5th Thursday Special Event: Networking Workshop

Last night, Toastmaster Lauren White led us in a fantastic special event: a networking workshop!

The workshop featured presentations on constructing elevator pitches (Sumit Aurora), building your network (Rick Boyer), and tips for how your everyday Facebook activity can be used to create your personal brand (Zach Fauver).

By the end of the meeting, guests and members had a toolkit of ideas as well as a first draft of their own personal elevator pitch they can use when introducing themselves to new contacts.

Unlike our regular meetings, 5th Thursday Special Events are meant to provide additional professional development opportunities to members, and yesterday's event did not disappoint!

Important Announcements

• LOCATION CHANGE - Next week (February 7) we'll be meeting at El Tapatio (615 Thimble Shoals Blvd, Newport News, VA 23606). As always, we'll be starting our meeting at 6:45p.m. 
• ADVANCED TRAINING - Officers' Training will be on February 9 (Saturday) at the ODU Peninsula Workforce Development Center. Training covers important leadership skills, such as delegation and organization, and is open to any Toastmasters Member. You can find directions to the Workforce Development Center here:http://www.napmseva.org/directions_odu_hampton.htm
• CLUB CONTESTS - On February 21, our 3rd Thursday meeting, we'll be having our club speech and table topics contests. Guests are welcome, and location is TBD.
• NEW MEMBER FEE STARTS IN APRIL - Oyster Point Speakers voted to start including a one-time new member fee to cover the costs of giving all new members official name badges. We won't start collecting this $8 fee until April. So if you or your friend was thinking about joining Oyster Point Speakers, join between February and March to avoid this fee.

January 20, 2013

The January 17th meeting was called to order by SAA Phillip Sweat.

Toastmaster of the Day; Lauren White shared with guests the "mission" of Toastmasters and introduced Wade Minor DTM, General Evaluator of the meeting.

Wade introduced his evaluation team and they explained their roles for the meeting and Wade then returned control of the meeting back to Lauren White.

The evenings speeches were very educational, enlightening and inspiring! 
 
The Speakers for the evening: Rick Boyer - "Salary Negotiations", Arnelia Hancock - "Confronting Adversity", Danita Fox -  "Event Management" and Sumit Arora  -  "However fast you drive you still have to stop at the red light".
 
Ribbon Winners
Best Speaker: Sumit Arora
Best Evaluator: Janet Krenn
Table Topics: Barbara Basabilbaso
 
After the ribbons were handed out Lauren invited guests to introduce themselves and share what prompted them to visit Oyster Point Toastmasters, then turned the floor over to the Oyster Point club President; Janet Krenn.
 
Janet shared announcements and made closing comments.

Important Announcements

• Oyster Point Speakers is moving! Club members will be voting on which of two locations we will move to beginning in February. Stay tuned for more information.
• Possible dues increase for new members! Club members will also be voting on instituting a one-time new member fee to cover the costs of new members for the club. If approved, this will not take place until March. If you've been thinking of joining Oyster Point Speakers or you have a friend who's talked about it before, new members that join in February will not be subject to this one-time fee.

• Networking Workshop January 31st. Join us for our next 5th Thursday special event, a networking workshop. We'll be writing and practicing elevator pitches, learning to organize our network, and getting tips for using Facebook for networking success. The event is free to members, guests, visitors, and everyone in between. Meet at Angelo's at 6:45p.

 

• Advanced Training for Members on February 9th. If you missed January's Winter Leadership Institute, consider attending the second (and final) installment on Saturday February 9 at the ODU Peninsula Workforce Development Center on 600 Butler Farm Road in Hampton.

New Year, new goals and the steps to Stay on Track!

Oyster Point Toastmasters January 3, 2013

We had a full house to include several guests, if you missed the meeting, we certainly missed you. You missed out on some great speeches!

Toast Master of the Day: Phillip Sweat

General Evaluator: Lauren White
Speech Evaluators: Charlene Gilbert Salter, Christy Gardner, Zach Fauver, Rick Boyer

Timer and Photographer: Janet Krenn

Ah Counter/Word Master & Ballot Counter: Arnelia Hancock

Grammarian Listen up Master: Wade Minor

Table Topics Master: Naomi Lewis

 

Speakers:

Barbara Basabilbaso - 3rd Speech, Competent Communicator "Get to the Point" 

Regina Gilliam - 3rd Speech, Competent Communicator "Get to the Point"  

Curtis Lassiter - 3rd Speech,  Storytelling

Sumit Arora - 2nd Speech, Competent Communicator "Organize your Speech"

There was a common theme from two speeches this evening. First was Barbara, acknowledging setbacks when working towards a goal. Taking it across the finish line was Regina with the steps necessary to follow through and use them to stay on track and maintain that ON list!

Next it was story time! The very entertaining and personal story of "The day his head, his ego and his blessings all exploded", when Curtis met his wife.

Sumit Arora graciously shared and educated us with "Out of the box solutions for successful job procurement" right timing achieves the right results!

 

All of our speakers did a great job this evening, it amazes me how much can be learned from each speaker, but more importantly watching them grow in their journey to become better speakers!

 

Ribbon Winners:

 

Best Table Topics: Crystal (Curtis Lassiters sister and guest)

Best Evaluator: Christy Gardner

Best Speaker: Regina Gilliam

 

Important Announcements:

Everyone Invited to Advanced Training

To be a President's Distinguished Club, we need two more members to attend advanced training this winter. Join us on Saturday, January 12 in Virginia Beach between 8:30a to 12p. It's free! Contact our club President for more information:

president-2220@toastmastersclubs.org

Next meeting January 17th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 

 

                

 

                 

Table Topics with a Holiday Twist

December 20, 2012.

We had a phenomenal turn out for our last meeting of 2012. Sumit Arora served as both the Toastmaster of the Evening and Table Topics Master, thank you Sumit you did a great job!

Folks...the gloves came off as the "gift exchange" White Elephant (or more appropriately named Dirty Santa) was kicked off.

Each member picked a number from a box (determined by the number of members attending) Christy Gardner started the ball rolling by choosing the first gift and telling a tall tale about the gift she had just chosen..who would have suspected Christy's cat was a Starbucks coffee fan?

Tale after tale followed each gift opened and each tale was taller than the next. One gift after another became fair game for the next member to "steel"...and steel they did. From the gourmet chocolate and Starbucks gift cards to the giant can of Virginia peanuts to a harmonica. It was a sight to behold and an evening full of fun and laughter!

As all good things must come to end, so did our last meeting of the year.We are looking forward to a fantastic 2013 for Oyster Point Toastmasters!

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and Best Wishes for a safe and prosperous New Year!

Warmest Regards!
Barbara Basabilbaso

Put on your own shoes!

Phillip Sweat SAA called our December 6, 2012 meeting to order. After the pledge, Charlene Salter Gilbert the Toastmaster of the evening welcomed members and guests. Charlene touched on December 6th being Saint Nicholas’s Day and the significance of this date. We learned from Charlene that December 6th was also considered “Put on your own shoes day” which Charlene introduced as the theme of the evening, since we all have to be in and stand in our shoes when speaking to a room full of people, Charlene felt it was a great theme for this meeting, great idea Charlene!

 

Afterwards, the floor was turned over to Christy Gardner, VP of Education and General Evaluator for the evening. Christy introduced the evaluation team and had each member fulfilling that role explain what he or she will be doing during the meeting. Upon completion of the role explanations, Christy then introduced the speakers for the evening.

Zach Fauver was the first speaker, presenting his 4th project from the Competent Communicators manual “How to Say it”. Following Zach was Arnelia Hancock and Stephen Franco both presenting their 1st project from the Competent Communicator manual the always exciting “Ice Breaker” speech.

Pulling triple duty as the Table Topics Master, General Evaluator and Ballot counter for the evening (great job Christy) Christy introduced the Table Topic of the evening, Holiday theme and started it off with the 'Elf on the Shelf" question.

General Evaluator Christy Gardner led the evaluation team to give speech evaluations and reports. The meeting was brought to a close after brief announcements and ribbon awards.

Ribbon Winners:

Best Table Topics: Barbara Basabilbaso

Best Evaluator:Its a tie...Phillip Sweat and Rick Boyer

Best Speaker: Stephen Franco

Important Announcements: 
• Gift for Jade: If anyone still wants to contribute to the gift for Jade, please let Janet know by next week. She'll be purchasing the gift card on Monday Dec. 18.
• Holiday party: Remember to bring your $10 white elephant present, wrapped and ready to exchange on December 20.
• Early next year, we'll be hosting our club level International Speech and Table Topics Competitions. Start preparing early! See Christy for more details.
• If you'd like to present at the 2013 International Conference next summer, you have to apply on the Toastmasters website by January 14. The website to apply is www.toastmasters.org/CallForPresenters

 

Next scheduled meeting; December 20, 2012.

 

What a Great Evaluation Workshop!

Last night, Danita Fox led a 5th Thursday Special Event on Evaluations, and what a great workshop it was!

We started with a fun activity in which we broke up into teams of three. One person had to describe an image, the artist had to draw what described, and the third person observed how well the team spoke, listened, and acted. It was a perfect analogy for the public speaking in which the speaker talks and the audience listens, interprets, and acts. The observer was like our Toastmasters evaluators, trying to pick out how and why the communication worked or didn't.

Danita pointed out that evaluations are most effective when we compare someone's performance to a standard or model. For example, at toastmasters, the standard is to communicate effectively and meet the objectives in our manuals. An evaluator should compare the speaker's performance to how well they've met these objectives. If you're evaluating an employee, you would compare their performance to their job description and work plan. Those are the models that describe how the individual should perform. The evaluator tries to help the individual learn how well they meet these objectives and suggestions for how they can improve to better meet their objectives next time.

Danita suggested we think about evaluations in this outline:

1. Introduction
2. Praise, things the individual generally did well
3. Specific comments about the individual's objectives
4. Points for improvement
5. Acknowledge the speakers potential and encourage their continued effort

We had the opportunity to try out her suggestions during Lauren White's speech Abraham Lincoln. In the end, Danita reminded us that evaluations are meant to help our speakers, employees, and others improve and grow. She suggested these:

Eight Behaviors of Effective Evaluators

• Know the objectives to which you're comparing the individual's performance
• Listen and observe
• Personalize your language (Use "I" as you describe your opinions.)
• Acknowledge and praise actions that met objectives
• Give suggestions for improvement of actions that did not match up
• Evaluate performance of speeches, not their content 
• Inspire the the individual to continue their effort by stating their potential
• Stay on task; remember, evaluations are about your speaker or employee... not about you!

Thanks to everyone who came out and made this Evaluations Workshop a complete success!

End of Meeting Announcements

• We have new evaluation tools.
Whether you're a scheduled evaluator or just want to practice, please remember we have evaluation forms you can use, and help us remind others that these are available. 

• Christy is working on the agenda for the next 3 months. 
Those who were able to make it out last night saw a preview, but keep in mind, this is not yet final. She'll email the group with the final document when it's ready. 

• Holiday bash and gift for Jade. 
The holiday bash will be Dec. 20 at Angelo's and will focus around a white elephant gift exchange game. If you can make it, bring a gender-neutral gift (approx. $10) wrapped, and be prepared for fun! We will also be giving Jade (our server) a gift card and card. If you would like to contribute, and haven't emailed me already, please do so by Monday Dec 17. I will not be at the Dec 6 meeting. Please bring your contribution to the Dec. 20 meeting.

• It's Holiday rush at Angelo's, and we get moved around. 
During the busy times at Angelo's there's a chance that we will get booted from the private room and moved into the main dining area. If you don't see us in the back, check the main dining area. 

• Follow Oyster Point Speakers on Facebook! 
One of our guests last night came to our meeting because she learned about it on Facebook. If you're on Facebook, follow us to get event updates, find interesting articles about professional development, and more! We're at https://www.facebook.com/OPStoastmasters

Meeting Summary (October 18, 2012)

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, led by SAA Phillip Sweat, Danita Fox, Toastmaster of the evening, shared a recent experience she had. She attended a meeting where the featured presenter was a Toastmaster. Although that Toastmaster was not experienced in the exact topic of the meeting, he was able to relate themes to stories for an effective speech. For Danita, it just showed how Toastmasters really does develop the professional speaking and leadership skills we set out to get with our membership.

Christy Gardner was the first, and only, speaker this evening. During her speech, Christy shed some light on the many roles that our Oyster Point Speakers Toastmasters Club has at each meeting. Going through each role (Ah Counter, Grammarian, Toastmaster, etc.) Christy explained not only what each role does but also the skills we develop by taking on those roles.

With only one speech for the evening, we had an extended Table Topics brought to us by TopicsMaster Phillip Sweat, who had us thinking about fall and Halloween with his seasonally-themed questions.

Rick Boyer evaluated Christy's speech, and following the rest of the evaluation team's reports, Magda Brugos gave her General Evaluator's report.

One thing Magda noted was that she really liked the extended Table Topics, which required everyone who didn't have a major speaking role to become an active participant. Danita Fox announced guests and ribbon winners.

 Following the meeting, President Janet Krenn introduced Area Governor Frank Gillerlain who reminded members that our District Conference is coming up on Friday-Saturday November 2-3 in Richmond. For more information, go to www.district66.org 

Janet then concluded with the following announcements:

• Mark your calendars! We have special events occurring at Oyster Point Speakers on the following dates: Nov 15, Nov 29, Dec 20, Jan 31. Check the Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oyster-Point-Speakers-Toastmasters-Club/149972398355228 
• Assigning Meeting Roles. Oyster Point Speakers is trying a new method for assigning meeting roles. We will be assigning members roles for 3-months in advance. Those assignments will be in a table that we will distribute to all members via the list-serv. It is each member's responsibility to find their replacement if they cannot attend, and the changes will be made by each individual to the online agenda on our website: http://ops.toastmastersclubs.org/ 
• Role cards available in the Oyster Point Speakers Box. To help new members understand their meeting roles, we have printed table tents that names the role and responsibilities. Each member with a role during our meetings should take their role card out and display it on the table in front of them at each meeting. 
• Get a receipt. Any time a member pays dues or a new member joins Oyster Point Speakers, make sure you get a receipt, regardless of whether or not you want one. This is our best way for keeping club records, and important to help us stay organized.

 Ribbon winners: 

Best Speaker: Christy Gardner 

Best Evaluator: Rick Boyer 

Best Table Topics--a tie!: Zach Fauver & Katherine Crawley 

 Guests in attendance: 

 Ruth Giles, Lindsey Santa Maria, Vonda Combs, Frank Gillerlian (Area Governor). 

 Members in attendance:

 Magda Brugos, Phillip Sweat, Danita Fox, Rick Boyer, Christy Gardner, Arnelia Hancock, Sumit Arora, Zach Fauver, Wade Miner, Katherine Crawley, Steve Franco.