September 13, 2006 Metting Summary

Last Thursday’s Mutual Voices Toastmasters meeting encouraged us all with the theme, “For the Health of It”. Laura B presided over a meeting of duty-holders, many of whom worked double duty—thank you! Each were asked to share with the group what they do to stay healthy.

Wordmaster/Grammari an, Kelly T, chose salubrious, meaning conducive or favorable to health or well being, for the word of the day. To take care of herself, Kelly is looking forward to sleeping through the night again, but her four month old has different ideas!

Timer, Lori G, exercised and ate a low carbohydrate diet after her mom was diagnosed with diabetes. She lost 40 pounds between her third and fourth child and made it a resolution (which she attained!) to lose weight in 2006. She’s thinking about doing it again in 2007.

Speaker #1 – Jeff S, presenting “Love Languages”, said that he hasn’t been to the doctor or the dentist since moving to the Twin Cities four years ago! He does run a lot, though, and is currently training for a marathon. The downside is that his legs hurt a lot, but he likes feeling like he can eat whatever he wants!

Jeff’s speech shared a brief synopsis of Gary Chapman’s book, Five Love Languages. Rather than all speaking the same love language, Jeff explained that we each speak one of five love languages., so it’s important to know the love language that your spouse speaks in order to speak their language when you want to communicate your love. The first love language that Jeff explained is Quality Time. Quality time means giving an individual attention—not proximity! In order to love this type of person, you must turn off the TV and spend quality time together by eating dinner or going for a walk, for example. The second love language is Words of Affirmation. These people appreciate recognition and are affected more by negative words. Third, Gift Giving people can be seen across cultures. For these type of people, gifts are objects that remind them of the person they love. Fourth are the Acts of Service love language speakers. These people appreciate the little things, like when the person they love rakes the leaves or does the dishes for them. Finally, Physical Touch people like to physically touch those that they love and be touched by them (e.g., holding hands). It has been proven that babies need this type of love in order to develop a healthy emotional life. Jeff encourages us all to keep our love tanks full, to think about our loved ones love languages, and to be intentional about our love.

Speaker #2 - Laura G, presented “The Competent Leader Manual”. To keep herself healthy, she tries to make some time for herself.

Laura shared information about the new Competent Leader Manual, by discussing the Who, What, When, Why, Where, and How of the manual. The Competent Leader manual is intended for everyone. New members get it as part of their new member kit; existing members can purchase a copy for $6 from TI or $5.25 from Mutual Voices Toastmasters . By working on the new manual, members will learn qualities of leaders and leadership skills. The manual consists of 10 projects: 1) Listening & Leadership, 2) Critical Thinking, 3) Giving Feedback, 4) Time Management, 5) Planning & Implementation, 6) Organizing & Delegating, 7) Developing Your Facilitation Skills, 8) Motivating People, 9) Mentoring, and 10) Team Building . Each project can be completed by performing regular duties at Toastmasters meeting and being evaluated on them and/or performing special duties and being evaluated on them. See the attachment for a listing of the duties to be performed. Since the manual was introduced in January 2006, it has been available for members to begin working on it in conjunction with other manuals. The Competent Leader manual was added to enhance leadership training and to make all education designations clearer. To begin working on your CL, 1) Get a copy of the manual by contacting Laura Griffith or ordering one from TI, 2) Review the projects and choose the roles you want to perform, 3) Contact the VP of Education to have those roles scheduled and a Leadership Evaluator assigned. At meetings, for now, the Leadership Evaluator will provide a 1-2 minute evaluation of the project; longterm, evaluations may be limited to written feedback. If you have questions, contact one of the club officers or check out the District or TI websites, www.d6tm.org or www.toastmasters. org, respectively. (Time: 8:03 minutes)

Table Topics Master – Mary W – had a lot to say about being healthy. She taught aerobics for 15 years and was a competitive body builder. Today, she gets enough sleep to stay mentally healthy and able to handle stress and takes time for herself.

Mary asked Dan what three things he does to make himself a healthy person. First, Dan watches his sodium content since his dad had high blood pressure—he says it’s in a lot of products but we’d never know it if we don’t look for it. Second, Dan keeps active. In the summer he walks, golfs, and does yardwork. In the winter, to avoid just sitting, he does things like ironing while he watches TV to keep himself moving. Third, Dan reads nutritional labels, paying special attention to fat content. (Time: 2:30 minutes)

Mary said that diet is a four letter word to her, and asked Kathy what is more beneficial to weight loss, diet or exercise. Kathy agrees with Mary and said that exercise is much more beneficial to her, or at least it was until she had her foot operated on a year ago. Now, Kathy can’t be as active as she used to. She encourages everyone to find an activity that they truly enjoy. She feels sorry for herself because she can’t run any more and is ready to sue the doctor! (Time: 1:09 minutes)

Evaluator #1 – Kathy J – evaluated Jeff’s speech. In addition to the suggestions she gave in her table topics response, Kathy suggests that we all keep perspective to be healthy. She feels sorry for herself because she can’t run until she visits with her friend that’s gong through chemotherapy and losing her hair.

Kathy liked Jeff’s topics and thought it did a lead Jeff to use rhetorical devices as his objectives stated. She also thought Jeff did a good job with the structure of his speech and with using visual descriptions to paint pictures for us. Kathy suggested that Jeff use the lecturn if he has notes to give him more freedom, or use the flip-chart if he just needs cues. She also suggested that he pause more to allow us reflect on our own situation. (Time: 2:07 minutes)

Evaluator #2 – Kelly T – graciously agreed to evaluate Laura’s speech for the Competent Leader manual and the Competent Toastmaster manual. She applauded Laura for her knack for taking a dry topic and making it informative and interesting. She also liked the way Laura drew in the audience at the beginning of the speech and got them to think about the topics, her preparation, pace, and use of visual aids. Kelly suggested that Laura use a remote mouse or have someone change the slides for her because she seemed tethered to the laptop and looked like she wanted to move. (Time: 2:28 minutes)

As the Wordmaster/Grammari an, Kelly recognized Mary’s use of salubrious and liked Dan’s, “Hungry Man Extra Meaty Man Meal”.

General Evaluator – Dan B – thanked the “Madam Toaster”! Then, he gave kudos to the duty holders of the day. He especially liked that Laura B changed the flip chart after Laura G’s speech so everyone could focus on the rest of the meeting, Mary’s open ended questions, Kathy’s ideas for Jeff, and Kelly’s mini-speech and organization in her evaluation.

Spirit Award: Laura G

Business Items: The Area Contest has been scheduled for Thursday, September 21st, at 11:45am. Because of that, our regular meeting will be canceled, but everyone is encouraged to attend the Area Contest. Kelly T will represent to Mutual Voices in the evaluation contest. We’re still looking for a representative for the Humorous Contest if anyone would like to compete!

August 17, Meeting Summary

On August 17, 2006, we hosted a joint meeting with Burlington Northern Toastmasters. The meeting was attended by four Burlington Northern (BN) members (Liz, Mary, Jack, & Bob), nine Mutual Voices Toastmasters (Laura B., Betsy, Marian, Mark, Laura G., Mike, Kathy, Dan, & Bill), and two Burlington Northern guests (Anjana and Kishori). Since there were many people in the room who did not know each other, our Toastmaster, Keri O, kicked off the meeting with introductions; everyone introduced themselves by sharing their name and job location. The theme of the day was “State Fair Food”, so duty holders were asked to share their favorite State Fair food during the meeting.

Our Wordmaster/Grammarian, Marian J, likes Sweet Martha Cookies. She chose “livestock” as the word of the day because she was intrigued that the definition of livestock depends on country and culture. In our culture, livestock is defined as, “Animals kept or raised for use or pleasure; esp: farm animals kept for use and profit.”

Mary S (BN), was the timer. She likes cheese curds and noted that she worked at Central Livestock before working at BN!

As Speaker #1, Betsy S, presented “A Girl’s Best Friend and More”. During her speech, Betsy shared information about diamonds, including the four Cs of gems, other uses, and other properties. The four Cs include: Carat, Clarity, Color, and Cut. Carat is a measure of the diamond’s size, where the mass of 1 carat = .007 of an ounce. Clarity defines the degree of internal defects (a.k.a., inclusions) in the diamond. Color defines whether or not the diamond is transparent. A perfect diamond is clear, however, chemical impurities or structural imperfections are usually present. Nitrogen causes diamonds to be white, more nitrogen makes them yellow (like the Tiffany Diamond; the fashion industry determines if the color increases or decreases the diamond’s value then!), boron makes them blue (like the Hope Diamond). Cut is determined by the quality of the workmanship when the diamond was cut, not the shape of the diamond (e.g., round, princess, radiant, emerald, pear, heart, marquise, or oval). Only 20% of diamonds are good enough to be gemstones; the other 80% don’t score well on the four Cs, so they are used for other purposes. Diamonds are used for other things due to their hardness, durability, semi-conductor properties, insulator properties, thermal conductor properties (they pull heat away, so are useful in making electronics smaller yet more powerful). (Time: 7:19 minutes)

Betsy’s favorite State Fair food is corn dogs, not pronto pups!

Speaker #2 was Bill S, presenting “Business Valuations”. (His favorite State Fair food is corn and cheese curds.) This speech is normally given to advisors. Business Valuations are done for business owners. He suggested engaging business owners by discussing their business valuations in order to capture their imagination and attention, gain their credibility, and create a plan based on their objectives. As an advisor, the benefits gained are insight into the client’s business which can lead to providing comprehensive services to the business owner. Bill did warn us to limit our liability though. For example, if clients use our business valuations for tax purposes, we might be liable, so we must limit our scope as advisors so that our valuations are not included on taxes. The techniques used for business valuations come from IRS code and the Financial Accounting Standards Board. First, a business’s net worth is determined, which may include houses, cars, record collections, etc. Then, a Capitalization of Earnings is done to determine the owner’s income stream. Bill ended by reminding us that Business Valuations are more of an art than a science. (Time: 8:13 minutes)

Table Topics Master, Liz M, likes pickles on a stick at the State Fair. She noted that for some people the food at the State Fair is the main attraction, for others, it’s something else. Then, she asked Kathy J to share what brings her to the fair. Kathy told us all about a trip to the State Fair where they saw the Brady Bunch perform. Tickets were so expensive that they went to the show, then left immediately. Her parents went to other Grand Stand shows as well. Kathy’s husband brought her to the Fair recently; she decided that the food is too many calories and there are too many people! (Time: 1:30 minutes)

Laura B was the second respondent. Liz told us that there are 72 foods on a stick at the Fair and asked Laura which ones should or should not be. Laura’s favorite State Fair food is a pronto pup, but she doesn’t like pickles! She recently had Key Lime Pie on a stick and thought that was a good idea—it was frozen and very good! She didn’t think spaghetti should be on a stick. Laura pictured the spaghetti mashed into a pasta ball and deep fried, with a stick shoved up it! Spaghetti should be eaten in a bowl or not at all! As long as the Fair has pronto pups, Laura’s happy. (Time: 1:14 minutes)

Liz suggested that with little ones, we should go on rides first, then have food. She’s heard horror stories of parents that have done it the other way and asked Laura G to share on of her horror stories of Fair rides and food. Laura didn’t have any horror stories to share of kids and food at the Fair since her kids are resilient and her husband hates the fair. However, she recalled an experience at Valleyfair where someone had eaten before going on the Looping Starship (the Viking boat ride)—not a good idea! The people on the other side of the ride got more than they bargained for as the ride swung back and forth! (Time: 1:17 minutes)

Evaluator #1 was Bob W. He likes mini donuts at the Fair. Bob liked Betsy’s supporting information and wrap up of her speech. He suggested that she leave the lecturn in the center of the room when using notes and that she color in her shapes on the board to add color to her speech. (Time: 2:18 minutes)

Evaluator #2 was Mike C. He likes sundaes at the Fair. Mike commended Bill on his loud voice, sense of humor (both use of and amount of), natural interaction with the audience, and relaxed movement. He suggested that Bill try to incorporate more purposeful movement, though, and that he add an outline for us to follow, state his references and quote his external sources, and that he provide in introduction for Keri to read rather than introducing himself in order to increase credibility. (Time: 2:50 minutes)

Reports
Wordmaster/Grammarian – Livestock was used three times. Phrases Marian liked include: “shove a stick up it”, “calories I don’t need”, “kids are hearty”, “watch out for the Looping Starship”. There were also several variations of ahs/ums.

Timer – See parenthesis following each speech.

Mark H was the General Evaluator. His favorite State Fair food is pronto pups, and his record is 15 of them! Mark commended Keri on kicking off the meeting on time, having everyone introduce themselves, moving the meeting along, providing good transitions, and the theme that she chose. He liked Marian’s usable word and its explanation and thought Mary did a good job timing and using the word of the day. Mark said that Liz gave a good explanation of her questions and used good humor. For the Table Topics respondents, he liked Kathy’s structure, Laura B’s stall, and Laura G’s turning the question to site a Valleyfair example. He liked Bob’s examples in his evaluation, as well as, his specific suggestions for ways to improve, but suggested that he add more structure. Mike, Mark thought, had good structure, introduction, and a balanced evaluation, and reiterated Mike’s suggestion that we all use introductions for the Toastmaster.

Spirit Award – Betsy