Rachel also provided a reminder about upcoming speech contests:
Area Contest: September 11, 2010
District Contest: September 25, 2010
Fall conference: October 15, 2010
Rachel then introducing the Toastmaster for the evening, Cindy Kubica.
Cindy extended a warm welcome before giving a brief overview of her duties as Toastmaster, and then introduced a meeting theme. The theme for the August 24th meeting was The Facts of Life. Cindy announced that members would be asked to share one fact of life that they had learned with the group when they first took control of the lectern throughout the evening.
Benevolent - characterized by or expressing goodwill; charitable
HUMORIST
Jackie Houtz did an amazing job of incorporating the meeting theme into her humorous story, providing the club with three well delivered Facts of Life:
1) We all started out in life the same way
2) Boys love their toys
3) Nothing in life is impossible
TABLE TOPICS
Carrie Hodges challenged individual team members to exercise their skills at impromptu speaking. She provided each Table Topics speaker with a horoscope from the previous day's paper and asked them to explain how the horoscope fit with what actually happened to them that day.
Alan Daniels had a horoscope that read, "Mistakes will happen. When they do, remain mindful." Alan entertained club members with a humorous discussion about his horoscope, wrapping it up with his Fact of Life: "My jokes are so bad that they are occasionally funny!"
Michael Moryc's horoscope read, "Things that are not in their popper place will tend to fall into disarray." Michael shared the irony of this horoscope by explaining the state of affairs in his home office, and the difficulty he has had unpacking and reorganizing following the May flooding.
Mike Costa's horoscope read, "Stick to what feels safe for now. When it is time to take a risk you'll know it." Mike confessed that he felt his horoscope was actually speaking about his future because his daughter recently went off to college and there have been many changes occurring in his workplace.
SPEECHES
Speaker #1: Gary Karg - "Growing Up Gary"
Speaker #2: Srimanth Brindavanam - "Big Paws"
EVALUATOR
General Evaluator: Rachel Sumner
Evaluator #1: Dasie Schulz, evaluating Gary Karg
Evaluator #2: Matthew Job, evaluating Srimanth Brindivanam
Grammarian/Ah Counter: Janet Schreibman did an excellent job of listening, recording, and reporting. This was her first time on deck as the Grammarian and Ah Counter.
AWARDS
Best Table Topics: Michael Moryc
Best Evaluator: Matthew Job
Best Speaker: Srimanth Brindavanam
USED WORD OF THE DAY
Club members made excellent use of the Word of the Day. Those who interjected it throughout the meeting included:
Cindy Kubica
Jackie Houtz
Michael Moryc
Srimanth Brindavanam
Matthew Job
GOOD JOB!! :-)
CLOSING
Before the close of the meeting there was a brief discussion about the use of the word podium in reference to the lectern. Podium refers to something a speaker stands up on, while lectern refers to a stand on which the speaker places papers. Although podium and lectern, according to Webster's, are now interchangeable we in Toastmasters are trying to improve our speech and our speaking habits. As such, we should be mindful of using the word lectern when referring to the stand upon which we place our papers when we present a speech.
Rachel closed the meeting early, declaring summer break!
