March 15, 2007 Meeting Summary

International Speech Contest
Speaker #1 - Lori G – A Special Birthday
Lori’s speech told the story of their journey to conceive a child. Her trials included infertility treatments, sibling pregnancies before she finally became pregnant, and an early delivery date! Lori’s speech ended with her much anticipated but touch-and-go birth of her daughter, Jacqueline, who turned 17 years old yesterday!

Speaker #2 – Marian J – Road to Sinagogo
Marian told the story of her father and his friend in the Irish Rifle Company in World War II. She told us of the attack on the monastery at Monte Casino, where 200,000 men, supporting air and tanks fought. After the fierce assault was waged, the battle was won but the London Irish losses were significant, including Marian’s father’s friend, Eddie Mayo.

Tall Tales Speech Contest
Speaker #1 – Kathy J – Tall Tales
Kathy shared some ideas for her Tall Tales Speech Contest entry for the Area Contest.

Following the contest, club members shared feedback with Marian, who will represent the club in the Area Contest next Tuesday.

Table Topics
Table Topics Master, Kurt J, showed each respondent pictures of Ollie, Laura Bourgeault’s new kitten, then asked them a question about the picture.
v Theresa B – What is Ollie thinking?
o His alarm just went off and he is thinking that he really doesn’t want to be disturbed! (Time: 36 seconds)
v Dave B – You’re practicing telling your wife something stupid that you did.
o “Your new car drives very smoothly. So smoothly that you can’t tell you’re going 70 mph in a 50 mph zone. Where’s the checkbook?” (Time: 1 minute 3x seconds)
v Kathy J – You just brought home a dog. Kitty was first. Kitty’s not happy and can talk. What does he say?
o “Haven’t I been good to you? I may shed a little, but that big, slobbery thing has got to go!” (Time: 38 seconds)

General Evaluation
Laura Bourgeault served as our general evaluator. She commended duty holders on their jobs well done and enjoyed the table topics respondents’ answers. She suggested that they try to reach one minute with their responses and thought Dave’s story might be real? Members opted to forgo the Spirit Award today.

March 8, 2007 Meeting Summary

Our Toastmaster, Kathy J, chose “Visiting the Dentist” as the theme for the day. Duty holders shared their experiences of visiting the dentist throughout the meeting.

Wordmaster/Grammarian, Rob W, chose “hygiene” as the word of the day. He didn’t like going to the dentist as a kid, but had a good experience at the skyway dentist.

Dan B, the timer, enjoys the dentist by the has good teeth and a relationship with the dentist that allows him to verbally abuse him!

Speaker #1, Lori G, told the story of a special date—March 14, 1990. Lori began her story by explaining that her brother is 18 months older, married, and had three children; her sister is 3 years younger, has a son named Jason, and got married after Lori. Lori and her husband dated for 3 ½ years before they were engaged, and were engaged for 1 ½ years before they tied the knot. Since they’d been together for so long, they decided to have kids right away.

Unfortunately, a doctor visit determined that Lori has polysystic ovarian syndrome. She was put on clomed, an infertility drug, and they waited. Each month, when Lori called the doctor’s office, they told her that her test was negative. The dose of clomed was doubled, but the test was still negative. After several months, Lori’s brother called and announced that they were expecting their fourth child. On the way home, Lori cried and had a conversation with God…still, her test result was negative. Then, Lori’s sister called and announced that she was expecting, too! With that, Lori bawled and had another conversation with God…still her test was negative. The next month, it was positive! In February, Lori’s sister-in-law was due. In March, her sister was due. In April, Lori was due. In February, Lori’s brother called announcing the birth of Alicia. Twelve days later, Rachel was born to Lori’s sister. Two days later, Lori’s water broke! Four weeks premature, Lori went to the hospital only to find that her baby was breech and couldn’t be turned. An emergency c-section was performed and neonatal specialists worked to get Lori’s baby to breate—they rubbed her, turned her over, and wacked her feet. Lori prayed to God, “Please don’t take away my baby.” Finally, she breathed and cried! That baby turned 17 years old on March 14, 2007. (Time: 6 minutes, 27 seconds)

Bob N, a guest of the club, volunteered to be Speaker #2. He works as an account executive at Brown & Bigelow. Throughout his career, his longest employment was four years, because they gave him something different to do after two years. He worked in telecommunications when “Baby Bell was a rumor”, from 1981 – 2003. Now, he sells calendars and promotional material, business gifts. He told us that he practices good hygiene and people like him. He plans to give future speeches on job changes and laughed that the theme of the day is “Visiting the Dentist” because he had two appointments today—a meeting and a dentist appointment! He likes Good Sense hot and spicy soy nuts, is married, and has two grown daughters, one of which is married. He also works part-time at the Mall of America putting kids on rides on the weekends. (Time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds)

Table Topics Master, Mark H, put his dentist’s kids through college and then made retirement possible with all of the money he paid him. His dentist was from the Flintstones—Dr. Marble. Today, Mark sees the dentist that bought Dr. Marble’s business!

v Betsy told us about her most painful experience. She has brittle bones and cracked her kneecap in two when a bat flew into her bedroom through the air conditioner. She waited until she thought the bat was on the other side of the room and ran to the light-switch, only to find the bat near it. She dropped to the floor and began screaming. Fortunately, her roommate came to her rescue, her Mom took her to the hospital, and someone came for the bat! Later, Betsy told people that she broke her kneecap being quarterback for the Vikings! (Time: 1 minute, 37 seconds)

v Jeff told us why he looks forward to or dreads his semi-annual cleaning, and why. The question was timely because Jeff just decided on Monday that he should go to the dentist. As a kid, his mom always made his appointments, so he went every six months. On April 3rd he’ll start again. Since it’s been a while, he’s dreading the appointment—not because of the pain, but because he’s embarrassed that it’s been so long. (Time: 1 minute, 22 seconds)

v Keri told us about a special birthday that she had and what made it special. She remembers there being a special birthday in her 20s. She and her now husband went out and partied at Disney World in Florida, where she received the red carpet treatment for her birthday, including a cake at the restaurant and a lot of opportunities to consume alcohol at Epcot. In particular, she recalled “The 911” in Germany, which consists of Rumplemintz, Goldschlager, and Jagermeister. (Time: 1 minute, 20 seconds)

Evaluator #1, Mike C, recalled his dentist office’s choice of décor being a bit odd—pictures portrayed dental practices in the 1800s…they weren’t exactly calming! Then, he found a dentist who placed a picture of his race car in Mike’s lap while he explained that Mike’s wisdom teeth needed to be pulled. Mike found a new dentist and still has his wisdom teeth today! Mike was so enthralled in Lori’s speech that he admitted worrying more about Lori’s child living than taking notes for his evaluation, but he did give Lori compliments on her gestures, purposeful movement, and plot development. He loved her vocal variety and the way that her use of pauses, pace, and monotone responses made our urgency grow. He also liked her visual descriptions. For future speeches (see Lori’s contest speech above), Mike suggested fewer dates and details, since it was tough to know what was important during that part of the speech, and thought that she could describe her and her husband’s urge to have kids even more. (Time: 3 minutes, 40 seconds)

Evaluator #2, Laura B, complimented Bob on being very gutsy to stand in front of all of us with only a couple of minutes to prepare. She also commended Bob on his voice, enunciation, vocal variety, projection of his voice, gestures, and humor. With more time to prepare, she thought Bob could have added more structure and organization to his speech and some more purposeful movement in the front of the room. (Time: 2 minutes, 38 seconds)

Inspiration/Humor – Bob told a joke.

Reports
v Wordmaster/Grammarian - Bob & Jeff used the word of the day. Rob also liked “…good time guy…” and “…in front of the Christmas tree with their bellies…”
v Timer – See times in parenthesis following speaking roles.

General Evaluator, Roxie N, commended Keri on her delay to gather her thoughts in table topics response. She thought Mike and Laura B. did a great job with their responses and enjoyed Bob’s humor.

Spirit Award: Lori Galloway

Business Items
v Mutual Voices Spring Contest – Thursday, March 15, 12pm, Partnership Room
v Area 14 Spring Contest – Tuesday, March 20, 12pm – First Trust Building
v Volunteers for Speechcraft are needed
v Dues will be collected in April

February 22, 2007 Meeting Summary

Mary was our Toastmaster and chose "Driving Pet Peeves" for her theme of the day. Mary chose this theme because a couple of months ago she wasdropping off her son at school and a woman would not let her in the line so Mary drove up and someone else let her in. The woman caught up to Mary, rolled down her window and proceeded to yell at her. Mary had our guest Katherine introduce herself. Katherine is looking for a club closer to her job location.

Keri was our Word Master Grammarian. She chose "aggressive" as the word of the day. Keri does not like aggressive drivers on the road. Keri noted only a few ahs and ums, but reminded us to make sure we are annunciating our words properly when we speak.

Sarah was our Timer today. Sarah does not like drivers who pay no attention to pedestrians in the cross walks. Times are noted in parenthesis.

Our first speaker was Roxie. Her speech was titled "Sharing". Before speaking Roxie passed out a sheet of paper defining the word 'share'. Roxie explained that each one of us is a gift and we need to share our time and talents with those around us. We can find opportunities to do this through United Way, Securian / Minnesota Life and other organizations such as Stamping Up. Stamping Up is a company that works closely with theRonald McDonald house. Roxie is proud to be a part of the opportunities that she gets from being involved with the children and families who stay at the Ronald McDonald house. (6:42)

Our second speaker was Dan. His speech title was "Four Steps to Effective Recognition". Dan was not working on a manual speech, but was getting prepared to teach a training class for supervisors and managers onrecognition. The four steps are 1) Explore missed opportunities. You dothis by asking your staff for input on what works and what doesn't work for recognition. 2) What makes a manager great? Managers need to know their staff and how they prefer recognition. Some like individual recognitionwhile others prefer group recognition. 3) Link recognition to goals and outcomes. Staff members will know in advance how recognition will bedetermined and awarded. 4) Listen with a fresh ear. Managers should notbe monotonous in their recognition efforts. (6:44)

Kathy was our Table Topics Master. Her first question to Laura G. was asking her perspective on whether bicycles should be licensed. Laura talked about three groups of bicycle riders. Kids who use bikes for toys should not be licensed. Adults who use bikes for pleasure should not be licensed. People who use bikes like motorized vehicles on the roads and go fast should be licensed. (2:34)

Kathy's second question went to Marian. She asked Marian to tell us abouther own bad driving habits. Marian explained to us that she had lived inBelgium for six years. When she returned to the United States her drivers license had expired so she had to retake the written test and pass the roadportion test again. She had no problem passing the written test, but whenshe went to take the road test she started off by going the wrong way down the street and failed the test within the first few minutes. Marian had to reschedule her road test a couple of days later and barely passed because she had a bad attitude from what had happened the first time around. (2:36)

Jeff was evaluator #1. He evaluated Roxie's speech. Jeff likes the wayRoxie is so relaxed and takes control of the audience. He liked heropening. For improvement Jeff told Roxie that it is ok to use notes forstatistics in a speech without telling the audience that you need to dothat because they are hard to remember. (2:23)

Mark was evaluator #2. He evaluated Dan's speech. Mark liked how Dan hadgood organization of the speech. He liked the good introduction Dan provided Mary. Dan had clear visuals and good use of humor. For improvement Mark noticed how at the beginning of the speech Dan had toldthe audience that the speech was going to be interactive, but it ended upbeing a lecture. Mark pointed out how Dan could have made the speech moreinteractive. (3:49)

We had the pleasure of our area governor at our meeting. Toyin Alowonle encouraged our club to enter the upcoming contests. She also needs somevolunteers from our club at the area contest. If your interested you cancontact Toyin at: Toyin.alowonle@agribank.com.

Marian was our General Evaluator. Marian liked Mary's great segwaysbetween speakers. Marian liked Kathy's good creative table topicsquestions. Marian thought the evaluations were very well done.

The spiritaward went to Marian. Congratulations.

February 15, 2007 Meeting Summary

Fellow Toastmasters:
First, my humble apologies to all of you for the very vague summary that follows. I was looking around the room to see who was summarizing for today and did not realize that it was supposed to be me. As such I took no notes and will have to rely on my keen sense of recall.

Our Toastmaster Betsy opened the meeting by sharing (and demonstrating) the theme for the day which was 'Alliteration'. Betsy acknowledged our guests: Andrew from Individual Life New Business, Brendan from Technical Engineering and the returning Rob who announced that he is our newest member. Welcome to Mutual Voices Rob!

Kathy, our Wordmaster / Grammarian introduced the Word of the Day which was insipid. The meaning of insipid is as follows:
1. Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty.
2. Lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull.

Betsy introduced Mary W who served as our Timer for the day and then itwas on to our first speaker, Marian J. Marian's speech was titled"The Road to Sinagogo". In her speech from the Storytelling Manual(Telling a Story From History) Marian recalled in vivid detail the story ofher father and his close friend as they served in WW II. She told of aparticularly onerous battle over a monastery in Italy. The story was compelling and rich with descriptive language and imagery. A very poignanttelling of a very personal story.

Our next speaker was Laura B who aptly titled her speech"Communicate Kindly with Canines". In this speech from the CompetentCommunicator manual (Vocal Variety) Laura demonstrated two very different ways to communicate with dogs. The first she referred to as "yank and yell" and involved the use of pinch or choke collars coupled with a harsher approach to communication to get the dog to comply with your wishes. The second was more gentle and involved softer, less painful collars and a warmer, praising style of communication.

Laura shared many different examples displaying a great deal of vocal variety. Laura's point was toteach that there are two different approaches, not that one approach is better than the other. She stressed that you need to consider the situation and the personality of the dog.

Sarah J was our Table Topics Master. Her first question went to MarkH and was "What are your experiences with writing poetry and alliteration as a technique?" Mark recalled a poetry writing contest he entered in grade school for the parochial school district. Mark couldn'tremember many of the details from the poem. He did recall that it ha a faith-based theme and that it likely didn't involve alliteration or even rhyming for that matter. He did win the contest and as a result had torecite his poem at some Catholic Women's meeting. Mark does like alliteration and is a big fan of incorporating it into his speeches.

Next Sara asked Jeff S if he could recall any tongue-twisters from his youth that were particularly difficult or memorable. Jeff admittedthat he couldn't recall any tongue-twisters (other than the one Sarar ecited) but that in college he did fancy himself as something of a rap artist. He and his friends would "bust out a rhyme" but he couldn't repeatany of his raps as they might not be appropriate in a corporate setting.

Finally, Sara directed her last question to our newest member, Rob W. Rob was asked if head done any rapping in college. Rob informed that he was not himself a rapper. He did however work with a guy at Perkins who liked to rap. He would recite other artist's raps and modify the words to be about Perkins.

Dave B evaluated Marian's speech. Dave was awed by the detailed and beautiful language that Marian used to tell her father's story. He felt transported to the scene and felt that he could see, smell and feel what she was describing. As a developmental note he suggested that Marian could have gone even further with her vocal variety to build tension and excitement, particularly at the climax of the story. His one word description of her speech - "Awesome".

Keri O evaluated Laura's speech. She felt that Laura picked a goodsubject-matter for her vocal variety speech. She appreciated herorganization and felt that her movement was purposeful. From a developmental perspective, she thought the absence of an actual dog hindered the speech a bit, but conceded that having one was not possible. Suggested perhaps a stuffed dog or some other sort of prop.

Mary & Kathy provided the Timer and Wordmaster / Grammarian reports. DanB followed with the General Evaluation. Dan praised Betsy for managing the meeting well and keeping it on track. He liked the Word of the Day and thanked Mary for stepping in as the Timer. He felt both evaluations were good examples of active listening with lots of good examples from the speeches and specific ideas for improvement.

The Spirit Award was given to Marian for her wonderful speech.

This was the first week of our Membership Contest. There have been modifications to the scoring in order to get more people involved and make it more interesting. The scoring for guests remains the same, five points for the member who brings them to their first meeting and one point forevery meeting they attend as a guest after that. Five additional point sare given to the sponsoring member when their guest becomes a new member. For all other members at each meeting, one point is awarded for filling ameeting role (other than Speaker) and two points are given to the prepared speaker. I attached a spreadsheet with today's results and will update itand send it out each week until the contest is complete.

Congratulationsto our current leader Jeff S with 11 points. Join us next week when Mary W will be the Toastmaster and Roxie N and Dan B will be our prepared speakers. Bring a guest and gain valuable points in our Membership Contest! See you all next week!

February 8, 2007 Meeting Summary

Jeff was our Toastmaster for the meeting and chose "Pets" as the theme. Jeff is a pet lover and grew up with dogs in the home. His wife however isscarred of animals. Jeff would like a dog but he needs to convince hiswife that it would be a good idea. They went to a Superbowl party and thehome owners had a little Yorkie that actually would sit on his wife's lap. Jeff is hoping this is the beginning of something good.

Betsy was our Word Master Grammarian. She chose Pedigree as the word of the day. Pedigree is a noun that means: 1) a register recording a line ofancestors, 2) an ancestral line : Lineage and 3) a distinguished ancestry

Mike was the Timer. Mike is not a pet person. He stated you can never potty train a dog. He says that kids move out, but pets just die and needto be buried.

Mark was our first speaker. His speech was titled "Membership Building 101". Mark announced a contest for our club that runs from 2/15/07 to4/15/07. You will get 5 points for every guest you bring to a meeting, 5 points if that guest joins our club, 2 points if the new member gives a speech, 1 point for each meeting your guest returns and 1 point if the newmember holds a duty other then speaker. The awards are: 1st place $25. gift card, 2nd place $15. gift card and 3rd-5th place $5. gift card.(17:50)

Marian was our second speaker. Her speech was about the behind the scenes of the All Company Meeting. They expect 2,000 plus people to attend theall company meeting each year. Marian told us of three reasons we have anannual all company meeting. 1) Purpose - to hear the psp percentage number. This includes educating, motivating, giving information on the past years experiences, insight into the coming up year and the culture ofSecurian/Minnesota Life. 2) Process - planning of the meeting begins inSeptember. Information is obtained from department heads. The meeting needs to be different each year. 3) Results - after the meeting associates are surveyed. They have obtained a 98% message received success rate.(7:30)

Roxie was our Table Topic Master. Roxie is a pet lover and in fact has three dogs: Rascal Gordon, Sadie May and Riley Jr. All these dogs were rescues from the animal shelter. Roxie's first question went to Laura B."Have you worked for an animal shelter?" Yes Laura has spent countless hours volunteering for the animal shelter. She has worked there for six years and has never adopted a pet yet because she has her beloved Buddy athome.(1:23)

Roxie's second question went to Lori. "You are your dog' Saydee', what do you do all day long while home alone?" Lori as Saydee would sleep all day long curled up on the couch. She knows when her kids get home from school each day so she wakes up shortly before they get home and waits to greet them at the door. (1:20)

Laura G evaluated Marks speech. She congratulated Mark on a great job. Mark is an accomplished speaker and has good structure, vocal variety and gestures. Laura suggested Mark provide the Toastmaster with a better introduction of his background, use more movement and turn down the frontlights when using power point. (3:11)

Betsy evaluated Marian's speech. She felt Marian seemed very calm, organized and picked a good topic which was very relevant for this time of year. Betsy said Marian had a good introduction, good eye contact and body language. Betsy suggested Marian might want to push back the table for more room to move around in. (1:48)

Betsy reported the word of the day was used by Roxie, Mike and Laura G. She enjoyed the phrases "Fleeing as quickly as they can, never to return","Looming", "Sanity Break" and Marian saying she may be the food. Laura B was our General Evaluator. She commented that Jeff is very natural as the Toastmaster. Betsy chose a good Word of the Day, Mike had great humor, Lori had good structure to her table topic response and overall themeeting was great. The Spirit Award went to: Marian.

February 1, 2007 Meeting Summary

Much fun, frivolity and serendipity abounded at our Mutual VoicesToastmasters meeting today. Our Toastmaster Laura G selected 'Gifts& Talents' as the theme of the day. She recounted a recent experiencewhere she was asked to deliver a speech on gifts and talents and that she was grateful that she had the gift of Toastmasters to fall back on in thatsituation.

Laura introduced out Wordmaster / Grammarian Mary W and asked Mary toshare her talent or gift. Mary stated that she has a gift for motivating people (particularly women) to be the best they can be. The Word of theDay that Mary chose was 'serendipity'. Serendipity is an aptitude formaking desirable discoveries by accident, good fortune; luck. Mary challenged all of us in attendance to try to use this word.

Lori G was our Timer and Laura G shared that her gift is that she isvery organized.

Our first speaker was Mary Ellen G. Her speech was titled 'LaFocaccia'. In her speech Mary Ellen shared experiences from their 5thanniversary trip to Italy which her husband Tim surprised her with. She set the stage by informing that she is very organized and detail oriented and Tim is a bit more laid-back fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy.

For this trip they essentially swapped roles with Tim doing all of the planning and detail work and Mary Ellen trying to be more laid-back. All was going well until they arrived at their first stop in Tuscany when they discovered that Tim had forgotten the 'Detail File' with all of the details regarding the remainder of their tour. Tim called back to the states in the middle of the night and a friend had to break into their house (they had just moved to a new home and no one had keys) to retrieve the Detail File.

On to Venice where they went in search of their hotel without the Detail File which had the name of the hotel. They had joked that it was difficult to pronounce so they just referred to it as 'La Focaccia'. They wandered the streets asking vendors and people they came upon if they knew where 'LaFocaccia Hotel'. They got some confused and some irritated looks, but finally an elderly woman understood them enough to help them find their hotel. They discovered that they also had gotten a room upgrade as an additional surprise.

Next it was on to Florence by train (they had to repurchase their train tickets as the Detail File had still not arrived) where they picked uptheir rental car. Their rental car had an in-car navigation system called Street Pilot. They were easily able to navigate Florence and the surrounding area with little or no difficulty by using the Street Pilot. All was fine until they went to Rome. Mary Ellen described the traffic inRome like "Manhattan on steroids!" and they were having quite a time finding their hotel (since the Street Pilot had stopped working) until Tim finally pulled over and just sat there staring out the window.

Mary Ellen approached a group of cab drivers and was relieved when one of them in perfect English provided directions to their hotel. Mary Ellen and Tim completed their trip with their marriage still in tact. Afterward they complimented each other on the success of their role reversal. As for lessons learned, next time Mary Ellen will be in chargeof the Detail File and Tim will never again make fun of her organizational efforts.

And finally, when traveling to Italy, don't name your hotel afterItalian bread.

Our second speaker was Laura B whose speech was titled 'The Right Place & Time'. Laura began her speech by stating that she had seen theface of God and asked if we had done likewise. She went on to say that shewas going to share with us several of her experiences with experiencing God's beauty and wonder and provide us with some tips on how we to can experience this.

Her first tip was to rise early. She showed us a photograph she had takenof a sunrise on Pelican Lake and how she would never have experienced this serendipitous experience of such incredible beauty if she had not gotten upearly. Her next tip was to stop and linger. By stopping and lingering you allow yourself the time to truly enjoy what you are experiencing. For this example, Laura shared a photo of a spring fern that was just ready tounfurl.

Her final tip was to get close and touch those things around you. She shared photos of two insects that she photographed and handled. She shared her 'religious experience' when she was able to touch a baby whale in the wild. Laura reminded us that beauty is all around us if we only putourselves in the right place and time. Her reminder was to make sure to grab your camera so you can share your experiences and don't forget the batteries!

Our Table Topics Master was Jeff Streeper who is blessed with the gift of having a good sense of direction. His first question went to Betsy S and he asked her to share a hidden talent that she possessed. Betsy shared that she is similar to Laura B in that she likes to photograph animals and nature. She spoke specifically of getting up at 6 a.m. in the Boundary Waters canoe area to photograph a sunrise. She has many pictures of nature and animals and rather prefers them as subject matter rather than people.

Our guest Rob W bravely agreed to field a Table Topics question. Jeff asked him what talent he doesn't currently possess that he has always wanted. Ironically, Rob expressed that the talent he had always wanted topossess was public speaking ability. His only experience was a speech class in college where he did just what he needed to get by. Through experiences like visiting and becoming involved in Toastmasters he hopes toimprove his public speaking skills.

The final question went to Lori G. She was asked what her favorite Valentine's Day gift was and what she could recommend to Jeff to give to his wife. Lori said that her favorite gifts were Valentine hearts andnotes that her kids created that had personal messages for Mom. Her first suggestion to Jeff was that he could write his wife a love letter. Another suggestion was to take her out for a nice dinner. Chocolate is always agood option. As for flowers, she said they are fine, but that they shouldbe given on a day other than Valentine's Day to make it more of a special surprise.

Roxie N evaluated Mary Ellen's speech. Roxie's gift is crafting. She began by saying that Mary Ellen was lucky to have a husband so willing todo such a wonderful thing for her. This was Mary Ellen's vocal variety speech and overall Roxie felt that she did very well. At one point in the speech (when Tim was asking about the Detail File) she felt that Mary Ellen might have used her voice even more to emphasize the importance of that point. She loved the analogy of Rome being "Manhattan on steroids!" and thought it was poignant that Mary Ellen softened her voice at the end as she shared the lessons learned.

Dave Baston evaluated Laura B's speech. Dave's gift is the ability to find humor in almost any situation. Dave informed that this was Laura's Organize Your Speech speech and said that overall she had accomplished her task well. He felt that she set the tone well with a powerful yet subtle open. He was very impressed with the photographic images that she shared in her speech. For the most part he felt that she used pauses very effectively, however more ahs and ums began to creep into her speech as the speech went along. The other main developmental point he shared was that Laura may have provided just a bit more clarity in her introduction to make it easier for the listener to follow along. All in all a great speech with beautiful visual images.

Lori shared the Timer's report:
Mary Ellen (6:23)Laura B (7:18)Betsy (1:24)Rob (1:01)Lori (1:13)Roxie (1:35)Dave (2:57)

Mary shared in the Wordmaster / Grammarian report that Lori, Laura B (2)and Roxie had used the Word of the Day. For interesting uses of thelanguage she sited "paper clips in a row" and "Manhattan on steroids!".

Kathy Johnson was our General Evaluator and her gift is the ability to multitask. Kathy felt that Laura G did well as the Toastmaster. She likedthe theme and felt that the transitions and meeting logistics were handled well. She liked Jeff's theme related Table Topic questions and sited the different ways that Betsy (storytelling) and Lori (list format) answered their respective questions. She also praised our guest Rob for being willing to take on a question and for handling it so well.

As for theevaluators, she congratulated Roxie on good suggestions in her first evaluation and held up Dave's evaluation as a great example to learn from. The Spirit Award went to Laura B for her inspiring and visually stunning speech.

Don't miss our meeting next week where the incomparable Jeff S willbe our Toastmaster and our speakers will be Mary Wand Dave B. And while you're at it, bring a guest! Surely you know someone who can use thebenefits Toastmasters has to offer.

January 25, 2007 Meeting Summary

Toastmaster, Laura B, skillfully navigated the unexpected at our meeting last Thursday. She began by introducing Jeff’s guest, Rob, who works with Jeff as an internal wholesaler. The theme of the day—live theater—spurred Laura to ask duty holders to tell us about their favorite live performance. Her favorite was recently at the History Theater, which specializes in real life, Minnesota stories.

Laura G stepped in as timer for the day. She has many favorite performances, but told the group about the latest performance she attended. While in London, they had the opportunity to see “We Will Rock You”, which, she explained, is comparable to Mama Mia! in that they wove together a group’s music to create a story, but the music was from Queen rather than Abba. While the story was weak, the performance more than made up for it!

Jeff S was the Wordmaster/Grammarian, and chose antagonist for the word. Antagonist means 1) A person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary. 2) The adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work; Iago is the antagonist of Othello. Jeff’s memorable performance was a performance of Hamlet that he saw for a Shakespeare class in London. They were “groundlings” at the Globe Theater, so had to stand for the entire performance—that’s 3 ½ hours for Hamlet!

Speaker #1, Roxie N, recently saw “White Christmas” at The Ordway. Once she got over that it’s not the same story as the video (which she has), she thought the show was phenomenal! Roxie presented “Unprepared” for her Organizing Your Speech project in the Competent Communicator manual. She grabbed our attention by reading her introduction from a script, then explained that were she truly unprepared, she would continue reading. However, being prepared is all about being organized and Roxie has found websites that have ideas about how to be organized—she shared ideas from www.flylady.net and gave us handouts of “The Welcome Letter” and “Today is January 25th”. Roxie said that she prepares for her speeches and her life in the same way—in 15 minute increments. The Fly Lady calls these 15 minute increments your Fly Zones and your Morning/Afternoon/Evening Routines. When you begin the program, you’re a Fly Baby, which means that you’re basically clueless, your life is in complete chaos, you have “Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome”. Once you begin working with The Fly Lady, you begin by learning how to do an evening routine, which makes your morning better. Roxie’s evening routine consists of making phone calls, shining her sink, laying out her clothes, zone cleaning, hot spot cleaning, brushing her teeth, and doing the dishes. Shining your sink gives you a fresh start to a fresh day, and the dishwasher is full so you can begin the day by emptying it. The Fly Lady also introduces the 27 Fling Boogie, where you go through your house and throw away 27 things, and Hot Spots, which teach you to keep your paperwork put away. In conclusion, Roxie quotes, “Slow and steady is what gets our home and our lives in order.” (Time - 7:26 minutes)

Speaker #2, Lori G, earned her CL by giving her second speech from the Successful Club Series, “Finding New Members For Our Club”. Lori explained that many factors affect the membership of the club, including: a mobile, changing society; two working people in a household; and changing priorities. When people leave, we can’t sustain a vibrant club. Toastmasters International requires that clubs have 20 members in order to charter. They know that 20 members will create a healthy club, members won’t get burned out, and members won’t have too many duties. Mutual Voices is currently down to 17 members! For an existing club, new members provide: new ideas, a larger pool of leaders, more fun (“the more the merrier!”), and more revenue from dues which can be used for advertising, parties, brochures, and supplies. Lori asked everyone to help us get new members for our club. The VP of Membership (currently Mark Haugh) can’t do it by himself, his role is to be a coordinator. We all need to talk to friends, relatives, co-workers; wear our Toastmaster pins every day; display “The Toastmaster” magazine at our desk; distribute brochures and flyers; and conduct Speechcraft. When guests do visit, we need to greet them at the door, introduce ourselves, sit with them during the meeting, answer questions, speak with them after the meeting, introduce them to the VP of Membership, and even invite them for coffee to get to know them better. Finally, we need to ask them to come again! (Time – 8:00 minutes)

Keri O provided us with one Table Topics question so that Rob could experience an entire meeting. Keri’s favorite live performances were the ones that she participated in! In high school and college, Keri’s was a member of the pit orchestra, so participated in “Annie Get Your Gun”, “Guys & Dolls”, and many more shows. Her favorite part was getting to know the words, and noticing changes to them! Keri asked Marian to share a time when she read a book, then saw a performance of that book (either on stage or in a movie).

Marian was an English major in college, but couldn’t remember a story that she’d read and seen, so she shared a story of the ticket duel that some friends of her’s have given her front row seats to! Marian’s friends have shared their Gutherie tickets with her and her husband for years. They go to Sunday shows with the “older crowd”. After many years, the other couple has announced their divorce and the four tickets are at the center of it! They’ve decided to split the tickets—Marian was lucky to be invited to an upcoming performance of “The Glass Menagerie”. (Time – 2:21 minutes)

Evaluator #1 was Sarah J, who evaluated Roxie’s speech. Sarah liked the way that Roxie defined her goals, grabbed our attention with her introduction, and her natural speaking style. She suggested that Roxie provide more information about what she will be covering in her speech during the introduction and thanked Roxie for the good ideas that she provided. (Time – 1:45 minutes)

Evaluator #2 was Mary W, who evaluated Lori’s speech. Lori asked Mary to evaluate her using the suggestions from the visual aids project in the Competent Communicator manual, even though this was a Successful Club Series speech. Mary appreciated Lori’s use of visual aids for the message she was delivering; they helped to make the message clear, were not too busy, and helped us to remember where Lori was in her agenda. Lori, too, was commended for her good ideas and her organization. Mary suggested that Lori come earlier to prepare the room for her PowerPoint presentation and that she incorporate more movement into her speech. (Time – 2:51 minutes)

Reports

Wordmaster/Grammarian – No one used the word antagonist during the meeting. There were some ahs/ums. Jeff’s favorite sayings were: “Fly Baby”, “Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome”, and Keri calling on Marian as her “victim”.

See the times listed in parenthesis following each speech.

General Evaluator, Mike C, took his role seriously as he antagonized anyone who hadn’t already been evaluated. Mike commended Laura B. for keeping the meeting flowing without taking too long; he would have liked her to provide more of an introduction for Lori’s speech. Mike thought the other duties were performed well, but suggested that no one cut themselves down before they begin. If we just start with our speech and link back to the points at the end, no one will know that we’re new or uncomfortable.

Spirit Award – Roxie N.

January 18, 2007 Meeting Summary

Marian started the party... I mean, the meeting... right on time, askingour guests to introduce themselves. Theresa B. is currently working inSecurian Financial Services and was a guest of Laura B. DeannaH introduced herself as Mark's wife and our "perpetual guest".

Marian invited everyone to get lunch at the food table. We enjoyed anassortment of delicious pizzas, Caesar salad, and soft drinks. There weremouth-watering mini cream puffs and a wonderful mix of cookies for dessert.

Mark was the Wordmaster/Grammarian and provided the word "sanguine" as theword of the day. It means cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or positive.

We had one speaker, Laura G. Her speech was #2 in the CompetentCommunicator manual. It was titled "So You've Gone Digital - Now What?"Laura gave us four options for keeping photos, other than stored in yourhard drive or on the original digital media, rarely to be looked at again.Print the photosYou can use the kiosks at ProEx, Walgreens, etc. to print your favoritephotos. Four by six prints are 19 to 29 cents each. A cheaper method is touse proex.com, walgreens.com, walmart.com, etc. Download and order yourprints on line and prepay. All you'll need to do is stop in at the storeand pick them up.Create a PhotoshowYou can add text, etc. using an on-line photoshow (Google it!) Laura'ssister sent a DVD of the family's favorite photos from last year, completewith text and music.Create a Digital ScrapbookLaura displayed a 20-page scrapbook that she made digitally. It took herabout six hours to create through shutterfly.com. After applying a discountand with free shipping, it cost her around $60. Again, you can Googledigital scrapbooking for other sources.Create a Hand-Made ScrapbookLaura displayed a small scrapbook containing just pictures, that she madefor around $15. She also showed us an impressive large scrapbook she hadput together. She was able to include "trinkets" like ticket stubs,brochures, etc. in this larger scrapbook.If nothing else, at least print your digital photos in case your computercrashes!Betsy provided humor that she found after "Googling" Toastmasters humor.They were great plays on words that had us all laughing.

Marian asked for a volunteer to start table topics, and Roxie stepped in.Roxie asked Mary Ellen what she does to keep a positive attitude. MaryEllen is happy most of the time, but when she does get in a funk she goesrunning or exercises in other ways. As she's exercising she thinks of thegood things she has in her life, and that always pulls her out of a funk.

After this topics question, assigned topics master Lori G took over.Lori asked Mary how she keeps a positive attitude when she's in a hurry andgets stuck behind a slow driver. Mary admitted that she's a fast driver.She tries to relax and remember the three-second rule, maintaining a safedistance. She tries to appreciate that the slower driver might be savingher from an accident or being pulled over for speeding.

Lori asked Sarah where she would go internationally for any celebration ifshe had the chance. Without hesitation, Sarah said she would go to Ghana.The people there are always happy and smiling, always celebrating. Herprofessor took a sabbatical in Ghana and she has met many people fromthere. She would love to go to Ghana some day.

Before starting his evaluation of Laura's speech, Mike asked Sarah "Are youGhana go?" What a wit. Mike gave a well organized evaluation of Laura'sspeech. Her speech had four very clear points which made it easy to follow.It was a great reality check thinking about the possibilities if one'scomputer crashed with all the photos stored there. Laura had good vocalvariety, subject flow, and eye contact. Laura's speech was organizedperfectly, so he suggested she organize her props differently. Put them outfirst, rather than dig in the bag for each one during the speech.

No one used the word of the day, although there were plenty ofopportunities. Participants in the meeting did well with the numbers ofahs and ums, but Mark noted there were lots of sentence connectors used during the meeting.

Dave was our General Evaluator. He praised Marian for how she performed herToastmaster role, Dan did a fine job as timer, and Mark provided a greatword for the day. Dave told Betsy he highly benefitted from the fun humorshe had shared. The topics questions were good and everyone appearedcomfortable in answering. They spoke smoothly with confidence andarticulation. Mike's evaluation was very thorough and well organized likea mini speech.

The Spirit Award went to Laura G for her speech. Congratulations,Laura!