Thursday, October 21, 2010

Our Guests

Hello Toastmasters Family!

          First of all, thank you to all guests who came to visit our Club. It was great to have you and we all look forward to seeing you again and helping you achieve your public speaking goals.

We had 13 members in attendance and 7 guests, including some who came for their second visit. Nancy Hogg was Toastmaster of the evening. John Harman was General Evaluator.

          Magda Brugos presented a brief report from Dr.John Maxwell's book, "25 Ways to Win with People".  Way # 2: Practice the 30 second rule. Within the first 30 seconds of conversation, say something encouraging to a person. "Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle'". People need a good word, a compliment, or encouragement. It takes little effort but lifts people up and energizes them.

          Christy Gardner was the first speaker of the evening. Her speech, "In the Spirit of Halloween", came from the Entertaining Speaker Manual. Tim Tonkovic was Christy's evaluator.   Christy spoke of her love of haunted houses. As a little girl, she loved them during the Halloween season. As a mother and a wife, she gets to experience a "haunted house" on a daily basis. Christy spoke of changes that came with marriage and children, and how her once-perfect house became a place of organized chaos. Things got lost or misplaced; furniture moved, piles of stuff appeared in random places. Her sparsely decorated town house was now filled with collections of comic books, video games and toys. Over time, Christy learned how to accept the fact that she can't have control over everything and she has now grown to love the noise and the mess that came with a husband and two little children. 

          Danita Fox was the second speaker. Danita was evaluated by Linda Williams. Danita's speech came from the Specialty Speech Manual and her objective was to convince the audience to buy a product. Danita began her presentation with a sales pitch in which she was sellling a revolutionary water bottle. She soon transitioned to her main sales presentation where she was promoting her fictional firm, Fox Consulting. We learned that Fox Consulting offers extensive training, developing and coaching program which will help any company reach its goals and increase employee productivity.
          Juan Martinez was Table Topics Master. Table Topics participants were asked a series of Halloween-themed questions. 

          Danita Fox, in her official role of Area Governor, reminded us that Toastmasters is of excellent value but only if we practice, participate and attend. It is the best program in which we can improve our public speaking and communication skills.

Ribbon Winners: 

Tim Tonkovic - Best Evaluator

Judy Anderson - Best Table Topics Speaker

Christy Gardner - Best Speaker

Congratulations, winners!

Notes:

Next meeting is November 4

Christmas Party is on December 16. We will exchange gifts and fellowship. Please invite a friend.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Hello Toastmasters and Guests!

The following update has been provided by our VP Membership, Christy Gardner, who kindly agreed to temporarily take on the duties of Secretary. Thanks, Christy!

"It was a great meeting with about 20 people present, including 3 guests - Rita Essick, Karen Essick, and Angela Fox. Although this was her first time at an Oyster Point Speakers Club Toastmasters meeting, when Toastmaster Adam Gold asked Ms. Rita Essick if she would be so kind as to provide a Word of the Day, she quickly used her Smart phone and came up with "fossick", a verb which means to hunt or seek out. Several speakers used the Word of the Day during the meeting.

We had three wonderful speeches. Victor Lopez gave his Icebreaker speech and we learned many different things about him, such as he has volunteered at a hospital and at a local radio station, he was a cop, he is an optimist, and he is an actor. Cristina Stoia gave her 2nd speech, which started off asking the audience whether they would rather go back in time and feast with the Romans or go into the future where our food might be served up in a pill. She then told us about the customs of Romans when they prepared for and enjoyed a feast. Our 3rd speech came from Mr. John Harman, DTM, who spoke about traveling with Mr. Jerry Keast, our District Governor, to various Toastmasters events. The audience voted John Harman the best speaker of the evening.

Lois Boyle was our Table Topics Master and she asked various questions of the Table Topics participants - Stan Dalziel, Linda Williams, Christy Gardner, and Sandy Peterson. Participants had to talk about topics such as raising money for a nudist colony, saving the woody woodpeckers, why I live in a swamp, and why I live in a treehouse. The audience voted for Linda Williams as the best Table Topics participant.

The three evaluators did a great job providing positive feedback to the speakers. Nancy Hogg evaluated Victor Lopez's speech; Matt Phillips evaluated Christina Stoia's speech, and Rick Boyer evaluated John Harman's speech. The audience voted Rick Boyer as the best evaluator of the evening.

Our Club President, Stan Dalziel, closed out the meeting by giving out the awards, inviting our guests to speak, and informing us of some changes to future meetings. These changes include combining the Grammarian and Ah Counter into one role, discontinuing the role of Humorist, increasing the time allotted for Table Topics, and creating a new role - "Professional Tip of the Day" which will be kicked off by Magda Brugos. "

 
PHOTOS:  http://www.radiantharvest.com/TM/photos/
 
See you next time!
Magda Brugos
OPS Club Secretary