February 15, 2007 Meeting Summary

Fellow Toastmasters:
First, my humble apologies to all of you for the very vague summary that follows. I was looking around the room to see who was summarizing for today and did not realize that it was supposed to be me. As such I took no notes and will have to rely on my keen sense of recall.

Our Toastmaster Betsy opened the meeting by sharing (and demonstrating) the theme for the day which was 'Alliteration'. Betsy acknowledged our guests: Andrew from Individual Life New Business, Brendan from Technical Engineering and the returning Rob who announced that he is our newest member. Welcome to Mutual Voices Rob!

Kathy, our Wordmaster / Grammarian introduced the Word of the Day which was insipid. The meaning of insipid is as follows:
1. Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty.
2. Lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull.

Betsy introduced Mary W who served as our Timer for the day and then itwas on to our first speaker, Marian J. Marian's speech was titled"The Road to Sinagogo". In her speech from the Storytelling Manual(Telling a Story From History) Marian recalled in vivid detail the story ofher father and his close friend as they served in WW II. She told of aparticularly onerous battle over a monastery in Italy. The story was compelling and rich with descriptive language and imagery. A very poignanttelling of a very personal story.

Our next speaker was Laura B who aptly titled her speech"Communicate Kindly with Canines". In this speech from the CompetentCommunicator manual (Vocal Variety) Laura demonstrated two very different ways to communicate with dogs. The first she referred to as "yank and yell" and involved the use of pinch or choke collars coupled with a harsher approach to communication to get the dog to comply with your wishes. The second was more gentle and involved softer, less painful collars and a warmer, praising style of communication.

Laura shared many different examples displaying a great deal of vocal variety. Laura's point was toteach that there are two different approaches, not that one approach is better than the other. She stressed that you need to consider the situation and the personality of the dog.

Sarah J was our Table Topics Master. Her first question went to MarkH and was "What are your experiences with writing poetry and alliteration as a technique?" Mark recalled a poetry writing contest he entered in grade school for the parochial school district. Mark couldn'tremember many of the details from the poem. He did recall that it ha a faith-based theme and that it likely didn't involve alliteration or even rhyming for that matter. He did win the contest and as a result had torecite his poem at some Catholic Women's meeting. Mark does like alliteration and is a big fan of incorporating it into his speeches.

Next Sara asked Jeff S if he could recall any tongue-twisters from his youth that were particularly difficult or memorable. Jeff admittedthat he couldn't recall any tongue-twisters (other than the one Sarar ecited) but that in college he did fancy himself as something of a rap artist. He and his friends would "bust out a rhyme" but he couldn't repeatany of his raps as they might not be appropriate in a corporate setting.

Finally, Sara directed her last question to our newest member, Rob W. Rob was asked if head done any rapping in college. Rob informed that he was not himself a rapper. He did however work with a guy at Perkins who liked to rap. He would recite other artist's raps and modify the words to be about Perkins.

Dave B evaluated Marian's speech. Dave was awed by the detailed and beautiful language that Marian used to tell her father's story. He felt transported to the scene and felt that he could see, smell and feel what she was describing. As a developmental note he suggested that Marian could have gone even further with her vocal variety to build tension and excitement, particularly at the climax of the story. His one word description of her speech - "Awesome".

Keri O evaluated Laura's speech. She felt that Laura picked a goodsubject-matter for her vocal variety speech. She appreciated herorganization and felt that her movement was purposeful. From a developmental perspective, she thought the absence of an actual dog hindered the speech a bit, but conceded that having one was not possible. Suggested perhaps a stuffed dog or some other sort of prop.

Mary & Kathy provided the Timer and Wordmaster / Grammarian reports. DanB followed with the General Evaluation. Dan praised Betsy for managing the meeting well and keeping it on track. He liked the Word of the Day and thanked Mary for stepping in as the Timer. He felt both evaluations were good examples of active listening with lots of good examples from the speeches and specific ideas for improvement.

The Spirit Award was given to Marian for her wonderful speech.

This was the first week of our Membership Contest. There have been modifications to the scoring in order to get more people involved and make it more interesting. The scoring for guests remains the same, five points for the member who brings them to their first meeting and one point forevery meeting they attend as a guest after that. Five additional point sare given to the sponsoring member when their guest becomes a new member. For all other members at each meeting, one point is awarded for filling ameeting role (other than Speaker) and two points are given to the prepared speaker. I attached a spreadsheet with today's results and will update itand send it out each week until the contest is complete.

Congratulationsto our current leader Jeff S with 11 points. Join us next week when Mary W will be the Toastmaster and Roxie N and Dan B will be our prepared speakers. Bring a guest and gain valuable points in our Membership Contest! See you all next week!

February 8, 2007 Meeting Summary

Jeff was our Toastmaster for the meeting and chose "Pets" as the theme. Jeff is a pet lover and grew up with dogs in the home. His wife however isscarred of animals. Jeff would like a dog but he needs to convince hiswife that it would be a good idea. They went to a Superbowl party and thehome owners had a little Yorkie that actually would sit on his wife's lap. Jeff is hoping this is the beginning of something good.

Betsy was our Word Master Grammarian. She chose Pedigree as the word of the day. Pedigree is a noun that means: 1) a register recording a line ofancestors, 2) an ancestral line : Lineage and 3) a distinguished ancestry

Mike was the Timer. Mike is not a pet person. He stated you can never potty train a dog. He says that kids move out, but pets just die and needto be buried.

Mark was our first speaker. His speech was titled "Membership Building 101". Mark announced a contest for our club that runs from 2/15/07 to4/15/07. You will get 5 points for every guest you bring to a meeting, 5 points if that guest joins our club, 2 points if the new member gives a speech, 1 point for each meeting your guest returns and 1 point if the newmember holds a duty other then speaker. The awards are: 1st place $25. gift card, 2nd place $15. gift card and 3rd-5th place $5. gift card.(17:50)

Marian was our second speaker. Her speech was about the behind the scenes of the All Company Meeting. They expect 2,000 plus people to attend theall company meeting each year. Marian told us of three reasons we have anannual all company meeting. 1) Purpose - to hear the psp percentage number. This includes educating, motivating, giving information on the past years experiences, insight into the coming up year and the culture ofSecurian/Minnesota Life. 2) Process - planning of the meeting begins inSeptember. Information is obtained from department heads. The meeting needs to be different each year. 3) Results - after the meeting associates are surveyed. They have obtained a 98% message received success rate.(7:30)

Roxie was our Table Topic Master. Roxie is a pet lover and in fact has three dogs: Rascal Gordon, Sadie May and Riley Jr. All these dogs were rescues from the animal shelter. Roxie's first question went to Laura B."Have you worked for an animal shelter?" Yes Laura has spent countless hours volunteering for the animal shelter. She has worked there for six years and has never adopted a pet yet because she has her beloved Buddy athome.(1:23)

Roxie's second question went to Lori. "You are your dog' Saydee', what do you do all day long while home alone?" Lori as Saydee would sleep all day long curled up on the couch. She knows when her kids get home from school each day so she wakes up shortly before they get home and waits to greet them at the door. (1:20)

Laura G evaluated Marks speech. She congratulated Mark on a great job. Mark is an accomplished speaker and has good structure, vocal variety and gestures. Laura suggested Mark provide the Toastmaster with a better introduction of his background, use more movement and turn down the frontlights when using power point. (3:11)

Betsy evaluated Marian's speech. She felt Marian seemed very calm, organized and picked a good topic which was very relevant for this time of year. Betsy said Marian had a good introduction, good eye contact and body language. Betsy suggested Marian might want to push back the table for more room to move around in. (1:48)

Betsy reported the word of the day was used by Roxie, Mike and Laura G. She enjoyed the phrases "Fleeing as quickly as they can, never to return","Looming", "Sanity Break" and Marian saying she may be the food. Laura B was our General Evaluator. She commented that Jeff is very natural as the Toastmaster. Betsy chose a good Word of the Day, Mike had great humor, Lori had good structure to her table topic response and overall themeeting was great. The Spirit Award went to: Marian.

February 1, 2007 Meeting Summary

Much fun, frivolity and serendipity abounded at our Mutual VoicesToastmasters meeting today. Our Toastmaster Laura G selected 'Gifts& Talents' as the theme of the day. She recounted a recent experiencewhere she was asked to deliver a speech on gifts and talents and that she was grateful that she had the gift of Toastmasters to fall back on in thatsituation.

Laura introduced out Wordmaster / Grammarian Mary W and asked Mary toshare her talent or gift. Mary stated that she has a gift for motivating people (particularly women) to be the best they can be. The Word of theDay that Mary chose was 'serendipity'. Serendipity is an aptitude formaking desirable discoveries by accident, good fortune; luck. Mary challenged all of us in attendance to try to use this word.

Lori G was our Timer and Laura G shared that her gift is that she isvery organized.

Our first speaker was Mary Ellen G. Her speech was titled 'LaFocaccia'. In her speech Mary Ellen shared experiences from their 5thanniversary trip to Italy which her husband Tim surprised her with. She set the stage by informing that she is very organized and detail oriented and Tim is a bit more laid-back fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy.

For this trip they essentially swapped roles with Tim doing all of the planning and detail work and Mary Ellen trying to be more laid-back. All was going well until they arrived at their first stop in Tuscany when they discovered that Tim had forgotten the 'Detail File' with all of the details regarding the remainder of their tour. Tim called back to the states in the middle of the night and a friend had to break into their house (they had just moved to a new home and no one had keys) to retrieve the Detail File.

On to Venice where they went in search of their hotel without the Detail File which had the name of the hotel. They had joked that it was difficult to pronounce so they just referred to it as 'La Focaccia'. They wandered the streets asking vendors and people they came upon if they knew where 'LaFocaccia Hotel'. They got some confused and some irritated looks, but finally an elderly woman understood them enough to help them find their hotel. They discovered that they also had gotten a room upgrade as an additional surprise.

Next it was on to Florence by train (they had to repurchase their train tickets as the Detail File had still not arrived) where they picked uptheir rental car. Their rental car had an in-car navigation system called Street Pilot. They were easily able to navigate Florence and the surrounding area with little or no difficulty by using the Street Pilot. All was fine until they went to Rome. Mary Ellen described the traffic inRome like "Manhattan on steroids!" and they were having quite a time finding their hotel (since the Street Pilot had stopped working) until Tim finally pulled over and just sat there staring out the window.

Mary Ellen approached a group of cab drivers and was relieved when one of them in perfect English provided directions to their hotel. Mary Ellen and Tim completed their trip with their marriage still in tact. Afterward they complimented each other on the success of their role reversal. As for lessons learned, next time Mary Ellen will be in chargeof the Detail File and Tim will never again make fun of her organizational efforts.

And finally, when traveling to Italy, don't name your hotel afterItalian bread.

Our second speaker was Laura B whose speech was titled 'The Right Place & Time'. Laura began her speech by stating that she had seen theface of God and asked if we had done likewise. She went on to say that shewas going to share with us several of her experiences with experiencing God's beauty and wonder and provide us with some tips on how we to can experience this.

Her first tip was to rise early. She showed us a photograph she had takenof a sunrise on Pelican Lake and how she would never have experienced this serendipitous experience of such incredible beauty if she had not gotten upearly. Her next tip was to stop and linger. By stopping and lingering you allow yourself the time to truly enjoy what you are experiencing. For this example, Laura shared a photo of a spring fern that was just ready tounfurl.

Her final tip was to get close and touch those things around you. She shared photos of two insects that she photographed and handled. She shared her 'religious experience' when she was able to touch a baby whale in the wild. Laura reminded us that beauty is all around us if we only putourselves in the right place and time. Her reminder was to make sure to grab your camera so you can share your experiences and don't forget the batteries!

Our Table Topics Master was Jeff Streeper who is blessed with the gift of having a good sense of direction. His first question went to Betsy S and he asked her to share a hidden talent that she possessed. Betsy shared that she is similar to Laura B in that she likes to photograph animals and nature. She spoke specifically of getting up at 6 a.m. in the Boundary Waters canoe area to photograph a sunrise. She has many pictures of nature and animals and rather prefers them as subject matter rather than people.

Our guest Rob W bravely agreed to field a Table Topics question. Jeff asked him what talent he doesn't currently possess that he has always wanted. Ironically, Rob expressed that the talent he had always wanted topossess was public speaking ability. His only experience was a speech class in college where he did just what he needed to get by. Through experiences like visiting and becoming involved in Toastmasters he hopes toimprove his public speaking skills.

The final question went to Lori G. She was asked what her favorite Valentine's Day gift was and what she could recommend to Jeff to give to his wife. Lori said that her favorite gifts were Valentine hearts andnotes that her kids created that had personal messages for Mom. Her first suggestion to Jeff was that he could write his wife a love letter. Another suggestion was to take her out for a nice dinner. Chocolate is always agood option. As for flowers, she said they are fine, but that they shouldbe given on a day other than Valentine's Day to make it more of a special surprise.

Roxie N evaluated Mary Ellen's speech. Roxie's gift is crafting. She began by saying that Mary Ellen was lucky to have a husband so willing todo such a wonderful thing for her. This was Mary Ellen's vocal variety speech and overall Roxie felt that she did very well. At one point in the speech (when Tim was asking about the Detail File) she felt that Mary Ellen might have used her voice even more to emphasize the importance of that point. She loved the analogy of Rome being "Manhattan on steroids!" and thought it was poignant that Mary Ellen softened her voice at the end as she shared the lessons learned.

Dave Baston evaluated Laura B's speech. Dave's gift is the ability to find humor in almost any situation. Dave informed that this was Laura's Organize Your Speech speech and said that overall she had accomplished her task well. He felt that she set the tone well with a powerful yet subtle open. He was very impressed with the photographic images that she shared in her speech. For the most part he felt that she used pauses very effectively, however more ahs and ums began to creep into her speech as the speech went along. The other main developmental point he shared was that Laura may have provided just a bit more clarity in her introduction to make it easier for the listener to follow along. All in all a great speech with beautiful visual images.

Lori shared the Timer's report:
Mary Ellen (6:23)Laura B (7:18)Betsy (1:24)Rob (1:01)Lori (1:13)Roxie (1:35)Dave (2:57)

Mary shared in the Wordmaster / Grammarian report that Lori, Laura B (2)and Roxie had used the Word of the Day. For interesting uses of thelanguage she sited "paper clips in a row" and "Manhattan on steroids!".

Kathy Johnson was our General Evaluator and her gift is the ability to multitask. Kathy felt that Laura G did well as the Toastmaster. She likedthe theme and felt that the transitions and meeting logistics were handled well. She liked Jeff's theme related Table Topic questions and sited the different ways that Betsy (storytelling) and Lori (list format) answered their respective questions. She also praised our guest Rob for being willing to take on a question and for handling it so well.

As for theevaluators, she congratulated Roxie on good suggestions in her first evaluation and held up Dave's evaluation as a great example to learn from. The Spirit Award went to Laura B for her inspiring and visually stunning speech.

Don't miss our meeting next week where the incomparable Jeff S willbe our Toastmaster and our speakers will be Mary Wand Dave B. And while you're at it, bring a guest! Surely you know someone who can use thebenefits Toastmasters has to offer.