Quick!  What do St. Crispian, Yoga, and Tzu-Chi have in common?  “Selflessness” and “service,” which was the unspoken theme of today’s Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters meeting.  10 members and 4 guests were in attendance.  Our Toastmaster was charter member, Dave Eberhardt!

The president Scott opened the meeting by inducting 3 new members to the club, Petra, Andrea, and Janell!  We’re so proud to have them as members!

Dave started the meeting by asking members what books they were reading currently.  Dick quipped that as a flight-test engineer, he’s reading a riveting book about Lithium Ion Batteries.  The comment hushed the group and Dave quickly navigated the meeting to the introduction of our first speaker, Johan.

Johan gave a speech about Tzu-Chi — a relief organization that started in Taiwan.  Initially it was a small group of housewives who saved small amounts of their grocery money and used it to help care for needy families.  It is now and international organization with a large presence in the United States.

Dick was our second speaker, he delivered project 3 from the Advanced Interpretive Reading manual — The monodrama.  Dick reenacted the St. Crispen’s Day Speech from Shakespeare’s HENRY V.  He presented the monodrama with such fervor that all members were transfixed at its conclusion.  Great work, Dick!

Our final speaker was our newest member Janell.  This was Janell’s first speech and she told the club about her family’s passion for serving others.  She went on to explain that she left her management job at a non-profit so she could teach yoga to others who were impacted by the stress of the workplace just like she was.

Madeleine led the table topics session.  Despite the theme of “read any good books lately?” Madeleine asked questions to which everyone could respond regardless of their level of interest in reading.  Andrea was voted to have the best table topics response when she revealed to the club that her husband has the worst book recommendations! 🙂

Our evaluators were Nagisa, Steve, and Nicole.  Each provided clear examples of what they found appealing in the speech they were evaluating.  Steve was voted the best evaluator for his evaluation of Dick’s speech.

At the end of the meeting, we received 3 more membership applications!  Whoa!

Our next meeting will include our first-ever Evalution contest!  Any paid club member is eligible to participate.  Those who are interested should contact Dick and Dave for details.

See you at our next meeting on February 23rd!

Twelve members and four guests attended the Seattle Sunrise Toastmasters meeting on January 26th. It was an exciting time and Johan led the meeting as a first time Toastmaster. Very well-done, Johan! We had three speakers.

Our first speaker was Nagisa who spoke about her new year’s resolution — conscious breathing. She shared how purposeful breathing has a healthy calming effect and revealed that she has resolved to do more of it in 2013.

Steve stepped-in as our second speaker. His presentation was part three of a three-part talk, ‘how to be your own doctor.” Steve called on all members to pay attention to the behaviors that lead to the symptoms. In many cases, modified behavior is the solution to the problem.

Our final speaker was Dave. Dave spoke out of an advanced manual and showed us how to be an effective salesperson. In his speech, he demonstrated the skills by selling a member of the audience a rice-cooker.

Our table topics master, Mary prompted members to recall life lessons they had learned in addition to lessons they would share with others. Two of our four guests took on the challenge of a table topics question! Great work!

Our evaluators were Scott, Rich, and Dick. Scott also served as our general evaluator and drew specific attention to how well Johan had performed the role of Toastmaster.

Nicole won best table topics and Scott & Rich tied for best evaluator. Our next meeting is scheduled for February 9th. Don’t forget that our evaluation contest is scheduled for February 23rd. Any member of the club may participate. See Dick or Dave for details.

It’s a new year and the club kicked it off right with a rejuvenating (but cold!) Toastmasters meeting in the Northwest Hospital Atrium. Can someone turn up the heat! Seriously.
President, Scott, opened the meeting on time to a group of members huddled-up with their coffee and coats. After introductions Scott introduced Sonja, the meeting’s Toastmaster.

Sonja got the meeting off to a great start by introducing the meeting’s Theme, “Singing in the Rain.” She talked about the movie and about Seattle’s reputation for being wet. However, Seattle is actually only the 41st wettest city. She also distributed a handout with 2013’s predicted chances for rain of all 365 days of the year for Seattle.

Speech one was an Icebreaker, given by Andrea who informed the club about the importance of food in her multicultural family. Speech two was an interesting story told by Rich to complete Project 6, Vocal Variety, about a trip to Mexico with his two best friends. It was a great story with a twist ending as we learned one of his friends was actually a dog!

Distinguished Toastmasters, Madeleine, gave speech three. She gave us a lot of information in a short period about what not to do when performing the role of Grammarian. We learned a lot about the proper use of conjunctives and how to use them and how not to use them and when they are appropriate and when they aren’t and how to critique them and…

Dick stepped-in at the last minute to be a masterful Table Topics Master. He had some great twisters on what resolutions famous men and women should be making.

Dave, Nicole, and Mary provided feedback to our speakers respectively and Steven, as General Evaluator gave the meeting’s overall evaluation prefaced with some great levity.

The meeting ended with Mary winning the best Table Topics ribbon by telling the club what Lucy from the Peanuts’ new year’s resolution should be: More compassion for Charlie Brown! At the close of the meeting, the club decided to hold their first ever evaluation contest. Details to follow!

The meeting ended at 9am. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 26th. See you there!
Secretary
Dave E.

9 members and 3 guests attended our meeting this Saturday!  The theme was “Rants & Raves”  and Madeleine was our Toastmaster.

Madeleine raved about Seattle’s recycling program and farmer’s markets then introduced a few roles.  Mary was our grammarian.  She introduced the word of the day, “invective” which everyone agreed fit the theme!  Our timer was Rich.

Our first speaker was Sonja.  Sonja announced that her boss had quit and she is being pegged as the successor.  She shared a few tips on how to navigate change more easily.

Our second speaker was Johan.  Johan announced that she is applying for the public health program at the University of Washington.  Her speech was about why she was a good fit for the program.  Members agreed that Toastmasters is a great place to workshop your professional development.  Great work, Johan!

Scott was our third speaker.  He provided members tips on how to purge items in  your closet and get money while doing it.

Our table topics master was Dick.  Dick prompted members with a topic and asked them to provide a Rant or a Rave about it.  Our guest Andrea participated and raved about American Express!Our evaluators were Nicole, Dillibe, and Steve.  Dave provided the general evaluation.  Finally, Mary provided acute feedback as Grammarian.  She called on members to minimize verbal slurs (‘ya vs you).

Andrea, Rich, and Steve tied for best Table Topics response.  Nicole and Dillibe tied for best evaluator.

At the close of the meeting, our guest Andrea decided to join!

Starting in January, our meetings will be held on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month.