Lamorinda Toastmasters

New Website 02/17/2012

2012-02-17T00:27:00.000-08:00

Take a look at our new web-site.

Members, please login and set up your profile.

Then sign up for roles.

See you on Tuesday!

Speech Contest Results - February 7th 2012

2012-02-07T23:29:00.000-08:00

The competitors in the annual International Speech contest were:

Speech Contest

Chris Holton
John Pletch
Kevin Markl

Table Topics

Chris Holton
Kevin Markl
Paul Saleme
Gordon Steele
Tara Courtenay
Elizabeth Leary
Chris Young
Michael Merriman

The Winners for Table Topics were:

1st Place - Kevin Markl
2nd Place - Elizabeth Leary
3^rd Place – Chris Holton

For the International Speech Contest

1st Place - John Pletch
2nd Place - Kevin Markl
3^rd Place – Chris Holton

Congratulations go to our two winners, who move forward to the next stage of the competition.

Individual Achievement Celebration - January 17th

2012-01-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

Lamorinda Toastmasters Celebrates Individual Achievements

Lamorinda Toastmasters will be celebrating the individual achievements of its members for the second half of 2011.

“We are very proud of all the members who have continued to progress in the Toastmasters program” says Chris Holton, current club president. “They have continued a tradition of Toastmasters excellence that extends since our clubʼs founding in 1984.”

Visitors are most welcome.
More details at http://lamorinda.freetoasthost.net/

Meeting Notes - December 27th 2011

2011-12-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

The last meeting of the year 2011 started with a greeting from our valued president Chris H, who handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster for that evening, Scott L., who announced that the four main speakers would be evaluated through a multiple Round Robin evaluation, rather than the normal single evaluator format.

Prior to the first speaker, Stephanie B. explained to the group the meaning of Hanukkah and the origin of the Menorah, with a live lighting demonstration!

The first speaker was Marissa C., who provided some important tips on how to keep a New Year’s Resolution. Marissa ended her speech by telling us the worst resolution is the one which you did not make.
The second speaker, Ana C., told us how she happened to buy her dream car, a black Lexus on Black Friday.
The third speaker, John P., talked about his research on the myth of the need for breakfast. John concluded that for a perfectly healthy individual the need for breakfast might be overstated.

The fourth speech was by Chris H. who practiced his speech for a toastmaster group he currently mentors

Instead of a formal evaluation, members took turns giving feedback to the speakers. At 8:45 p.m. the club had a short presentation by Bill Broussard and Rebecca Klein who spoke about the “Winter Nights Program”, which right now is housing several families and children in the Temple Isaiah for 2 weeks. The Winter Nights Program provides a clean, safe, and warm facility at night and a daytime services center during winter for homeless families. From mid-October through April, Congregations throughout central and eastern Contra Costa County provide space, meals, and volunteers.

For more details see http://www.temple-isaiah.org/groups-activities/winter-nights-rotating-shelter/
After the presentation, the Toastmasters meeting continued with Table Topics, which were led by Stephanie B. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m. after Elizabeth L.’s feedback as the General Evaluator of the meeting.

Notes provided by Iris W.

12/20 Debate and Election Results

2011-12-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

Our club held a very constructive debate on two topics last night:

1) Shall we keep reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the Beginning of our meetings; and
2) Shall we continue voting for best speaker, evaluator, and Table Topics speaker at each meeting.

Here are the results of the subsequent vote held at the same meeting:

Shall we continue saying the Pledge: 13 yes, 12 no, PASSED

Shall we continue to vote for best Speaker: 13 yes, 12 no, PASSED

Shall we continue to vote for best Evaluator: 13 yes, 11 no, PASSED

Shall we continue to vote for best Table Topics: 14 yes, 10 no, PASSED

Thanks to Gordon S, Paul S and all those who participated in the debate!

We hope everyone enjoyed this exercise in Robert's Rules and democracy in action. The majority, however slim, will be served, and the minority, however large, has been heard.

This was the "Business Meeting" we had envisioned it at our extraordinarily poorly attended meeting in October, which fell ironically on the last day of significant rain in the Bay Area. Maybe, now that the business is done, the skies can open up again and the skiers and snowboarders will have a great winter.

As for debates in the future, we encourage everyone to continue bringing ideas to the Board that reveal an underlying tension between policy and the opinion of the members. One of the keys to last night's success was that the issues were pertinent to all and that the votes they generated led to policy change (or, in this case, policy affirmations).

Thanks to the creativity of our club, we could present a "Special Event" at almost every meeting, and each one takes valuable time away from those of us who are working towards more personal Toastmasters goals.

The extraordinary success of last night's meeting can be attributed to the hard work of all, especially Gordon S and Paul S as moderators, Kevin M as Toastmaster and vote counter, Gordon yet again as Pot Luck organizer, and all who participated by bringing goodies participating in the debates, and attending last night. A special thanks to Thomas C, who had advocated debates for years now but somehow we could never pull it together.

Patrick S noticed that some of you found yourselves on the wrong side of every vote. To those members, we say "Keep the faith!" Now that we have established a new tradition at the club for discussing our differences and setting club policy, you can see that it only takes a few new members or the persuasion of a few old members to get your way, even if you only enjoy your way for a few precious months.

Happy holidays to one and all! In the words of Dickens' Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!" And Scrooge can buy us the biggest canard (word-of-the-day) for our dinner, too!

Chris Holton,

Club President

Lamorinda Toastmasters

Moments of Truth (Results)

2011-12-15T14:07:00.000-08:00

Introduction:

A Moment of Truth is when a prospective member comes in contact with any aspect of a Toastmasters club and forms an impression of the club’s quality and service. We use the Moments of Truth to make sure that our TM club is an appealing, welcoming place for prospective members. There are six critical moments of truth in which clubs have an opportunity to create positive impressions. The following is a summary of a "Moments of Truth" brainstorming session held by our club in September 2011.

1. First Impressions –

Ensure the meeting location is conveniently located, accessible, and the meeting room is clearly marked. (Have better signage for meeting location so guests can find it easier. Will use real estate signs that say “Toastmasters.”)
Greet each guest at the door. Introduce the guest to officers and members. (More greeters to greet guests. Too much for SAA.)

2. New Member Orientation -

Assign a mentor for one-on-one assistance. Develop list of mentors and assign them to new members. (Gordon Steele will assign mentors to all new members after Chris Y receives app and check.)

Have mentor go over the new member orientation.

3. Fellowship, Variety, and Communication -

Promote and encourage inter-club events. We have decided that no inter-club interaction is necessary beyond contests and speaker exchanges.
Issue a club newsletter regularly and maintain a website. Meeting diary – modify it to summarize member accomplishments, awards, and other monthly club news.

4. Program Planning and Meeting Organization -

Feature creative Table Topics and exciting theme meetings. Create debate formats for debate practice. (This is what we’ll be doing next week in Table Topics.)
More stress on strong attendance.
Create a timed agenda to keep things moving so we get out on time.
Create attendance requirements to give speeches. You must attend frequently if you’re going to give speeches. (Will not implement at this time.)
Time limits for smaller roles.
Make Table Topics more interesting and relate them to the theme.
Make sure everyone fills out written evaluations.
More “Round Robin” evaluations. More speeches from Advanced Manuals… and advanced speakers.
Make the “word of the day” simple so it’s used more in speeches.
Push Toastmaster to set and use a theme for each meeting. Coordinate with TT Master.

5. Membership Strength -

Have our members go speak in other clubs and have speakers from other clubs present to our club. Enhances different speaker experiences. (Speaker Exchange).
Have all member photos on club website. Chris H will take pics.
Add a “where did you hear about us” question to guestbook.

6. Recognizing Accomplishments -

Present awards to those half way through CC, as it keeps them motivated to keep going.
Recognize long term membership.
Recognize B-days to create a feeling of community.
Promote one-on-one praise after speeches, from mentors.

Meeting Notes - Selling Yourself

2011-12-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Tonight's toastmaster was Chris Y who picked the theme of "Selling Yourself".

We has 26 in attendance, including two honored guests.

Paul S and Gordon S together demonstrated "The Art Of Debating". This was in preparation for a special meeting held later in December to debate two club meeting conduct issues:

to continue Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of the meeting
to continue voting for Best Speaker, Table Topics and Evaluator at the end of the meeting

Mark D gave a powerful speech, called "Too Big To Fail" and encouraged the audience to consider moving their banking business from 5 top banks that were heavily implicated in the current financial crisis. Iris W evaluated this speech.

Jade B presented a whirlwind tour of 5000 years of Chines history and accomplishments in a speech entitled "Something About China". Chris H evaluated.

Table topics were led by Mike M. and Jacqui A. Ah-counter was Anna C. Grammarian was Heather S and General Evaluation of the meeting was provided by Scott S.

Meeting Notes - Hand-Jive

2011-11-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

Mark D was toastmaster tonight and chose as the theme "Hand-jive".

Chris F, as grammarian, introduced the word-of-the day: "Gambit"

Chris H, spoke from the Better Speaker series and emphasized the need to get the subject of your speech out within the first 30 seconds for maximum impact. Chris' speech was evaluated by John P.

Stephanie B introduced an interesting project being pioneered in Israel today that centers on the curative effects of "clowning therapy" (e.g. http://www.dreamdoctors.org.il/eng/) in a medical context, so laughter may indeed be the best medicine. Stephanie's speech was evaluated by Paul S.

Elizabeth L provided a veritable mobile museum of doll-making and showed a particular favorite doll in support of a visual aids-focused speech. One interesting point was that the origin of doll-making in France was the need to explain to young ladies the complexities of various items of fashionable dress - so the doll itself was a visual aid to the fashion-conscious and only later did it become a favorite children's toy. Elizabeth's "Golden Age of Doll-Making" was evaluated by M Merriman.

Kevin M lead the table topics and Scott L provided a general evaluation of tonight's meeting.

Sept 6 Announcements

2011-09-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

Contest next week September 13, 2011; 7:30 sharp. Still room for evaluation contest contestants, please contact Kevin Markl.
Area Contest September 27, 2011 at our normal meeting site. Regular meeting to be held elsewhere, if you're interested.
Business meeting October 4, 2011. Please attend this important meeting to adjust dues for the future, taking into account the new Toastmasters International dues.
Special guest Ed Alter from SpeechSkills, who will be showing us what we can receive if we want to get professional training.

August 23 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-08-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

The theme of the meeting was "neighbors" and the toast master was Iris W.

In keeping with the theme, Greg F reflected on a bad neighbor, Mrs Hoover-a-lot, and how justice was eventually delivered in the form of an even-nosier neighbor.

Word of the day was from Marrissa the "unflappable" Sargent at arms.

Josh R convinced everyone of the high costs involved in the use of golf in business entertaining, including a useful tip on how to handle the tricky situation of dumping a motorized golf-cart in the lake. Now we know.

Elizabeth L delivered a powerful speech on the anniversary of the Kent State University shootings, recalling the build-up to the demonstrations, the event itself and its relevance today. She concluded with memorable lines from the Crosby, Still, Nash and Young song "Ohio".

Chris Y gave a comprehensive speech on providing feedback with some useful take-aways:

give clear and concise objectives
provide feedback immediately (don't wait)
end on a positive note
praise in public, criticize in private

Stephanie B told us all how to recover from one of those speeches that don't go so well ... Do a self-evaluation, look at the structure of the speech, try to optimize it and have a safety-net. Also, one way to recover is to ... make another speech out of the experience.

Chris H led the Table Topics on the rich topic of neighbor experiences, and there was no shortage of material from the floor.

Mikhail D completed the meeting with a masterful evaluation.

August 16 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-08-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

Those of you who attended got a great show. Thomas C reminded us all how to do
it as Toastmaster, with a full agenda, a unifying theme, a printed agenda, prepared
introductions, the works. Great job, Thomas!

Gita told us a funny story about eating the backs of all the chocolate bunnies her mother used to display in a breakfront in their home. Imagine everyone's embarrassment when Mom graciously presented a neighbor with a half-eaten chocolate bunny!

We enjoyed a wide variety of speeches last night, too.

Marissa C gave us a comprehensive survival guide for attending Burning Man on Labor Day weekend. She'll see you there.
Iris W shared her experience with Fryʼs Electronics over a broken computer. She is truly a patient woman.
Chris H read two poems, “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg and “If” by Rudyard Kipling.
Then Jennifer C told us how she found a brother she didnʼt know she had via Facebook.

Strong and accurate evaluations were provided for the speakers by Karen L,
Gordon Steele, Kevin M, and MIke M. We all learned from their insights.

A lively Table Topics was hosted by Kevin M, who did double duty for the meeting.

He asked about fear and told all contestants they could not repeat a fear. Proudly, no member said “Public Speaking” was a fear. Helen C told us about fearing failure, Sarah L told us about a useful deer urine product (you had to be there), Jade B told us about checking her test scores (she passed!), and Lee E shared a
story of climbing loose boulders that nearly crushed him to death (he survived). I
apologize to any contestants whom I may have forgotten. All stories were wonderful.

Stephanie B (welcome back) summarized the meeting beautifully as General
Evaluator. Elizabeth L was both diligent and helpful as timer. Tara C was
merciful as ah counter. Chris Y provided an easy one, "vex", as the word of the day. Once again, word of the day was essentially ignored, which was rather vexing. Oh, well; one of these days.....

Congrats to our ribbon winners: Jennifer (the tenth speech wonder), Karen, and Lee. You all won on a night when winning was tough, everyone was so good. Thanks to our new members, Jade and Paul, for adding your enthusiasm.
A special "welcome" to our visitors, of whom there were five!! including Marissa's beau Simon.

Toastmasters After Dark was a major hit, with more than half the meeting attendees attending the post-meeting get-together. To protect them from their spouses, I will not name names...the meeting just ran late....

Next week it's back to the Social Hall. There's still room for a speaker, a humorist, three evaluators, Thought of the Day, and Ah Counter. Don't be shy, we need you to step up and sign-up for a role.

(report provided by Chris Holton)

August 9 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-08-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

August 9th Meeting Notes:

The Lamorinda Toastmasters meeting on August 9 was "August Light." The theme was vacation, which was very appropriate considering most of our regulars seem to be enjoying theirs.

Fortunately, several visitors to the club from the week before returned, check in hand, to fill out the ranks for the meeting. Welcome Paul, Jade, and Ana (who will be joining, she says, following a two week vacation of her own). We also had a distinguished visitor, Lewis Taylor, this year's Area Governor, who was kind enough to share his presence and participate in our Table Topics contest.

Prior to the meeting, we received the wonderful news that Fermin would have to delay his Icebreaker speech, as his wife was delivering a baby! I suppose that qualifies as an excused absence....

Scott Lambert moved us through an excellent meeting highlighted by three excellent speakers. Kevin M sold us on using our Competent Leadership manuals and gave some solid reasons why it is an essential guide to your personal growth. I suggest you take his advice, as the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Kathy A proved that she is a woman on a mission, completing her second speech in two weeks with a very coherent overview of investment types and why it is important to diversify.

Then Rae S gave her 9th speech about the alarming practice in the largest Asian countries of aborting female babies to assure the birth of a son. For those of you unable to attend, you missed some truly edifying speeches.

The word of the day was macabre. It was used frequently but, for the most part, weakly, as in "this wasn't macabre" or "this was macabre." Word of the Day=work in progress. We also had a spirited discussion on the appropriate pronunciation, which ended in an agreement to disagree.

Marissa counted ahs and Tara timed to perfection. Michael, Lee, and Chris H gave appropriate evaluations of the three excellent speakers. We had 8 contestants in Table Topics, with the big ribbon going to our new member Paul, who was nearly stabbed to death as he slept in the bushes in Nice. And I always thought Nice was nice.

Two big stars of the evening were Yulanda O and Elizabeth L. Yulanda brought a unifying grace to the Table Topics competition, demonstrating extraordinary listening skills and empathy that made the Table Topics competition a joy to watch not only for the contestants but for its host. Elizabeth demonstrated the ability to deliver precise, specific constructive feedback that is necessary for our growth. To do it so succinctly and with such grace is a real gift.

Big news for the members: Toastmasters International has raised annual dues by $18. This changes our split from $27/$33 in favor of the club to $36/$24 in favor of Toastmasters International. The club officers have deemed our reserves to be strong enough to maintain the $60 dues for the September renewal. The first meeting in October, however, will be a business meeting where members can help decide what our dues should be in March.

June 28th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-07-06T17:17:00.001-07:00

Meeting Notes:

Lovely Elizabeth L presided over our meeting for the evening with the theme of Independence Day.

Tara opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by sharing the Philly Tawk of her childhood. Who knew "Yo" means "Hello" in Philly? Well researched, prepared and presented, Tara kept us laughing throughout her Speech 7 from the Competent Communicator manual.

Jennifer presented Speech 6, Vocal Variety, from the Competent Communicator manual. As you can imagine, her speech, Conversations with a Three Year Old, gave her plenty of material with which to vary her volume, tone, and to use her voice expressively.

Thomas gave us a club status report with his Speech 2 from the Competent Communicator manual. For the seventh year in a row, our club has earned the right to be called a Distinguished President's Club Toastmaster's club because of the hard work done by our members.

Newest new member Michael M gave his ice breaker titled "Career Stuff." A seasoned Toastmaster with a strong set of speaking skills, we look forward to hearing more from Mike in the future.

Join Toastmaster Greg F , and all of your fellow Toastmasters tonight at the Temple.

May 31 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary‏

2011-06-06T12:38:00.001-07:00

May 31st Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

Meeting Notes:

Our own Man of Steel, Gordon, presided over the meeting as our Toastmaster for the evening. Gordon effortlessly juggled filling several roles at the last minute. Thank you Gordon!

Kevin opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by Speaking Off the Cuff, project 1 from the Specialty Speeches manual. His evaluator chose Kevin's topic from a list of five for an impromptu speech. What followed was a speech on the Groupon Phenomenon, much praised for its structure and enthusiasm. Groupon, Kevin, groupon!

Iris presented a deeply personal and persuasive speech on how to approach and support families going through intense grief. I know I learned a lot from her speech and was impressed by Iris' courage in sharing her story.

Yulanda gave her second speech from the Competent Communicator Manual, Organize Your Speech, about communication between different generations. Her well-researched speech gave us an in-depth overview of how each generation sees the world.

Jennifer rounded out the prepared speeches portion of the meeting with her Speech 5, Your Body Speaks, from the Competent Communicator manual, titled "13.1." Her speech showed confidence, enthusiasm and grit. We all wish Jennifer the best on her journey to compete in and complete the Nike Women's Marathon!

Join Toastmaster Scott Lambert, and all of your fellow Toastmasters tomorrow at the Temple.

May 17th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-05-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Meeting Notes:

For the first time, Jennifer presided over the meeting as our Toastmaster for the evening. Congrats, Jennifer, you made it look easy!

Mary opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by taking us along on a pocket vacation to stairway walks of San Francisco. She encouraged us to get off the beaten path and become tourists in our own backyard world-class city. Bonus points for those who noticed her stylish San Francisco scarf.

Kevin presented "the moral of the story" about "Tom's" experience with emergency response training and what it means for all of us. 1. Be prepared and 2. No, you can't drink the water out of the back of your toilet if it has a blue chemical cleaning puck in it!

Brand-new member Rhett entertained and charmed us all with his "aww shucks" southern manners and accent and humorous stories of his life. Welcome to CA and good luck!

Thomas rounded out the prepared speeches portion of the meeting with his vocal variety workshop. He promoted the use of proper breathing, vocal warm ups and enunciation as critical elements to improved speaking.

Join Toastmaster Thomas Cloney, and all of your fellow Toastmasters tomorrow at the Temple.

May 10th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-05-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

Announcements:

- Congratulations to our new club officers:

President - Chris H

VP of Education - Karen L

VP of Membership - Chris Y

VP of PR - Greg F

Secretary - Kevin M

Treasurer - Sarah L

Sergeant at Arms - Marissa C

Meeting Notes:

Rae presided over the meeting as our Toastmaster for the evening. She mixed it up a little and used our lack of evaluation forms to an advantage by offering each speaker a round-robin evaluation from the whole club, as well as a written evaluation from their designated evaluator.

Elizabeth opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by persuading our audience that her hometown of Cleveland, OH is misunderstood. Apparently, it is *not* the armpit of America or the biggest mistake on the lake as it is sometimes called. Elizabeth appreciates Cleveland's fine food and multiculturalism.

Gita presented an inspiring and provocative speech about why she thinks there should be more dog parks in the east bay. Using powerpoint to illustrate her points, the audience was most charmed by the cute pictures of her dogs!

President-elect Chris gave a cozy, fireside chat-style speech designed to encourage us to stop reinventing the wheel at our club. We should create standards for our club based on best practices so anyone can step into any leadership job at the club and be successful. He subtly (and not so subtly) reminded us to do the things we ask other members to do - speak more often, work the manuals and earn DCP points for the club.

Melanie rounded out the prepared speeches portion of the meeting with her speech about Asperger's Syndrome. Melanie shared her personal experiences and insights on the syndrome as the mother and friend of individuals with Asperger's. For more information about Asperger's, please ask Melanie for a copy of her excellent handout of additional resources.

Join Toastmaster Jennifer Chambers, and all of your fellow Toastmasters tomorrow at the Temple.

April 26th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-05-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Announcements:

- Please take a moment to introduce yourselves to our three newest members - Fermin, Marissa, and Kenneth. Welcome!

Meeting Notes:

As Toastmaster, I presided over our Earth Day-Themed meeting for a small but enthusiastic crowd. We were fortunate to have not one, but two members step forward to make impromptu speeches to help fill out our agenda for the evening. Many thanks to Kevin and Mikhail for showing us how it's done!

Lee opened the prepared speeches part of the meeting by practicing a speech he will give to 600+ people at the Walmart World Headquarters. Our impressive audience listened carefully and asked Lee many insightful questions during the Q&A period. Good luck in Bentonville, Lee!

Mikhail stepped up and gave an inspiring and provocative speech about what is the most important thing. With hardly 10 minutes of prep time, Mikhail grabbed our attention with a unique opening technique and kept it through out the talk.

Kevin also jumped at the chance to speak in front of our audience and spun an amusing and cautionary tale about spinning, sprinkled with witty details about his coupon-clipping friends and others. Way to entertain, Kevin!

Iris fearlessly lead many guests and visitors through Table Topics where we heard several stories about inspiring and memorable teachers.

Join Toastmaster Tara Courtney, maybe her bird, and all of your fellow Toastmasters next week at the Temple.

April 19th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-04-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

Announcements:

**Different Meeting Room for next week - at the Temple in their Adult Lounge. Continue on the same road past the social hall where we usually meet and park down below. Our meeting is in the last building on the right.

- Please take a moment to introduce yourselves to our three newest members - Fermin, Marissa, and Kenneth. Welcome!

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Kevin Markl presided over our Spring-Themed meeting at Gordon's office. Cozy and comfortable, our meeting was graced with four prepared speeches and stimulating table topics. A special thanks to Gordon for offering his office space at the last minute when Mary fell ill and was unable to host. Mary, I hope you're on the mend!

Iris opened the prepared speeches part of our meeting with Speech 7 from the CC manual - First a proponent of Flea Markets, Iris challenged us to consider whether Flea Brownies and other bug-based foods could be the next sustainable food source. While I couldn't argue with her points, I, along with others, was relieved when she spared us samples.

Gordon wowed us with his personal speech from the Storytelling Manual's Speech 2 - Let's Get Personal, about how he met and got to know his son, Jim. I know I am always amazed and moved by the wide variety of our member's life experiences.

Thomas spoke next and gave a heart-felt update about his work to launch a Spanish version of the 12 week NAMI family course for families who have a member with a brain disorder. The next stage of Thomas' high performance leadership project (a task required to earn one's Distinguished Toastmaster Award (DTM) the highest award in Toastmasters) will be to roll out a family course targeted at military families dealing with brain disorders brought on by war.

Rae presented her speech 7 from the CC manual, "You Are What You Eat", on the importance of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and encouraged us all to seek out ways to buy our produce directly from farmers through these collectives. Visit localharvest.org for more information on CSAs in your area.

A special thank you to everyone who brought bug-free food and drink to the meeting. The sweets for the sweet were enjoyed by all.

Join me, Karen, as your Toastmaster, and all of your fellow Toastmasters next week in the Adult Lounge at the Temple.

April 4th Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-04-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Fari Pouransari. It was her second turn as Toastmaster and she did a commendable job. She was warm and welcoming to our two guests and to all us Toastmasters as well!

Scott L. is right: It is one of the best jobs on the roster!

Fari also stepped in as Humorist--an outgoing answering machine message she had shortly after coming to the US.

Our Thought for the Day person was Stephanie who spoke on stopping to smell the roses and living in the moment, not in the past or future.

Grammarian was Marzi who presented a word few were familiar with: afflatus. Means to inspire. Good job for finding such a word!

Yolanda was our timer, a difficult job as Fari noted.

We had three speakers: Elizabeth Leary, Kevin Markl and Iris Wesselman. Elizabeth had a neat take on being skinny, Kevin provided a tale of woe, riches and redemption and Iris gave us the history of the hair styling trade in Germany that has been so prevalent an occupation for her family.

Evaluators were Lee, Jennifer and Gita, respectively. Lee, always reliably to the point, stepped in at the last minute to critique Elizabeth's funny and mostly fond memories. Jennifer gave a spot on eval on Kevin's complex presentation and offered tips to work on shortening a speech. Gita enjoyed reviewing Iris' topic since it was mostly familiar to her.

Melanie did an awesome job at TT Master. She fit in 10 speakers, thinking of a few questions off the top of her head. Mostly participants were asked how they would deal with situations requiring diplomacy and delicacy acquired from the act of living life. Can I name them all? Gordon, Dave, Lise, Heather, Rae, Tracy, Helen, Mike, Greg and yours truly.

Scott was our GE. He focused on Fari's job as Toastmaster. Aside from it being the best job, he added it requires advanced organization for him.

Our awards (because we are all winners) went to: Elizabeth, Jennifer and Mike.

We missed some of our stalwart members: Thomas, Chris, Karen, Patrick et al.

We hope you'll all join us next week!

March 29 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-04-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Announcements:

- Dues are due! Please get your check to Chris Young or go on our website to use the new Paypal option. Don't make Chris have to come hunt you down, people.

- Our Club Needs You! - Officer elections are coming up soon. Our club is run entirely by volunteers and we need *you* to help it continue to run smoothly. Our board meets once a month for 45 min. before our regular meeting. Free training by Toastmasters Int'l included for all officer positions. Please contact Patrick for more information.

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Chris Holton presided over a heartfelt "Fond Farewell/ Haven't Seen You in Forever" evening. Several past members joined us to celebrate! It was wonderful to see Nancy, Josh, Grace, Nan, Mark and Fumi.

Iris opened the prepared speeches part of our meeting with Speech 2 from the CC manual - She shared her passion for shopping at flea markets and getting excellent massages from Joshua. What can you learn at flea markets? Public speaking, negotiating and math skills. Join her Saturdays at the Ashby Bart parking lot for fun and relaxation.

Stephanie posed a conundrum with Speech 9, Persuade with Power - honesty or kindness? She effectively persuaded us to marry the two and utilize her helpful acronym "WITS" - Words, Intention, Tone of Voice and Sandwich - to do so. When in doubt, don't say it.

Whole lotta shakin' goin' on? Mike's timely presentation on earthquakes and earthquake measurement scales effectively illuminated the newer way to measure earthquake intensity with the Moment Magnitude Scale. Developed in the 1970's as a successor to the Richter Scale, the MMS measures the size of earthquakes in terms of energy released. Most memorable quote from Mike's speech - "It's going to be quite gnarly if the north and south portions of the Hayward fault go off simultaneously."

It was "old times" night for table topics. Visiting former members were all called up to participate. Rae dazzled them with challenging, non-sequitur questions from our club's Book of Questions. We learned our friends believe in haunted houses, embellish their stories, and would rather be rich than famous.

A special thank you to Chris and Mary for providing the champagne and sparkling beverages for our toast to past members and friends.

Join Toastmaster Fari and your fellow Toastmasters next week in the Social Hall.

March 22 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-03-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Announcements:

- Dues are due! Please get your check to Chris Young or go on our website to use the new Paypal option. Don't make Chris have to come hunt you down, people.

- "Fond Farewell/ Haven't Seen You in Forever" Evening - Haven't been to a meeting in awhile? Taking a break from Toastmasters? Please join us tomorrow night for a special evening to honor those we miss and those who are moving on. We'll raise a glass in celebration and wish you well.

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Chris Young opened our meeting with the theme - Birthdays. Turns out Chris chose our meeting to celebrate his birthday (while insisting he had big plans for the weekend). Now that is dedication, folks and don't think for a moment that we don't expect the *same* from all of you.

Special shout out to Josh for his mellifluous presentation of the word of the day - Chortle.

Tracy opened the prepared speeches part of our meeting with Speech 2 from the CC manual - effectively and efficiently providing a blueprint for how to eliminate stress from moving. Having hardly ever left the hamlet of the greater Lamorinda area myself (I just find that semi-rural atmosphere so compelling....) I'm completely awed by the thoroughness and execution of her approach.

Heather told a hilarious story about being locked out of the house for her second speech from the Storytelling manual. Weaving in tiny details about her ordeal, we felt like we were right there are she tried in vain to break in, had to walk 3 miles to her own house in uncomfortable sports sandals, struck out with the locksmith and ultimately had to drill out the lock to get back in because, you know, the cat was getting hungry.

Marzi used Speech 2 to share the benefits of hosting a Cultural Fair at her preschool. Students and their families will have a chance to change their attitudes and understanding of other cultures through cultural exchanges including food, drink and dance.

The multitude of birthday stories provided by the Table Topics participants reminded me of candy bursting out of a successfully wacked pinata. Orchestrated by our supreme bandleader, Chris Holton, *almost* every member and guest without a role was able to toot their own horn and participate. We heard about The Big 50, fantasy all white birthdays and the ever trepidatious 21 shots on a 21st Birthday.

Strike up the band tomorrow night with Toastmaster Chris Holton in the Social Hall.

March 8 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-03-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

Area Speech Contest – Tomorrow Night - Everyone is encouraged to attend the area contest hosted by our club. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Mary Furman opened our meeting with the theme - Hometowns. We heard about many hometowns throughout the evening.

Tara thrilled and scared us a little with details of a lusty pacaderm mistaking a Passapachyderm female pacaderm. Bumped along forpachyderme were two dutch tourists who fortunately came through the experience unscathed.

Four terrific speeches from the Competent Communicator manual dazzled our members:

Josh gave his Icebreaker and shared with us about how being hit in the head with a baseball bat as a child not only put a hole is in head requiring 50+ stitches to cover, but also instilled a level of fear in him he has struggled to overcome. Josh certainly showed no fear giving his first speech to our club. Impressively, he used no notes for his talk.

Mikhail used Speech 10 - Inspire your Audience to inspire us to practice forgiveness of others. He shared how he wished he had talked more to his Mom before she went in for surgery she later died from. And he encouraged all of us to forgive our loved ones. Congratulations Mikhail on achieving your Competent Communicator award!

Presenting Speech 6 - Vocal Variety - Melanie gave life with her voice to stories about people and food. We felt like we were there with her at the party when her tightwad friend showed up with stale Danishes and proceeded to cut them up into small pieces and then make a huge show of offering them around to guests. I won't forget soon her description of her male friend who borrowed a young girl's bathing suit and despite all guesses to the contrary, looked good in it.

Elizabeth tickled our senses with her Speech 2 Get Organized on how to take a wee dram of whiskey. A whiskey enthusiast myself, I was swept away with rememberences of Scotland during her talk remembrances five senses are engaged during whiskey sipping. Although samples of the delicious elixirs were not provided, promises of future tastings off site were made.

Patrick combined hometowns with juggling when he provided a new table topics experience to the club. He started a story and then in the middle, threw a ball to the next victim, err, participant, and had them continue the story while weaving their own hometown into it. The result was a story about a small town dealing with a rising crime rate, Orinda's famous pink awning, design review hell and kids throwing rocks at each other in London.

Join Toastmaster Thomas Cloney for our area contest on March 15th at the social hall.

March 1 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-03-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Announcements:

Area Speech Contest – March 15- Everyone is encouraged to attend the area contest hosted by our club. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Stephanie Brown colorfully opened our meeting with the theme - Color My World. If you are male and your favorite color isn't green - congrats! You are an outlier. (Anyone, anyone?)

Melanie thrilled and scared us a little with details of her recent skiing adventures. Appropriately incorporating the colors black and blue into her tale, she laughingly recalled two major collisions she experienced out on the slopes. Here's to many more (safe) adventures, Melanie!

Two more new members introduced themselves to the club with Icebreakers this week–

Tracy shared with us how she knows she must walk through the fear of public speaking instead of trying to go around it. Her well organized and inspiring speech (including a segment about love between accountants) earned her the best speech of the night ribbon!

Iris shared a photo of her grandmother, Rosie, and talked about how she bucked the binds of her family by moving from Hungary to Germany alone. Iris, herself, has a similar life story. She also moved to a new country alone.

We look forward to hearing more from Tracy and Iris in their next speeches.

Speaking from the Technical Presentations manual, Mike effectively used power point to build and deliver a highly technical presentation on home theatre systems. His Q&A session confirmed yet again that there were more technically-savvy audience members than yours truly. Fortunately the "problem" of choosing between home theatre systems is unlikely to arise for me anytime soon.

Mary gave a vivid speech from the Entertaining Speaker manual - we could almost feel the -25F below icy air creeping up our ankles and sinking down the backs of our necks. After hearing about the challenging conditions she endured - including hot tub-side bar service, horse-drawn sleigh rides and hot toddies to go - perhaps I, too, would be willing to risk fingertips and toes for such a winter wonderland experience.

Jennifer brought a colorful, new table topics experience to the club - she had each participant choose a color and then speak about the first thing that came to mind after seeing the color. The members were regaled with tales of throwing up, house painting experiments gone wrong, the frustration of finding "summer colors" off season and teens who love the color black.

Join Toastmaster Mary Furman for our next meeting on March 8^th at the social hall.

Feb 15 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-02-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Comments:

The mood was definitely competitive as members partook in the club's 2011 speech contest. Did I notice sweaty palms and red faces? Late minute memorization?

Our fearless leader Thomas reminded us that a smile and a handshake between contestants following the match was both good sportsmanship and good karma.

As both a participant and observer I feel this array of speakers was the best ever.

According to Chris Holton, the vote was close. However we had a clear cut winner in both the Speech and Table Topics. Mark Darfler told us "Enough is Enough" mixing bites and punches for the double speech award whammy!

Supporting our club in case Mark either gets bitten by a dog or cold-cocked by an irate boxer are Bonnie "On-the-Edge" Mcmanis for the Speech Division contest and Elizabeth "No Need for Luck" Leary in the Table Topics Category..

A special thank you to the TM members who organized, staged and successfully ran our contest.

Feb 8 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-02-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Announcements

Club Speech Contest – Tonight!! Everyone is encouraged to attend our first club contest of the year. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes

Toastmaster Fari Pour Ansari opened our meeting and got right to business.

Sarah provided our Thought for the Day by discussing the Year of the Rabbit and how it is supposed to be a lucky year. I’m for that.

Two new members introduced themselves to the club with Icebreakers –

Yulanda spoke about her upbringing in Taiwan and share with us how she is analytical and persistent. She also wants to be seen as a force for good.

Elizabeth talked about breaking down barriers for women, especially in the world of chess. She became the highest ranked female chess player in the country in the 70’s.

We look forward to hearing more from Yulunda and Elizabeth in their next speeches.

Speaking from the Technical Presentations manual, Mike used power point to build and deliver an interesting talk on https to a non-technical audience. Clearly his Q&A session pointed out that there were more technically-savvy audience members than yours truly. I did take away the importance of making sure my email, Facebook and Twitter traffic utilize https for security from prying fingers at coffee shops.

With only three prepared speeches, we were lucky to have time for a large group of Table Topics participants – Each participant chose a year at random and after I read the news highlights from that year for the group, they spoke about what had happened in their life during that year. Among other things we heard about unsupervised teen parties, Oakland late at night, marriage proposals and high school. I know everyone enjoyed getting to know our members on a more personal level.

Join Toastmaster Thomas Cloney for our first club speech contest of the year tonight, Feb 15^th at the social hall.

Feb 1 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary‏

2011-02-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Announcements

Welcome to our newest member, Tracy! She and five other new members were inducted into the club without incident.

Upcoming Event - Club Speech Contest – Feb 15^th. Everyone is encouraged to attend our first club contest of the year. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes

Toastmaster Chris Holton broke tradition by NOT throwing things into the audience while talking about our theme for the night – Super Bowl XLV. He regaled us with hints and tips for how to sound remotely knowledgeable about football while watching the big game. My favorite was how to call the guys with the hair pouring out of their helmets “beasts” with a straight face.

Again, we had a full roster with 4 diverse speeches gracing the meeting;

New member Tom introduced himself to the club with his Icebreaker – we heard about his love of golf, Orinda, his new wife, and his dog. We look forward to hearing more from Tom in Speech 2.

Mikhail presented Speech 9 from the Competent Communicator manual (CC) – he brought forward the idea of no homework being a glorious change in education and persuaded us with power to see the movie about the pressure American kids are under, “Race to Nowhere.”

Speaking from the Storytelling Manual, Project 2, Mark used vivid imagery to paint the scene of one young surfer’s experience at the world-famous surfing contest, Mavericks. Mark equated the riveting tale of a near death experience to everyone’s struggles with reaching personal goals.

Lise described her plan for a high performance leadership project, a Toastmasters Movie Night, and asked our members to join her team to make the movie night a reality for our friends, family and community. Lise will speak more soon about the details of her plan.

We were lucky to have time for a large group of Table Topics participants – The most memorable line I wrote down was from Lee talking about a patient he flew for the Angel Flight program – “A blind guy flying an airplane to a nudist camp.”

Join Toastmaster Fari Pour Ansari for our next meeting Tuesday, February 8^th at the Social Hall.

Jan 25 Lamorinda Toastmasters Meeting Diary

2011-02-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

Announcements:

Congrats to our club contest chair – Scott Lambert.

Upcoming Event - Club Speech Contest – Feb 15th. Everyone is encouraged to attend our first club contest of the year. Come cheer on your fellow club members!

Meeting Notes:

Toastmaster Gordon Steele kept the theme of throwing things into the audience alive into a second meeting by tossing a football at the crowd while talking about our theme for the night – Games.

Four diverse speeches graced the meeting;

Chris H persuasively and passionately encouraged our members to change our election process from one of habit to one that follows our club’s constitution – i.e. real elections.

Mike brought an historical battle alive in our meeting with his vivid tale of The Charge of the Light Brigade, concluding with a reciting of Tennyson’s famous poem by the same name.

Stephanie’s teasing title – Make Love to Your Audience – led to her demonstration of how to use eye contact and facial expression to connect more strongly with your audience.

Fari entertained the audience with fascinating tales of Mullah that highlighted some of the quirks that make us human.

Join Toastmaster Chris Holton for our Super Bowl-themed meeting next Tuesday, February 1st in the Social Hall at Temple Isaiah