May 5, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our May 5th meeting.

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Fernando Albayeros, Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Brenda Chung, Randy Lee, Glenn Low, Lara Miller, Aditi Mishra, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Navarro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, , and Terri Tssoi.  There were two guests, Eugene, and Todd.

Aditi was the Toastmaster; Randy was the General Evaluator; Samya was the Timer, Sharon was the Grammarian, and Fernando was the Ah Counter.

Speaker #1:  Brenda - “Ice Breaker Speech” “My Experiences in Different Countries”

Manuel #1:    “Begin speaking before an audience and to discover your speaking skills.”

Brenda began her speech by telling us that she lived in three different countries from Taiwan to the United States.  She went to three different elementary schools, high school, and then college.  Brenda told us how she learned to adapt to different environments from an early age.

Brenda likes to explore each new place from the culture to the foods.  She loves the outdoors and just began skydiving.  In 2005, Brenda moved to China and worked near Shanghai.  “The Chinese loved to enjoy life and spend money.”  She became motivated to learn about the labor market.  Brenda then studied labor economics and human resource. 

Brenda then came to the United States, where the emphasis was on “critical thinking”, asking questions.  She became more outgoing and had more opinions on things.  Brenda worked in Tennessee and has now moved to California.  She said staying positive was the hardest part, but she is very happy where she is now.

Evaluation:  Suzanne gave Brenda’s speech evaluation.  She began be saying that Brenda gave an excellent first speech.  She went through her life experiences and gave us a glimpse into who she is.  Brenda began by telling us about her early life experiences of moving to different schools and adapting to different environments.  This gave her an appreciation of different cultures and foods and made her very flexible and she learned to love change.

Brenda gave a well-organized speech and it was given in chronological order.  Her speech was easy to follow and she spoke clearly and used good vocal variety.  Brenda gave a strong opening and body, and gave a strong ending with an inspirational quote.  It was suggested that Brenda use fewer subjects and expand on the ones she uses and give some examples.  We loved hearing about Brenda’s background and the different cultures that she experienced.     

Speaker #2:  Martin - “Speech # 8, Speaking to Inform”  - “How to use audio/visual equipment”.

Martin gave a very informative speech about how to use the power point audio/visual equipment and how to enhance our speaking ability with this support.  Martin gave us the following easy to follow directions:

·        Connect the cords.

·        Bring down the screen.

·        Wait for the light bulb to warm up.  It will send a signal from the lap top to the projector. 

·        Control Panel:  You can use a lap top or plug in the DVD or VCR device.

Martin then gave the individual functions for a power point presentation.

Evaluation:  David gave Martin’s speech evaluation.  Martin looked comfortable and confident and took advantage of the use of the room.  He gave his speech step by step and had a good use of visuals. 

David suggested that a hand out would have been useful so that the members could utilize the information after the speech had ended.  He also suggested that it was an important speech and it would have been helpful to have recorded the presentation.

The theme of the meeting was: “Entertainment” and the Word of the Day was “Performance”.   Glenn was the Table Topics Master.  

Samya closed the meeting. 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15