The following is a summary of the minutes from our October 7th meeting.
Meeting Location: The Hillsdale Mall, San
Mateo, CA 6:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Attendees:
Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger-Oberoi, Emily, Lara
Miller, David Nazzaro, Lara Miller, Maia, Sharon Pappas, Ruth Wadsworth and
Venkat Senapati. There were no guests.
Ruth was the Toastmaster; Samya was the General Evaluator;
Sharon was the Grammarian; Maia was the Ah Counter; Emily was the Table Topics
Master; and Venkat was the Timer.
Samya gave a brief business update and introduced Maia as the
newest member to the club.
The theme of the meeting was: “Discovery”; the word of the day
was: “Horizons”. Ruth spoke about the theme, relating it to the
upcoming Columbus Day and the discovery of America. Ruth gave a
little information about tonight’s meeting, offering to add a speech if there
was extra time since there was only one speaker on the agenda for the
evening.
David, the Evaluator, gave an introduction outlining the speech
criteria, including that the speech should incorporate techniques using
movement: gestures, facial expressions and eye contact. David also
explained that because the speech was supposed to be 5 to 7 minutes and
a toast is 2 to 3 minutes, Lara was including an introduction with
her speech to qualify for the right amount of time.
Speaker #1: Lara: “Cheers”
Competent Communication Series, Project #5: “Your
Body Speaks”
Lara’s speech began with an introduction about her research into
how to make a good wedding toast. Lara shared a few examples of
bad toasts and then outlined steps in what makes a good toast:
1. Be focused
2. Be gracious
3. Be brief
Lara (with Ruth’s help, thank you Ruth!) shared
sparkling cider and water with the members of the meeting for the
practice toast which she read. In the
actual toast Lara shared the story of how she met the bride,
adventures in the years that have passed and how happy the bride has been since
she met the groom. Lara ended with a toast to the happy
couple, which the rest of the club chimed in on.
Evaluation: David evaluated Lara’s
speech. He shared that he first heard
of toastmasters because someone he knew started
attending toastmasters meetings a year before a much-anticipated
family wedding and, as a result of all the practice, made a memorable and
enjoyable speech, thus showing David the benefits
of toastmasters.
David said that Lara followed the criteria of
the speech well, walking close to the audience, and making good eye contact
during the speech. David said that Lara looked at her notes more
during the introduction, but when Lara began the toast, she was much
better, not relying on the notes during that portion. David said that bringing
cider to share was a nice touch.
Group Evaluation:
Ruth also noted the use of notes during the intro, and having
the actual toast at the end was a good way to end the
speech. Venkat said the speech was an example of research and
demonstration. Maia liked the way that the story of meeting in the
darkroom was interwoven through the toast, with related
metaphors. Emily gave recommendations on handling notes, microphone
and “toasting” glass. Sharon indicated Lara needed to slow down and
enunciate more. David further added that the speech had two
personalities: The introduction used notes but the
actual toast was more natural. David also encouraged Lara
to work on tone of voice. Samya liked the speech and agreed
with the comments.
Table Topics: Emily hosted the Table
Topics. All the participants were within time and used the word of
the day. Maia proved to be an attentive ah counter, making this a
very lucrative meeting. Samya won the ribbon for the best table
topics speaker.
General Evaluation: Samya reminded the group to be on
time and that it is generally the responsibility of
the toastmaster to fill roles for a meeting. Samya
reminded the club that no meetings would be held on 10/14 and
10/21. Samya stated this “break” would be a great time to work on
speeches for the next few meetings.
Samya closed the meeting.
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