March 17, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our March 17^th meeting.  The Annual Spring Tall Tales and International Contests.

Meeting Location:   San Mateo City Hall, San Mateo, CA     6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Brenda Chung, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Ruth Wadsworth, and Trey Zhou.  There were two guests:   Glenn and Terry

Samya opened the meeting and went over the rules of the contest.  She also announced the order of the speakers.  Trey held a brief meeting with his team of judges.  Sharon, the Sgt. of Arms, prepared the room and went outside to guard the door. 

The Tall Tale Contest was held first.  The time limit was from three to five minutes.  There were two speakers. 

Martin was the first to present his Tall Tales speech, entitled “Online Dating”.  He gave a humorous speech about his adventures with online dating, things that have gone well and also experiences that have had mishaps.

The second speaker was Trey who shared his experiences trying to get home by navigating the different freeways during the rush hour to make it to a hair appointment on time.  He gave a believable tale of what it was like to be stuck in our traffic jams.

There was a fifteen minute break before the two contestants for the International Contest began.  These speeches were five to seven minutes long.

David gave his speech entitled “The Question”.   “How can you defend a person who you know is guilty of harming someone who is innocent?”   He gave the following answers:

·      1.  The system provides everyone with an adequate defense.  Attorney’s represent the      system.

·      2.   A matter of taste.

·      3.  To insure a fair trial.

·      4.  It’s because it gives life meaning.

David’s response to this question was, “I just couldn’t do it.”

Randy gave a compelling speech about investing in the real estate market.  He talked about the current low interest rate, and the continuity of the market.  Randy also discussed other forms of investmenting. 

Randy made comments about the “funny stuff” coming out of Washington, allowing everyone to buy a home then turned around and blamed the banks for the foreclosures and the short sales.  Randy even discussed the internet and bitcoins.

All of the contestants were then called up to the front and asked informal questions as the votes were tallied.  Samya announced the winners.  Trey won the first place award for the Tall Tales.  Randy won the first place award for the International Contest.  Trey and Randy will represent our club at the Area Contest occurring Thursday, 3/20/14 .

 The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

March 10, 2014 Club Meeting

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

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Brenda Chung, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Xin Tang, and Ruth Wadsworth.  There were four guests:  Aaron, Anna, Glenn, and Ting.

Suzanne was the Toastmaster; Ruth was the General Evaluator; Brenda was the Timer, Samya was the Grammarian, and Randy was the Ah Counter.

Speaker #1:  Lara:  “Gimme Five”

Manuel:  #7   “Research Your Topic”

Lara began her speech by asking the question, “Why do we shake hands in Toastmasters?”

After giving us many examples and researching this topic, she broke it down to three main reasons for shaking hands that has been done throughout the ages, which are the following:

·        -  Demonstrates respect for the person.

·       -  A form of passing the power, or the podium.  In a class it is similar to “passing the stick”.

·       -   Demonstrates confidence and competence.

Shaking hands also releases a chemical that brings confidence and trust; “a happy chemical”, into the brain, called Oxytocin.  A genuine handshake has been proven to increase the trust and confidence in the exchange of the participants.  It can be very beneficial for nonprofit organizations in fundraising programs.  Lara demonstrated this handshake for the club members and let us practice it on each other.

Evaluation:  Eric evaluated Lara.  He opened by stating that Lara “surprised him”.  It was such a simple title and he could not imagine what she would say about this.  “She fooled me.” 

Lara’s speech was well organized and thoroughly researched.  The audience was completely engaged.  Lara did an excellent job of condensing the research into a manageable format.  We now feel more energized in focusing on our greetings to and with people, in the form of a handshake.

Lara may have given this topic even more time, but she was under the time constraints of the speech rules.  Throughout the speech, Lara walked around the room comfortably and at ease.  She had the audience with her from the beginning to the end of her speech and used humor well.  Lara also demonstrated excitement and enthusiasm for her subject.

Speaker #2:  Samya:  “Toastmaster Club Contest”

Advanced Manuel:  #1 “Speech to Inform”

Samya gave a speech to inform the club members about the upcoming speech contest.  She held up power point pages that held an overview of what she had to say.  Samya went over the following items:

·        The rules of the contest:

·        -The eligibility of each of the categories of speeches; (1) Tall Tales, and (2) International speeches

·        - The time limits for each category

·        - The roles the participants had volunteered to take and the speakers

·        - Asked for any new volunteers 

·       - How the contest would be organized

·        - The agenda and the time limitations of using the room

Samya was a last minute substitute for one of the members that could not attend and was scheduled to speak.

The theme of the meeting was: “Technology” and the Word of the Day was “Communication”.  Martin was the Table Topics Master.   

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15

March 3, 2014 Club Meeting

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

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Samya Boxberger Oberoi, Eric Jones, Randy Lee, Lara Miller,  Aditi Mishra, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, Sharon Pappas, Martin Quan, Venkat Senapati, Xin Tang, and Trey Zhou.  There were four guests:  Brenda Chung, Fernando, Daniel, and Terry.

Samya as our president opened the meeting and discussed the contest on 3/17/14.  The roles were confirmed and the rules were announced.

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

Speaker #1:  Aditi:  “Me 2.0”  Project #1 “Ice Breaker”

Aditi began her speech by sharing her experience in discovering or creating her identity.  She stated that one of her most stressful experiences were in filing out applications that required her to talk about her life.  She said that “she was so normal”, thinking this meant that she had nothing to talk about.

As Aditi thought about this, she thought about her life in the form of building blocks, which would build a tower.  She was born and brought up in India through the age of eight.  In India, she lived a vibrant and social life and was surrounded by people.  She began as an introvert but found her voice.

Her family then moved to Belgium, a country where people lived quietly within themselves.  Aditi learned composure and patience while living there.  She also learned to give back to her community. 

Aditi concluded her speech when she moved to America, where she discovered that she could be constantly growing and discovering more about herself.  Aditi learned that she would be always adding new building blocks to her tower and it would never be completed.

Evaluation:  Trey evaluated Aditi.  He began by saying that he could not tell that it was her first speech.  She had a great opening.  Aditi went through her childhood and described her building blocks.  She was able to guide the audience into her life and had us experience her life with her. 

Trey had one suggestion that Aditi could perhaps focus more on one of her experiences and go deeper into it.  It would have drawn us even more into her life experiences.  Overall Aditi gave an excellent first speech.

Speaker #2:  Sharon:  “Magician Intention”  Project #9 “Persuade with Power”

Sharon began her speech by showing us a poster of 22 Arcena Cards.  She explained that there were 78 cards in the Tarot deck.  Sharon introduced the Magician card and described each facet of the card in detail; for example, the snake, which represented reincarnation.  The yellow represented “intellectual buzzing” and the head band, the spark of source from the divine.  It is important to cultivate our knowledge before we act. 

We need to develop the technique of thinking carefully and define what we want.  This evokes the “power of intention”.  We need to define what we want and state it in clear terms.  Visualize it, and act like you already have it.  This is the way to actualize your desires.

Randy evaluated Sharon.  He stated that her enthusiasm for this subject was contagious.  Her enthusiasm seemed to go in and out as she went into her speech.  When Sharon used her notes, it distracted the audience from the speech.  Sharon seemed, however, very knowledgeable of her subject and spoke of it with authority.  It was clear that she had a great love of this subject.

The theme of the meeting was: “City Hall”, and the word of the Day was “Bureaucracy”.  Venkat was the Table Topics Master.  Since it was a last minute assignment, he called upon a participant to answer the first question, and then this person would ask the next question and call a new participant.    

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15

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

 

January 13, 2014 Club Meeting

The following is a summary of the minutes from our January 13th meeting.

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

Attendees:

Present at the meeting were: Randy Lee, Lara Miller, Suzanne Mulcahy, David Nazzaro, and Xin Tang.  There were four guests:  Trey Zhou, Martin Quan, Aditi M., and Brenda Chung.

Suzanne was the Toastmaster; and the General Evaluator; Randy was the Timer.

Speaker #1:  David:  “The Miranda Rule:  What You Should Know”

Advanced Manuel:  #1   “Speaking to Inform”

David gave a very informative speech regarding the “Miranda Rule”.  He first gave us the history of the rule and when it passed the Supreme Court.  David told us that what we see on T.V. was not an accurate reflection of how they use this rule. 

The rule only applies when two things are present:  (1) You are in custody or arrested and are not free to leave; and (2) You are being interrogated.  David gave a very insightful and informative speech about our judicial system. 

Evaluation:  Lara evaluated David.  She began by saying that she liked how David introduced the topic and relating it to the inaccuracies that we often see on T.V.  David presented himself well and appeared very knowledgeable of the subject.  Lara suggested that he might move a bit more and utilize more of his speaking space.   David  gave an excellent, very professional and polished speech. 

Speaker #2:  Xin:  “My Name”

Manuel:  #1   “Ice Breaker” 

Xin weaved the tale of his life by describing the many different names that he had.  Each name brought back memories of his past including his grandparents, parents, and friends.  Each name symbolized a part of his life.  After studying English, he tried many new English names; like, Peter, and James.  He changed his name at one point every time he had a new teacher.

After coming to the United States, he changed his name to Sam.  After several years, he decided to take back his heritage and his real name, "Xin".  He has kept this name since then.  Xin gave a very humorous and enlightening speech about who he is.  He gave us a glimpse of himself.

Evaluation:    Lara evaluated Xin.  She stated that she liked the way he told his history through stories.  When Xin stopped using his notes, he looked more relaxed and his speaking flowed much better.  Lara further stated that Xin had good eye contact with his audience.  He achieved his objectives for a first speech.

The theme of the meeting was: “Winter Season”.  There were four new guests and it was decided because of only five members and no grammarian that there would be no word of the day.  David was the Table Topics master and everyone participated in the questions.     

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

Meeting was adjourned at 7:10