We started on time and ended a couple minutes late. We had 19 attendees including 2 guests.

One guest, Danny, already committed to joining the club next month!

Scott opened the meeting with his weekly speaking tip by sharing a couple famous movie quotes:

–          “You can’t handle the truth!” – Jack Nicholson

–          “I coulda been a contender!” – Marlon Brando

Scott let the group know that both these famous lines were impromptu!

He commended the similar impromptu creativity that John showed in last weeks Table Topics. Impromptu speaking can be scary but when we turn off our inner critic we open our minds to creativity.

Scott also reminded us that Toastmasters has announced a Fall Evaluator and Humorous Speech Contest.

Nicole served as Toastmaster with a theme of “Birthdays.”  She just celebrated her birthday and brought in cupcakes for the entire group!

Nicole gave us some background about birthdays and let us know that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to celebrate birthdays back in 3,000 B.C. But they didn’t celebrate people’s birthdays. Instead, the birthday of the birth of their gods. The Romans were the first to celebrate the birth of the common man.

Other Highlights:

Tony offered a birthday themed joke of the day.

Nancy’s word of the day was ‘plethora.’ It was used 5 times.

George was watching for grammar and noticed beautiful alliteration in Enyonam’s speech.

Robert let the group know that we really need to work on our filler words and double-clutches!

We had 3 great speeches, which were all repeat speeches as our members applied feedback.

  • Enyonam gave her speech called “If A Tree Could Speak, What Would It Say?” (with a photo this time!)
  • Nadine rocked “Throw your old baggage to the curb.”
  • Bruce made the group laugh and gave everyone something to think about with his speech “The Rewireable Brain.”

Ed led table topics with a birthday theme:

  • George told the group how he would celebrate his 100th birthday.
  • Sunny talked about why she would like to have a big party (rather than a small gathering) if she threw a party for her kid.
  • Danny reminisced about his favorite birthday memories.
  • Nancy remembered the favorite gift she’s ever given (a plane ticket to her son).  

Our first time guest (and soon to be member), Danny, won Best Table Topics.

Nadine took home Best Speaker

Jerome took home Best Evaluator

Rupali will be our Toastmaster next week. Please click here now and sign up for a role.