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.