Shen got the meeting off to a great start, with 19 members and four guests in attendance.

Michelle gave the first speech, her fourth from the competent communicator manual, entitled “Popping the Big Question.” In it, she shared her experience of proposing marriage to her now-husband while they were living in Venezuela, in total disregard of all the normal “rules” for proposals and weddings.

Ndingui discusses childhood programming about race.

Ndingui delivered a powerful second speech, entitled “Programming and What We Can Do About It,” his sixth from the competent communicator manual. He drilled down on the source of negative self-image to the “programming” about race that he received as a child in his West African village and his progress in freeing himself from those flawed notions.

Steve, inspired by a recent Toastmasters district event featuring the youngest World Champion of Public Speaking in history, shared what he learned in a speech entitled “Ryan Avery’s ‘How to Make a Great Speech” as his tenth project from the competent communicator manual. Steve’s speech provided valuable advice—including a formula for making great speeches.

Dawn shares fond childhood memories from growing up in the Philippines.

Katey and Mark receive ribbons as best evaluators.

Club president Johan also inducted two new members this meeting, Taylor and Porscha.

Johan welcomes our two newest members.

Our next meeting is February 8, 2014 at 7:30 a.m. Additionally, the club will hold a bonus meeting on February 15 to increase the number of speaking opportunities in February. Also announced at the meeting was our club’s International Speech and Evaluation Contests contest to be held on February 22. Those interested in speaking should contact Johan.

You are required to login to view this page.

In keeping with the theme “Relatives,” Mary launched the meeting with musings about the Toastmasters “family” and our club as a “functional family” in which we all have different roles and are at different stages of growth in our skills as presenters and leaders. Two guests and 15 members attended.

Madeleine explains the hassles of contact lenses.

Mark was the first speaker, with a speech entitled “How Our Brains Can Save Us from Ourselves and from the Poor.” This was his third speech from the competent communicator manual. Mark drew on his rich experiences working with the poor and on a wealth of research about the effect of current policies and practices to propose a different system: providing minimum guaranteed income without creating monthly budgeting stress on the recipients.

Nicole delivered the second speech, entitled “Evaluate to Motivate,” from the Successful Club series. She explained the benefits of the evaluations that every Toastmasters meeting features for each speaker. She shared her insights on how to prepare to be an evaluator, along with a helpful handout with suggested structures for evaluations guaranteed to motivate speakers to continue to improve.

Madeleine, the third speaker, launched her speech, “I Can See Clearly Now,” with the eponymous song to describe the way she felt when she got her first (very thick) glasses as a child. She recounted her progression through different stages through life with vision issues, culminating in her cataract surgery, persuading us that getting your eyes operated on is not as scary as it sounds.

Our guest Denise participates in TableTopics.

Nicole awards Shen a ribbon as best evaluator.

Dave, Shen, and Johan gave evaluations of the speeches, and Michelle served as general evaluator. Shen was voted best evaluator.

Our next meeting (and our first meeting of 2014!) is January 11, 2014, starting at 7:30 a.m.

Adrian delivers the grammarian’s report.

You are required to login to view this page.