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