- Word of the day was Paramount

- 3 speakers:  Shea Ellison, Iris Grimm and Ericka Butler

- Bill Kovach was honored for his service to Toastmasters and the Speaker’s Round Table with an engraved clock presented by Cindy Cannon.

Announcements:

1) Our Camera is missing.  Please contact Cindy asap if you have it

2) Fall Conference is at the Renaissance near the airport on October 1st & 2nd.  They are still looking for   volunteers and presenters.

3) Please pay your dues tonight.  Either online through Paypal or directly to Iris Grimm

Effective September 13, 2010, Speakers Roundtable will meet weekly.

Speakers Roundtable will reimburse current Board members for Toastmasters training expenses as follows:

• for Toastmasters Leadership Institute events, any Board members who attends will be reimbursed for their registration fee in full which is usually $20.00 per person.
• for District 14 and lower Toastmasters conferences, Speakers Roundtable will reimburse up to 2 Board members for the full conference registration fee, for a maximum allowable full conference fee per Board member of $200. The 2 Board members eligible for reimbursement for any specific conference will be selected in advance of the aforesaid conference by the Board Members during an Executive Session.

Tom Nixon gave his first speech to the club, “Presentation Rules:  Power Point Techniques for Speakers that Work!” Tom’s use of two tools, words and image, let us know immediately what a skilled graphic designer he is.  His effective use of photos, words in yellow and lime, visually demonstrated the message he was delivering.  Don’t be afraid of contrast, use color as gestures.  Use handouts for detail.  Avoid the dreaded long bulleted list!   Tom left us with four major presentation rules; 1) You are the main event, not your power point.  2) Forget Gizmos, leave the animation to Disney.  3)  Simplify, simplify, simplify.  This goes to the essence of your message.  4)  Rehearse like a pro.  All of us, pros and non-pros alike, found Tom’s talk not only well presented, but overflowing with valuable information.

Paul Johnson introduced Merrilee Morris as our second speaker of the evening.  Her speech, “Seeking Answers” was from the Specialty Speeches Manual, “The Written Speech.”  Merrilee began by stressing how we all need information when we receive tragic news.  By seeking and receiving answers we can process the bad news.  She took us back to 1939 and the German and Soviet invasion of Poland.  Sadly, in the spring of 1940, the Russians systematically murdered thousands of these interned Polish Citizens.  This slaughter became known as the Katyn Forest Massacre.  In 1943 the Germans discovered these mass graves at Katyn and with Poland sought a fair and balanced investigation into the massacre by the International Red Cross.  The USSR vetoed the request.  Fast forward 70 years and the Polish people are still seeking answers to Katyn.  Then, on April 10, 2010, the Polish President’s plane crashed on landing at Smolensk.  All were on their way to the joint 70^th anniversary memorial of Katyn.  Merrilee pleaded with us not let the Polish people spend the next 70 years seeking answers to what happened to their President’s plane and the 96 souls who perished that April 10, 2010.  She gave each of us a copy of U.S. House Bill H.RES.1489, calling for an independent international investigation into this plane crash.  Let your voice be heard!

Toastmaster Paul cut our break time in half, noting that there wasn’t any food!  Our BreakMaster starts with our August 2^nd meeting.

Our final speaker was none other than Steve Cohn talking on “The Demise of the Two-party System.”  He introduced us to California’s Proposition 14 which introduces non-partisan primaries.  Anybody can qualify and jump on the primary ballot.  The top two vote getters meet in the General Election.  He explained how the two party system has lost it standing, lost its way, and was no longer doing what it was meant to do.  He spoke of how polarized we’ve become as a nation.  He used two excellent analogies to make his point; his playground pizza party and two unsatisfactory ad agencies.  He also gave us a bit of history of how parties (both Democrat and Republican) were clubs.  These “clubs” provided a service to their constituents.  The reformers felt these clubs were getting too powerful.  Now we have primaries where 14% of the registered voters determine who gets on the general ballot.  Third parties generally fail because they focus on one man.  He reminded us of George Wallace and Ross Perot.  Steve is convinced we need to break the two party hold on our country.  In doing so, we would also break the legislative bottlenecks.  As usual, Steve was knowledgeable, dynamic, prepared and convincing.

Dawn Gartin called on her evaluation team for their reports.  Cindy Light reported the actual speech and evaluation times.  Rui Li, our camera person, had recorded Steve’s speech, but the disk filled before the evaluations were captured.  Wendy Y. Bailey gave her grammarian report, giving accolades to folks who had used the word of the day.  Yep, someone used it twice during the evening!  Dawn called the meeting fantastic and praised Paul Johnson for hosting an outstanding and on time meeting.

Cindy asked Keith to take our guests and Tom Nixon out into the hall so we could discus and vote on Tom as a candidate for membership.  Welcome to Speakers Roundtable, Tom! Dawn announced that our club humorous speech and evaluation contests have been moved up to this coming Monday August 2^nd.  We have three committed humorous speaking contestants.  We have one evaluation contestant and seeking more.  Cindy reminded us that at our meeting on August 16^th we would be taking a vote on whether to extend our meetings by ½ hour on the first and the third Monday of each month or whether we should go to weekly meetings. Cindy also read an e-mail from Deborah Hill in favor of going to the weekly meeting.  The fantastic meeting adjourned.

As the first order of business, Bill presented the slate of officers:

President – Cindy Cannon~~ VP Education- Dawn Gartin~~ VP Membership – WendyY Bailey~~ Marketing/PR – Keith Schroeder with Web Master Paul Johnson~~ Treasurer – Iris Grimm~~ Secretary – Merrilee Morris~~ Sgt at Arms – Richard Kirby

It was moved by Paul Johnson and seconded by Kelly Vandever that the slate of officers be accepted.  The new officers were unanimously approved.  Bill turned the meeting over to our new president, Cindy Cannon.  Cindy welcomed our only guest, area governor, Barbara Morris.

Kelly Vandever served as Toastmaster for the evening.  She used quotes from the book “Real Leaders Don’t Use Power Point” to introduce each speaker for the evening.  This not only wove the meeting together, but provided us with valuable information.  Her first quote advised us not to imitate anyone.  Kelly then introduced our truly unique and one of a kind, Cindy Light.   Her talk, “Tea Time with Fisherman Sam,” was from the story telling manual.  Cindy spoke on a very sad time in her life back in 2006 and how she met a ghost that year.  Friends had offered Cindy their California beach front home following her divorce so she could have some quite reflective time to put her life back in order.  It was in that beach house that a fisherman she called Sam all garbed in a yellow slicker, appeared at night in the living room.  Calmly, she put a tea kettle of water on to boil and set two cups on the living room coffee table.  Cindy’s advice to us, “Find your someone to share a cup of tea with and talk until your mind is clear.”

“Great speakers are connection makers.” Kelly quoted as she introduced Ericka Butler who was giving her club icebreaker.  Ericka grew up in Detroit and managed to remove some of that city’s media tarnish by her open affection for Detroit.  She spoke of home memories and issues they debated.  Where was Jimmy Hoffa?  Should Diana Ross have left the Supremes?  Which Detroit Pizza maker was best?  She spoke of the Tigers, the Pistons, even the Lions.  With wonderful humor she spoke of crooked mayors, crime, and jelly filled Polish donuts.  Ericka not only connected us with her core being, but she even left us a bit connected to Detroit!

Following our break, Kelly introduced Rui Li with a quote on being fully committed to the moment, fully there.  In Rui’s speech, “Playing Your Cards Well in Life” she took us back to Berkley and graduate school.  She shared the pressures of being on a fellowship in graduate school, the stress of difficult classes and of setting high levels of achievement for herself.  After graduation, she found herself focusing on the goals she hadn’t achieved and not celebrating what she had actually accomplished.  As with any card game, life deals the cards to you.  Rui concluded that life doesn’t deal you all good cards, but playing the cards well that you have been dealt, will make you happier in the long run.

Steve Cohn stepped in as General Evaluator and provided overall feedback for our meeting.  Our Grammarian, Paul Johnson, appreciated the use of the word ACME.  He picked up on a few grammatical errors along with several offending a’s and ah’s.  As a matter of fact, he concluded, he was the only one whose grammar for the evening was perfect!  Our camera person, Shea Ellison, without a minute of training, operated two cameras and recorded all three of our speakers.  Paul lent a hand in finalizing the disks.  Our timer was also recruited at the door, (RAD if you like acronyms). Wendy-Y Bailey clocked everything down to the second!  The three speakers stayed within their requested times!  Steve commended TM Kelly as she was clearly prepared and did a great job.  The speeches were fabulous and we as a club proved how flexible we are sometimes required to be.  Kelly’s final quote before turning the lectern over to our new president was not to advise speakers to imagine their audience as naked people.

Cindy Cannon asked if anyone was interested in the Evaluation or Humorous Speech Contest.  Paul Johnson expressed an interest in the Humorous contest.  Barbara Morris, our visitor and area governor, had enjoyed sitting in on our meeting and looks forward to visiting again. The sun is out and beaming as our meeting adjourns.

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.

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!

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!

Bill Kovach gave us some presidential remarks and got us going by bringing up the Toastmaster of the day Paul Johnson.

Paul kept thing lively and moving as we enjoyed 3 speeches tonight.

Ericka Butler gave us an ice breaker speech taking us back to her roots in Detroit, Michigan.  She even left us with tips on how  to be Fascinating and Fabulous ™.

Next up Rui Li (or Li Rui if you’re in China) helped us decipher the meaning of Chinese names.  More than meets the eye but not so much as to be incomprehensible.

Cara then rounded out the speaking portion with a presentation on the new Far Infrared Sauna.  Harder to say than a Chinese name but Cara gave us a thorough presentation of its benefits.

Donna Satchell evaluated our meeting in detail. Keith ran camera, Richard Kirby timed, and Shea Ellison noted the intrinsic lack of ums and ahs in our Advanced group.

Kudos to Claudia Brogan for the snacks, Paul for bringing the water, and Richard for bringing the salt n pepper chips.

We voted in Ericka Butler in as a member and we now have 28 members!  Go SRT!

See you in 2 weeks.

-Keith

Dawn Gartin received a unanimous vote for membership recommendation when we vote on her application at our May 3rd. meeting.

Our Toastmaster for the evening set a new precedent at Speakers Roundtable.  Cindy Cannon had created our very first ICEBREAKER NIGHT with three guests delivering their first speeches in this club.  Not only that, she tossed Table Topics at members which eased the pressure on the new presenters.  Steve Cohn spoke on his first public unpaid speech, which actually turned into a song and dance on the playground at grade school.  Steve still has that youthful groove.

Shea Ellison was first up with his icebreaker asking us, “What is your Passion?”  What would we like to do day in and day out and never grow weary?  He shared his search for his true life purpose.  He told how he had wandered and drifted for 25 years, still managing to finish college in four terms, Nixon, Reagan, Carter and Bush.  Shea found his passion in developing his human potential through studying hundreds of books, tapes, and attending symposiums.  His passion grew to what he called the “Tipping Point.”  That’s when he realized it was more about others than about him.  Now his passion is sharing the keys to success and helping others to stay on purpose.  Shea told us there were two great days in our lives; the day we were born, and the day we found our passion.  This was an insightful presentation by a seasoned speaker (DTM).   Cindy presented Shea with a pack of Icebreaker gum.

Cindy’s next Table Topic went to Deborah Hill.  She was invited up to tell us about when she was first paid for public speaking.  We saw a sweet little Brownie going door to door with her sales pitch selling Girl Scout Cookies.

Icebreaker Richard Kirby was next up.  Richard described three aspects of his life.  He’s a careerist, which means he has taken responsibility for the past, present and future direction of his career.  Secondly, he practices careering.  This means having a career plan, then adjusting and changing the plan as necessary.  Finally, he’s an adventurist.  Who do we know that has quit careers in corporate America nine times?  Richard has traveled the gamut of careers.  He has a degree in engineering and worked seven years as an engineer.  He quit because he wanted to work with people and went into Human Resources for three years.  Following that, he went into sales for 15 years.  Richard confesses to being a thrill seeker and an optimist.  He’s now a career coach and realizes that most of us set our goals too low.  Through the words of an Eagles song chorus, he asked us what our career destination was.  This was a very solid and well presented speech.  Give that man a pack of Icebreaker gum, which Cindy did.  We then took an eight minute break.  Baaaaad timer.

Cindy’s next Table Topic went to Wendy Y Bailey.  Wendy Y shared a wonderful speaking blooper.  She was comparing good and bad service and put herself in the wrong category.  Instead of being devastated, she enjoyed a good laugh with her entire audience.

Icebreaker Dawn Gartin introduced herself through the planning of her wedding seven years ago.  She began by giving us all of her on-line names, which included her maiden name.  Then we learned how she loves bargains, close-outs, clearances, and free ~ whee!  Dawn was loaded with energy and excitement.  She wanted a bargain wedding.  She would be wearing her mother’s wedding dress so that was free.  Her sister would be her only attendant, so that shouldn’t be costly.  She wanted her matron’s dress to be uncomplicated, beautiful, inexpensive and plum/purple.  She and her sister shopped their hearts out to no avail.  Then her sister said that one magic word, e-bay!  They keyed in the four dress requirements and low and behold, got one hit!  The dress seemingly met their requirements and was only a whopping $10 plus shipping.  Would size be a problem?   Those of you who missed Dawn’s icebreaker now know better than to ever miss another meeting. Yep, Cindy gave that lady a pack of Icebreaker gum!

Rui Li was our general evaluator for the meeting.  Rich Hart reported on language usage and the use of the word of the evening, quagmire.  Iris Grim recorded all three speeches, detaching the camera and recording the evaluators as well.  Merrilee Morris was the timer for the evening.  Rui reported that Keith, our Sgt at Arms had called her when he found he couldn’t make the meeting.  She was thrilled to find members and guests had the entire room in order for the meeting.  She also complimented evaluators who did not hesitate to present differing opinions.  Cindy Cannon’s ICEBREAKER evening had been a total success.

Visitors and guests were escorted from the meeting room while we discussed the membership applications of Shea Ellison and Richard Kirby.  The members voted both gentlemen into the club.  Members also voted to recommend membership for Dawn Gartin which will be officially voted on May 3, 2010.

Barbara Faison, a previous member of Speakers Roundtable, surprised us with a visit this evening.  She’s looking great, but too busy and far away to do more than just visit for now.  It was wonderful to see you, Barb.

What an overflowing evening of Toastmastering!