08-04-05 Meeting Summary

The theme for this week's meeting was Wildlife Encounters. Speaking of
wildlife, my week has been just that. Wild!!! Work seems to be the only
thing keeping me tame and far from sane. However, writing this summary
will get me back to sane.

Our Toastmaster today was Laura C. Her favorite wildlife encounter
was touching a gray whale in the ocean. She said it was like touching the
face of God. It was warm, grey, and rubbery. I always pictured God with a
big white beard eating popcorn chicken as Colonel Sanders tosses them into
his mouth. My image of God definitely is not barbarous. We all love
popcorn chicken and the southern culture Colonel Sanders has brought to the
Union.

Barbarous was the word of the day. It is an adjective meaning uncivilized,
lacking culture or refinement. Kathy's favorite wildlife encounter is
watching deer in amazement as the leap and bound through nature. Too bad
they can not learn to leap and bound over motor vehicles. However, I would
have to agree with Kathy, seeing deer leap and bound is a breathtaking
sight.

Another sight to see would be seeing Mary Ellen G.'s dog as he leaves
a trail a food and water marking his trail. His favorite story must Hansel
and Gretal. I do not think Mary Ellen's dog will be ready to start a
family anytime soon until he literally cleans his act up.

Our first speaker, Marian J, started her speech off by asking, "Are
you thinking of a starting a family soon?" I know Mary Ellen's dog and my
response, not yet. We both need to mature a bit. Marian was asked this
question in an interview in the 1970s at a job interview with Control Data.
In the 1970's the workplace environment was an unfriendly place for women.
Back in the seventies I was not even a sparkle in Ma K's eye. Marian
went on to say who things have changed since then. Parents now receive
greater support now (e.g. day-care, flex time). Also, technology and the
ability to work at home has helped changed corporate America's view of
women juggling motherhood and a career. Attitudes in general have changed
too. Like a fellow associate says, "You can not be a yummy cookie if you
have a crumby attitude." Speaking of cookies, most six years old love
cookies. Did you know since the 1970's the number of mother's who have
children under six years old has doubled? Also, 1/10 of all people in
executive position are women. Quite, mind boggling since they make up over
half the work force. Marian suggests we ask what we can do to change the
current situation. We need to mentor and encourage women to get out of
their comfort zones. And Marian ended her speech telling women to dream
big. Speaking of dreaming big, our next speaker, Mike C., dreamed of
getting his recommendation to implement a Connection Control Feature of the
SPAM filter approved by a panel.

Mike rehearsed a speech he was going to give in an hour and it dealt with
Securian's current SPAM Filter. Some executives say a SPAM Filter may
block important data. In his speech Mike told us about how Securian has
been blacklisted three times in the last two months. Being blacklisted
means our email contains some sort of SPAM. This occurred because we have
a lot of SPAM coming into the company. This could be caused to a large
number of emails with incorrect email addresses. The SPAM filter
Connection Control helps check for SPAM and blacklists SPAMMERS. It can
also reduce the probability of being blacklisted. After, Mike was done
presenting his points, it was time for the Q and A session. Here are a
few;

Q) Why was this not implemented earlier?
A) It could prevent potential business from coming in.

Q) How much will it cost the company?
A) Free, we just need to turn it on.

Q) If this was a feature on existing SPAM, why are we just checking it
now?
A) That is a difficult issue. Some do not want it to be on (e.g Group).

Well done, all of that talk of SPAM made me a little hungry. Hold on while
I take a bite of my Tuna sandwich on a whole wheat bagel. Mmmmm, that hits
the spot. Probably because it was wild before it found its home in a
little tin can. Keeping up with the fish theme, our Table Topics Master,
Eddie K., told us his most memorable wildlife experience.

His experience occurred a few weeks back. He was fly fishing on the Kinni
and caught a 10 inch trout. He landed the little fellow and released him.
However, when he let the fish swim away, it came back and gave him a look
of "Why did you hook me in the lip?"

Q) Some people and researchers say the chimpanzee is the next smartest
creature to the human being? Explain to us what you think the dumbest
animal is.

Gadder: My sister-in-law...............................'s cat. It sweet,
but dopey. Once while he was visiting, he wondered where the cat was. To
his dismay it was in their dog's mouth. And the cat looked like it was
enjoying it.

Q) You have been asked by the DNR to cross bread two wild animals to help
increase tourism to our state parks. Which two animals would you choose
and what would be some of it's characteristics?

Stacia: She would cross bread an albino squirrel and a deer. Hopefully the
deer would give birth. It would be a white deer with a fluffy
squirrel-like tail. The personality would be like that of a deer and not
viscous like a squirrel.

Those were two great answers to two great questions. Another thing that
comes in pairs were our evaluations.

Our first evaluator's, Kim C., favorite wildlife experience is seeing
deer in Northern Wisconsin. She thought Marain has a great intro, used
great transitions, and used statistics wonderfully. However, for the next
Kim thought Marian could work on her gestures and organizations. Our
second evaluator's, Laura G., favorite experience also took place up
north. Only hers was in Minnesota at the BWCA.

On this trip she saw a cow moose and her calf swimming. She thought Mike
did a great job of gesturing, had great tone and presences, and seemed
quite calm. However, Laura thought Mike could work on dropping his hands
to his sides and come out from behind the lectern. For the Q&A session,
she thought Mike should really emphasize that it is free as a selling
point, had great eye contact, and liked how he turned Kelly's negative
question into a positive question.

The word of the day was used twice. Kathy especially liked the phrases,
"hop up the ladder" and "Dream big."

Timer's report

Speeches
Marain: 8:36
Mike: 5:34 Q&A: 7:16

Table Topics
Gadder: 1:20
Stacia: 1:18

Evaluations
Kim: 3:02
Laura: 3:18

Bill, our General Evaluator, thought we had a great meeting, great
introductions, great word of the day, and great well balanced evaluations.
The Spirit Award went to Marian J.

07-28-05 Meeting Summary

MEETING SUMMARY -- JULY 28, 2005
Theme of the Day: Baseball

Dressed in a Twins shirt and with baseball-related memorabilia decorating
the podium, Toastmaster, Mark H. scored a double with his selection of a
baseball theme for the 7/28 Mutual Voices Toastmaster meeting. Picking up
on Mark's theme, duty holders threw in baseball-related terms at every
opportunity and hit the meeting right out of the park!

Wordmaster/Grammarian, Lori G., introduced indelible, as word of the
day and used it in a theme-related sentence: Some baseball players such as
Babe Ruth are indelible as the ink stains under the breast pocket.

With several years in the majors behind her,Timer, Laura G.,
skillfully described her responsibilities using baseball vernacular.

Speaker # 1, Dan B., delivered a speech under the "Folk Tale" category
of the Advanced Communication and Leadership Series. He opened by
defining the term "Folk Tale." He then read a children's story "We're
tired of living in a house," written by Liesel Skorpen that he thinks fits
the definition of a folk tale. The story is about a group of children who
decide that they'd rather live in a variety of alternative accommodations,
including a cave, a tree house and a lilly pad rather than a house. After
reading the story, Dan described the analogy between the childrens' quest
for the ideal place to live and the quest for the ideal place to work:
Neither exist. Working in HR, he's very aware of how some associates
complain about working conditions here only to discover on leaving the
company and seeking that "perfect" job elsewhere that it wasn't so bad here
after all.

Gadder F., Speaker # 2, gave a speech about Courage, the second speech
in the first manual. According to Gadder, courage is a quality that we
all possess and that eventually our courage will be tested. The essence
of courage is faith in ourselves, which is something each one of us needs
to build. He referred to the Securian brand training that he recently
went through and how Karl S. states that people with strong values are
more successful and happier. If you know yourself, you have faith in
yourself and can build self-confidence, said Gadder. Courage cannot
surface without being tested and we shouldn't shrink away from these tests.
Gadder gave examples of what these tests might be -- not necessarily large
acts but small items. His last words were "Have courage and live and you
might inspire others."

Mark continued the baseball theme by calling the meeting Humorist, Mike
C., to the podium fto lead the "seventh inning stretch." Mike told a
funny story about how the bass section with the Cleveland Symphony
Orchestra decided to go to the bar during an extensive part of Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony during which they didn't play. Here's a link to the full
story:http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor3.shtml.

Evaluations of the day's speeches then followed. Evaluator # 1, Bill
S., otherwise known as the first base umpire, provided feedback to Dan
on his speech. He talked about how the children's book provided some
interesting material for the speech.

Kelly T., Evaluator # 2, rated Gadder's second Mutual Voices speech
as excellent. She cited his repetition of thoughts and the examples of
courage that he provided, along with his introduction, body and conclusion

Mark introduced Table Topics Master, Keri O. as the "reliever." Keri
told us that her husband is a White Sox fan and her first question to Jerry
Vang, was "What could she and her husband do to get along amicably through
the rest of the baseball season?"

Jerry V., suggested that Keri sit down with her husband and discuss
scores, nicely. But Jerry reserved his strongest advice for Keri's husand:
Follow what works in his household "wife knows best!"

Keri's second question for Laura C. was "What three items would you
explain to someone unfamiliar with the game of baseball?

Laura started off by saying that she had difficulty figuring out when a
ball was good and so she thought explaining the difference between a hit, a
strike and a ball would be a good idea.

Keri's third question was for new member, Stacia S. If all the Twin
Cities teams had critical and high profile games, what would she choose to
watch? Stacia said she has Timberwolves tickets and so she would most
likely choose to watch them.

General Evaluator, Mary Ellen G., evaluated the meeting as very good
overall, with a good theme, good introductions and explanations of duties
and no distractions. Timer, Laura G., did a good job and turned the
box so the speakers could see the lights, which was very helpful. The
Spirit Award went to Mark H.

07-21-05 Meeting Summary

Good morning all. If you were unable to attend last weeks meeting - we
missed you! Hope to see everyone at this weeks meeting.

Our meeting was held on the 20th floor conference room (hope we will be
back in the usual spot this week!)

Our theme for the meeting was "Concerts" and our Toastmaster was Eddie
K. Eddie started our meeting on time and asked the duty holders to
share with us their favorite (or not so favorite) concert experiences.
Other wise the duty holders could do an air guitar solo (unfortunately no
one took Eddie up on this offer - would have been fun to see). Eddie told
us that he went to a Robert Plant concert with his Dad and brother when he
was younger.

Kim C. was the wordmaster grammarian for our meeting and she chose the
word "Mesmerize" as the word of the day. Some meanings of the word are to
spellbind, enthrall and to hypnotize. Mike C. was the only member
present who used the word of the day during our meeting.

Dan B. was our timer. Dan hates concerts so he tries to avoid them at
all costs. The least favorite concert that he has attended was the "Who".

Mark H. was our first speaker and he did speech #3 from the Professional
Speaker manual. His speech was titled "Sales Pitch". The theme of the
speech was how we all can grow our club. Mark read to us the mission
statement and promise of Toastmasters. He informed us that there are three
points to the sales process. 1). Identify a prospect that needs what you
have to sell. For toastmasters this could be a co-worker, family member or
friend. 2). Develop relationships with these people as you need to sell
them a solution to one of their needs. If they give any obstacles or
objections as to why they are unable to join, we can be ready by telling
them of our personal stories of what Toastmasters has done for us. 3).
Close the sale. Invite them to a meeting and follow up with them.

Our next speaker was Keri O. She did speech #3 from a specialty
speech manual. The title was "It's not a wash" The theme of Keri's speech
was about antibacterial soaps. Keri studied micro biology in college and
was very knowledgeable about the differences in using regular soap versus
using antibacterial soap. First she explained the difference in how the
two kinds of soap work. The antibacterial soap kills the bacteria on your
hands and they wash away down the drain which is ok, but eventually the
bacteria start to grow stronger and more resistant to the ingredients in
the antibacterial soap. On the other hand, regular soap attaches
themselves to the bacteria and also get washed down the sink. In studies
both types of soap eliminate about the same amount of bacteria but regular
soap does not kill the good bacteria (yes there is good bacteria on our
skin). Antibacterial soap does nothing against viruses.

Our table topics master for this meeting was Dave B. Dave told us
that the first concert he ever went to was ACDC in Wisconsin. He even got
into fist fights at the concert. The worst concert he ever went to was
John Mellancamp because it was a short concert and John did not interact
with the crowd. The most recent concert Dave was at was the Wiggles live
concert to which he took his three year old son.

Dave asked Laura G. what her most interesting concert experience was.
Laura informed us that her first concert was Don Henley's "building the
perfect beast" concert. She was 16 and she bought t-shirts while she was
there. The most dull and boring concert she went to with her dad was Sting
and the most expensive concert she went to was Billy Joel and Elton John.

Next Dave asked Gadder F. what was his worst concert experience to
which he replied while in the military stationed in Georgia in 1999 he had
a friend who was obsessed with the "Spice Girls". They drove two hours to
get to the concert. The only reason Gadder even went was because he had
nothing better to do, but when they got there the crowd was mostly 12 year
old girls and they were the tallest people! His friend proceeded to get
drunk and was twirling his shirt around.

Dave asked MaryEllen if she had her own concert tour, how would that
represent her and why? MaryEllen was actually in a band in college (she
played the drums). She even played at her own wedding. She would have her
tour be a vacation themed tour and call it "Were on a roll" tour.

Betsy was our final table topics respondent. Dave wanted to know what her
toughest or most painful concert that she would sit through be. Betsy has
a friend who's son can not sing well, but he thinks that he can. Someday
she thinks that this kid would have his own concert. Betsy has already sat
through a dance recital and mini concerts for this child and did not like
it very much. So she would not go to a concert if this kid ever put one on
due to past experiences she has had already. She would come up with a good
excuse not to go.

Laura C. evaluated Marks speech. She liked his purposeful movements,
gestures and personal stories he told us during the speech. She would like
to see him put down the piece of paper he used to quote the mission
statement and promise for Toastmasters as soon as he is done referencing it
and to slow down his overall rate of the speech (she felt he sped up
towards the end). Laura told us that she went to a Janice Joplin concert.

Mike C. evaluated Keri's speech. He liked her visuals, humor and
summarization at the end of her speech. He would like to see her start out
with one story (not multiple) at the beginning of the speech, not to use
too many connectors and drop any extra detail that is not relevant to the
speech.

Kelly was the general evaluator for our meeting. She felt Eddie did an
excellent job (he had good eddieisms) She liked his segways between the
duty holders. She reminded Kim to print up large copies for the word of
the day. Kelly liked Dans antics with the timer box. She felt Dave had
good table topic questions. She told our table topic respondents that they
all had good responses to their questions. Kelly noticed that the speech
evaluators had some aahs and ums that they should try to limit.

Times: Mark 7:36, Keri 7:50, Laura 2:40, Mike 4:05, Laura G 1:28, Gadder
1:40, MaryEllen :50, Betsy 1:05.

The spirit award went to Keri O.

Business items: Kelly asked us to use the bcc option when we send a message
to the entire group to avoid all the out of office messages that we all get
in response.

07-14-05 Meeting Summary

Did you miss it? Did you miss today’s fabulous meeting consisting of fire, ice, and garage sales? If so, fear not…the summary of the meeting is below and you can plan now to attend next week’s meeting where speakers, Mark H. and Keri O. will entertain us—they’ll make us laugh, cry, or maybe just groan…who knows, but you won’t want to miss it!

Our Toastmaster, Kathy J, did a fabulous job of handling all of the room changes and setting up the room to make our speakers comfortable. Unfortunately, we were bumped from the Partnership room for a baby shower, so decided to meet in 21SW instead of the Achievement Room. We were a bit cozy and warm, which would have probably been more welcome on a cold, blustery day, but a little heat was preferable with TWO Icebreakers being given today!

The theme of the day was “Garage Sales”. Kathy asked each of our duty holders, “Why is one man’s junk another man’s treasure?” Below are all of the duty-holders responses:
When Kathy was little, she had a plaque that said, “A giggle a day keeps the glums away.” Hoping to make some money, she priced it for a quarter and put it in her sister’s garage sale. To her dismay, her father bought it and showed it to her for years whenever she was unhappy, then gave it to her as a wedding gift. This piece of junk from her childhood is now a treasure for her.
Betsy hates garage sales…everything about them! A friend of hers has a knack for finding treasures, though, and she doesn’t even wait for the sales!
Mike gets excited about the possible bargains that he’ll get, but has always been disappointed (and gets a headache!) when he goes to garage sales on Saturdays. When he visited on Thursday, though, it was a different experience! He found toys for Jack!
Mary Ellen hates garage sales, too, but her husband loves them. Unfortunately (for her), Tim has purchased items like an old Michael Jackson tape (they don’t have a tape player) and a Camel cigarette backpack (they don’t smoke). Because of this, Mary Ellen doesn’t feel like “garage sale-ing” is a good use of her time!
Keri really doesn’t like going to garage sales, but her mom loves going so is Keri’s personal shopper. When Keri is looking for an item, such as a coffee table, her mom brings home four of them for Keri to choose from, then sells the remaining three in her own garage sale.
Kim also has a mother that likes garage sales, but Kim doesn’t like to go. Her mom used to get stuff for her when she was in college, some of which she still has today. These days, Kim finds herself cleaning house and taking items to Goodwill more than bringing it in from garage sales.

Speaker #1 – Jerry V.: Icebreaker Speech – “My Origins” (6:24)
Jerry can sum up his origin in one word, HMONG—pronounced “mung”, not “ha-mung”—which means free people. There are three primary theories of origin of the Hmong people: 1. The Hmong are from southwest of China, which includes Burma & Tibet. They migrated to the Yellow River plains. 2. The Hmong are of Russian origin, from the Siberian plains, and migrated to the Yellow River plains. 3. The Hmong are from China and originated in the Yellow River plains. It’s difficult to know for sure which theory is correct (although theory number three is the one supported by most historians) because the Hmong have no written history. Long ago, they were nomads, so told their stories from generation to generation. If there ever was any written documentation, it was destroyed in the wars. Following the wars, the Hmong enjoyed 100 years of freedom and peace in the mountains of Laos. In 1960-1979, they joined the US to fight communism; then sought refuge in Thailand when the war was lost.

Jerry’s family spent 3-4 years in a refugee camp before coming to the US in 1979. He was born in 1981 and has four older siblings. All five of them attended Minneapolis South High School and graduated with honors. His siblings attended St. Thomas, but he chose Gustavus Adolphus to study management and communication. He accepted an internship with Management Services at Minnesota Life and was offered a full-time position in the Broker Dealer upon his completion of college.

Speaker #2 – Gadder F.: Icebreaker Speech – “November 2004” (5:29)
November 2004 was the end of a trying chapter in Gadder’s life. The journey began in September 1994 when he left St. Louis, Missouri, for Harvard University. The child of a Hungarian mother and African American father, Gadder was excited to begin college at Harvard. The first semester, however, proved to be overwhelming and expensive for him, especially considering that he had no focus. When his parents couldn’t make the payments any more, he took a leave of absence from school and sought out adventure and money. In February 1995, Gadder enlisted in the Air Force where he learned humility. He spent 64 weeks in an intensive language program where he learned Arabic; then served the US providing intelligence capabilities (that’s all he could tell us). After six years of active duty, with the support of his wife (who’s the best thing that ever happened to him), he returned to Harvard and studied Easter Europe in the early Cold War. After 3 ½ years, Gadder graduated in November 2004 with high honors.

Gadder and his wife moved to St. Paul and soon discovered that they were expecting. Gabriella Maria was born two weeks ago, weighing 6lbs 15oz. Today, Gadder is learning to live on two hours of sleep at a time and working in the Broker Dealer. His newest hobby is watching this new chapter in his life unfold.

Table Topics Master – Mike C.
Marian J. (1:18) – “What treasure have you found and why is it of value to you?”
Marian can’t recall the last garage sale that she’s been to, but is thinking of having one. She commented on the amount of work to set up, price, take down, and get rid of all of the items in the sale. She avoids looking at sales because she has too much stuff in her home and is trying to simplify her life.
Eddie K. (1:39) – “Why do you like/dislike garage sales?”
Eddie doesn’t go to garage sales today, but is looking for an LP player because he likes the pops and cracks that LPs provide the listener. If he finds an LP player at a garage sale, he’ll do much more garage sale-ing because he’ll also need to find speakers, a receiver, an entertainment system, and of course, some LPs.
Laura C. (1:33) – “How would you distinguish your garage sale from all of the others?”
The quality of Laura’s merchandise would set her’s apart, plus the fact that she’d have no prices—everything in Laura’s garage sale would be free to anyone who is willing to take the trash out of her yard. Included would be her husband, Rich’s, four foot by six foot steamer trunk that she would like to get rid of because it takes up so much room.

Evaluator #1 – Mary Ellen G. (1:06)
Mary Ellen commended Jerry on his stance, hand gestures, organization (he reviewed his points, added details, and summed everything up with a conclusion), format, thorough preparation, and conversational tone. All of these went into a great speech that allowed us to get to know Jerry. Next time, Mary Ellen suggested that Jerry watch out for slang terms, such as “gonna”.

Evaluator #2 – Keri O. (2:53)
Keri commended Gadder on his comfortable presence, preparation, structure, strong voice that was easy to understand, use of notes, purposeful gestures, and eye contact. She suggested that he try to get out in front of the lecturn to avoid grasping it and rocking on it and reminded him not to thank us, we thank him for sharing his speech!

Inspiration – Kim C. (1:50)
Kim shared the following story (in a bit more detail): A 92 year old petite and well poised lady, even though legally blind, moved into a nursing home—a move made necessary by her husband’s passing. After a wait, the nurse showed her her room, telling her about the furnishings. Before she’d had a chance to really see it, the woman exclaimed, “I love it!” The nurse was confused since the woman hadn’t even seen the room yet. The woman said, “Happiness is something you decide ahead of time…you can spend your days recounting the difficulties you’ve had, or you can focus on your happy memories. Old age is like a bank account; you withdraw what you put in.”

Reports
Wordmaster/Grammarian – Betsy S.
Betsy noticed a lot of ahs and ums today, as well as sentences beginning with connecters, such as “Well…”. She liked Gadder’s uses of the English language, including words/phrases such as humility, grueling, and beginning a new chapter in his life. She also liked Eddie’s descriptors of the LPs. Laura C. and Mike C. both used the word of the day, entrepreneur.

Timer – Lori G.
Please see times above, listed in parenthesis next to each speaker’s name.

General Evaluation – Mark H.
Mark enjoyed today’s meeting even though it was in a hot, cramped room. The meeting was fun and the time passed quickly.

He commended Kathy for handling the room’s shortfalls and her introduction of herself. Betsy introduced a good word that tied in with the theme and Lori was the “Sultan of Switches”. For table topics, Mark liked Mike’s questions and Marian’s non-answer that took over one minute. He was disappointed that Eddie didn’t share any “Eddie-isms”, but liked Eddie’s “don’t like to go, but reasons for going” answer. Even though he liked Laura’s concept for her garage sale, he still wouldn’t go!

For the evaluations, Mark liked the way that Mary Ellen used the manual for her guide and that she provided developmental feedback. Keri demonstrated critical listening so was able to provide great examples for Gadder during her evaluation.

Mark liked Kim’s inspiration and its message.

The Spirit Award went to Jerry and Gadder for their Icebreaker speeches.

The June Member of the Month went to Marian J. for the speech about her daughter.

07-07-05 Meeting Summary

Theme: Absenteeism

Word of the day: Absenteeism (noun)
1.Habitual failure to appear, especially for work or
other regular duty.

2.The rate of occurrence of habitual absence from work
or duty.

Kelly T. filled in as toastmaster today as Mike
Cahn practiced absenteeism. After a rushed start Kelly
introduced our first speech by Eddie K. Eddie’s
speech was entitled” Marathon Training for
Toastmasters” and was inspired by the Competent Leader
Speech format. Eddie described the ten points which
make up a toastmaster’s promise and relayed the ways
these points also could be used when training for a
marathon. He informed us that just as Toastmasters
should attend meetings regularly to improve on their
speaking skills, marathon trainees also need to
practice running regularly in order to improve their
speed and distance. He went through the ten points,
ending on the promise to maintain honest and ethical
standards during Toastmasters activities and running.
(I envisioned tripping someone during the marathon as
NOT being ethical.)

Lori G. was our next speaker, describing a
child’s entry into a candy store in her speech “Candy
Store.” This was Lori’s fourth speech from the CM
manual, “How to Say It.” After her wonderful
descriptions of what the child Ellen discovered row
after row in her journey through the candy store, I
had to stop for Tootsie Rolls on my way back to
Hamline. Lori detailed each row’s delights- from
PopRocks and LemonHeads to velvety smooth chocolates.
Lori ended her speech with Ellen’s final discovery in
the candy store—the one candy she had been searching
for. Pink peppermint discs. Ellen’s grandmother used
to give her these mints while Ellen spent summers with
her grandparents on the big lake. The pink peppermints
were given during church- and Grandma never seemed to
run out. Ellen realized that any time she couldn’t
remember her grandparents, she could simply hop on her
bike and head to the candy store for these pink
perfections.

Dave B. was our Topics Master today.
His first question:
“You get back to your desk after Toastmasters to find
your manager waiting.... and he/she tells you to go
ahead and take the afternoon off. What do you do with
this newly found free time?” Jerry answered that he
would go home and watch the three movies that he
rented from McDonald’s Red Box earlier this week.

Dave’s second question:
“What do you do when someone is absent for a duty and
you are left in the lurch?” Betsy answered that
whenever someone doesn’t show she will jump in and
take over that person’s duty, or get another team
member to take over. She had this experience recently
at a church function.

Mark H. was our Inspiration/Humorist today. In “Be
Careful What You Don’t Say,” he informed us that
60-80% of what we say is communicated through non
verbal communication. He gave the following points:
1. Eye contact: maintain good eye contact. In the UK,
60-70% eye contact rate is considered appropriate
2. Posture: keep your shoulders back and your head
high and you convey confidence
3. Head position: keep your head and chin up to convey
confidence. To show you are listening, slightly tilt
your head (although not too much or you will look like
a bobble head)
4. Arms: open arms with palms up signals you are open
while crossed arms held close to the body display you
are closed-off
5. Legs: be careful in the way you cross your legs-
resting one leg over the other at the knee is
considered a defensive gesture

Kathy J. was our first evaluator. She appreciated
the way Eddie customized his CL speech. She thought he
had good eye contact. She commented that his gestures
were good also, except for when he put his hand in his
pocket. She suggested he not wear pants next time....
and recovered with adding to her suggestion that he
wear running shorts.

Bill S. evaluated “Candy Store” by Lori G.
He commented on her great use of descriptive words and
said she picked a good topic that people could relate
too. He mentioned her good use of language, noting her
statement, “eyes as big as saucers.” He thought she
could ease the audience into her speech a little
clearer next time. He also thought she could expand on
one or two sections of the speech next time.

Kim C. was our General Evaluator. She thought it
was a good meeting and gave the following times (she
was also the timer, in someone else’s absenteeism):
Eddie: 10:12, Lori: 6:08, Jerry (table topics #1):
0.39, Betsy (table topics #2): 0.49, Kathy: 3.06,
Bill: 3:18, Mark: 3:57.

The Spirit Award went to Lori.

That’s it for this week’s meeting. See you all next
week-
Mary Ellen

06-30-05 Meeting Summary

Thanks to all of you who attended last week’s End of the Year Party! We had a great time! For those of you who weren’t able to attend, read on to hear about the awards that were given. Everyone should plan to attend tomorrow’s meeting to see some of our new members in action: Jerry V will be our timer and Betsy S will give her Icebreaker speech!

First, I would like to welcome our newest members and guests Betsy S, Jerry V, Gadder F, Stacia S, and Kim L all attended our pizza party! Betsy S and Jerry V both joined the club a couple of weeks ago. Gadder joined Mutual Voices the morning of June 23rd. Stacia is filling out her application and will join soon. Kim visited our meeting.

We had a lot to celebrate for the 2004-2005 Toastmasters Year. New members, Betsy and Jerry, gave us enough members to be eligible for the President’s Distinguished Club award! That means that we earned 9 of the 10 points of the Distinguished Club Program and have 20 members in our club! The points were earned throughout the year by members earning their CTMs, ATMs, CLs, new members joining, officers attending training, and reports being submitted by the officers on time. Being a President’s Distinguished Club is something we should all celebrate! To find out how you can contribute to the Distinguished Club Plan for the 2005-2006 Toastmasters year (which runs July – June), contact Laura G, Kelly T, or any of the new officers, listed below:
Laura G, President
Kelly T, VP of Education
Marian J, VP of Membership
Eddie K, VP of Public Relations
Mary Ellen G, Secretary
Bill S, Treasurer
Lori G, Sergeant at Arms

Next, we celebrated by presenting “fun awards”. Kim C presented each of the awards on behalf of the club and its officers. Awards are as follows:
Dave B – Silver Lined Organizer – presented for his speeches on seeing silver linings, especially when he travels.
Jerry V – Foundations for Flow – presented for his penmanship response to last week’s table topics questions.
Betsy S – Pilots and Parkers – presented for her response to last week’s table topics questions, where we learned that she uses her pen because it was prescribed by her physical therapist and that the Parkers are family friends.
Keri O – Queen of Tomatoes – presented for her speech on the fair.
Marian J – Race for Inspiration – presented for earning her CTM very quickly and her inspiring speeches on racing, running, and walking.
Mary Ellen G– Candy Queen – presented for her table topics response on candy parties.
Lori G – Bring Her Flowers – presented because she doesn’t get flowers very often, but did get them at one of our Toastmasters meetings.
Dan B – Choosey Chocolate – presented for his speech on recognition where he gave out chocolates to some people but not others.
The following Toastmasters were not in attendance but will receive the listed awards:
Mike C – Creative Covers Crown
Julie G – Fun on the Farm
Jenny H – “Oh, the Stories She Will Tell”
Kurt J – Yellow Tail
Bill S – The Tax Man Speaketh

The 2004-2005 officers also received awards. Kim recognized each of them for their extra efforts by also presenting them with a Toastmasters pen.
Kelly T – Valley Girl Who is America – presented for her monolog from MPR.
Laura C – Isims & Itisis – presented for her Arthuritis & Bourgeaultisms speech.
Laura G – More Chocolate – presented for the chocolate treats she’s been bringing to meetings.
Kathy J – Run Through Window – presented for her table topics response when she told us about running through the pharmacy drive thru.
Eddie K – Cauliflower Compassion – presented for his table topics response about the state of Eddie where he will feed the homeless with cauliflower.
Mark H – Purposeful Leprachaun – presented for his story of his birthday in Ireland, leading the Irish Meeting, and his purposeful speeches (e.g., mentoring, leadership)
Kim C– I Forgot the Pin – presented because remembering the pin has been Kim’s toughest assignment as president.

Next, the Toastmaster of the Year award was presented to Kelly T. Kelly was nominted and elected for the award for going above and beyond as a Toastmaster. During the 2004-2005 Toastmasters year, Kelly served as Mutual Voices VP of Education, coordinated Toastmasters meetings, attended officer training, created our schedule, organized activities, and spoke at Your Beginnings. Eddie K received an Outstanding Member pin for his dedication to the club, serving as an officer, leading Speechcraft, and for bridging communications with the Tuesday club.

Following awards, we had time for a couple of Table Topics questions. Our Table Topics Master, Laura G, “picked on” the newest members of our club, Gadder and Stacia.
Earlier this week, Snapple tried to beat the world record for the largest popsicle. Unfortunately, it melted before they beat the record. What world record would you try to beat?
Gadder told us that his better enemy is sweltering heat. The world records that he would beat are growing his fingernails long or growing his beard long. He was in the military, so would like to see how long he could go without cutting his fingernails or his beard. He remembers the picture of the world record holder for the longest fingernails. The man had grown his nails from the time that he was 29 years (he was 80 when the picture was taken). His nails were three miles long—they’d grown out, curled around, and had bands of yellow, brown, and green. Gadder would paint his.
Paint a picture for us of your favorite place to spend a sweltering day.
Stacia told us that her preferred places to spend a sweltering day are at Minnesota Life (because she had to be there today) or the beach. She loves the sun and to lay out and relax. It seems that lately, it’s been nice during the week and rainy on the weekends. She likes to be in the sun, to run around Como Park, to bike, and to sit outside reading magazines or books. She also commented on the timer’s box, “It’s very manual over there.”

Dan B was the General Evaluator for the day. He complimented Kim on her ability to run an out of the ordinary meeting and her explanations of the awards for our new members and guests. He liked Kelly’s word of the day (sweltering) and commended Marian on timing the meeting. Dan thought Gadder did a wonderful job stalling at the beginning of his table topics response to formulate his answer and liked the way that Stacia picked up the pace as she formulated her answer. Both respondents did a great job of speaking for more than a minute on their first table topics response!

The Spirit Award was given to Gadder, with Kim being the runner up!

06-23-05 Meeting Summary

Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July! Thanks to those who
attended last week's meeting; for those of you not able to attend, we
missed you. See you this week!

Toastmaster for the meeting was Mark H.; and the theme was "decision
making" - I think. Some agendas had "bonus" as the theme cleared this up
and made sure we all knew what was going on.

Jerry V. served as the timer for the meeting - 1st time!

Eddie K. was the Wordmaster; the word of the day was "procrastinate" -
something that I'm very good at. Why do you think you're receiving this
summary so late?

Betsy Schaller was the 1st speaker and this was her icebreaker speech. We
enjoyed getting to know B (born in St. Paul) - E (educated at Highland Park
and Gustavus Adolphus) - T (tender bones - very susceptible to fractures) -
S (for short and getting shorter due to her bone condition) and Y (she
enjoys working out at the YMCA).

Bill S. was the 2nd speaker and gave an inspirational speech about
getting out and enjoying the summer - hitting the vacation hot spots, such
as Disneyland or Las Vegas. There's lots of places to go and have fun, are
educational and a great way to make memories.

Table topics master was Laura C.; Kathy J., Marian J., and
Laura G. responded to a variety of questions about how to make a
decision.

Evalutors were Lori G. (Betsy) and Dave B. (Bill).

General Evaluator was Kim C and the meeting's spirit award was given
to Betsy S. for a great icebreaker speech - no notes and used visual
aids on her first speech!

Kathy J.
Summarizer

06-16-05 Meeting Summary

Wow! What a meeting today. Next week - Pizza, Soda Pop, Dessert, Awards,
and fun!

We had three guests. Gero "Gadder" F. [long a] of SFS, Stacia S. of
the Chamber of Commerce, and Bev H. of the Northstar 25 Club who worked
at Minnesota Mutual from 1952-1987.

The theme was pens and pencils.

Dave presented us with a rather blank agenda, but filled it in quickly at
the beginning of the meeting.

Bev H. stepped in as Speaker #1
Laura C. became our Wordmaster/Grammarian using the word "myriad" as
presented by Dave.

Bill, our timer, uses a #1 pencil for markings in books and underlining. He
uses pens for everything else.

Bev H., guest speaker, charter member of the Minnesota Mutual
Toastmasters club
Bev shared how much of a treat it was for her to join us at our meeting
today. She drove down from Grantsburg, WI, early today to be able to visit
with co-workers from her past (She had just finished visiting with Jim
Johnson) and specifically to attend a Toastmasters meeting. Bev will be
attending the Northstar 25 Club dinner this evening. Bev said that it felt
just like yesterday that she regularly attended Toastmasters. She talked
about how Toastmasters was a wonderful learning experience that taught her
skills that she still uses today. She enjoys reading a hardcopy of the
Excel newsletter that is sent to her at each publication. She is very
impressed that there are now three clubs here. She has lived on a farm
between Grantsburg and Siren, WI, for many years. Shortly after retiring,
her husband encountered a number of health maladies. He had suffered from
polio at 18 and had post effects, he had blood clots in his lungs, and
underwent open heart surgery following a heart attack. She was a 24 x 7
caregiver of her husband. He passed away last summer. She is now very
active with her church and has become their librarian. She meets once a
month with a writers group. A topic is picked that each person writes about
and then shares with the rest of the group the following month. The
writings are critiqued by the rest of the group. The most recent topic was
"my brain doesn't work." She said that organizations like this one keep her
standing in good stead. She has also joined the WI Writer's Association and
is looking forward to attending their conferences soon. Back in the day,
she served Toastmasters in many capacities. She was also selected as
Toastmaster of the Year at the club level and area level. It was a great
honor. She stated that we work at a great company and are part of great
organization. We will use what we learn for the rest of our lives, even
after we retire. Whatever organization you join, it will help you. We are
all smart to have joined Toastmasters.

After sitting down, Bev was asked was jobs she did while working here. She
worked in Individual ordinary (?), Group as a case underwriter (she noted
that when she worked in ordinary they referred to u/w as the 'funny farm'
due to their different practices than in ordinary), in actuary working on
morbidity/mortality information. She told her boss once that the work in
actuary was like knitting or crocheting, it was very detailed and rewarding
to see the final product at the end. She stated that a computer can very
quickly compute what used to take her one to two weeks to do. She said that
a computer was put on her desk right before she retired, but she didn't use
it. She recently got a computer at home. She has hired her two great
nieces who are 10 year old twins to help her learn all about the workings of
the computer this summer.

Kelly T., TableTopics Master, likes a Pilot fine point pen with a good
grip. Kelly shared a lot of interesting facts and figures about pens and
pencils. These two web sites were the sources she referenced:
http://www.pencils.com/ and
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa101697.htm.

Laura G. discussed her favorite pen, the Pilot precise B5 with blue
ink and a 5mm tip. She also talked about her favorite pencil, a mechanical
one with a silver tip where the lead/graphite is stored. She likes being
able to increase the amount of lead from where the eraser is stored rather
than the newer style which rotates from the bottom.

Laura C. wasn't sure why pencils are yellow, but she talked about all
of the fancy pens and pencils that can be found everywhere today.

Jerry V., brand new member and first time table topics respondent, stated
his preference of fountain pens to ball point pens. He is self-proclaimed
as the person with the worst penmanship in the World. He likes fountain
pens because they flow more smoothly and allow for writing more like
calligraphy.

Lori G., first solo completion of Sergeant at Arms duties, will write
a novel about her four children ages 6 to 15 years old. She will write one
chapter on each child and then subsequent chapters will be about family
activities. This book would be very special to Lori.

Betsy Schaller, our second most newest member, prefers a mechanical pencil
to a wood pencil, but overall prefers pens. This preference is surprising
based on her math and accounting background. Betsy broke her hand over a
year ago and was prescribed a pen by her Physical Therapist that was wider
and had a nice grip so that she wouldn't push too hard on the paper. She
uses a Pilot Dr. Grip gel. Betsy Schaller's mom was good friends with the
Parker (of pens) family.

Kathy J.will be calling pencils "number 5s" from now on. Number 5
will be the new definition for pencil because she has to replace her pencil
every five minutes. The graphite goes down very quickly because of the
pressure she applies while writing and the eraser doesn't last much longer.

Laura C. likes pens that don't glob and has labeled her pencil as
"Laura's favorite pencil." If she accidentally leaves it somewhere, someone
always returns it to her desk.

Kim gave a long winded general evaluation with several tangents, but
eventually got around to giving the Spirit Award to Bev H for her very
inspiring speech about what Toastmasters has done for her.

We look forward to seeing all of you next week at our 'Get Down' (aka
Recognition) Party.

08-18-05 Meeting Summary

Thanks to those who attended and participated in the August 18 Mutual
Voices Meeting. It was a lot of fun.
Toastmaster, Eddie Kaiser, chose the theme of first jobs, to which everyone
could relate. For the majority, it seemed to have been in fast food
restaurants. As Wordmaster/Grammarian, Betsy Schaller selected the word
remuneration because of its relationship to that first job.
Speaker # 1 was Stacia Smith, who gave an Ice Breaker speech based on her
interest in travel. Speaking without notes and appearing quite relaxed,
Stacia opened by describing her earliest travel memories with her
grandmother in her RV and moved on to her first overseas trip to Sweden at
the age of 12. But the highlight of Stacia’s travel experiences was
studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain while a student at Hamline. Stacia
provided a vivid picture of her experience by describing a typical day,
noting many of the differences between her life there and life here,
including energy use and transportation.
Overall, Eddie provided excellent transitions between speeches particularly
in moving from Stacia's Ice Breaker into Mary Ellen Griffith’s speech,
"Perennial Gardening."
As a dedicated gardener, I was particularly interested in Mary Ellen’s
speech. With references to a selection of perennial plants and her easel
notes, Mary Ellen was well organized and prepared. We learned important
information about perennial gardening, including details about light and
soil conditions, design, texture, line, form and bloom time. I took her
advice and went shopping for marked down perennials last weekend!
Laura Griffiths’s open-ended Table Topics questions elicited some
interesting stories. The first question went to Kathy Johnson. She
answered the question "What advice would you give your children when
looking for a first job?" by saying that she would encourage her twins to
look for a job that was clean and that also gave a discount.
The second question, "What was your most memorable working event?" was
answered by Betsy Schaller. She said that breaking her foot separating the
twins she was babysitting stood out in her mind.
Dan Bennek answered the third question "What were the worst and best parts
of your first job?" His first job was at McDonald’s, where he worked
alongside three family members. As the most junior, it fell to him to
unplug a blocked drain under the grill – yuck!
Kathy Johnson provided the day’s Inspiration/Humor. A very punny piece
about different jobs. If you want a copy you can find it at
http://www.humormatters.com/workplace.htm
Speech # 1 Evaluator was Dan Bennek and Evaluator # 2 was Lori Galloway.
General Evaluator was Laura Carmody.
The Spirit Award was presented to Stacia Smith.