March 15, 2007 Meeting Summary

International Speech Contest
Speaker #1 - Lori G – A Special Birthday
Lori’s speech told the story of their journey to conceive a child. Her trials included infertility treatments, sibling pregnancies before she finally became pregnant, and an early delivery date! Lori’s speech ended with her much anticipated but touch-and-go birth of her daughter, Jacqueline, who turned 17 years old yesterday!

Speaker #2 – Marian J – Road to Sinagogo
Marian told the story of her father and his friend in the Irish Rifle Company in World War II. She told us of the attack on the monastery at Monte Casino, where 200,000 men, supporting air and tanks fought. After the fierce assault was waged, the battle was won but the London Irish losses were significant, including Marian’s father’s friend, Eddie Mayo.

Tall Tales Speech Contest
Speaker #1 – Kathy J – Tall Tales
Kathy shared some ideas for her Tall Tales Speech Contest entry for the Area Contest.

Following the contest, club members shared feedback with Marian, who will represent the club in the Area Contest next Tuesday.

Table Topics
Table Topics Master, Kurt J, showed each respondent pictures of Ollie, Laura Bourgeault’s new kitten, then asked them a question about the picture.
v Theresa B – What is Ollie thinking?
o His alarm just went off and he is thinking that he really doesn’t want to be disturbed! (Time: 36 seconds)
v Dave B – You’re practicing telling your wife something stupid that you did.
o “Your new car drives very smoothly. So smoothly that you can’t tell you’re going 70 mph in a 50 mph zone. Where’s the checkbook?” (Time: 1 minute 3x seconds)
v Kathy J – You just brought home a dog. Kitty was first. Kitty’s not happy and can talk. What does he say?
o “Haven’t I been good to you? I may shed a little, but that big, slobbery thing has got to go!” (Time: 38 seconds)

General Evaluation
Laura Bourgeault served as our general evaluator. She commended duty holders on their jobs well done and enjoyed the table topics respondents’ answers. She suggested that they try to reach one minute with their responses and thought Dave’s story might be real? Members opted to forgo the Spirit Award today.

March 8, 2007 Meeting Summary

Our Toastmaster, Kathy J, chose “Visiting the Dentist” as the theme for the day. Duty holders shared their experiences of visiting the dentist throughout the meeting.

Wordmaster/Grammarian, Rob W, chose “hygiene” as the word of the day. He didn’t like going to the dentist as a kid, but had a good experience at the skyway dentist.

Dan B, the timer, enjoys the dentist by the has good teeth and a relationship with the dentist that allows him to verbally abuse him!

Speaker #1, Lori G, told the story of a special date—March 14, 1990. Lori began her story by explaining that her brother is 18 months older, married, and had three children; her sister is 3 years younger, has a son named Jason, and got married after Lori. Lori and her husband dated for 3 ½ years before they were engaged, and were engaged for 1 ½ years before they tied the knot. Since they’d been together for so long, they decided to have kids right away.

Unfortunately, a doctor visit determined that Lori has polysystic ovarian syndrome. She was put on clomed, an infertility drug, and they waited. Each month, when Lori called the doctor’s office, they told her that her test was negative. The dose of clomed was doubled, but the test was still negative. After several months, Lori’s brother called and announced that they were expecting their fourth child. On the way home, Lori cried and had a conversation with God…still, her test result was negative. Then, Lori’s sister called and announced that she was expecting, too! With that, Lori bawled and had another conversation with God…still her test was negative. The next month, it was positive! In February, Lori’s sister-in-law was due. In March, her sister was due. In April, Lori was due. In February, Lori’s brother called announcing the birth of Alicia. Twelve days later, Rachel was born to Lori’s sister. Two days later, Lori’s water broke! Four weeks premature, Lori went to the hospital only to find that her baby was breech and couldn’t be turned. An emergency c-section was performed and neonatal specialists worked to get Lori’s baby to breate—they rubbed her, turned her over, and wacked her feet. Lori prayed to God, “Please don’t take away my baby.” Finally, she breathed and cried! That baby turned 17 years old on March 14, 2007. (Time: 6 minutes, 27 seconds)

Bob N, a guest of the club, volunteered to be Speaker #2. He works as an account executive at Brown & Bigelow. Throughout his career, his longest employment was four years, because they gave him something different to do after two years. He worked in telecommunications when “Baby Bell was a rumor”, from 1981 – 2003. Now, he sells calendars and promotional material, business gifts. He told us that he practices good hygiene and people like him. He plans to give future speeches on job changes and laughed that the theme of the day is “Visiting the Dentist” because he had two appointments today—a meeting and a dentist appointment! He likes Good Sense hot and spicy soy nuts, is married, and has two grown daughters, one of which is married. He also works part-time at the Mall of America putting kids on rides on the weekends. (Time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds)

Table Topics Master, Mark H, put his dentist’s kids through college and then made retirement possible with all of the money he paid him. His dentist was from the Flintstones—Dr. Marble. Today, Mark sees the dentist that bought Dr. Marble’s business!

v Betsy told us about her most painful experience. She has brittle bones and cracked her kneecap in two when a bat flew into her bedroom through the air conditioner. She waited until she thought the bat was on the other side of the room and ran to the light-switch, only to find the bat near it. She dropped to the floor and began screaming. Fortunately, her roommate came to her rescue, her Mom took her to the hospital, and someone came for the bat! Later, Betsy told people that she broke her kneecap being quarterback for the Vikings! (Time: 1 minute, 37 seconds)

v Jeff told us why he looks forward to or dreads his semi-annual cleaning, and why. The question was timely because Jeff just decided on Monday that he should go to the dentist. As a kid, his mom always made his appointments, so he went every six months. On April 3rd he’ll start again. Since it’s been a while, he’s dreading the appointment—not because of the pain, but because he’s embarrassed that it’s been so long. (Time: 1 minute, 22 seconds)

v Keri told us about a special birthday that she had and what made it special. She remembers there being a special birthday in her 20s. She and her now husband went out and partied at Disney World in Florida, where she received the red carpet treatment for her birthday, including a cake at the restaurant and a lot of opportunities to consume alcohol at Epcot. In particular, she recalled “The 911” in Germany, which consists of Rumplemintz, Goldschlager, and Jagermeister. (Time: 1 minute, 20 seconds)

Evaluator #1, Mike C, recalled his dentist office’s choice of décor being a bit odd—pictures portrayed dental practices in the 1800s…they weren’t exactly calming! Then, he found a dentist who placed a picture of his race car in Mike’s lap while he explained that Mike’s wisdom teeth needed to be pulled. Mike found a new dentist and still has his wisdom teeth today! Mike was so enthralled in Lori’s speech that he admitted worrying more about Lori’s child living than taking notes for his evaluation, but he did give Lori compliments on her gestures, purposeful movement, and plot development. He loved her vocal variety and the way that her use of pauses, pace, and monotone responses made our urgency grow. He also liked her visual descriptions. For future speeches (see Lori’s contest speech above), Mike suggested fewer dates and details, since it was tough to know what was important during that part of the speech, and thought that she could describe her and her husband’s urge to have kids even more. (Time: 3 minutes, 40 seconds)

Evaluator #2, Laura B, complimented Bob on being very gutsy to stand in front of all of us with only a couple of minutes to prepare. She also commended Bob on his voice, enunciation, vocal variety, projection of his voice, gestures, and humor. With more time to prepare, she thought Bob could have added more structure and organization to his speech and some more purposeful movement in the front of the room. (Time: 2 minutes, 38 seconds)

Inspiration/Humor – Bob told a joke.

Reports
v Wordmaster/Grammarian - Bob & Jeff used the word of the day. Rob also liked “…good time guy…” and “…in front of the Christmas tree with their bellies…”
v Timer – See times in parenthesis following speaking roles.

General Evaluator, Roxie N, commended Keri on her delay to gather her thoughts in table topics response. She thought Mike and Laura B. did a great job with their responses and enjoyed Bob’s humor.

Spirit Award: Lori Galloway

Business Items
v Mutual Voices Spring Contest – Thursday, March 15, 12pm, Partnership Room
v Area 14 Spring Contest – Tuesday, March 20, 12pm – First Trust Building
v Volunteers for Speechcraft are needed
v Dues will be collected in April

February 22, 2007 Meeting Summary

Mary was our Toastmaster and chose "Driving Pet Peeves" for her theme of the day. Mary chose this theme because a couple of months ago she wasdropping off her son at school and a woman would not let her in the line so Mary drove up and someone else let her in. The woman caught up to Mary, rolled down her window and proceeded to yell at her. Mary had our guest Katherine introduce herself. Katherine is looking for a club closer to her job location.

Keri was our Word Master Grammarian. She chose "aggressive" as the word of the day. Keri does not like aggressive drivers on the road. Keri noted only a few ahs and ums, but reminded us to make sure we are annunciating our words properly when we speak.

Sarah was our Timer today. Sarah does not like drivers who pay no attention to pedestrians in the cross walks. Times are noted in parenthesis.

Our first speaker was Roxie. Her speech was titled "Sharing". Before speaking Roxie passed out a sheet of paper defining the word 'share'. Roxie explained that each one of us is a gift and we need to share our time and talents with those around us. We can find opportunities to do this through United Way, Securian / Minnesota Life and other organizations such as Stamping Up. Stamping Up is a company that works closely with theRonald McDonald house. Roxie is proud to be a part of the opportunities that she gets from being involved with the children and families who stay at the Ronald McDonald house. (6:42)

Our second speaker was Dan. His speech title was "Four Steps to Effective Recognition". Dan was not working on a manual speech, but was getting prepared to teach a training class for supervisors and managers onrecognition. The four steps are 1) Explore missed opportunities. You dothis by asking your staff for input on what works and what doesn't work for recognition. 2) What makes a manager great? Managers need to know their staff and how they prefer recognition. Some like individual recognitionwhile others prefer group recognition. 3) Link recognition to goals and outcomes. Staff members will know in advance how recognition will bedetermined and awarded. 4) Listen with a fresh ear. Managers should notbe monotonous in their recognition efforts. (6:44)

Kathy was our Table Topics Master. Her first question to Laura G. was asking her perspective on whether bicycles should be licensed. Laura talked about three groups of bicycle riders. Kids who use bikes for toys should not be licensed. Adults who use bikes for pleasure should not be licensed. People who use bikes like motorized vehicles on the roads and go fast should be licensed. (2:34)

Kathy's second question went to Marian. She asked Marian to tell us abouther own bad driving habits. Marian explained to us that she had lived inBelgium for six years. When she returned to the United States her drivers license had expired so she had to retake the written test and pass the roadportion test again. She had no problem passing the written test, but whenshe went to take the road test she started off by going the wrong way down the street and failed the test within the first few minutes. Marian had to reschedule her road test a couple of days later and barely passed because she had a bad attitude from what had happened the first time around. (2:36)

Jeff was evaluator #1. He evaluated Roxie's speech. Jeff likes the wayRoxie is so relaxed and takes control of the audience. He liked heropening. For improvement Jeff told Roxie that it is ok to use notes forstatistics in a speech without telling the audience that you need to dothat because they are hard to remember. (2:23)

Mark was evaluator #2. He evaluated Dan's speech. Mark liked how Dan hadgood organization of the speech. He liked the good introduction Dan provided Mary. Dan had clear visuals and good use of humor. For improvement Mark noticed how at the beginning of the speech Dan had toldthe audience that the speech was going to be interactive, but it ended upbeing a lecture. Mark pointed out how Dan could have made the speech moreinteractive. (3:49)

We had the pleasure of our area governor at our meeting. Toyin Alowonle encouraged our club to enter the upcoming contests. She also needs somevolunteers from our club at the area contest. If your interested you cancontact Toyin at: Toyin.alowonle@agribank.com.

Marian was our General Evaluator. Marian liked Mary's great segwaysbetween speakers. Marian liked Kathy's good creative table topicsquestions. Marian thought the evaluations were very well done.

The spiritaward went to Marian. Congratulations.