March 4, 2014

Post date: Mar 5, 2014 9:30:43 PM

Toastmaster Club 219 Irvine Lunchtime Toastmasters

Club Meeting Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Attendees: 11 Members and 2 Guests (Joanna Lee and Nanette Kazan)

Hello Fellow Toastmasters:

Today’s meeting began on time at 12 noon with Richard Tatunay introducing our Club President, Eric Palermo. Eric called the meeting to order and Dana Conley started the meeting with the reading of the club mission statement. The Toastmaster of Day was Sonny Gupta who volunteered to take on the role. This was Sonny’s first time as the Toastmaster of the Day. His first agenda was to make sure all the roles were assigned. Richard Tatunay volunteered to be the Ah-Counter, Doug Wheaton was the Grammarian, Ryan Calderon was one of the first members to be at the club meeting today and was ready in the center seat to be the Timer. And as General Evaluator, I will share with you my summary of today’s meeting.

The word of the day was “Renewal”. This is great timing as the month of March is Membership Dues Renewal for the six months period from April through September 2014. Thank you to those who paid their membership dues today. Harry Yan reminded all of us that we need to have a minimum of 20 paid members and one more CC award to become President Distinguished Club, the highest recognition award for a club. Don’t forget to bring your checkbook next week and write a check for $42 payable to ILT. Or provide me with your credit card number and $6.00 cash for club dues.

Ryan Calderon volunteered to present the Thought of the Day. He asked the audience if anyone watched sports documentary on 30 for 30 on ESPN on Jim Valvano, the coach from the 1983 NC State Wolfpack basketball game. Jim Valvano was a great motivational speaker who battled cancer. According to Jim Valvano, there should be 3 things that everyone should do daily – LAUGH, THINK & CRY.

Sonny Gupta presented the Humor of the Day about an Englishman, Irishman, and a Scotsman joke and their sandwiches and the phrase “I’m going to jump if my sandwich is….”. The joke ends with a punch line that the Irishman made his own sandwich. If you want to hear the whole joke, I am sure Sonny will gladly repeat it.

Harry Yan’s Tip of the Day continued with Essentials of a Good Leader: Integrity – Respect – Service – Excellence.

Integrity = Trust or Worthiness of the Leader

Respect = Respect one another’s differences

Service = Have a Servant’s heart and value people’s need

Excellence = Leader must soar above mediocre and exceed expectation

Harry reminded us that Spring is an annual reminder of renewal (and not just for membership dues) – Take time to renew spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Toastmaster will give you the ability to renew to inspire, to socialize and renew your mind. Commit yourself and educate yourself as a Toastmaster.

There were no prepared speeches at today’s meeting but instead Min Tang as the Table Topics Master conducted Table Topics session with the theme of “MOVIES”. With the Academy Awards Oscars just taking place on Sunday, Min Tang had mentioned that when she was in China, she had watched the Oscars with subtitles. It was very difficult to watch with everything going on during the show and trying to read the subtitle. It was not a good way to watch the Oscars.

Her first Table topics question was “What do you think it takes to be a good host of such event like the Oscars?” After a long pause of silence, Doug Wheaton volunteered to answer the first Table Topics question. You must be clever, funny, engaging and reach a broad audience….just like the Toastmaster of the Day! His time was 2 minutes and 3 seconds.

Second question was on best directors. This year, Alfonso Cuarón won the Best Director award for Gravity. “Who is your favorite director and why?” Dolores Lara volunteered to answer this question. So for those who read Dolores Lara email about Barbra Streisand (see below), Dolores and the rest of the club members could not recall the title of the movie that Barbra Streisand directed. The 1991 Movie was Prince of Tides in which Barbra was ignored to be nominated as Best Director. Go check out Prince of Tides. Dolores time was 1 minute and 30 seconds.

A challenging third Table Topics question went to Fernando Reyes and it had to do with 2014 Best Picture – 12 Years as a Slave. “Do you think movies that portray the dark side of society are more likely to win awards?” In a quick 1 minute and 2 seconds reply, Fernando agrees that it brings out the creativity of storytelling the dark side of society.

The final question from Min Tang was “What is your favorite musical?” Min recently just saw Frozen where she described it as beautiful movie and the song “Let it Go” which won Best Song in an Animated film was beautiful. Her all-time favorite musical was “The Sound of Music”. Eric Palermo grabbed the final Table Topics question. Eric and a few other members thought the question was “What was your favorite music in a movie?” Eric’s answer was the music from Star Wars – the Star Wars Death March also known as the Darth Vader’s entrance theme. Eric’s time was one minute and 14 seconds.

The Timer, Ah-counter and Grammarian did a great job reporting. Great job on your attentiveness and listening skills!!

The meeting ended early today. Our guests made positive comments about our club. Nanette Kazan said our club was supportive and friendly, nice atmosphere but wished she could have heard a prepared speech. After the meeting, Nanette made a decision to join and completed a membership application. She will become our 24th member in our club. Please welcome Nanette to our club.

One final note from Harry Yan – if you complete your CC and CL by 6/30/14, the Founder’s District will award you with a beautiful distinguished member pin. He encouraged all of us to work towards completing your CC and CL manuals.

This concludes my General evaluator report. Don’t miss another fun meeting next Tuesday and bring your checkbooks, cash or credit card!

Have a wonderful week.

Best Regards,

Margaret Yamamoto

General Evaluator

Toastmasters International

Where Leaders Are Made

www.toastmasters.org

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From: Dolores [mailto:lara@hemingwaysolutions.com]

Okay, here’s the scoop on Barbara Streisand. (Those of you who attended today’s meeting know what this is about.)

Barbara’s first film as a Director was in 1991, The Prince of Tides. Nick Nolte got nominated for Best Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Movie, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Original Score. The film won six academy awards. I don’t know which one lost. Streisand was ignored as Best Director.

Dolores Lara, CPA

The Hemingway Company