Scott served as Toastmaster with 8 Members and 1 Guest in attendance. We started on time and ended 15 minutes early.
If we have more than one person interested in competing, then we will hold our Club Speech and Table Topics Contest on 3/2. The winner will represent the club at the Area Contest on 3/6 at Concord Fire Station. Notify Scott before 2/24 if you want to compete.
There will be no meeting next Monday 2/17 in observance of President’s Day.
Rupali and Mandeep welcomed baby boy Viraaj into the world on 1/24/20. Congratulations!
Our Guest, Rich Adkins, handed in his membership application at the end of the meeting. We will vote him into the club at our next New Member Ceremony. Congrats and Welcome Rich!
Scott’s speaking tip was to watch some of the Oscar acceptance speeches. He voted Bong Joon Ho and Hildur Guðnadottir as the best:
Scott summarized tips and principles from Dr. Tali Sharot’s Ted Talks on how to motivate people to change behavior. In general, remember these two fundamentals:
- Warnings have limited effect
- Focus on the reward not the penalty or negative effect
In addition, Dr. Sharot highlighted how a hospital increased hand-washing compliance from 10% to 90% by implementing cameras and an electronic score board of how various shifts were doing. She suggested this solution used 3 principles that help change people’s behavior:
- Social Incentives – People care about what others are doing and what they think
- Immediate Reward – People want to be recognized and rewarded for their action
- Progress monitoring – People want a sense of accomplishment and feeling of progress
You can watch her full speech below. As a side note, you can tell she is a little nervous and has a dry mouth. Always have some water with you and simply say excuse me and grab a sip to help.
George gave a prepared speech from the Dynamic Leadership Pathways. He talked about leadership styles and referenced some of the titans of business. Nicole highlighted his use of quotes and encouraged more structure and balanced stage movement.
Robert stepped up last minute to serve as Table Topics Master. He returned the audience to “Fruitopia” under an “And Then,” impromptu format. Participants had to embody an imaginary character and continue the story line. Our guest, Richard, became a wizard and magically took home best speaker.
As an FYI, there is a book called “If” in the storage bin. If we need some Table Topics questions last minute, then we can pull from it for inspiration.
Jerome agreed that competition and social incentives could help the club’s member participation. To that end, check out the graph below for a record of the last 49 meetings of who has served as Toastmaster (and who hasn’t). This may be a great way to motivate each other to give more prepared speeches as well!
| Praveen | 6 |
| Scott | 6 |
| Tony | 5 |
| Sunny | 4 |
| Nicole | 4 |
| Traci | 4 |
| Bob | 3 |
| Angela | 3 |
| Sarah | 3 |
| Bruce | 2 |
| Enyonam | 2 |
| George | 2 |
| Nadine | 2 |
| Jerome | 1 |
| Rupali | 1 |
| Mandeep | 1 |
To illustrate the fundamentals above consider these two ways of communicating the importance of signing up for roles using the online agenda.
If you don’t sign up for a role on the agenda, then the meeting start time will get delayed and not be as productive.
If you sign up for a role using the online agenda then the meeting will be more productive for everyone.
Praveen will serve as Toastmaster on 2/24.
Lake Norman Toastmasters Blog 