Sarah served as Toastmaster to a “Lessons from Great Speakers” theme. We had 12 Members and 2 Guests in attendance. We started two minutes late and ended 10 minutes over.

Bruce shared some of his takeaways from his runner-up finish at the Divisional Humorous Speech Contest. He reiterated the subjective nature of determining a winner and suggested it was difficult to decide who did the best. Remember that if you decide to participate in the next one!

The group determined that 12/16 will be our holiday party. Sunny is working out the details but we have decided it will be ALL Table Topics and NO Prepared Speeches. We’ll probably end early to socialize.

Scott started the meeting by sharing the feedback he received from Djuna, our Division B Director. She is a DTM, with tons of experience so we would be wise to implement these recommendations:

  1. Mentor New Members – assign a Mentor to look over the first three speeches of every new Member. Our newest Members are Danny, Mike, Geoff, Yvette and Zach. Nadine is working on getting you a Mentor. If you are not one of those five and would like a Mentor, see Nadine.
  2. Adjusting Speaking Time – In the past we have allowed a speaker to extend their speaking time the day of the meeting.  Moving forward, we will not.  We need to be concerned with our ability to communicate our ideas, not how much longer we are standing up there.  The higher level speeches are longer because the speaker has developed the ability to use that time productively.  If there is only one speaker, then we can use that meeting time for longer Table Topics or end the meeting early.  We can allow non Pathways speeches but it cannot become the norm.  If there are no prepared speeches scheduled and someone wants to do an impromptu speech, it has to be 5-7 minutes.
  3. Table Topics – This portion of the meeting is designed to work on impromptu speaking. Therefore, the format is crucial to achieving that objective. You can have a theme, but ask different questions to each person. Say the question first, then call on someone. This forces everyone in the audience to face the fear of being called on and think about how they might respond. Call on people who do not have roles to maximize speaking opportunities for everyone.
  4. Projector Use – Quite often there are technical difficulties or the slides become a distraction. Look to develop your speaking more than the use of the projector. If you do use the projector, please work out the technical aspects ahead of time. Use images more than words. Be able to be set up within the one minute of silence between speakers. We do have a club remote clicker available for use that Praveen is testing. Make sure you know how to work it ahead of time.
  5. General Evaluator – Ideally the General Evaluator evaluates how we did as a whole along with the individual role fulfillment. They should refrain from adding additional critique of the prepared speeches.

The WOD was “Ebullient”. It means having or showing great enthusiasm. It was a tough one and only used 3 times.

Praveen was the meeting MVP. He provided on the spot IT support for Sarah as she delivered these 5 Tips from Great Speakers:

  1. Use Markers – ie… I’m going to talk about 5 things. It helps the audience follow.
  2. Powerful Intro – “A date that will live in infamy.”
  3. Speak with Emotion – Think Greta Thunburg
  4. Tell a Story – Think Barak Obama
  5. Power Close – Think Martin Luther King Jr.

Sarah encouraged the audience that great speakers are not born. They are made. She used this clip as inspiration:

Enyonam gave a condensed version of a speech she will be giving at a small business networking event. She detailed tax considerations facing every business.

Sunny gave a speech about “Hot Pots”. They are her favorite way to prepare a meal. Unfortunately there are practically zero restaurants around that use them or stores that sell them.

Robert served as Table Topics Master to a family holiday theme with Praveen taking best speaker. He spoke to The Festival of Lights vs. The Festival of Colors.

George used humor to highlight Sunny’s break from “serious” content while Angela praised Enyonam’s topic relevance. She also went over more specific feedback afterwards. You can always do this to help each other improve!

Nadine served as General Evaluator and suggested the Toastmaster consider the amount of content in their theme when preparing. It needs to be dynamic based on how the meeting is progressing on schedule.

Thanks to everyone that helped set up and tear down in Tom’s absence. It helps out a lot!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!