We started a couple minutes late due to technical difficulties and ended on time.

We had 13 members and 5 guests in attendance (Marten, Stephanie, Zack, Brooke and our Division B Director, Djuna).

Our guest, Zach, mentioned how it’s rewarding to watch others grow and improve.

Scott asked the group about a holiday party. Sunny will take the lead on ideas and set a date. It will probably be something similar to last year where we end early and have a social.

Tom will be absent 11/25, 12/2, 12/20 and 1/6. Please help out setting the room up if you are there early.

Scott’s speaking tip of the week was to be mindful of your breathing in all speaking situations. Sometimes you may get excited when speaking to a group. That excitement can throw off your breathing as much as when you are nervous.

Our Toastmaster was Enyonam with a theme all about who’s doing your taxes.

There are a few different types of people who might be doing your taxes:

  • CertifCPA (there are 419,000 in 143 countries)
  • Enrolled agents (current roles include all tax issues before the IRS…tax preparation, IRS audit, collections and appeals).
  • AFSP/Unenrolled
  • Tax Attorneys

Djuna reminded the group about an upcoming District 37 TLI meeting on Fri, Dec 13 – Sat, Dec 14 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Winston Salem, 460 N Cherry St. Winston-Salem, NC. You can learn more here.

Djuna also mentioned that Bruce finished runner-up in the Division B Humorous Speaking Contest. Congratulations Bruce!

The word of the day was respite (a period of temporary delay / an interval of rest or relief). It was used 10 times by 6 different people!

Enyonam reminded the club of the video master role and let everyone know that they can hand their phone off to another member to be recorded. She also offered an interesting way to watch the video back. Try listening to the audio first without watching, then just watch without listening, then watch and listen at the same time. Great advice!

Danny Watson offered a speech all about overcoming naysayers and negative critics.

Danny offered 3 ways to deal with haters-

  1. Anticipate the haters
  2. Don’t ever engage haters
  3. Role model positivity & good values

Sarah provided great feedback and asked Danny to make it more of a speech than a presentation next time.

Tom was our table topics master.

  • Sarah talked about using our “gray water”
  • Scott talked about ways we can be better as a club (have technological pieces dialed in and for table topics, call on people who haven’t spoken much)
  • Praveen talked about using less 1-time use plastics
  • Zach talked about doing the small things right. First take care of yourself then you will take care of the environment.
  • Marten talked about doing big things (corporations)
  • Sunny talked about planting trees
  • Brooke talked about doing the little things like using less straws.

Jerome was our general evaluator and reminded the group not to turn their back to the audience.

Brooke won best table topics on her first time speaking for table topics!

Scott met with Djuna after the meeting where they discussed ways to improve the club. He will share the ideas at the next meeting.

Check out our VPPR, Tony, at a recent corporate event in Las Vegas. He said his work at Toastmasters aided in his comfort level on stage. Congrats Tony! That’s why we put in the work every Monday night!

Sarah will be our Toastmaster next week. The topic will be “great speakers.”