial Day!
My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary
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May 14, 2008 by Vicki Willard.
Hello everyone.
We had an entertaining meeting Monday evening. Our TM Merrilee did her usual wonderful job. She set the tone with her cleverly designed agenda and kept us moving through the meeting with humor and style.
Keith spoke to us about bridging the generations with a computer game. Check with him for the full details!!!
Rui Li selected a beautiful piece for her interpretive reading.
Bill Kovach and I volunteered to jump in as impromptu speakers. What a master of organization our Bill K is! If you missed his speech on a timely topic sure to impact each of us this summer please be sure to ask him about it at next week’s meeting.
We had two very cute young guests. It was fun to listen to their views of our meeting.
We have a line up of stars for next week’s meeting so be sure to be there!
Signing off for now and looking forward to seeing you soon…
Vicki
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May 5, 2008 by Deborah.
Hello Fellow Speakers,
We had an exciting fun evening tonight, with 10 members and 3 guests present. One guest was Cara Iovino, back from life and wanting to rejoin our group. Many of you remembered that she was a dynamic speaker and asset to the club. She turned in her application and we’ll vote next week. We need a quorum of 11, so either turn your vote into Claudia, or show up to vote on Dr. Cara.
Our SAA Keith Schroder welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to the flag. Our president Pat Schmalzried greeted us, then introduced Claudia, our Toastmaster. Claudia’s theme was “Fresh Ideas in Springtime.” She gave us three tips throughout the evening to put into our “speaker’s toolbox.” Our cast of characters included:
GE: Deborah Hill
GR: Paul Johnson
Timer: Paul Poodt
Camera Person: Shared by Keith S. and Iris Grimm
Before our speakers presented, Kelly Vandever spoke to us about a membership drive that she’s doing for our club. She’s already spoken with several people who were at the conference, spreading the word and handing out cards. Now she’s handing out lists of clubs and contacts for us. Each of was asked to help by calling and emailing the contacts at the other clubs. We want to be sure to not step on any club toes, so be sure to clarify that we are only soliciting for people to join us as a second club. To further prove that we aren’t poaching from other clubs, don’t contact people from clubs who meet on Mondays or target clubs that are struggling to maintain membership. Contact Kelly for more info.
Our speakers:
Iris Grimm energetically taught us about teaching with energy. She gave a brief parcel of a speech that she’ll give to a group of teachers on how to deal with students, using dog training as an example.
Pat Schmalzreid lead us in three table topics. Our topic speakers were Dr. Cara, Deborah Hill and Merrilee Morris.
Keith Schroder entertained us with his story, called A Dog’s Tale. The dog may right now be telling about how Keith saved his life after he was in an auto accident on Ashford Dunwoody.
We ate merrily during our break.
We started a little late and ended on time.
See you in two weeks. Someone please fill in for me doing minutes next week.
My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary
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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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