” Let it Go.” Meeting of November 11, 2017.

Thanks to Kathy M. for the write up.
Word of the day: Bury the Hatchet. This is an idiom, and one definition is to let go of hurts and misunderstandings and make peace.
Bill welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order as our fearless leader.
Tom was our Toastmaster for the day. He talked about letting go of material stuff as he and his family start to downsize and begin the journey of becoming empty nesters.  Aswini was the Grammarian and came up with the innovative phrase Bury the hatchet.  Dave E. was the timer. He told of a Toastmaster moment where he was in China recently and had to present to a group. He was proud to say he was the sole person that kept to the allotted time. Zhou was the Table Topics Master. He  asked questions to elicit techniques members use to let it go. This topic was well received. Aleli was the General Evaluator and gave a tip to have a grid that you can use as you are listening to speeches. This is one way to capture strengths and areas to work on in order to give others a complete critic of their speech.
For our first speech,” Password Do’s and Don’ts”, Justin warned us how easy it is for hackers to acquire our passwords by using sophisticated software to break our codes. He suggested ways to make our passwords safer and options to use an APP to store our numerous passwords for easier retrieval.   He met his personal objectives to speak without notes and to limit filler words. He met his objectives for his CC project #3 by getting to his main point, and supporting this with his examples and stories.
Bill’s speech, “ Road Rage”, gave us brain science and how our fight, flight, or freeze reactions can be identified and tamed with mindfulness and meditation. He represented the 9 different parts of the medial prefrontal cortex with a handout and using the example of his fist and palm as a map to locate the various areas he was describing in the handout. He ended with giving us a meditation we can use while we are “seeing red” behind the wheel in order to release our negative feelings.
Isabella gave a technical speech for her CC #4, How to Say It. Her speech was titled “My Case Study of the Two Page Design Process”, and she had a handout of the steps.  Her expertise of the subject was amazing and very apparent to everyone. Her process and examples for each step were clear and organized. She smiled, slowed her speech rate, and paused appropriately at the opening and the beginning of the speech that had a wonderful effect of allowing the audience to hear and understand her story better. There was limited use of rhetorical devices.
Dilip gave a pocket speech that was inspirational that might have been easily called, “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”.  He described a plan that anyone can try in order to loosen the grip of fear and the feeling of loss of control, and to bring you back so you are in charge of your decisions. When you recognize what you fear and why, it is less daunting. This will give you some perspective. Otherwise, when you look back on your life, you may have regrets of unfulfilled adventure and experiences. Dillip’s advice?  Just do it!