18 Members and 1 Guest were taken back in time to a Greek Mythology theme under George’s Toastmastership. We started on time and ended 15 minutes early.

Scott announced the Club Executive meeting will be held after the 1/20 regular meeting.

Scott was contacted by Stacie Knuth who runs the Pathway Gavel Club in Huntersville about some supplies that were erroneously sent to her. She gifted the supplies to the club which included Club Leadership Manuals and Speaker Evaluation Forms. We can now direct youth inquiries to her at 704-604-8802 or sak1815@yahoo.com. Nadine is also still looking into a new youth Toastmasters group.

For his speaking tip, Scott pulled inspiration from recent Golden Globe winner Nora Lum (aka “Awkwafina“). Part of her reasoning in creating the the alter ego was to help overcome her shyness. Scott said you can do something similar by imagining a fictitious character that has virtues you would like to embody. Then, pretend you are that person and act them out. Scott suggested the exercise could help break down self-imposed limiting beliefs about your capabilities. So pretend you are Nadine during your next speech and run around the stage!!

The WOD was “Dilapidated” meaning decayed or deteriorated from lack of use. Don’t let your public speaking ability become dilapidated!!

Once again George did a fabulous job as Toastmaster by weaving in tidbits of Greek Mythology into the meeting. He also creatively compared a Greek God or Goddess to the various meeting roles. For example, John was our word of the day master and was compared to “Demeter”, the God of harvest. Our Ballet Counter was “Apollo,” the God of healing, medicine and archery, and of music and poetry. George noted that Apollo was going to identify our talent and warned Zeus may be hiding as any guest that attends a meeting. Greek originated words like Titan, Prometheus and Nike are all still part of our everyday language.

Our one prepared speech was by Ed (Zeus), the god of the sky and ruler of the Titans! He spoke about Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that lives on thousands of computers all over the world. He detailed its history and highlighted the upcoming halving in May. He advocated everyone should own a very small portion of Bitcoin as part of their investment portfolio. Bitcoin can be bought on Coinbase.

Jerome made an excellent point during Ed’s evaluation. It’s OK to use notes during a speech. Ed kept them on the podium and gracefully went back to them when he needed a reminder.

Mandeep was our Table Topics Master and hit the audience with several prepared questions:.

  • “What would you do if you won one million dollars from the lottery?” Danny said he would put more emphasis on traveling and helping family than material possessions.
  • “What business would you start?” Rupali’s would have scientists create a product to make child birth less painful.
  • Brooke’s suggestion to Mark Zuckerberg would be to get rid of showing the number of followers or likes so that people aren’t judged so much.
  • If Praveen could go back to talk to his 10-year-old self he knows he wouldn’t listen to himself and says there would be no benefit.
  • Robert described his first day at work at the Corpus Christi Times.
  • Angela was asked how she spent her first paycheck. She said she probably just spent it knowing that there was more coming!
  • Sunny was asked how she felt getting her first car. She got her first car after moving to the U.S. from China. She said it was comfortable and got her to where she needed to go!

During her general evaluation Nadine highlighted “the spark of life” is our individual creativity. She praised the groups individual efforts and her delight in being part of such a productive group of people.

George asked Maarten and Geoff an impromptu question at the end of the meeting since they had not had a chance to speak. This is a great idea to do every week. If you are Toastmaster, pay attention to who hasn’t spoke and give them a chance to practice at the end if time allows!

Praveen will serve as Toastmaster next week. Please sign up for a role if you plan on attending.

Happy New Year!