March 24, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our March 24th meeting.

Meeting Location:   San Mateo City Hall, San Mateo, CA     6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Brenda Chung, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Aditi Mishra, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Martin Quan, Xin Tang, and Ruth Wadsworth.  There were two guests: Glenn, and Terry.

Samya inducted the new members:  Brenda Chung, Aditi Mishra, Xin Tang, Trey Zhou, and Martin Quan.

Eric was the Toastmaster; Brenda was the General Evaluator; Xin was the Timer, Lara was the Grammarian, and Martin was the Ah Counter.

Speaker #1:  Suzanne:  “Bullying Behavior Among our Youth”

Manuel:  #7   “Research Your Topic”

Suzanne gave the definition of bullying:  “Bullying is the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others.”  She then gave the following statistics:

·       1.   56% of all students witness a bullying crime in their schools.

·       2.   15% of all student absences are from the fear of being bullied.

·        3.  71% of students report bullying as an ongoing problem.

·       4.   282,000 students report being attacked in high school each month.

Suzanne used visuals that showed a girl who was alone and could easily become a victim of bullying.  She also spoke about the dramatic increase in the suicide rate among children because of bullying. 

Suzanne concluded her speech with the following data:

·        1.  Bullying crosses all cultures and occurs in all communities.

·        2.  It is the strongest between the ages of 6 to 14 years.

·        3. 18% of preschool children are targets.

·        4. 17% of preschool children are bullies.

·        5.  Bullying behavior has a lasting impact.

Speaker #2:  David:  “From Solicitation to Attempt”

Advanced Manuel:  #1 “Speech to Inform”

David explained the distinction of an incomplete crime from a completed crime.  He went through the following processes:

·        1.  Thoughts:  Request that someone else will commit the crime on your behalf.

·        2.  Solicitation:  Meet with someone and have a meeting of the minds, reach an agreement.

·        3.  Preparation:  Low threshold of criminal conspiracy when two or more agree to commit a crime.

·        4.  Perpetration:  Make an attempt to commit the crime.

Evaluation:  Samya evaluated Suzanne.  She began by stating that the numbers of bullying behavior are “mind boggling”.  Suzanne’s speech was well researched, with good vocal variety.  She remained on topic through the entire speech. 

Samya recommended that Suzanne move a bit more and begin the speech with the definition to bullying behavior.  Samya was surprised with the facts that bullying was cross cultural and the enormity of the problem.  She said the speech was well delivered.    

Evaluation:  Martin evaluated David’s speech.  He stated that David gave a very good speech and very informative.  The subject was very complex but he used charts and gave us specific explanations so that we could follow what he was saying.

David remained on one side of his charts and perhaps he could have moved more to the other side; however, his speech was well written and flowed smoothly.  He definitely met his objective of speaking to inform.

The theme of the meeting was: “Spring” and the Word of the Day was “Spectrum”.  Ruth was the Table Topics Master.   

Samya asked for the guests remarks and then closed the meeting. 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:25 

March 17, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our March 17^th meeting.  The Annual Spring Tall Tales and International Contests.

Meeting Location:   San Mateo City Hall, San Mateo, CA     6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Brenda Chung, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Ruth Wadsworth, and Trey Zhou.  There were two guests:   Glenn and Terry

Samya opened the meeting and went over the rules of the contest.  She also announced the order of the speakers.  Trey held a brief meeting with his team of judges.  Sharon, the Sgt. of Arms, prepared the room and went outside to guard the door. 

The Tall Tale Contest was held first.  The time limit was from three to five minutes.  There were two speakers. 

Martin was the first to present his Tall Tales speech, entitled “Online Dating”.  He gave a humorous speech about his adventures with online dating, things that have gone well and also experiences that have had mishaps.

The second speaker was Trey who shared his experiences trying to get home by navigating the different freeways during the rush hour to make it to a hair appointment on time.  He gave a believable tale of what it was like to be stuck in our traffic jams.

There was a fifteen minute break before the two contestants for the International Contest began.  These speeches were five to seven minutes long.

David gave his speech entitled “The Question”.   “How can you defend a person who you know is guilty of harming someone who is innocent?”   He gave the following answers:

·      1.  The system provides everyone with an adequate defense.  Attorney’s represent the      system.

·      2.   A matter of taste.

·      3.  To insure a fair trial.

·      4.  It’s because it gives life meaning.

David’s response to this question was, “I just couldn’t do it.”

Randy gave a compelling speech about investing in the real estate market.  He talked about the current low interest rate, and the continuity of the market.  Randy also discussed other forms of investmenting. 

Randy made comments about the “funny stuff” coming out of Washington, allowing everyone to buy a home then turned around and blamed the banks for the foreclosures and the short sales.  Randy even discussed the internet and bitcoins.

All of the contestants were then called up to the front and asked informal questions as the votes were tallied.  Samya announced the winners.  Trey won the first place award for the Tall Tales.  Randy won the first place award for the International Contest.  Trey and Randy will represent our club at the Area Contest occurring Thursday, 3/20/14 .

 The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

March 10, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our March 10th meeting.

Meeting Location:   San Mateo City Hall, San Mateo, CA     6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Brenda Chung, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Xin Tang, and Ruth Wadsworth.  There were four guests:  Aaron, Anna, Glenn, and Ting.

Suzanne was the Toastmaster; Ruth was the General Evaluator; Brenda was the Timer, Samya was the Grammarian, and Randy was the Ah Counter.

Speaker #1:  Lara:  “Gimme Five”

Manuel:  #7   “Research Your Topic”

Lara began her speech by asking the question, “Why do we shake hands in Toastmasters?”

After giving us many examples and researching this topic, she broke it down to three main reasons for shaking hands that has been done throughout the ages, which are the following:

·        -  Demonstrates respect for the person.

·       -  A form of passing the power, or the podium.  In a class it is similar to “passing the stick”.

·       -   Demonstrates confidence and competence.

Shaking hands also releases a chemical that brings confidence and trust; “a happy chemical”, into the brain, called Oxytocin.  A genuine handshake has been proven to increase the trust and confidence in the exchange of the participants.  It can be very beneficial for nonprofit organizations in fundraising programs.  Lara demonstrated this handshake for the club members and let us practice it on each other.

Evaluation:  Eric evaluated Lara.  He opened by stating that Lara “surprised him”.  It was such a simple title and he could not imagine what she would say about this.  “She fooled me.” 

Lara’s speech was well organized and thoroughly researched.  The audience was completely engaged.  Lara did an excellent job of condensing the research into a manageable format.  We now feel more energized in focusing on our greetings to and with people, in the form of a handshake.

Lara may have given this topic even more time, but she was under the time constraints of the speech rules.  Throughout the speech, Lara walked around the room comfortably and at ease.  She had the audience with her from the beginning to the end of her speech and used humor well.  Lara also demonstrated excitement and enthusiasm for her subject.

Speaker #2:  Samya:  “Toastmaster Club Contest”

Advanced Manuel:  #1 “Speech to Inform”

Samya gave a speech to inform the club members about the upcoming speech contest.  She held up power point pages that held an overview of what she had to say.  Samya went over the following items:

·        The rules of the contest:

·        -The eligibility of each of the categories of speeches; (1) Tall Tales, and (2) International speeches

·        - The time limits for each category

·        - The roles the participants had volunteered to take and the speakers

·        - Asked for any new volunteers 

·       - How the contest would be organized

·        - The agenda and the time limitations of using the room

Samya was a last minute substitute for one of the members that could not attend and was scheduled to speak.

The theme of the meeting was: “Technology” and the Word of the Day was “Communication”.  Martin was the Table Topics Master.   

Samya asked for the guests remarks and then closed the meeting. 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15

March 3, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our March 3rd meeting.

Meeting Location:   San Mateo City Hall, San Mateo, CA     6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller,  Aditi Mishra, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Venkat Senapati, Xin Tang, and Trey Zhou.  There were four guests:  Brenda Chung, Fernando, Daniel, and Terry.

Samya as our president opened the meeting and discussed the contest on 3/17/14.  The roles were confirmed and the rules were announced.

Xin was the Toastmaster; Martin was the General Evaluator; Samya was the Timer, David was the Grammarian, and Lara was the Ah Counter.

Speaker #1:  Aditi:  “Me 2.0”  Project #1 “Ice Breaker”

Aditi began her speech by sharing her experience in discovering or creating her identity.  She stated that one of her most stressful experiences were in filing out applications that required her to talk about her life.  She said that “she was so normal”, thinking this meant that she had nothing to talk about.

As Aditi thought about this, she thought about her life in the form of building blocks, which would build a tower.  She was born and brought up in India through the age of eight.  In India, she lived a vibrant and social life and was surrounded by people.  She began as an introvert but found her voice.

Her family then moved to Belgium, a country where people lived quietly within themselves.  Aditi learned composure and patience while living there.  She also learned to give back to her community. 

Aditi concluded her speech when she moved to America, where she discovered that she could be constantly growing and discovering more about herself.  Aditi learned that she would be always adding new building blocks to her tower and it would never be completed.

Evaluation:  Trey evaluated Aditi.  He began by saying that he could not tell that it was her first speech.  She had a great opening.  Aditi went through her childhood and described her building blocks.  She was able to guide the audience into her life and had us experience her life with her. 

Trey had one suggestion that Aditi could perhaps focus more on one of her experiences and go deeper into it.  It would have drawn us even more into her life experiences.  Overall Aditi gave an excellent first speech.

Speaker #2:  Sharon:  “Magician Intention”  Project #9 “Persuade with Power”

Sharon began her speech by showing us a poster of 22 Arcena Cards.  She explained that there were 78 cards in the Tarot deck.  Sharon introduced the Magician card and described each facet of the card in detail; for example, the snake, which represented reincarnation.  The yellow represented “intellectual buzzing” and the head band, the spark of source from the divine.  It is important to cultivate our knowledge before we act. 

We need to develop the technique of thinking carefully and define what we want.  This evokes the “power of intention”.  We need to define what we want and state it in clear terms.  Visualize it, and act like you already have it.  This is the way to actualize your desires.

Randy evaluated Sharon.  He stated that her enthusiasm for this subject was contagious.  Her enthusiasm seemed to go in and out as she went into her speech.  When Sharon used her notes, it distracted the audience from the speech.  Sharon seemed, however, very knowledgeable of her subject and spoke of it with authority.  It was clear that she had a great love of this subject.

The theme of the meeting was: “City Hall”, and the word of the Day was “Bureaucracy”.  Venkat was the Table Topics Master.  Since it was a last minute assignment, he called upon a participant to answer the first question, and then this person would ask the next question and call a new participant.    

Samya asked for the guests remarks and then closed the meeting. 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15