The following are assigned to speak:

1. Cindy Cannon
2. Paul Johnson
3. Keith Schroeder

GE is Iris Grim

• GR is Steve Cohn
• TR is Cindy Light
• CP is OPEN

Please verify your roles with Donna.

Well, sort of.  Our meeting was more the high-spirited, energetic and playful Lion, than the roaring dominating Lion of legend.  After Keith Schroder’s upbeat call to order, Steve Cohn briefly welcomed ten repeat visitors.  Then it was Rui Li to the helm as Toast Master for the evening.  Rui’s theme was “Management of Negativity,” based on a Saturday night presentation given by our own, Jon Schwartz.  She teased us with the three F’s needed to manage negativity.

General Evaluator for the evening was Steve Cohn.  Grammarian Paul Johnson introduced the word of the evening, EQUIPOISE and challenged folks to use it in a sentence right than and there.  Three folks did.  Keith served as both our timer and our camera person.

Enthusiastic and high-spirited Cindy Light came to the lectern with her speech, “Looking Great as Your Resume. Her purpose was to motivate.  She had two wrapped boxes, one beautifully wrapped and the other rather haphazardly taped up with whatever was on hand.  Unbelievable as it seems, folks make snap judgments about you in 20 seconds.  You take longer to decide on a book purchase.  Cindy gave us five signature tips for looking as great as the contents of our resume.  Her wardrobe comments were insightful.   Clothes show passion.  Fit in ~ standout.  Life is today!  Cindy was an articulate fashion plate herself and if her speech works in reverse, she has one outstanding resume.  Cindy presented a lot of useful information not only for those in the job market, but for establishing our own uniqueness in everyday living.  Life is today!

Rui’s first F for managing negativity was FUN, so our next speech fit right in.  “I’m Waiting for That Call” by Merrilee Morris was next on the agenda.  She chose to do an icebreaker with a bit of humor.  Merrilee confessed that she has been faithfully waiting for a call to appear on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion Show.  She presented her resume of life events and speaking experiences, pausing between her litany of Toast Master speeches, Red Cross Training Sessions, Air Disaster training session, Women’s club talks, and children’s holiday party story telling, to pick up the phone and moon for that call from Garrison (Keillor).   She told us that she wasn’t getting any younger and that if any of us knew anyone at NPR’s Prairie Home Companion, to please mention her name to them.  If speaking wasn’t enough, she said, she could also dance the schottische, make great lefsa, and crochet doilies.  How we prayed the phone would ring for her!

Rui delivered the second F, FOCUS, before we took a five minute break.  It is nice to not only see our repeat visitors at each meeting, but to know many of them by face and name.

Toastmaster Rui had listed two table topics on our agenda.  Two of our guests volunteered to speak.  Wendy Y. Bailey spoke on “If you were Tiger Wood’s publicist, what would you say to his fans.”  Patricia Stalworth’s topic was “The next breakthrough of technology after Internet will be…”  Both did entertaining and fun off-the-cuff speeches.

FERVOR was Rui’s final F for the evening.  It was evident due to the fun we had this evening, the focus on giving great feed back, and the fervor with which we approach speaking that there was not a shred of negativity at this club meeting!

Steve’s evaluation team did a thorough and enjoyable job.  Paul was so enamored with his word of the day that he felt it should be re-used by a member with dual club membership.  He found many unique turns of phrases and felt that tonight was the first time the word doily had ever been used in a Toastmaster Meeting.  Timer Keith reported the speaking and evaluation times and then commented on his second role as camera person.  Our club tri-pod is capable of mounting some personal cameras.  He suggested that if you have a digital camera with a tri-pod mount on the base and would like to record your speeches with your own camera, bring it.  Steve encouraged more members to take part in the verbal evaluations.  We all become better speakers the more evaluations we give.

Steve donned his acting president hat and asked the non-members to adjourn to the hall.  We then briefly discussed reinstating the membership of Wendy Y. Bailey.  Members unanimously welcomed her back.

Come to think of it, maybe tonight’s meeting did ROAR a little!

From Pole Dancing, to German punctuality, to recharging one’s introverted self, our evening’s speeches ran the gamut.  It was a fun and knowledge filled evening from the moment Keith Schroder gaveled it to order.  Keith shared one more helpful organization hint; use your cell phone camera to capture information on a white board when you don’t have time to hand copy it all.  Then you can even e-mail it to your computer at home or enlarge and read it on your phone screen.

President Bill Kovach welcomed our guests and asked each of them to introduce themselves.  Counting Oscar Hofer and Mike Himmelstein, eleven guests were present. Eleven club members were also in attendance.  Bill introduced our Toast Master for the evening, Cindy Cannon, who crisply and smoothly guided us with the theme, Mission Statements.

Dr. Cara Iovina was first up for the evening with her speech, “Pole Dance ~ Not Just for Strippers.”  She immediately had our undivided attention.  Cara has started her own pole dancing studio call “Hot Moves,” in conjunction with her wellness center.  Pole dancing helps a woman achieve fitness, develop self confidence and empowerment, have fun, and find her own sexiness.  In her speech, Cara answered questions posed by friend regarding pole dancing and her responses to him which pretty much answered the questions that were popping into our minds as we listened.  There is even competitive pole dancing and an International Champion.  Though soft-spoken and not preachy, there is a sincerity and directness in Cara’s delivery that allows her to convey her intense belief in wellness and overall fitness which includes “Hot Moves ~ Pole Dancing!

Cindy next introduced Iris Grimm via her mission statement, “Leading a life well lived.”  The title of Iris’s speech was “Purpose of Waiting.”  She immediately introduced us to the German stereotype of punctuality. Germans do not arrive early or late, but at the exact appointed time.  Their second goal is to waste the least amount of time waiting.  Her self-talk traveling to the airport, waiting at a red light, panicking,  her rush, rush, rush and wait, wait, wait, had us all thinking, been there, done that.  However, Iris found herself in the Chicago Airport with over an hour to spare.  That left her disgruntled.  Even more disgruntled when a shoe fell out of a stroller a woman was pushing and though Iris picked it up and returned it to the mother, the woman never acknowledged or thanked her.  Later, she had an opportunity to observe this family with a sick child in a stroller, burning with fever and fed through a stomach tube.  There’s a moral to this rush-rush story that has to do with finding a new purpose in waiting.  Iris did a soulful job of telling us not to rush, that it is okay wait and reflect, that it’s okay to be late.

Our five minute break ran 4 ½ minutes late.  The food consisted of grapes, mixed nuts, and wrapped chocolates.  Toastmaster Cindy nudged everyone into place and introduced our third speaker, Bob Goodyear.  Bob has visited our club the required number of times and was invited to give his ice-breaker speech this evening.  Bob is a quiet, sort of fade-into-the-wallpaper type person, so his speech, “Introducing a Geek Who Speaks” came as a wild and welcome surprise!  First came his characterization of Mrs. Kirby his ancient 7^th grade Social Studies teacher.  Her assignment was to write 2 ½ pages on what kind of job he wanted when he got out of school.   Bob took us to the library on a whirl wind tour through 40 books seeking career opportunities for an introvert.  We felt his joy when he discovered computer programmer, though he had no idea what a computer was!  He did warn us though, that when we see him sitting quietly in the back of the room, he is simply recharging!  Bob blew away my definition of an introvert!

General Evaluator Rui Li called for reports from her team.  All three speakers had been recorded by Keith Schroder.  Bill Kovach reported that the speakers stayed within their requested times.  Only one evaluation exceeded the allotted six minutes.  Kelly Vandever totally approved of this evening’s use of the English language.  Rui Li, in summary, liked the wide variety of subjects covered by the speeches.  She commented on the great strength of the club evaluations.  Cindy closed the program with a final mission statement.  Bill thanked Cindy for a well conducted evening.

Our visitors liked the great feedback speakers get through the evaluations, the high energy in the club, and the great diversity.  From Hot Moves, to waiting, to recharging, our speakers richly filled our evening.

1. Cara Iovino
2. Iris Grimm
3. Bob Goodyear (Ice Breaker)
4. Alternate Speaker is Cindy Light

General Evaluation Team is headed by GE Rui Li

1. Mark Parham-Camera Person
2. Jon Schwartz-Timer
3. Rich Hart- Grammarian

Speakers, please confirm and provide Cindy with your speech information.  Evaluation team, please confirm your attendance with Cindy.

If you are unable to fill your club role as scheduled, please find a member to take over you task.

Looks like we are in for another dynamite meeting this month!

“The Visual Scope of Personal Marketing” was our first speech of the evening.  Rich Hart used his 6-8 minutes to tell us how to market ourselves.  He did this using the acronym SCOPE, which he wrote in swooping, huge letters on the white board.  Rich encouraged us to find our S which was specialization.  We needed to identify our skills and talents in order to market them.  C was to market ourselves with Creativity.  Originality is marketing what somebody else is not doing that you can do.  Personality includes a happy outlook on life.   He finished the acronym with Elasticity, the ability to be very flexible.  SCOPE.  Rich’s speech was polished, the acronym a memorable personal marketing tool, and shouting LIAR at us a couple of times was even a neat and memorable learning tool.  Thanks for some great self-marketing tips, Rich.

Clean your car, don’t drive around submerged in fast food papers and empty water bottles.  Yes, that’s the organization tip Toastmaster Keith suggested   as he prepared to introduce our second speaker, Kelly Vandever.  Kelly had been in touch with members most of the week reminding us to bring our lap tops, Blackberries, and wireless something or other.  Her speech, “The Twitter Backchannel:  A Presenter’s New Best Friend” already had everyone’s interest!  Kelly told us what she was going to tell us, she defined her terms such as “Hashtag”, Twitter stream, twitter up to 140 characters, and she even said it was ok to tweet during a presentation.  Our time is precious and Tweet chat offers feedback before, during and after a presentation.  Kelly and her helper role played, collected audience tweet chat, flashed friendly power points images on the screen and literally loaded us with great information.  Kelly has a very positive approach toward using what could be a disruptive tool as something helpful and informative for both the presenter and the attendee.  Kelly, you are leading edge!

Following a brief break packed with conversation, we settled back in our seats to hear, “Call the Exterminator ~ I got ANTS!”  Bill Kovach explained that our brains are much like computers with all sorts of information filed away.  Similar to a computer, we have Left and Right drives in the brain.  He introduced us to the Reticular Activation System (RAS) which acts as a spam filter for our thoughts.  The example Bill used was, “I’m going to quite smoking.”  The RAS filter in your brain immediately sends that thought to the spam file.  He then introduced us to ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts) which pop out of their files and say, “You are too stressed to quit smoking.”  “You’ll gain weight if you don’t smoke.”  “You need to smoke to relax.” Bill listed several of the nine types of ANTS.  His advice was to talk to these ANTS, to take the power away from these negative thoughts.  It is important to gain control if you are to stop these negative thoughts from controlling you.  Basically, you have to push the delete button on the old programs controlling your life.  This is both a great personal tool and coaching tool.  Good information, Bill

It was wrap-up time for the speeches and on to the General Evaluation of the meeting, led by GE Claudia Brogan.  Rui Li handled the digital recordings for the evening.  Mark Parham reported that one speaker had exceeded their requested time.  Steve Cohn did a thorough job as grammarian.  Claudia summarized the meeting as full of excellent interaction and a bounty of good vibes.  Folks who had made the effort to attend Speakers Roundtable this evening had found their efforts well rewarded.

President Bill Kovach asked our guests to comment on the meeting.  All 13 of them praised the camaraderie and friendliness of the members, the in-depth evaluations, the knowledge gained, and the business-like conduct of the meeting.  A special thanks to guest Oscar Hofer and the favorable press he gives our club.  He brought two guests to the meeting tonight.  Thanks, Keith, thanks, speakers, thanks Claudia, thanks evaluation team. There’ll be no ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts) about this meeting!

• Toastmaster:  Keith Schroder
• Speakers:
  
  1. Bill Kovach (for Iris Grimm)
  2. Rich Hart
  3. Kelly Vandever
  4. Alternate Speaker:  Dwayne Smith

• General Evaluator:  Vicki Willard

1. Grammarian:  OPEN
2. Timer:  Mark Parham
3. Camera:  Cara Iovino

Please respond to TM  Keith Schroder with the necessary program information.

First up to speak on the topic, “Wear a Suit that Suits You” was our dapper Paul Johnson.  He was in fine form in his worsted wool pin-stripped suit, white shirt, and eye grabbing tie of rose and red tones.  Paul showed us his tattered paperback book of “Dress for Success.”  Women in the audience perked up when he stated how clueless men are about fashion and shopping.  Paul took us on a tour of his suit including fabric (100% worsted wool is best and breathes) and construction, (making sure pin-stripes match); to proper fit, such as buttoning a suit coat nicely over a Twinkie waist and the correct sleeve length; and lastly, other considerations, items such as perspiration pit pads and collar roll.  Thanks to Paul, we all, men and women alike, are vastly more confident and competent in men’s suit shopping.  Thanks for an informative, useful, and fun speech, Paul.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.  (MLK)

Keith Schroder, also a fashion plate in his black jacket with electric blue and white embroidery and his matching spiked hair with blue hue, took us on a whirl-wind tour in his speech, “Go to Google.” His object was to tell a compelling story and that’s exactly what he did, and then some!  Keith visited his brother Tom in California and was able to visit and tour where his brother works, GOOGLE.  It was an awesome experience for all of us to hear about the non-cafeteria, the non-signing in and out, the beach volley ball courts in the quad, the non-employee badges, and the corporations total trust in employee judgment.  The Google work environment sounded like something from another dimension, definitely other worldly.  For now, we only have Keith’s word for it.  I think SRT should adopt his brother Tom and take our own fact-finding field trip to GOOGLE.  Until then, a wonderfully compelling story, Keith!

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  (MLK)

Following an eight minute break, it was Table Topics time.  Four members and two guests reflected on the quotes they were given.  Their responses brought added enrichment to our meeting and to the MLK Holiday.  Thank you Iris, Bob, Claudia, Cindy, Baerbel, and Kelly!

General Evaluator Iris Grim called on her crew for their reports.  Both speakers stayed within their allotted time to avoid having Cindy Light sing with the red timer card as she had threatened to do.  Cindy Cannon provided a very thorough, but not brutal grammarian’s report.  She has a sharp ear for all the ands, double clutches and our shameless use of filler words.  Well done.  Iris summarized the meeting as punctual, well run, with each of us gaining knowledge for having attended.

Acting President, Claudia Brogan reminded officers of the TLI training sessions coming up yet this month.  Kelly Vandever, who is speaking February 1, will be sending out an e-mail for members to bring their hand-held and laptop computers.  It’s something about Twitter Back Channel so be sure to watch for her e-mail.  Oh yes, to a person, our five guests found the meeting informative, worthwhile, and fun. For that matter, so did I, your Toastmaster for the evening.

General Evaluator is Iris Grim.  Your crew consists of Steve Cohn, Grammarian; Cindy Light, Timer; and Paul Poodt as Camera Person.

Toastmaster for the evening is Merrilee Morris.

We start at 6:00 sharp in Building E at 5775 Glenridge Rd.

Donna Satchell took the helm as Toast Master January 4, 2010 and set the tone and quality of Speakers Roundtable for the New Year.  With quiet confidence and a strong but gentle hand, she not only guided the meeting, but had us reflecting on the past year as well as focusing on the New Year before us.  What was your greatest accomplishment this year? (Personal, business, and as a Toastmaster.)

First up was Mark Parham with his speech entitled “Getting Those ‘People Issue’ Conflicts Off Your Desk.”  Mark’s goal was to provide specific tools for leaders to build better work environments.  Leaders have a hard job creating a work environment where people work in harmony while achieving their company goals.  Mark listed six qualities a leader should measure and reward.  He focused on the first quality measurement which was Feedback.  Feedback included receiving, giving and responding.  Mark paused midway and checked with the audience for questions and responded to a couple, mainly regarding measurement and incentives.  We were then introduced to Bob “The Jerk” and learned the pitfalls for a leader with a Bob in his department.  (Non-Bobs can grow to be like Bob.)  We look forward to Mark  elaborating on the remaining five measurements and their impact on achieving company goals in his future club speeches.  Well done, Mark.

What, in 2009, turned out differently than you had planned? We took a six minute break at a table all too loaded with sweets.  No doubt we must have been dumping our pantries of all these goodies to facilitate our dieting resolutions.

What incident(s) made you laugh very hard this past year? Wouldn’t you know, next up was Merrilee Morris with her desultory, inane speech, “Old Medicare Me.”  She took us on a joy ride through old age and the fact that physicians don’t like to care for old folks, don’t want to care for the elderly, aren’t trained to care for Old Crocks, and believe it or not, Gerontologists are pathetically under paid, even less than Proctologists.  She elaborated on each point, even gave the audience folded strips of paper with common treatable but non-curable diseases of the elderly.   She then handed out additional diseases to go with the ones they had since 30% of seniors have two or more of the five conditions.  We now know about and understand retangularization of our population and the burgeoning senior population.  Right?  As one evaluator put it, “You lightened up the doom!”

Donna turned the meeting over to our General Evaluator, Cindy Cannon.  Timer Rich Hart was devastated at not getting to exercise his full authority by flashing the red card.  Grammarian Keith Schroeder found a few ah’s and um’s, but nothing serious once we warmed up.  Cindy Cannon felt the meeting was well on target for an advanced club.

What will you do differently this year? Toastmaster Donna turned the meeting over to our President, Bill Kovach.  Bill called on our six guests to stand and let us know what they thought of the meeting.  Our Sgt at Arms, Keith, then escorted the visitors and membership applicant into the hall so the club could vote on the membership of Cindy Light.  Cindy was welcomed back into the club.

We packed up and took our sweets back home to our cupboards and will start our diets on a later date.  Thanks for the great Toast Mastering, Donna!  Happy New Year to us all!

Cindy is also an Inspirational Speaker and published author sharing her incredible story of how she lived through and conquered 15 surgeries, a very real near death experience, an extremely painful rare chronic disease and still achieved an awarded elite status as a nationally recognized top recruiter.

Today, Cindy is a graduate of the Bill Gove Speaking school and a sought after speaker in the non-profit, public and private sectors.

Cindy is the Immediate past District 14 Governor for the State of GA for Toastmasters International where she led over 4,800 members and 270 clubs to being #4 in the world and #1 in North America. Cindy has reached the highest achievement that Toastmasters International offers, a Distinguished Toastmaster.

Cindy’s entire purpose in life is to share with you her belief you can do anything that you want to do no matter the circumstances. You just need to know how.

Please visit www.gmgweb.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cindycannon to learn more