Greetings Fellow Toastmasters,
Toastmaster for the evening was Alan Wong. There was no theme and the
meeting was to last 90 minutes to fulfill his speech project. There were a
total of 14 members with one guest. Andy Huang had a wonderful inspiration
on Man who sold food during the day and studied at nights. He was in the
military and Andy talked about how great this Man was. Turns out this
great Man was his grandfather.
Word of the day by Elizabeth Wong was Scrumptious (of food) Delicious and
extremely tasty.
Speech #1. Pattie Apple
Restrictions from Covid 19 is eased. Is it possible to have a normal 4th
of July? Switch a switch and be ok? Our normal will be a new normal.
Hybrid toastmaster club. Meeting in person and having others meet in
zoom. Need to form a team and ask for volunteers.
Speech #2. Katelynn Pau
Title of speech, "Online meeting best practices - does FRTM stack up??
Best practices before meeting even starts. Sending agenda. Mute
yourself. Timer and pin. Starting meeting on time. How do we stack up?
Speech #3. Dirk Kittredge
Stains on your shirt. ROcket from Jack's gift store. Paid rocket with
dad's silver dollars. Guilt monster on shoulder. Gilt monster stayed for
quite a while. Dishonor me and my father. Dishonor my family. Snow storm
with car parked in front of mailbox. Neighbor blew snow on the car.
Intentional choice. Be careful of the stains on your shirt. Some do not
wash off.
Table Topics Master was the amazing Jeff Stoll.
1. Jonathan Kolber. Q. Struggle with nerves speaking. What advice do
you have to overcome this? A. We've all been there. I read my maiden
speech. Practice, practice, practice. Join a club and value the fun and
learning.
2. Elizabeth Wong. Q. Want to get a promotion at work. How is
toastmaster going to help? A. Toastmaster helps with professional and
personal life. I forgot the question. (that's funny). Doing what I do
will NOT get you a promotion.
3. Revathy Sukumaran. Q. Club is divided with some quitting over "so".
Is "so" a filler word or not? A. "So" is not a reason to quit. If
anybody bothers with filler words, come hear my speech. The more mistakes
you make the more you grow.
4. Eddie Leon. Q. Guy goes overtime. What advice do you have for him?
A. Glance every 30 seconds. Practice. Do trial runs. How fast do you
talk?
5. Minjun Zhao. Q. How can I use toastmaster skills to get the attention
of a scrumptious guy at the gym? A. Skills apply to every aspect of
life. Toastmaster makes you more attractive and confident. (Wish I knew
this earlier and I would have joined a long time ago).
General Evaluator was the always impressive Minjun Zhao.
Evaluator #1. Robin McIntosh on Pattie Apple
Difficult to do a 2 to 3 minute speech. Evaluating a 2 to 3 minute speech
is equally as hard. Evaluation is as long as the speech. Improve with
looking at the camera. Pause in the beginning was great because it draws
us all in. Pace, volume, and vocal variety was excellent. Good
structure. Great punchline with why questions. Asked for volunteers.
Evaluator #2. Revathy Sukumaran on Katelynn Pau.
Online meetings best practices. Useful for all of us. Audience engaged.
Challenge to be an expert on the topic. LIfe saver to all of us over
problems. Practice key points.
Evaluator #3. Jennifer Dunne on Dirk Kittredge.
Really imaginative. Tie together 3 stories. Honor and dishonor. Break it
up to pieces. Welcome to the wonderful world of business. Nasty
neighbors. Excellent job with clear precise inflection and speed. Did not
appeal to elevating peoples honor and how to avoid dishonor. Big crisis.
Hammer with perfect delivery.
Minjun on Robin. Recognized difficulty with short speeches. Camera
presentation is important and you left her with a challenge.
Minjun on Revathy. Hand gestures. Padi attention to points and gave good
examples
Minjun on Jennifer. Recognized speech structure in pieces. Watched
audience reactions and how engaged they were. Provided specific examples.
Best Speech: Dirk Kittredge
Best Evaluator: Jennifer Dunne
Best Table Topics: Eddie Leon.
Congratulations to all the ribbon winners. Every speech was well done.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Patty will incorporate in person meetings
and zoom meetings. And Katelynn's speech will have us all better with
zoom. Dirk's iconic speech and storytelling is always a treat. It was a 2
hour meeting crammed into 90 minutes. I thought it went well but it was a
little rushed and I prefer to taste and savor the scrumptious meal versus
jamming it down the throat and swallowing everything whole. It was an
interesting experiment.
A big shout out to Jeff Stoll for his excellent table topics questions.
They were all very thought provoking and the answers were equally
rewarding. Another big applause to Minjun Zhao for being the wonderful
General Evaluator. We've witnessed her growth right before our eyes and we
are the fortunate ones to benefit from her awesomeness. And one more shout
out to Jennifer Dunne's evaluation. In my recap on her evaluation if it
seems a little disjointed; it's only because I stopped writing to just
listen. Her vocabulary (inflection) and how she strings her words (hammer
away) and thoughts is nothing short of amazing. I just sat back and
listened and forgot to take notes. What I wrote was my best recollection
of her evaluation.
Thank you for another great meeting. If you don't remember anything from
this meeting, you'll remember it was 90 minutes long. And what did YOU do
with your extra 30 minutes?
Until next time, I am your humble secretary.
Alan Wong
