01-19-06 Meeting Summary

January 19, 2006
Theme: Risks

Word of the day: Adventure

Mark H was Toastmaster today and started us off
speaking about his recent risk of presenting at the
Bid Calling Contest. It was a small risk because he
was presenting to a non-TM crowd who may not have been
particularly interested in his speech.

Betsy S was our Wordmaster today. She told us
that her most recent risk was joining Toastmasters and
having to speak in front of our group.

Lori G was our Timer today. Her risk to take
someday is to sky dive.

Eddie K was our lone speaker today. His speech,
entitled “Your Years of Peace & Tranquility” was to be
six to eight minutes long and was number five in the
Persuasive Speaking Advanced Manual.

He told us of the benefits to participating in
Securian’s 401K program. Social Security won’t be
enough for us to retire and live on (in the style we
are accustomed to while working) so Eddie encouraged
us to save now.

Jerry V evaluated Eddie’s speech. Jerry thought
Eddie recovered well after losing his place in the
speech. He recommended Eddie present the mission of
his speech next time.

Laura C inspired us with her stories of three
gambling scenarios- turned bad. We definitely saw the
effects of one person’s addiction could have on
his/her family.

Laura G was our Topics Master today.
Her question to Kim C:
“Which types of risks are you willing/not willing to
take?”

Kim’s response:
1. Before this year I would’ve said I never take a
risk with my financials. Being that I’m leaving the
country in a few months- I guess I am taking a risk I
never thought I would.

Second question to Kathy J:
On Laura’s second date with her husband- he informed
her that they were going out with a couple she didn’t
really care for. He told her simply to “cope, deal,
and adjust. What would Kathy have said/done in this
situation?

Kathy’s response:
1. She would’ve coped by actually going on the date.
Dealt with the uncomfortable situation by not really
talking to the other couple. Adjusted by telling her
husband-to-be to never put her in that sort of
situation or talk to her that way again.

Grammarian Report (Betsy):
Adventure used once. Limited ums, ahs

General Evaluation (Dan D.):
Mark the TM should’ve introduced himself.
Betsy- great word.
Laura C.- great inspiration even though Laura wasn’t
sure it was actually inspiring.
Jerry- good examples- told Eddie he could next time
look at screen if loses his place in a speech.
Laura G.- good questions
Kim C.- great, well-structured answer
Kathy J.- also great, well-structured answer

The Spirit Award went to Eddie

-Mary Ellen

12-29-05 Meeting Summary

December 29, 2005 Meeting Summary
Theme: New Year’s Resolutions
Lori G, our Toastmaster,

Our Wordmaster/Grammarian was Marian J. The word of the day was declaration, because everyone should raise their resolutions to that level and make them public! Declaration means, 1) An explicit, formal announcement, either oral or written. 2) The act or process of declaring. 3) A statement of taxable goods or of properties subject to duty. 4) Law a) A formal statement by a plaintiff specifying the facts and circumstances constituting his or her cause of action. b) An unsworn statement of facts that is admissible as evidence. 5) Games. A bid, especially the final bid of a hand in a certain card game.

Marian would like to keep better track of what she eats, not from a weight perspective but because currently she eats everything she sees. She would like to only eat things that are handmade.

Dan B served as our Timer. Dan is still working on his 2005 resolutions. He laughs at the people in the club the first two weeks of January because he knows that by the third week, the club will be empty again. He can always tell the people that are going to “fall off of their resolution” because they praise themselves daily when speaking to others. Dan learned that it takes 21 days to create a habit, so the two weeks at the club in January isn’t enough.

Kathy J got us started with a Round Robin version of Table Topics. She will finish school this year, so will commit more time in 2006 to her kids’ school teaching them about art. The top 10 New Year’s resolutions are as follows:
1) Spend more time with family and friends
2) Fit in fitness
3) Tame the bulge
4) Quit smoking
5) Enjoy life more
6) Quit drinking
7) Get out of debt
8) Learn something new
9) Help others
10) Get organized

Kathy asked Kim C: How in 2005/2006 do you plan to REALLY help others? (Response time: 2:12)
In 2005 and in 2006, Kim will transition somebody into her job. In 1997, she left the College of St. Catherine, supervising student employees in the Computer Center. Now, her staff doesn’t have as much option to leave as the students did. Kim also has more interest in her current staff. In Taiwan, she thinks people will probably be helping her, but hopes to help people balance their view of US citizenship without tarnishing it.

Kim asked Laura C: At least three things could have been speech topics for your speech today. Without manual restrictions, what could you have spoken about? (Response time: 2:20)
Laura has a hard time going against the rules and she’s a perfectionist. Today, she was going to speak in praise, but she forgot her manual. She could have praised, 1) Grace Carmody, her mother-in-law, 2) Her father, 3) The people that are going to Tyler Town, Mississippi, to help with the animals who were rescued from hurricane Katrina. Laura is planning to get her speech written so she can step in to give a speech when someone else cannot speak during their assigned time.

Laura asked Dave B: Phone solicitors annoy Laura when they assume that she’s in debt and can consolidate it. Laura only has a car loan How should she respond? (Response time: 1:40)
Dave has no patience with phone solicitors. The conversation typically goes something like, “Mr. B…..Ba….Baston? This is XYZ from so and so….” Dave doesn’t like being interrupted since solicitors always seem to call at a bad time. Some responses that Dave suggests would be more fun: “Oh, that would be great! I didn’t think anyone would give me loan money so soon after I filed bankruptcy!” or “This isn’t a good time, could you give me your home phone number so I can call you back when it’s convenient for me?”

Dave asked Eddie K: Tell us about a New Year’s resolution that failed dismally. How did you deal with it? (Response time: 1:44)
Eddie doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions, but he does give something up during lent. One year, he gave up hitting snooze in the morning. Before that, he’d always hit snooze twice, giving him 18 minutes more to sleep. Last year, he hit snooze one too many times and missed his bus, so had to drive to work. Eddie admits that he might make a New Year’s resolution this year. He would like to enter a tri-athalon, so has hired a swim coach. His resolution might be to save up and buy a bike for the race. Hopefully, he won’t fail as miserably as his attempted pronunciation of miserably because it would be an expensive failure since the bike will cost more than $1000.

Eddie asked Betsy S: Taming the bulge is a frequent New Year’s resolution. What would you like to tame? (Response time: 1:08)
Betsy confesses that taming the bulge doesn’t work for her, so she would like to tame her fear of public speaking. In order to do this, rather than declaring her resolution, she would like to be less committed and will try to finish her 10 CTM speeches this year. She’s scheduled to be the Toastmaster in January, so is also looking forward to that experience.

Betsy asked Gadder F: What is your favorite memory in 2005? (Response time: 1:30)
Gadder’s favorite memory in 2005 is the birth of his daughter. He enjoyed reliving the memory when Jerry Vang had his baby girl recently and told Gadder about it. Included in Gadder’s memory are a couple of moments that he almost passed out. He considers himself to be a strong man and not fearful, but had to fight every instinct in him to take on the anesthesiologist when he approached Gadder’s wife with a long needle. He also remembers the moment when his daughter’s head crowned and then popped out being especially difficult for him.

Gadder asked Lori Gy: What holiday in 2006 are you looking forward to the most and why? (Response time: 0:58)
Lori’s favorite holiday is Christmas. She loves taking out the decorations and how her kids want to help decorate. She and her mother take the kids and grandkids to Marshall Fields’ 8th floor holiday display every year. She also enjoys listening exclusively to Christmas music from Thanksgiving to Christmas every year. Finally, she enjoys watching the kids shake their packages in anticipation of opening them.

Lori asked Marian J: Do you have any vacations planned in 2006? If so, where will you be going and what will you be doing? If not, where sould you like to go? (Response time: 1:23)
Marian is taking a vacation next week! She has never been to Mexico, so she and her husband are going to Playa del Carmen, which wasn’t severely damaged during the 2005 hurricanes. Generally, Marian knows more about the destinations to which she’ll be traveling, but her husband planned this trip so all she knows is that they’ll be visiting some ruins because she doesn’t like to bask on the beach. Other travels in 2006 will be out of necessity because Marian has family all over the world.

Marian asked Laura G: I know that you’re a mom with kids. What is the greatest lesson that your kids have taught you or what has been the most difficult year? (Response time: 2:00)
The toughest year for Laura was the first year after she quit work. She thought that she would have more free time, but that doesn’t happen with the kids. Now, her daily job has so many tasks that they don’t get done and her clients are less reasonable than the ones that she used to work with. Laura’s mom is a terrible perfectionist, so during the first week of her stay, she was so busy getting ready for Christmas that she didn’t visit with anyone or play with any of her grandkids. Laura has had to overcome this tendency to make the things that will really matter the most important. She’s been reading books to her daughter and playing games with her son, rather than always worrying about cleaning up after “Christmas puked all over her house.”

Laura asked Dan B: Why should we or shouldn’t we make New Year’s resolutions? (Response time: 2:12)
Dan doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions, because they never pan out. The last time he made one, he resolved to roll over his 401K money—it took him 2 ½ years to complete it. He was told to talk to someone in HR for help. Dan’s in HR and couldn’t find any help! He determined that no one wanted his money. He can’t resolve to lose weight because he doesn’t really need to. He doesn’t smoke, but would like to figure out how some people can speak without their cigarette falling out of their mouth. He would resolve to drink less, but figured out in his 20s not to drink too much. Dan’s advice is just to try to live your life ok.

Dan asked Kathy J: What is something really bad that you want to do next year? (Response time: 1:02)
If Kathy could come back to her regular life without any impact, she would like to run away for a month, visiting all of the luxurious spas in the world like her favorite soap opera character. She would return all refreshed and relaxed.


Dave B was our Inspiration/Humorist. (Speech time: 3:05)
Dave refuses to make New Year’s resolutions. He doesn’t think that we should only decide to make changes once per year. When Dave began working at Minnesota Life, he weighed 260 lbs. He, too, has heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit, so applied that to his weight loss strategy. First, he changed his diet for six-seven weeks (because he calls himself a slow learner), then he built in exercise. Dave believes that if he’d tried to make all of the changes at once, that he would have been done with his diet in three weeks, just like everyone else at the gym in early January. Since then, Dave has integrated his weight loss strategy into his every day life. Every two months, Dave thinks of something that he wants to change. For example, he decided that he should be spending more time with Josh, his eldest son, after their second child was born. For the next couple of months, Dave made sure that he played with Josh three days/week after dinner. Dave recommends working on something until it’s a habit, then working on something else.

Our General Evaluator was Gadder F. He thought that the meeting flowed well overall and enjoyed the format of the table topics, especially watching people shift from answering a question to asking a question. Gadder commended Lori on her natural presence in front of the room and suggested that leading the clapping was difficult in this format. He noted a lot of wringing of the hands throughout the meeting and some trailing off at the end of sentences. Gadder especially liked the phrases, “fall off the resolution”, “Hannukah light”, “kids as clients”. He commended Eddie on the way that he twisted the question so that he could answer it and Kathy’s keeping the potentially dirty question appropriate for the audience.

Spirit Award:

12-22-05 Meeting Summary

December 22, 2005 Meeting Summary
Theme: Best and Worst Christmas Gifts Received or Gave

Eddie K, our Toastmaster, wove together our first holiday meeting with a theme of Christmas gifts. He shared several of his best/worst gifts throughout the meeting, as did many of the other duty holders. Eddie’s best Christmas gift was a new black lab puppy that he received after his other dog had died. His new puppy was trained to be a hunting dog, but he ran into a field in 2003 and never came out—he was found the next year.

John Hornsten joined us as a returning guest. He works in Information Services, Development Support, and attended the meeting to hear Kim’s speech.

Our Wordmaster/Grammarian was Gadder F. Gadder’s ahs/ums limit is 851! The word of the day was thoughtful, an adjective meaning 1. Engrossed in thought; contemplative, 2. Exhibiting or characterized by careful thought, 3. Having or showing heed for the well-being or happiness of others and a propensity for anticipating their needs or wishes. For example, Gadder’s thoughtful brother bought him thermal underwear for the winter in Minnesota.

Gadder’s best Christmas gift was a pair of 14oz boxing gloves. He and his brothers used to fight. One Christmas, his dad gave them each a pair of boxing gloves so they could resolve their problems—they were allowed to box outside if they did not hit above the neck. Gadder’s brother (who’s now a cop) used to say, “Get the gloves!” A phase that still makes Gadder cringe!

Kurt J served as our Timer. He believes that the worst gifts that anyone can give are gift cards. Even if the wrong gift is purchased, at least more thought went into it than goes into a gift card. Kurt likes homemade gifts, probably because he receives those from his kids or because when he was young, they all made their gifts for each other one year.

Stacia S was our first speaker. Her speech, “The History of Christmas Trees” was speech number four from the CTM manual. Stacia researched the topic because one day, her boyfriend asked her about it. (Speech time: 7:22)

In many ancient societies, people used to worship plants and trees that remained green. Some believed that their boughs would keep out ghosts, evil spirits, and witches. Others believed that they were a symbol of everlasting life.

The Christmas tree as we know it began in Germany. It is believed that Martin Luther first brought the Christmas tree into his home and decorated the tree with paper ornaments and candles. In America, however, Christmas trees in the home were considered an oddity in the 19th century. In the 1830s, German settlers even considered them a pagan symbol and they were not accepted by most Americans. It wasn’t until 1846 when Prince Albert was seen with his children around the tree that it was considered fashionable to have a Christmas tree. In the 1890s, ornaments were homemade, including popcorn, fruit, nuts, and cookies.

Some interesting Christmas tree facts:
The 14th President, Franklin Pierce, brought the first tree into the White House.
Calvin Coolidge began the Christmas tree ceremony.
Today, 77 million Christmas trees are planted each year.
Thomas Edison’s assistants created electric tree lights.
Roosevelt banned Christmas trees due to the environment.
Tinsel was banned when it was lead-based.
European trees are typically about four feet tall.

Stacia looks forward to hanging homemade ornaments on the tree with her mom, making Christmas cookies, and caroling each year. Her dad, on the other hand, has a flocked tree with the same colored bulbs on it.

Eddie’s family has always had a flocked tree, too. This year, they have a green tree; he’s hoping that the green tree will bring him luck in the lottery. The best gift that Eddie’s ever given is an ornament that he purchased for his mother after she visited him in Salzburg, Germany. She had seen the ornament while she was there, but the store was out of them until after she returned home. Eddie picked one up for her after class the following week and brought it home to her.

Kim C was our second speaker. Her speech, “The Briefing”, is the first speech in the Speeches by Management manual. Kim began her job at Minnesota Life in 1998. In January, her position will be posted so that in May 2006 she can begin her new adventure in Taiwan, teaching English. (Speech time: 12:20)

History
In 1998, Network Systems was reorganized and the Collaborative Technology Competency Center (CTCC) was created. The group supports Groupware and Internet technologies (see below). They also provide level two support to the Tech Support phone line that Minnesota Life employees call when they have a problem. A level three support also exists, consisting of engineers who’s main responsibility is to plan for the future of the network.

Since Kim began supervising, three people have quit, two people have transferred laterally, and five have been promoted to the level three team. She currently provides leadership for eight full time associates and one project leader. The longest period of time that she’s had the same people on her team is one year. The biggest challenges for her team are being providing on-call support 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year (24x7x365) and supporting AccuServe Online.

Groupware technologies include: Lotus Notes, Sametime (instant messaging), iNotes (Domino web access), e-mail archive (meeting SEC and NASD requirements), anti-spam, anti-virus, Palm Pilots, Pocket PCs, Blackberries, MS Exchange, Outlook Web Access, and Lotus Notes Application Development.

Internet technologies include: Web Sites hosted at Securian, COM+; Websphere, UNIX, and Load Balancers (for Java); Imaging (FileNET), File Transfer (FTP/PGP, Connect:Direct, Connect:Enterprise, and Secure Transport).

In addition to supporting these technologies, Kim’s job consists of the care and feeding of the CTCC team. Each day, she comes to work with a big heart, dumping her love into her team (she attributes this to being single). She communicates with her peers, supervisors, and business owners, sometimes apologizing for mistakes that her team has made, which can be the most difficult part. Kim’s team has to try to be robots in order to get it right 100% of the time—sometimes that just doesn’t happen—but, she considers the team to be a family and a community, who looks out for each other and recognizes each others’ gifts.

Q&A (Q&A time: 2:51)
Q: Why shouldn’t people apply for the job?
A: The politics of the job can sometimes be difficult, especially when managing the resources that the politics demand. The job also demands 100% accuracy all of the time, which is difficult to attain.
Q: What is “support” for Groupware/Internet?
A: Second level support is as broad as possible so that the engineers can work on preparing for the future. For example, if an e-mail is not received, Kim’s team may try having the e-mail sent to a different account to determine the reasons that it didn’t reach the intended recipient. If Kim’s team can’t figure out the problem, it is elevated to level three who provides suggestions to fix the problem.


Laura C served as our Table Topics Master. She asked Kelly Taschler to graciously thank the person who gave her a particular gift, which Kelly drew from a variety of papers that Laura offered. Kelly response thanked Laura for a beautiful picture frame. She said that it looked vaguely familiar, perhaps because she had given it to Laura the previous year! Receiving familiar gifts is a common theme in Kelly’s family. For example, Scott has three pair of socks that all play jingle bells. He received a pair each year, for three consecutive years! (Response time: 1:27)

Dave B evaluated Stacia’s speech. The best gift that Dave ever gave were gift cards! He went to every coffee shop in Woodbury and bought a $5 gift card for his wife. Then, he wrote her a poem to accompany the gift cards and sent her out once a month for some alone time.

The purpose of Stacia’s speech was to work with words. Dave commended Stacia on the words that Stacia chose, since they were easy to understand. He also commended her research of the topic and its timeliness, as well as the ease with which Stacia spoke. Some things that Dave recommended for future speeches are to focus on reducing ahs/ums/connectors/you knows, adding a stronger introduction and conclusion, and to ask the audience to guess the answers to the trivia that Stacia provided. (Evaluation time: 2:58)

Betsy S evaluated Kim’s speech. She commended Kim’s ability to get through a speech that she was obviously passionate about, her use of natural gestures, her pauses in place of ahs/ums, her audience involvement, her visual aids, and her call to action. She also liked the way that Kim “bought” time to think of an answer to the questions. Betsy would have liked to see more of a summary at the end of Kim’s speech and to see Kim slow down so that she didn’t seem out of breath. (Evaluation time: 2:51)

Reports
Gadder noted several ahs/ums/connectors, as well as a couple of uses of “thoughtful”. He especially liked, “super-bad”, “jingle bell socks”, and “dump my love into my team and they take the heart of it”.

Kurt’s times are above in parenthesis. Every year, he wraps a jar of dirt for his daughter to teach her that she must be gracious no matter what people give you.

Our General Evaluator was Mark H. Mark’s only criticism was that the meeting ran a bit late. Other than that, he thought that duty-holders fulfilled their duties well and appreciated the specific examples provided by the evaluators.

Spirit Award: Kim C (Laura C was a close second).