April 15, 2014

Post date: Apr 16, 2014 7:38:51 AM

Fellow Toastmasters,

Attendees: 18 members, 5 guests {Victor, Maria, Karthik, Yohanna, Rick}

Today’s meeting was clockwork in terms of being on time. Richard kicked started the meeting on the dot. Also, every member with an assigned role was in attendance and able to fulfill it!

I shared the gist of what I learned from a career training at work. What compels people to action is knowing and understanding the “why” followed by “how” then “what”.

Ivy read the club mission statement with a tone of spontaneity and exuberance.

Similar to a weekly magazine, Harry continues to deliver useful speech tips of the day. He covered “how to captivate the audience during the first few minutes”.

1. Review: ask a participatory question then

2. New: drop a compelling quote

3. New: Ask a rhetorical question

Nathan mustered an impromptu “Thought of the Day”. He said something along the lines of “always do your best because in the end things will work out”. I thought he did just that considering he was caught off guard upon getting called to fulfill an unexpected role.

Doug unveiled a blend of humor and suspense for the “Humor of the Day”. He opened up by describing his story as one that will “scratch your head”. I sure did a couple of times as I continuously tried to predict the conclusion of what happened to the person who insured the $50K cigars and subsequently and deliberately smoked them only to file a claim. Please follow up with Doug for the conclusion.

Faye delivered yet another insightful narration of her life experience loaded with moral stories and wisdom. The speech is about the powerful force of encouraging words and setting a healthy high expectations. The effect of which is substantiated by tangible result in the form of winning a first place in skating; I assumed figure skating.

I can attest to the speech tip of always ending with a bang. Somehow I remember Faye’s last statement.

“What can you do with your life? ~ Faye

Richard confidently coined three table topic questions. One of which was donated by Trenton.

1. What did Toastmaster do for you? Ivy said she gained more confidence.

2. What kind of events do you want to go to? Kevin shared his desire of attending a World Cup Soccer game sometime in the future.

3. What is your dream job? Trent shared his aspiration of being an influential leader in the corporate world fueled by desire of making people happy.

As an Ah-Counter, Trenton did so well in terms of listening acutely that he could have counted the hum duration of a buzzing fly. No one used the word of the day making Marla’s role a breeze.

Dana chimed in a great suggestion to everyone to give an advance notice if you’re unable to fulfill your role. Harry made an announcement about the May 3 Toastmaster event.

As usual, we received positive feedback from all of our honored guests.

The meeting ended at 12:59 PM per my iPhone’s atomic clock synchronized time.

Eric