10 Members and 4 Guests ventured into the rain to attend the meeting. Tony stepped up last minute to serve as Toastmaster and managed to weave in some fun facts including honey has no expiration date, and it takes 364 licks to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop.

Tom returned from a long absence and shared a good report card on his health status.

Rich has joined the club and Steve handed in his application. We will vote them both in at the next New Member Ceremony. Be sure to introduce yourself if you have not done so already.

The WOD was “bloviate” which means to talk in length, especially in an inflated way.

Scott took extra time in the beginning to go over several things:

  1. Open House is on 3/23. Angela volunteered to be in charge of food. Scott will print some flyers for distribution into the community. Shawn encouraged everyone to invite a friend. Tony will handle electronic / social media announcements.
  2. Bruce will represent the club in the Area Speech and Table Topics Contest on 3/6 at Concord Fire Station #9. Information on the event can be found here.
  3. Scott will look into getting a Square Credit Card reader for at the meeting dues payments.
  4. Robert will start sending follow-up emails to our guests.
  5. Education awards are all now up to date. Moving forward, be sure to confirm with the VPE that you are getting credit. You can confirm under your profile on toastmasters.org.
  6. Pathways website navigation can be confusing. Be patient and contact Toastmaster’s International with questions. Their customer service is excellent and can be reached at 720-439-5050.

Scott’s closing speaking tip was to use every speaking opportunity to exercise your creative speaking, even if there are no guests in the room. For example, if you are the ballot counter, tell a quick impromptu speech about love notes, voting or competition as your theme. Just a few tight sentences can help you become better on your feet.

Area Director, Shawn Turner, gave a TLI Training speech for the VPE and VPPR to count towards our club officer training goals. He started with an inspirational message about a young and old man having a wood chopping competition. The younger man arrogantly boasted that he would easily out chop the old man. In the end, it was the old man who won. The younger man inquired how he did it to which the older man replied, “while I was sitting down I was sharpening my ax.”

Shawn went on to encourage the group to maximize the Open House’s potential because such events are critical in the ups and downs of a Toastmasters Club participation. He also advised we collectively challenge each other to give more speeches.

Angela pulled some interesting questions from the Internet for Table Topics including:

What is something people find crazy about you?

What is a fun activity you love to do?

If you had 24 hours left to live, what would you do?

When you were younger, what did you think you would do for a career when you grew up?

Geoff took home best speaker while delivering his speech with excellent pace and use of humor.

Jerome will serve as Toastmaster next week. We already have 2 speakers signed up. Let’s make it a full agenda with three!