February 10, 2014 Club Meeting

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

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Xin Tang, Ruth Wadsworth, and Trey Zhou.  There were two guests:  Aditi M., and Glenn.

Samya as our president opened the meeting congratulating Martin for finding us a new place to hold our weekly meetings at the City Hall.  She read the rules of engagement for using the room and everyone agreed to these rules. 

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

Speaker #1:  Trey:  “Me, Myself, and I”

Manuel:  #1   “Ice Breaker”

Trey began his speech by stating that he was born in China.  His grandfather gave him his name, which meant “virtuous, wise, governor, Imperial family”.  Trey explained that not all names have a deep meaning.  He gave an example of a friend being named, “bring little brothers”.  It was implied that this would bring males to her family. 

When Trey came to the United States, people had difficulty pronouncing his name so he changed his name to Tom.  He soon discovered that it was not that satisfying having a common name, so he replaced it with Trey when he went to college. 

Trey ended his speech by stating that our names do not define us, it is instead, what we make of ourselves.     

Evaluation:  Suzanne evaluated Trey.  She began by saying that Trey was well organized.  His speech was in chronological order and easy to follow.  Suzanne liked the way Trey weaved stories into his name changes and examples of how names are created. 

Suzanne gave the suggestion that Trey had a very powerful concluding comment, and it would serve his speech to go into more elaboration about this theme.  He met the goals of an “Ice Breaker” speech.  Trey was able to get up in front of an audience, and express himself.  He did not use any notes until the last comment.  Trey was able to reveal his life through the stories about his different names very effectively. 

The theme of the meeting was: “The Bay Area” and the Word of the Day was “Community”.  David was the Table Topics Master.  Everyone participated in answering the questions. 

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15

February 3, 2014 Club Meeting

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

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger-Oberoi, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappos, Martin Quan, Ruth Wadsworth, Eric Yan, Trey Zhou.  There was one guest, Aditi.

 The meeting was held in Boudin Sourdough Bakery & Café in the shopping center.  After 13 years of meeting in the lower conference room, of the Hillsdale Mall, Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmaster Club is re-locating.

The president opened the meeting to ask for suggestions for possible new meeting locations.  Martin stepped forward and said that he would seek a location at City Hall.  Several members also mentioned other possibilities.     

Sharon was the Toastmaster; Trey was the General Evaluator; Suzanne was the Grammarian; Eric was the Ah Counter; and Samya was the Timer.

Speaker #1:  David:  “Malice” – Criminal Law

Advanced Manuel:   “Speaking to Inform”

David began his speech by stating that each state sets their own criminal laws as long as they are in compliance with federal law.  He gave his speech on California laws.

The principles of homicide have four elements.  (These are actually true in every state).

1.     Actus Rea – the act itself

2.    Mens Rea – “The guilty mind moves the guilty hand.”

3.    Causation – Act in concert with someone else. (Can be charged)

4.    Concurrence

These four elements have the absence of reasonable doubt, and the absence of justification (not insane).  Each element must be proved.

David then presented his information on “Malice”, CA law, (Mental States).

1.     Intent to kill.

2.    Intention to cause serious bodily harm.

3.    Depraved heart; wanton reckless disregard for life.

4.    Felony murder – murder in the first degree.

5.    Resisting known lawful arrest – murder in the second degree

Murder must have intent and malice to bring a murder charge otherwise it is manslaughter.

Group Evaluation:

David was well spoken and knew his material well.  His speech was well organized, and he brought it down to a level that we could easily understand.  His examples were very helpful and it was a wonderful speech.  The visuals were very good and they helped break the concepts down into meaningful parts.  David kept his topic relevant to all of us as he talked about California law. 

David made good eye contact and really captured the audience’s attention.  The only area of constructive criticism was that he might give a pause at some of the important parts of his speech.  David’s speech was very concise and articulate, and he definitely gave us very useful information.  He taught the basics of fairness and everyone appeared to love the topic.       

The theme of the meeting was: “championship”; The word of the day was: “champion”.  The table topics master was Ruth.  All of the members participated in table topics.    

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15

January 27, 2014 CClub Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our January 27th meeting.

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger-Oberoi, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappos, and Ruth Wadsworth.  There were three guests, Martin, Jai, and Trey.

Suzanne was the Toastmaster; Sharon was the General Evaluator; David was the Grammarian and the Timer.

Speaker #1:  Ruth  “The History and Benefits of Toastmasters”

Advanced Manuel:   “Speaking to Inform”

Ruth gave a speech that gave us an overview of Toastmasters, including the history and the benefits.  Toastmasters began in the early 1920’s and has been growing internationally since that time.

When describing the benefits of Toastmasters, Ruth gave the following points:

1.    Choosing your club is important.  The logistics of where and when the club meets.  Is the club an advanced club or one for beginners?

2.    We learn from each other at each of the different clubs. 

3.    There are two tracks for Toastmasters.  One track is the first 10 speeches that are given; and the other track is the Leadership skills that are developed.

4.    The Toastmasters have Youth programs and our club has been participating in these programs for the past two years.

5.    The first 10 speeches offer the specific skill development, adding new skills with each speech.

6.    After the first 10 speeches, we really start to learn and enjoy speaking.  The Advanced Speaking Manuals are where we hone in on our special speaking abilities.

Group Evaluation:

The members loved the casual nature and the cadence of Ruth’s speech.  She seemed polished and confident.  We loved the concept that we could use our club as a place to grow and develop our speaking skills.  Ruth described our club as a “Gateway Club”.  It was a great club to learn new skills in speaking. 

Ruth did an excellent job of transitioning from the history of Toastmasters to her personal stories of how she has progressed.  She gave good eye contact, voice enunciation, clarity, and gestures.   

The theme of the meeting was: “New Beginnings”; The word of the day was: “Genesis”.  The table topics master was Samya.  All of the members participated in table topics.   

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15