November 10, 2014 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

November 10, 2014

Attendees: Samya, Brenda, Aditi, Suzanne, Annamaria, Randy, and Martin.

Guests: Monica and Siva

Theme of the day: Politics

Word of the day: Indecision

Annamaria was the Toastmaster; Belinda was the General Evaluator; Randy was the Grammarian, Belinda was the Ah Counter, and Suzanne was the Timer.

Samya started the meeting by asking the guests to express why they came to Toastmasters

Speaker #1:  Martin: “What’s our Communication Style?”

Martin began by stating that we each have our own unique way of speaking which include:

·         Body Language

·         Words we use

·         Energy Level

·         Eye Contact

The way we speak also sends signals to people so they can figure out who we are by our conclusions, intentions, and dreams.  This can also lead the listener to form judgments and perhaps even cause conflicts.   Words are only 7% of our means of communication.  Conflicts can be avoided when we are able to send clear messages to people.

Martin then went into Brown’s “Just Do It” method for success, called “Signals Brown Tends to Project”.  He described the four colors that show our basic personality characteristics.  It was fascinating and allowed the audience to identify with different ones.  Martin ended by suggesting that “We all could learn how to be more receptive.”   

Speaker #2:  Samya: Advanced Communicator Manual.  Giving an Interview.

Samya had an interview set up with Aditi as the interviewer.  They set it up as a morning talk show with Aditi asking questions and Samya answering.  The topic was about Samya’s new Book, The Philosophy and Science of Yoga:  5,000 Years in the Making. 

It was a lively interview, which went over many interesting facts about the book.  Samya expressed how she had spent many months in the Himilayas obtaining her training.  Samya also gave us many insights into how to “Self-Expression”.

Table Topics:  Aditi was the Table Topics Master. Questions were asked around the theme of “Politics”.  She used the “key word” method to have us express our points of view.

Belinds called on her team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  The Round Table evaluation method was used.  Martin was very polished and professional in his presentation.  It was a fascinating topic that held our interest, very pertinent.  Martin gave us a lot of information with good attention to detail.  He is a natural speaker and uses soothing tones and voice modulation.

Some of the suggestions were:

·         Use the space a little more,  (This was hard because the remote was not there for the power point.)

·         Laminate the papers he used of the color characteristics. 

Overall, Martin gave a very personable, natural, and genuine presentation using good eye contact.  He was very powerful and commands the attention of his audience.

Evaluator #2:  The Round Table evaluation method was used.  Samya had good projection and looked into the camera.  The members were excited to see how the advanced manual speeches were given.  Samya had great eye contact, was smiling and had a friendly tone.  She seemed at ease and knowledgeable of the topic. 

There was good chemistry between the interviewer and the interviewee, “Synergy”.  The questions appeared to put the speaker at ease.  Some suggestions were:

·         When Samya comes to important points in her speech to pause and speak more slowly to emphasize this.  

·         Have less comprehensive questions so the answers could be shorter.  There was a lot of valuable information and it is important to let the audience keep up.

Samya gave us eight steps to work with the techniques, which were well thought out and very informative.  The interview was excellent and we all learned valuable insights into Yoga.