06-15-06 Meeting Summary

Summary – Mutual Voices Meeting Thursday, 6/15

Another Betsy S. was Toastmaster. Betsy’s theme was Fathers, Flags and Fun Summer Activities. Betsy’s opening including the derivation of Father’s Day and the origin of Flag Day.

Attendees were: Mike C., Lori G., Mary Ellen G., Laura G. Laura C., Kathy J., Dan B., Marian J. and Betsy S.

Duty holders were: Timer -- Kathy J.; Wordmaster/Grammarian – Marian J.

Speech # 1 was presented by Dan B. The title was “Watch What You Wish For.”

Dan gave a very amusing speech about how he recently purchased a speed boat. He was the proud owner of a simple fishing boat for many years prior to this extravagant purchase. Dan told us how he loved to fish even though he didn’t like to eat what he caught. He admitted that over the years, the frequency with which he had used his boat for fishing outings was relatively low. Despite this reality, while at his sister’s cabin earlier in the spring, he’d made the rash statement “I have to buy a speed boat.”

From then on he had to follow through, especially when his brother-in-law tracked down a pretty good deal. He was now the co-owner, with his brother-in-law, of a fine looking boat that looked a lot sportier than the earlier more ultilitarian craft. As the title of his speech suggested, he was discovering that speed boat ownership wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Since buying the boat, it seemed as if he’d been obliged to make all kinds of other purchases

Laura C.y was Table Topics Master. She chose Mike C. to answer her first question, “What activity did your father enjoy and what would you like to do with him again if you had the chance?” Mike talked about going fishing with his now-deceased Dad when he was younger. Later on in life he had also bought a boat and one of his father’s favorite pastimes was cleaning the boat for him. According to Mike’s account, on these occasions his Dad seemed to enjoy entertaining his friends in the boat while it sat in his driveway as much as any other activity.

Laura G. answered Table Topics Question # 2, “What traits of her father’s is she most glad that she hasn’t picked up from him?” Laura’s response was that her father is a bit of a hermit, who goes to work, comes home and rarely ventures outside of the house. He also has a “tendency to be a bastard,” one of a long line of men who always feel that they have to be right.

Kathy J. answered Table Topics Question # 3, “What activities would you most like to do when raining?’ Kathy said that if it was raining and she was by herself that she’d do two things: one -- organize her photos into scrapbooks and two -- watch all the DVDs that she’s purchased that are unsuitable viewing for her children.

Betsy S. answered Laura’s fourth question, “What kind of things does she do to show her patriotism on Flag Day. Betsy told a story about how she came up with a way of displaying a flag in front of her house, while still following the association’s strict building codes.

Mike C. provided the inspiration for the day by telling the story of a baseball player with the Twins, Jason Kubel, who was far from being a “natural.” He’d hung in there through career set backs, including a knee injury, and years in the minors. Finally, he’d earned a place on the Twins team and had hit a winning ball in a recent game. As Mike said “not bad for a short, slow kid with a knee injury.”

Wordmaster/Grammarian Marian J. reported that there were some interesting uses of language, including Mike’s “ a smile worth a billion dollars” and Laura Griffith’s word “hermitisation.” Laura C. Dan B., Mike C. Lori G. and Betsy S. all used the word of the day – intrepid.

06-08-06 Meeting Summary

Today our Toastmaster was Mike C. The theme he picked was Summer Time
Activities. Mike told us that his favorite summer time activity is
watching the fireworks.

The Word of the Day presented by Laura C. was Cavort. Cavort means to
prance or to engage in extravagant behavior.

Our first speaker was Jerry V. His speech was titled "Financial
Planning: A Business Model for Success". Before starting his speech Jerry
told us this talk would be presented to a group of financial advisors.
Jerry explained to us that financial planning is an on going process.
Financial planners need to see the short and long term goals of their
clients which need to be in writing and are designed to achieve their
goals. The planning process has six steps: 1)Goal identification. 2)Data
gathering. 3)Plan analysis. 4)Solution development. 5)Plan presentation and
6)Review annually

Our second speaker was Eddie K. Eddie had a three part presentation
today. The title of his speech was "Give it a Tri!" The first part Eddie
told us how to be a better cold caller. Being a successful cold calling
sales person needs three things. 1)Being resourceful. 2)Question with care
and 3)Addressing objections. The second part of Eddies speech was a role
playing with Dave B. Eddie used his three reasons to being a
successful sales person to try and convince Dave to try a triathlon. The
last part of Eddies speech was a question and answer session.

We ran out of time for Keri O’s inspiration/humor.

Our table topics master was Mark H. His one question went to Marian
Johnson. He asked her what he can do to help him out when he exercises
because he is a big sweater. Marian told Mark that her husband is also a
big sweater and he always uses a head band to prevent sweat from getting
into his eyes and he also recently decided to bring a small hand towel and
pin it onto his short to use to wipe off the sweat when he is exercising.

Our evaluators for todays meeting were Dave B. and Betsy S.
Dave evaluated Jerry's speech. Dave told Jerry that he accomplished his
goal of the speech which was to persuade with power. Dave felt Jerry was
passionate about his topic and he did a good job on all the technical terms
used during the speech. Dave told Jerry that his eye contact was good when
he was not reading off the screen. Dave noted a few ok's during the speech
and gave Jerry some power point tips for his next speech.

Betsy evaluated Eddies speech. Betsy felt during the first part of Eddie's
speech he had good energy, the content of the speech was good and the
organization of the speech was good. Betsy told Eddie that during the role
playing section of the presentation he asked allot of good questions that
started with what or how. Eddie was good at validating Daves opinions and
questions and he offered Dave lots of options to consider about triathlons.

Jeff S. was our timer for today meeting. He reported the following
times: Jerry 6:30, Eddie 4:41, 8:08 and 3:00, Marian 1:58, Dave 4:55 and
Betsy 2:34.

Laura C. reported over all we were pretty good on ahs and ums. She
liked when Marian said "Discreet British sweaters" and when Mike said
"Jack was more then a glow - he was a big drip"

Laura G. was our General Evaluator today. She felt Mike did a good
job, but next time he should introduce himself. She liked the word of the
day. Laura noted the evaluators had a couple of ums and she liked the way
they both used examples from the speeches during the evaluations. Laura
suggested that the timer should get the speech times before the meeting
starts. She also liked Marks question and Marian response during the Table
Topics portion of the meeting. Our spirit award went to Dave B. today.

See you all next Thursday!

06-01-06 Meeting Summary

June 1, 2006
Theme: Alarm Clocks

Word of the day: abhor (tr v)
To regard with horror or loathing; detest.

Lori G. was our toastmaster today. She chose the
alarm clock theme because three weeks ago she got up
at 4 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. because her alarm clock
was wrong.... and she doesn’t want that to happen
again—EVER.

Mark H. was our WordMaster today. He abhors alarm
clocks, hence the word of the day.

Marian J. was our Timer. She thinks a person
needs a few backups of alarms if she/he has an
important meeting to attend/deadline to meet.

Jeff S., “Handyman in Training” Icebreaker
Jeff’s icebreaker made him think of his broken ice
maker at home. He then decided to do his speech on
becoming a handyman. He says he is not really a
handyman, but after buying his first home last year
has become one. He told us of the book, “Big Book of
Home Ho-to,” which he recommends. He also told us that
one of the drawbacks of being an inexperienced
handyman is the inability to foresee next steps in a
project.... that that results in many trips to Home
Depot.

Dave B., “Run with a Plan”
Dave described how to get started with a running
program.
1. Get the right gear
2. Set a goal
3. Develop a plan

He had gear in hand to show us (except a sports bra)
and inspired us to start running.


Bill S. was TableTopics Master today. He challenged
us to hit two minutes with our answers..... whoever
cam closest would win a gift!

His first question:
“There was a group in the 60s called Strawberry Alarm
Clock. What does that mean?”

Keri O’s answer:
“I’m not sure who the group Strawberry Alarm Clock
was, but I’ve seen many strawberry-shaped alarm
clocks. I think a clock that omits a strawberry scent
to wake you up would be a good idea, or the jarring
method.... throw jars of strawberry jam at the person
who is supposed to wake up.”

Bill’s second question:
“Would you bring an alarm clock on vacation?”

Mary Ellen G.’s answer:
“I would bring an alarm clock on vacation.... just
because I like to do lots of activities on vacation.
Although, I would not turn it on a few of the
days..... to sleep in, of course.”

Bill’s third question
“When kids hit the age of 15, should they be required
to use an alarm clock or be allowed to rely on Mom to
wake up?”

Kathy J.’s answer:
“My boys have a Sponge Bob alarm clock. They actually
use it to stay up UNTIL their bedtime rather than
using it to get up in the morning.”

EVAL 1
Kathy J. for Jeff Streeper
Kathy thought Jeff maintained good eye contact
throughout his speech. He limited his use of notes and
has a very clear speaking voice. She thought he could
work on organization of his speech.

EVAL 2
Dan B. for Dave B.
Dan thought Dave’s speech was excellent. Dave had good
use of humor and kept his speech conversational. He
thought Dave could work on keeping his hands at his
side, as he noticed Dave’s right hand was “the claw”
during the first part of his speech.

No Inspiration/Humorist today.
Laura C. was our General Evaluator. She thought
Lori was a great Toastmaster, had good segways and was
very comfortable. She fired Marian as timer and liked
Bill’s TableTopic incentive (which turned out to be a
box of chocolates).
Timer report:
Jeff: Approx. 7 minutes
Dave: 9:14
Kathy’s eval: absolutely no idea
Dan’s eval: 3 minutes or something like that

WM report:
48 ahs, ums today.
Also many “Ya knows”

The Spirit Award went to Jeff.

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

05-18-06 Meeting Summary

May 18, 2006
Theme: Pets

Word of the day: Tractable

Schedule changes: Marian J. as Speaker 1, Mary
Ellen G. as Evaluator 1, No Inspiration/Humor
today

Mark H. was Toastmaster today. He started our
meeting describing his three cats, Coke, Cosmo, and
Zinfandel.

Lori G. was our Wordmaster today. Lori is a pet
lover. She has a schnoodle.

Eddie K. was our Timer today. He also is a dog
lover, especially hunting dogs.

Marian J. stepped in as our first speaker today.
Her speech, entitled “Demystifying Competition”
informed us of all the Toastmaster competitions and
how to enter them. She gave us some background on her
recent speech entry and concluded with a challenge to
all of us to enter one of the competitions.

Betsy S. was our second speaker. Her speech,
“Short Experiences” outlined the challenges and
benefits of being 4 feet 11 inches (and seven-eighths)
tall. Betsy uses only the first shelf of her kitchen
cupboards- as she can’t reach the taller shelves, and
on the occasion that she needs something from a higher
shelf—she simply walks on the countertops. Betsy says
stadium seating movie theaters are the only way to go,
and if you are short to stay away from warehouse
grocery shopping—or you’ll be climbing the shelves!

Dan B. was our TopicsMaster today.

His question to Jeff:
“Give us an example of one of your pet peeves.”

Jeff’s response:
1. I work with advisors and, hence have to deal with
their assistants who continually make up excuses as to
why their bosses just can’t talk with me at that
particular moment.

Second question to Jen O’Connor:
“Explain a time you were so petrified, you could
barely move.”

Jen’s response:
1. My roommate and I decided to try sky diving my
sophomore year in college. Once we got on the plane, I
was in the back- the last one to jump. After hearing
all the other screams.... I was petrified for my jump.
As I stepped out the plane door- the wind caught me
and pulled me out—otherwise I may not have jumped.

Evaluation #1: Mary Ellen G.
She liked Marian’s speech and thought the short
questions as visual aids were very effective. She
wondered if Marian was supposed to have a
question/answer period at the end of her speech.

Evaluation #2: Laura C.
Laura feels guilty being tall. She thought Betsy had a
great opening and a perfect subject for “Your Body
Speaks.” She complimented Betsy on her use of gestures
and appropriate humor. She though Betsy could work on
more purposeful eye contact.

Grammarian Report (Lori):
Tractable used three times. Good phrases: “Walking on
countertops.”
Limited ahs and ums.

Timer Report (Eddie)
Marian: 9.17
Betsy: 7.03
Mary Ellen: 1.12
Laura: 2.45
Jeff: 1.25
Jen: 1.47

General Evaluation (Kathy J.):
Overall good meeting with humor added. Thought Mark
used good transitions throughout the meeting, good
word choice. Kudos to Marian for stepping in as
speaker and to Jeff and Jen for their fabulous
TableTopic responses.


The Spirit Award went to Betsy (Jen was a close
second)

-Mary Ellen