November 2, 2006 Meeting Summary
If you were unable to attend today’s meeting, we missed you! There were announcements, cakes and pearls, ideas of ways to get things done, one of our new members, and much, much more! Read on for details! Hopefully, you’ll be able to join us next week when Roxie gives her Ice Breaker!
Toastmaster. Dave B, had a great meeting planned surrounding the theme “Christmas Decorations”. He was amazed when he had to dig through carts at Walmart for Halloween items ON HALLOWEEN! The store had begun to put up their Christmas decorations and needed the space, so Dave was able to save some money on items from the Halloween clearance!
Before getting into the agenda, Dave asked the club if anyone had anything to announce after over-hearing conversations around the room. Since no one spoke up, Laura Bannounced that she’s pregnant—BUT WAS JUST KIDDING! Her tactics worked, though, because Mike C “stepped up to the plate” and announced that HE IS ENGAGED! Congratulations, Mike!
Wordmaster/Grammarian, Marian J, provided us with the word premature to work into our speaking today. In addition to the commonly used meaning, “born after a gestation period of less than the normal time”, premature more generally means “occurring, growing, or existing before the customary, correct, or assigned time; uncommonly or unexpectedly early.” To fit with the theme, Marian told us that, “The sale of Christmas decorations in early November seems premature to me,” but she has seen them at Costco in mid-October.
Speaker #1, Lori G, presented “Two Cakes” to satisfy the Folk Tale requirement of the Story Telling manual. The story is about two sisters (Carol and Raina) and their daughters (Lisa and Tammy), respectively. Carol and Lisa have sweet dispositions, while Raina and Tammy share nasty dispositions. One day, Carol asked Lisa to go to the fountain to get some water. Lisa gladly agreed and asked if she could have some cake to eat by the fountain. With cake in hand, she made her way to the fountain where she was met by an old woman who wanted a bite of her cake. Lisa kindly and graciously gave her the entire piece of cake, wishing only that it contained almonds and sugar, too. The woman blessed her, wishing her pearls whenever she brushed her hair, breath the scent of roses, and lilies wherever she stepped. Lisa thanked the old woman and returned home for dinner. The next morning, when she awoke and brushed her hair, pearls dropped from it, which they sold to the banker. When Raina visited, she demanded to know where the peals came from, so they told her their story. Raina returned home and sent Tammy to the fountain with some cake. When the old woman arrived and asked for a bite of cake, Tammy said, “What! Do you think I have nothing better to do than to give cake to an old woman?” The old woman blessed her, too, but with breath that foamed like a donkey’s, hair that lice fell from, and thistles wherever she walked. When Tammy returned home, Raina was there, waiting to comb her hair—to her disgust, lice came from it.
At the same time, in a land far away, Lisa’s brother, Randy, was having a conversation with the king about finding a queen. Randy suggested to the king that he meet Lisa, who had many virtues and had recently been blessed by a fairy. Randy sent for Lisa, but Carol was too sick to bring her to her brother, so asked Raina to escort her. Raina agreed, but threw Lisa overboard on the way. Fortunately, a mermaid found Lisa and saved her life, but made her a slave. In her place, Raina presented Tammy. When they combed her hair and found the lice and noticed her foaming mouth and thistled walk, the king sent Randy to the barn to tend to the geese. Randy didn’t tend to the geese, but let them wander freely to the shore. There, they met a maiden who fed them pastries and rose water. They returned to the kingdom singing, “La la la, the sun and moon are the most beautiful, but more beautiful is the maiden that feeds us…” Hearing their song, the king caught Randy avoiding his tasks in the barn and followed the geese to the maiden. When they combed her hair and found pearls, they brought Randy to her. He recognized her immediately and she told him about Raina throwing her overboard and being the mermaid’s slave. The next day, they planned to meet on the rock and the king would bring a file to cut the chain. As the king filed away at the chain, the chain of love around his heart took old. He took Lisa back to the castly, had Raina burned for her deceit, and had Tammy banished, for those who give no pity, get none. (Time: 8 minutes 58 seconds)
Speaker #2, Mike C, completed his fifth speech in Speeches to Management, earning his Advanced Communicator Bronze! His speech entitled “Personal Time Management” shared some of Mike’s strategies for managing his time. Mike began thinking about time management when he met up with a classmate at his 10-year reunion. After sharing his busy life of working, going to the gym, and traveling, Mike heard about a much busier life from his friend of working two jobs, raising two kids on her own, going to St. Thomas at night to earn her degree, being the troop leader for her Girl Scout, and much more. Mike decided that she must be using her time better and sought out ways to do the same. Now, with even more time demands, Mike needs to lead a more efficient life, so has come up with four ways to manage his time: 1) Re-engineering time consuming tasks, 2) Outsourcing, 3) Prioritizing time drains, 4) Multi-tasking.
Some of the things that Mike has been able to re-engineer are paying bills, balancing his checking account, and going to the grocery store. By paying his bills on-line, and throwing all of his receipts first in a drawer for a year, then in a bag in his basement for a couple of years, Mike figures that he saves at least an hour each month. NOT balancing his checking account saves him a couple of hours per month and he doesn’t figure he’s losing much since in all of the years of balancing his account, he only found one $20 error—that works out to about a nickel an hour for his time! Mike hasn’t tried on-line grocery shopping, but figures it will save him some time, too.
Tasks that Mike tries to outsource are those that he doesn’t like to do or that take a lot of time. He has a service clean his house, which he admits costs more, but he likes being able to have people over and not worry about his house being clean. Other ideas he has are a lawn service and handyman-work.
Next are those things that Mike DOES want to do. He likes to watch TV, but finds that if he watches it when he wants to rather than just when it’s on, he spends less time doing it. To do so, he suggests Tivo, On Demand, or VCR recordings.
Finally, to multi-task, Mike brings papers, makes phone calls, etc. at his son’s gymnastics practices (but warns us that if we do so, we should be sure to look up and nod frequently). Other ideas include grouping calls and set a time to make them (for example, from 9:30 – 10:00 plan three calls to make and keep them each to 10 minutes) doing things in the car, like listening to CDs/MP3 players, making phone calls, etc.
In conclusion, Mike suggests that in order to find the time for things that are important, begin by looking at tasks that you hate to do first and think about ways to do them differently so that you have more time to do what you want. (Time: 11 minutes, 16 seconds)
Mark H provided us with two table topics questions. When Mark was a kid, he and his siblings shared an advent calendar whose pockets contained ornaments. Each day, one of them would get to take the appropriate ornament out of the pocket and place it on the tree with Velcro. Because they all wanted the Christmas Day ornament, they would try to calculate the order to give them that day! Mark asked
Marian J if there were any traditions she remembered.
v Marian shared her family’s tradition of waking early on Christmas morning to open Santa’s gifts. Those gifts were of particularly great importance because toys were not a regular Christmas gift, so she and her five siblings would wake up at the “crack of dawn” to show off what they’d received. Marian also remembered this tradition when she was older—being the eldest, sleep became more important than showing off her gift, so she didn’t enjoy the tradition as much then. (Time: 1 minute, 53 seconds)
When Mark was young, each of them had a stocking that was the same size; the pets had stockings, as well. Mark and his wife still exchange gifts in stockings today. Mark asked new member, Sarah J, if she had a stocking when she was young?
v Sarah didn’t have a stocking growing up. Her family had a tree and presents, but the stocking tradition never caught on. However, Sarah did have creative roommates in college at UMD. One year, they had a contest to decorate their apartments. Sarah’s roommates wrapped the cabinets to look like packages, put garland on the wall to look like a Christmas tree, and created a fireplace above the oven with construction paper, complete with a stocking for everyone. In Sarah’s stocking, she received icees and silly putty! (Time: 1 minute, 26 seconds)
Laura B evaluated Lori’s speech. Laura thought it was a wonderful story and commended Lori on her delivery of the story and details without hesitation. She also liked Lori’s gestures and eye contact and her purposeful movement to indicate the passing of time. In the future, Laura suggested that Lori be sure to focus on the entire room rather than focusing mostly on the left, use more vocal variety (e.g., the aunt DEMANDED), stand in front of the entire audience rather than moving to the middle of the room, and shake the Toastmaster’s hand at the end of the speech. (Time: 2 minutes 52 seconds)
Evaluator #2 was Jeff S, evaluating Mike’s speech. The goal of Mike’s speech was to motivate and inspire us to understand his goal. To achieve this goal, Jeff commended Mike on his topic choice and examples. He also liked Mike’s effective opening, gestures (e.g., stuffing bills in the files), use of humor, and use of the flip chart to guide his speech. In the future, Jeff suggested that Mke watch his ahs/ums, ground himself even more since Mike did a bit of “dancing” during his speech, and use even more vocal variety to draw us into the speech. (Time: 2 minutes 37 seconds)
Reports:
Wordmaster/Grammarian – There were no uses of the word of the day. Several expressions were very good in the speeches and a few ahs/ums were used while people were grasping for words. Marian suggested that we try to pause deliberately to reduce ahs/ums even more.
Timer – See times following each speaking assignment.
General Evaluator, Mary Ellen G, gave rave reviews to our duty holders. In particular, Mary Ellen liked Dave’s upbeat and personable approach to the meeting, Marian’s word choice, and Mark’s introductions of the table topics questions that gave people time to think. She also complimented respondents on their structured answers and the specific examples given by the evaluators.
Toastmaster. Dave B, had a great meeting planned surrounding the theme “Christmas Decorations”. He was amazed when he had to dig through carts at Walmart for Halloween items ON HALLOWEEN! The store had begun to put up their Christmas decorations and needed the space, so Dave was able to save some money on items from the Halloween clearance!
Before getting into the agenda, Dave asked the club if anyone had anything to announce after over-hearing conversations around the room. Since no one spoke up, Laura Bannounced that she’s pregnant—BUT WAS JUST KIDDING! Her tactics worked, though, because Mike C “stepped up to the plate” and announced that HE IS ENGAGED! Congratulations, Mike!
Wordmaster/Grammarian, Marian J, provided us with the word premature to work into our speaking today. In addition to the commonly used meaning, “born after a gestation period of less than the normal time”, premature more generally means “occurring, growing, or existing before the customary, correct, or assigned time; uncommonly or unexpectedly early.” To fit with the theme, Marian told us that, “The sale of Christmas decorations in early November seems premature to me,” but she has seen them at Costco in mid-October.
Speaker #1, Lori G, presented “Two Cakes” to satisfy the Folk Tale requirement of the Story Telling manual. The story is about two sisters (Carol and Raina) and their daughters (Lisa and Tammy), respectively. Carol and Lisa have sweet dispositions, while Raina and Tammy share nasty dispositions. One day, Carol asked Lisa to go to the fountain to get some water. Lisa gladly agreed and asked if she could have some cake to eat by the fountain. With cake in hand, she made her way to the fountain where she was met by an old woman who wanted a bite of her cake. Lisa kindly and graciously gave her the entire piece of cake, wishing only that it contained almonds and sugar, too. The woman blessed her, wishing her pearls whenever she brushed her hair, breath the scent of roses, and lilies wherever she stepped. Lisa thanked the old woman and returned home for dinner. The next morning, when she awoke and brushed her hair, pearls dropped from it, which they sold to the banker. When Raina visited, she demanded to know where the peals came from, so they told her their story. Raina returned home and sent Tammy to the fountain with some cake. When the old woman arrived and asked for a bite of cake, Tammy said, “What! Do you think I have nothing better to do than to give cake to an old woman?” The old woman blessed her, too, but with breath that foamed like a donkey’s, hair that lice fell from, and thistles wherever she walked. When Tammy returned home, Raina was there, waiting to comb her hair—to her disgust, lice came from it.
At the same time, in a land far away, Lisa’s brother, Randy, was having a conversation with the king about finding a queen. Randy suggested to the king that he meet Lisa, who had many virtues and had recently been blessed by a fairy. Randy sent for Lisa, but Carol was too sick to bring her to her brother, so asked Raina to escort her. Raina agreed, but threw Lisa overboard on the way. Fortunately, a mermaid found Lisa and saved her life, but made her a slave. In her place, Raina presented Tammy. When they combed her hair and found the lice and noticed her foaming mouth and thistled walk, the king sent Randy to the barn to tend to the geese. Randy didn’t tend to the geese, but let them wander freely to the shore. There, they met a maiden who fed them pastries and rose water. They returned to the kingdom singing, “La la la, the sun and moon are the most beautiful, but more beautiful is the maiden that feeds us…” Hearing their song, the king caught Randy avoiding his tasks in the barn and followed the geese to the maiden. When they combed her hair and found pearls, they brought Randy to her. He recognized her immediately and she told him about Raina throwing her overboard and being the mermaid’s slave. The next day, they planned to meet on the rock and the king would bring a file to cut the chain. As the king filed away at the chain, the chain of love around his heart took old. He took Lisa back to the castly, had Raina burned for her deceit, and had Tammy banished, for those who give no pity, get none. (Time: 8 minutes 58 seconds)
Speaker #2, Mike C, completed his fifth speech in Speeches to Management, earning his Advanced Communicator Bronze! His speech entitled “Personal Time Management” shared some of Mike’s strategies for managing his time. Mike began thinking about time management when he met up with a classmate at his 10-year reunion. After sharing his busy life of working, going to the gym, and traveling, Mike heard about a much busier life from his friend of working two jobs, raising two kids on her own, going to St. Thomas at night to earn her degree, being the troop leader for her Girl Scout, and much more. Mike decided that she must be using her time better and sought out ways to do the same. Now, with even more time demands, Mike needs to lead a more efficient life, so has come up with four ways to manage his time: 1) Re-engineering time consuming tasks, 2) Outsourcing, 3) Prioritizing time drains, 4) Multi-tasking.
Some of the things that Mike has been able to re-engineer are paying bills, balancing his checking account, and going to the grocery store. By paying his bills on-line, and throwing all of his receipts first in a drawer for a year, then in a bag in his basement for a couple of years, Mike figures that he saves at least an hour each month. NOT balancing his checking account saves him a couple of hours per month and he doesn’t figure he’s losing much since in all of the years of balancing his account, he only found one $20 error—that works out to about a nickel an hour for his time! Mike hasn’t tried on-line grocery shopping, but figures it will save him some time, too.
Tasks that Mike tries to outsource are those that he doesn’t like to do or that take a lot of time. He has a service clean his house, which he admits costs more, but he likes being able to have people over and not worry about his house being clean. Other ideas he has are a lawn service and handyman-work.
Next are those things that Mike DOES want to do. He likes to watch TV, but finds that if he watches it when he wants to rather than just when it’s on, he spends less time doing it. To do so, he suggests Tivo, On Demand, or VCR recordings.
Finally, to multi-task, Mike brings papers, makes phone calls, etc. at his son’s gymnastics practices (but warns us that if we do so, we should be sure to look up and nod frequently). Other ideas include grouping calls and set a time to make them (for example, from 9:30 – 10:00 plan three calls to make and keep them each to 10 minutes) doing things in the car, like listening to CDs/MP3 players, making phone calls, etc.
In conclusion, Mike suggests that in order to find the time for things that are important, begin by looking at tasks that you hate to do first and think about ways to do them differently so that you have more time to do what you want. (Time: 11 minutes, 16 seconds)
Mark H provided us with two table topics questions. When Mark was a kid, he and his siblings shared an advent calendar whose pockets contained ornaments. Each day, one of them would get to take the appropriate ornament out of the pocket and place it on the tree with Velcro. Because they all wanted the Christmas Day ornament, they would try to calculate the order to give them that day! Mark asked
Marian J if there were any traditions she remembered.
v Marian shared her family’s tradition of waking early on Christmas morning to open Santa’s gifts. Those gifts were of particularly great importance because toys were not a regular Christmas gift, so she and her five siblings would wake up at the “crack of dawn” to show off what they’d received. Marian also remembered this tradition when she was older—being the eldest, sleep became more important than showing off her gift, so she didn’t enjoy the tradition as much then. (Time: 1 minute, 53 seconds)
When Mark was young, each of them had a stocking that was the same size; the pets had stockings, as well. Mark and his wife still exchange gifts in stockings today. Mark asked new member, Sarah J, if she had a stocking when she was young?
v Sarah didn’t have a stocking growing up. Her family had a tree and presents, but the stocking tradition never caught on. However, Sarah did have creative roommates in college at UMD. One year, they had a contest to decorate their apartments. Sarah’s roommates wrapped the cabinets to look like packages, put garland on the wall to look like a Christmas tree, and created a fireplace above the oven with construction paper, complete with a stocking for everyone. In Sarah’s stocking, she received icees and silly putty! (Time: 1 minute, 26 seconds)
Laura B evaluated Lori’s speech. Laura thought it was a wonderful story and commended Lori on her delivery of the story and details without hesitation. She also liked Lori’s gestures and eye contact and her purposeful movement to indicate the passing of time. In the future, Laura suggested that Lori be sure to focus on the entire room rather than focusing mostly on the left, use more vocal variety (e.g., the aunt DEMANDED), stand in front of the entire audience rather than moving to the middle of the room, and shake the Toastmaster’s hand at the end of the speech. (Time: 2 minutes 52 seconds)
Evaluator #2 was Jeff S, evaluating Mike’s speech. The goal of Mike’s speech was to motivate and inspire us to understand his goal. To achieve this goal, Jeff commended Mike on his topic choice and examples. He also liked Mike’s effective opening, gestures (e.g., stuffing bills in the files), use of humor, and use of the flip chart to guide his speech. In the future, Jeff suggested that Mke watch his ahs/ums, ground himself even more since Mike did a bit of “dancing” during his speech, and use even more vocal variety to draw us into the speech. (Time: 2 minutes 37 seconds)
Reports:
Wordmaster/Grammarian – There were no uses of the word of the day. Several expressions were very good in the speeches and a few ahs/ums were used while people were grasping for words. Marian suggested that we try to pause deliberately to reduce ahs/ums even more.
Timer – See times following each speaking assignment.
General Evaluator, Mary Ellen G, gave rave reviews to our duty holders. In particular, Mary Ellen liked Dave’s upbeat and personable approach to the meeting, Marian’s word choice, and Mark’s introductions of the table topics questions that gave people time to think. She also complimented respondents on their structured answers and the specific examples given by the evaluators.
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