Praveen served as Toastmaster to a Donate Blood theme. There were 14 members and 6 guests in attendance. We started 1 minute late and ended 8 minutes early. Scott elected to forgo the new member ceremony until next week’s meeting. We still have to vote Danny, Geoff, Yvette and Mike into the club.

Scott announced that Toastmasters International will recognize the former educational manual achievements through June 30, 2020. If you are working on your CC, ACB, etc. complete it before that date.

The group also discussed Sarah’s recent ribbon cutting speech. She had given a rehearsal version at last week’s meeting to practice. Tony and Enyonam were in attendance and praised Sarah’s performance. You can check out photos of the event on our Facebook page.

Scott speaking tip of the week revolved around managing nerves while speaking. He noticed that quite often speakers will start out nervous and become more relaxed as the presentation moves on. He suggested using breathing techniques right before the start to help relax. Check out Traci’s 4-7-8 breathing technique under the mindfulness meeting notes.

Scott also referenced the movie Inception’s use of a spinning top to differentiate the dream world and reality. In similar fashion he suggested using a rubber band around your wrist to get you back to reality prior to a presentation. When we are nervous, it feels like a different world. We don’t act like ourselves. The rubber band serves as a reminder to anticipate nervous feelings and discomfort. By anticipating the feelings we won’t be as likely to be overcome by them. Then we can use the nervous energy to deliver a peak performance.

The word of the day was gravitas. It was only used 3 times.

Praveen encouraged everyone to donate blood while sharing facts about donation throughout the meeting. Here are some highlights:

  • There are 8 varieties of blood (A+, A-, B+, B-, O+, O-, AB+, AB-)
  • 1 donation can save up to 3 lives
  • You can donate blood every 56 days
  • You can use your donation to discover if you are healthy
  • https://www.redcross.org/give-blood.html

Geoff gave his ice breaker speech. He talked about his reasons for joining Toastmasters and affirmed his goals. One specific goal is to work on what he has been told is a monotone speaking voice. He had a great line that stood out and was said with lots of energy: “I will be a better speaker, I will have more vocal variety, I will continue to be a Toastmaster!”

Danny served as his evaluator. He suggested listening to how comedians use their voice to ebb and flow the jokes in their sets as a way to develop vocal variety.

Angela came prepared as Table Topics Master with 10 questions:

Bruce: What name would you choose if you could choose another name? Bruce said “Twin”

Robert: What item can you not leave your house without? Robert said cell phone in a creative way.

Tony: Which professional athlete would you like to meet? Tony said, professional surfer, Kelly Slater.

Stephanie: Would you prefer to live in New York, San Fan, or LA? She would choose San Francisco.

Sunny: What’s your best excuse if you got pulled over for speeding? She would speak Chinese and gave a humorous example by saying “I don’t understand you” in Chinese. She took home Best Speaker!

Nazih: What is the best gift you’ve ever been given? He talked about a gift from his daughter.

Enyonam: Would you rather live for a week in the past or in the future? She would prefer the future.

Nadine: If you were a circus performer, what would you do? She would be a trapeze artist.

Lauren: Why do children laugh more than adults? She referenced how children live in the moment and adults live in their to-do list.

Michael: Which family member would you trade lives with if you could for a day? He would exchange some time with his brother and law as he goes to the Olympics to coach.

At the end of the meeting Robert shared an eloquent impromptu story about a recent business trip. It was mainly a trip for training that included sitting through presentations. He highlighted how two of the speakers were outstanding. They turned boring subjects into lively conversation while weaving humor in at just the right moments. In speaking with them afterwards, Robert discovered that both speakers were also former Toastmasters! The skills we work on are super valuable!!!

George will serve as Toastmaster next week. He teased the group with the following question: What was the first loaf of bread made from? Show up to next week’s meeting to find out! Yes it’s Veteran’s Day, but we are still meeting.