June 3, 2013 Club Meeting

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

Meeting Location:   The Hillsdale Mall, San Mateo, CA     6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Cheryl Angeles, Samya Boxberger-Oberoi, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Suzanne Mulcahy, Emily Panos, Sharon Pappos, Venkat Senapati, Jim Spath, and Ruth Wadsworth.  There were four guests:  Greg Mahusay, Shivani, Mike, and Mary.

Samya was the Toastmaster; Jim was the General Evaluator; Lara was the Grammarian; Randy was the Ah Counter; Emily was the Vote Counter, and Venkat was the Timer.

Speaker: Cheryl Angeles

Manuel:  #1  Her speech was given as an “Ice Breaker”.

Speech:  “The San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce”

Cheryl gave an overview of the Chamber of Commerce, for what the local Chamber was established, and what it currently has been doing.  She described the local BRN groups and how they function.  Cheryl further described her role as president of the Chamber.  She stated that she appreciated the ways that Toastmasters and the Chamber of Commerce work together now and in the future.  The Chamber is the proud sponsor of this Toastmaster’s club.   

Speaker: Suzanne

Manuel #6:  “Vocal Variety”  

Speech:   “Our Actions Have Significance”

Suzanne began her speech with a Zen Story:  “Cop Wood, Carry Water”.  To illustrate the point of the story, she provided an experience of taking incoming ninth grade students to a retreat for the weekend with other psychologists. 

The students started the retreat reluctantly but after a small act of kindness during the night, everything changed and the weekend was a success. 

Speech Evaluator #2:  Eric Jones gave an evaluation of Suzanne's speech.  He said that the introduction to the speech, the Zen Story, was difficult for him to understand.  Once the experience was shared, it all came together, with a “hidden surprise”, and he became engaged with the speech.  It is important to remember that when using a story with a moral message, that the moral is clarified so that the audience can more easily follow the speech.   

Eric further stated that the speech was well organized and that the objectives had definitely been achieved.  He suggested that Suzanne use pauses to enhance the messages and humor in the speech.  He concluded by saying, “Suzanne had excellent volume, rate, pitch, quality, and expressions.”  She used vivid word usage and natural body language. 

Sharon was the Table Topics Master. The theme of the meeting was: “artwork”; The word of the day was: “aesthetic”.  Lara won the Table Topics ribbon.  

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:20