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

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

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.

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

April 15, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

We had a remarkably fun evening tonight, with 9 members present.

Our SAA Keith Schroeder welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to the flag. Our president Pat Schmalzried greeted us, then introduced Paul Johnson, our Toastmaster. All of our appointees showed, except one speaker. Our cast of characters included:
GE: Rui Li
GR: Pat Schmalzried
Timer: Kelly Vandever
Camera Person: Paul Poodt
Back-up GE: Dave Flach (you had to be there)

Our speakers:

Deb Hill spoke on information from her new book, Unlimited Life, due out in May. She told us how to create our dream life by transmuting our limiting beliefs. She also spoke to us about a common limiting belief and the cure: Living the objective life in the neutral zone.

Keith Schroder entertained us and taught us a fun way to get to know a stranger, in his speech: The Cube. Yes, you too can be characterized by how you visualize your cube on the desert horizon.

To fill in the time, Dave Flach led us in a speakers round-robin. Our job: Tell a story that involves these eight words, places and people: Chile, rain, mudslide, ukulele, Washington monument, tricycle, speedo, and Homer Simpson. Kelly gave us 2 minutes each. Each of the eight speakers continued a story using one of the words from the list. And, what fun we had. We are a VERY clever and funny group. Not to mention great speakers. Fortunately in the end Homer called Waldo (300#, tricycle riding, speedo wearing hero) who saved Paul from the Chilean embassy, pulled the bus out of the mudslide, (did we ever get to see the Wash. Monument?) and got us all safely home.

We ate cheese crackers during our 10 minute, jovial break.

New business: We’re all paid up!!!
Please bring a guest to the next two meetings. Pat is encouraging us to bring ‘em in as we need some new members.

Paul ran an easy going, yet orderly and timely meeting. We started a little late and ended on time.

See you in three weeks. Merrilee will be filling in for me.

My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

April 11, 2008 by Keith Schroder.

Hi Toastmasters,

I’m composing from my treo so please bear with my abbrevs. At the very
least ul get on board with the latest txting jargon out there. (see C.
Brogan for more on this!)

Mtg started on time courtesy of our awesme TM Vicki! Througout the meeting
she dazzled us with intrstg tidbits bout being first born, mddle, youngest
or only child.

Rui had us rolling in the aisles with her funny speech about softball.

Iris dazzled us with powerful information regarding leadership parallels bw
pple and dogs.

Donna had us getting serious while being seriously enthralled with her
speech. She is competing in contest with it and we wish her the best!

We had a guest Gong who did not speak much English. Since 85 percent of
communication is non verbal I know he had a grand time. Well I’m 85
percent sure.

The Club is a benefit to you. It a resource to help u grow in ways u
otherwise would not. The way I see it the club is a plant. A marvelous
plant to provide u with sustinence for your personal and profssnl growth.
The club like a plant needs to be watered. Ur attendance is the water for
this marvelous plant. If u want to pull fruit from the plant when ur
hungry but don’t water it enough, soon there will be no fruit. Plus the
more we water this plant the more it thrives! I look forward to seeing u
all at our next plant watering session on Monday!

Sincerely,

Keith Schroder
HorizonDJ
678.592.0285
www.HorizonDJ.com

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

April 2, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

We had a full evening of powerful speeches tonight, with 11 members and 1 guest present.

Our SAA Keith Schroder welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to the flag. Our president Pat Schmalzried greeted us, then introduced Deborah Hill, our Toastmaster. All of the following roles were fill-ins, especially when one person no-showed.
GE: Dave Flach
GR: Kelly Vandever
Timer: Bill Hosken
Camera Person: Paul Johnson

Our speakers:
Keith Schroder gave a fun and fascinating speech about the differences in how men and women communicate. Notice how we sit when we communicate. His speech was entitled, “Men, Women and the NY Knicks.”

Claudia Brogan eloquently showed us how to take advantage of life’s lessons in her speech: “Life is the School, I-85 is the teacher.” She taught us 6 important lessons that can be learned on the freeway.

Cindy Light gave her farewell speech tonight. She’s moving to Sausalito, CA next week. We’ll miss her. Cindy gave a fascinating speech on information from her upcoming book. Her speech was titled “The Secret Inside the Chinese Box.” She gave us tips on understanding the Chinese culture and how to relate appropriately to Chinese people in business situations.

A variety of yummy, healthy foods was presented during our 5 minute break.

Once I receive Antoinette’s check we’ll be finished with this round of dues. We now have 19 active and 3 inactive members. Our kitty is full and we’re humming along.

Our meeting started 3 minutes late (sorry) and ended on time (Yes!).

See you in two weeks. I need a volunteer to take minutes next week, please.

My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

March 28, 2008 by Claudia Brogan.

Folks:
Remember the children’s fable where the character ’spun gold out of straw’? That’s a little what it felt like at our SRT meeting on Monday March 24.

Or, put another way……we were small (in number) …but we were mighty!

I stepped in at the last minute when we realized that there was no substitute Mtg TM confirmed, and I was glad to do so. Every person in the room was put to work fruitfully — if not a speaker, folks were asked to serve to either complete a manual written speech evaluation, or to serve as TR, CP or GE. We had two great speeches and a good round of spontaneous Table Topics. Seven members attended, all with something to do. Here’s how it unfolded:

After setting up the room with a bounty of Easter refreshments & some beautiful fresh strawberries from M.M., we were ready to start. I led the Pledge of Allegiance, and President Pat Schmalzreid offered her welcome and opened the meeting. Then we listened to Merrilee outline for us the great benefits of Daydreaming. Rather that wasteful ‘wool-gathering,’ this practice (as she reminded us) can lead to our dreaming up solutions to problems that stump us, can help greatly with stress relief, and can motivate us to make changes and improvements in our situations. She also talked about the power of being able to ‘imagine completing a project successfully’ with a mental rehearsal and reminded us that daydreaming can help us keep loved ones near. Whether we imagine and reflect on things in our past, or things that have not yet happened, daydreaming is not a habit to scold children to avoid, but actually is good for any of us, any age, any stage.

Our second speaker was Pat, conducting an assignment from an Advanced Manual on “Giving a Toast.” She used this time to practice a wedding toast she’ll be giving in a couple months at former-SRT member Lisa Verhoff’s wedding in the Virgin Islands. Complete with our raising our plastic champagne glasses of Ginger Ale, Pat demonstrated a good balance of sharing affectionate stories about the bride & groom with also giving a sincere, hearty wish for the couple’s best happiness and long lives together.

After a break of Easter goodies and bright red strawberries, we reconvened to conduct a spontaneous round of Table Topics, since speaker #3 was delayed up in Kennesaw for a work project. Our attendees rose to the occasion and hailed this new practice of ours, to insert TT when possible.

We adjourned two minutes early, after our time together of ’spinning gold out of straw.’ We’ll see you next time!

BONUS NEWS: Had you heard this scoop yet? Our own Kelly Vandever won the Division G event of the International Speech contest, held on March 22, and will now advance to the May 3 District Contest. She used that speech she’d presented to us (colloquially titled ‘that one where the arm lifts up’) on Visualization and Positive Beliefs. Congrats, Kelly… good luck ahead.

~~Respectfully submitted,
Claudia B

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

March 11, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

We had a full evening of delightful speeches tonight, and your secretary was late and missed 2 of them. However, that being said I’ll tell you what I know. We had 11 members and 2 guests. We used the room adjoining the parlor and loved it.

Our SAA Keith Schroder welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to the flag.
Paul Johnson was our acting President and welcomed members and guests, then introduced Merrilee Morris, our Toastmaster. Merrilee kept us entertained with “Guess What?” facts – fascinating tidbits about many things including snowflakes.
GE: Donna Satchell
GR: Kelly Vandever
Timer: We had two tonight (!) Jon Swartz and Iris Grimm
Camera Person: Paul Johnson

Our speakers:
Dr. Rui Li gave a persuasive speech on “China, a Threatening Lion to the United States.”

Keith Schroder gave a delightful speech on Mother Goose, fairy tales and networking.

We had two impromptu speeches, as well.
Bill Hosken spoke on “I’ll Never Visit a GA Ghost Town Again!”
Jon Swartz entertained us with “The Doomsday Rock (Asteroid) Is Out There! What’s the Plan?”

We had lots of cookies during our 8 minute break.

Dues are still due for some of you. You will receive calls this week to see if you’re still interested in joining.

BTW, it is our policy that you can become an inactive member if you need to take a break. However, Toastmasters International requires that you continue to pay dues to maintain your Toastmasters membership. Therefore, we’ll still need your $51 from inactive members. Right now we only have 15 dues paying members.

We started on time and ended on time.

See you next week.

My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

March 8, 2008 by Vicki Willard.

Monday’s meeting was a super treat for lucky attendees!

Claudia presided over a very entertaining meeting that included 5 speakers. Yes… I did say FIVE speakers.

Iris led the evening’s talent with a discussion of “Impromptu Speaking.” Her topic generated much discussion and resulted in a ground swell of interest in adopting new options for our club.

More to come on this in a moment.

Kelly offered us valuable insights into self talk… don’t we all do it. She gave us great food for thought.

After the break we reconvened to put into practice Iris’s suggestions for doing impromptu speaking. Claudia offered each of 3 volunteers 2 topics. Volunteers then spoke 5 minutes on the topic of their choice. There was tons of laughter and creativity.

Everyone agreed that “extended impromptu speeches” were a component that we wanted to add to our meeting agendas.

We all agreed that while we were not particularly interested in 1 or 2 minute table topics, extended impromptu speaking (5 or more minutes) would offer members a new and challenging way to improve their speaking and organizational skills.

Ways to include this option included making one night each month or each quarter strictly impromptu speaking. All roles and speakers would be drawn from a hat after the Presidents welcome remarks.

Speakers could choose from a list of broad topics rather than a specific question. Examples of broad topics might include… current events, politics, religion, personal events, and any other topics of interest that the group chooses to include.

As the TM, GE, TR, GR, and CP explained their roles the speakers could use that time to make a few notes, should they so choose, to organize their thoughts.

The challenge for the speakers would be to deliver a well constructed speech and avoid rambling.

There are any number of ways we can choose to incorporate this new option. Think about it and be ready to offer your input in upcoming meetings.

We had 2 guests each of whom enjoyed our thoroughly entertaining meeting.

Every Monday offers new opportunities for growth and enjoyment! Don’t miss out!!

Be There or Be Square!!!!

Vicki

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

February 26, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

We had a full evening of delightful speeches tonight, with 10 members and 2 guests. We used the room adjoining the parlor, and decided that we preferred it. We are paying for the use of either or both rooms. We decided to try this one out for awhile and move back, if we so chose.

Our SAA Keith Schroder welcomed us and helped us pledge our allegiance to the flag. He also informed us that we can read about him on page 71 of the March Cosmopolitan magazine (a star!). He disclaims all allegations, but thought we’d have fun with it.
Our president Pat Schmalzried welcomed our Area Governor, Stacey Woods and our other guest, then introduced Kelly Vandever, our Toastmaster.
GE: Deborah Hill
GR: Mike Himelstein
Timer: Claudia Brogan
Camera Person: Keith Schroder

Our speakers:
Paul Johnson enlightened us with enlightening information on speech introductions. He took the Better Speakers Manual speech several levels up with excellent tips and truths about introductions and biographies.

Rui Li had us laughing with delight. We heard the story of Debbie and Jack as it would be told at an after wedding dinner party. We also learned about the Chinese custom of burying wine for a newborn baby girl’s wedding.

Vicki Willard did an exciting job of showing us how the media can mess with our heads. She used an example of a newspaper article to exemplify how we are swayed by the media. We are now well informed and ready for the upcoming media deluge.

Yummy food was present during our 8 minute break.

Dues are still due for some of you. Please give $51 checks to Deborah Hill. Make checks out to “Speakers Roundtable.” BTW, it is our policy that you can become an inactive member if you need to take a break. However, Toastmasters International requires that you continue to pay dues to maintain your Toastmasters membership.

We started on time and ended a few minutes late. Three of our officers were trained by our Area Governor (so we’re still in the running for a distinguished club).

See you in two weeks. Vicki Willard will be taking minutes next week.

My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »

February 21, 2008 by Deborah.

Hello Fellow Speakers,

It was an intimate setting tonight as we graciously and humbly accommodated the memorial service at the church. We met in a quaint room across the hall, which served the 9 members well. All roles except Toastmaster and GE were filled on site, though the Grammarian did let us know she would not be there.

Our president Pat Schmalzried acted as our SAA, as well and we pledged our allegiance. Dave Flach was our Toastmaster, who kept us moving along smoothly after our 15 minute opening delay. The minute of silent condolence for the Minister’s wife was thoughtful. We also admired his new agenda format, and he’ll be sending the template in another email for us.
GE: Iris Grimm
GR: Merrilee Morris
Timer: Bill Hosken
Camera Person: Iris Grimm

Our speakers:
Bill Kovach showed us that you can speak quietly in a small room and project boisterously with variety and enthusiasm. He gave a very entertaining talk about the importance of service. This will be an introduction to a longer speech that he’ll present and we all agree it will be well received.

Donna Satchell informed us that we only have 19 days until “Get Over It Day.” We’re all very excited after her entertaining and high-spirited informational speech on why and how to let go of the past (especially the negative parts). Her use of audience participation and handout was very innovative. I may need a larger piece of paper, though.

Deborah Hill gave a Speakers Roundtable variation on the Better Speakers Series speech about how to give a beneficial evaluation. She then opened up the floor and we heard some other great suggestions about ways to evaluate well. Deborah attained her ATM-Silver tonight. Important and valuable tips to remember from the manual and our group are included in an attached PDF.

We had a short break with cookies and candy (thanks, Pat).

Bill Hosken is organizing a group to follow-up on attendance and make calls to members. He needs another volunteer.

We started 15 minutes late and ended only 5 minutes late.

See you next week.

My Best,
Deborah Hill
Secretary

Posted in News | Print | No Comments »