May 4, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

May 4, 2015

Attendees: Annamarie, Lara, Joe, Randy Lee Samya, Chris, Trey, Sergio

Guests:  Pieter, Marika, Jorge

Theme of the day: Music

Word of the day:  discordant

Samya reminded everyone about the upcoming district conference on May 16^th.  Trey is unable to attend.  Samya mentioned Aditi and Annamarie would attend the District conference.  Samya indicated she would send out an email with more information and ask for confirmation.  District conference is in Santa Clara on May 16^th.

Lara was the Toastmaster, Joe led Table Topics, Marika was the General Evaluator, Randy was the Grammarian and the Timer, Sergio was the Ah Counter, Jorge was the Vote Counter

Speaker:  Trey

Speech: Immigration Process Project #5 Your Body Speaks

Trey fired up the projector to use with his presentation.  Trey spoke about his work as an HR Specialist and shared basics about the immigration process that he regularly deals with.  He compared immigrants and non-immigrants.  Trey reviewed the different statuses: visitor, student, job transfer and special skills. 

Trey distinguished that visitors who receive ten year visas still need to go in and out of the country every six months.  Company-sponsored immigration are the ones Trey works with most often.  Employees must have a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in the field.  Permanent Residency is the main objective most people have.

Speaker:  Pieter

Speech: Another Viewpoint  Project #10 Inspire your audience

Pieter began his speech by describing a course he taught with Marika.  Pieter indicated he would be quoting Harry Palmer.  He asked the audience “What, aside from money, gives them the most difficulty in life?”.  Pieter made a list from audience responses that included: Co-workers, time management, health and excessive busy-ness.  

Pieter said the course he teaches takes only nine days and would address the aforementioned issues, it was about living deliberately.  He first took the course in 1999.  Pieter learned how to use the tools and began to apply them.  A month prior to beginning the course, at least six families approached him angrily, calling Pieter arrogant.  He took the course, not focusing on anger or arrogance and returned to his practice.  Pieter’s staff remarked that the patients were noticing how kind Pieter is now.

Pieter then addressed the issue of physical health and spoke about his own experience with feeling pain a year earlier.  He took a course in the desert, and on the return journey, he felt an impending heart attack and decided to use one of the tools he had learned called “The attack handle”.  Two minutes later, he felt better and landed in Albuquerque.  He saw his doctor and took tests for his heart.  Pieter did another process for the following six weeks and then visited his cardiologist who let him know his vessels had cleared.  

Five years later, Pieter had another procedure, and he hadn’t done any more work on his vessels, but they were still clean.  He then passed out a pamphlet with exercises to the members of the audience and led them in the first exercise.

Pieter suggests that people buy the set of books by Harry Palmer.

Table Topics:  Joe led Table Topics with post-its on the wall with topics on music.  Samya, Marika, Jorge, Lara and Annamarie, Randy Lee and Sergio participated in Table Topics.

Marika called on her team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  Annamarie on Trey’s speech

Annamarie liked how informative Trey’s presentation was, the visuals were very good and he used concise terms for explanations.  He cleared up misnomers.  Trey had enthusiasm and a positive clear manner with natural gestures and clear eye contact.  Annamarie indicated Trey could be more forceful with gestures which was difficult due to using the remote.  A bit more vocal variety would help as well.   Overall it was a great subject and compelled Annamarie to find out more.

Evaluator #2: Samya on Pieter’s speech

Samya noted how inspiring Pieter was, how he began with a question and engaged the audience.  He asked for feedback and was listening for the answers.  Pieter addressed everyone’s responses in his speech.  He gave good and vivid examples in his speech.  Samya indicated Pieter could relate his vivid stories to the answers from the audience.  She thought the story of a heart attack was very vivid.  Samya indicated that he could have linked some of the stories and answers.  She mentioned that Pieter should not apologize for going over time as it broke the focus.  Samya noted the change in voice when Pieter spoke as the doctor.  Samya suggested re-ordering the speech to be a fantastic speech.

Annamarie won the Table Topics contest

Samya reminded people to applaud and to be aware of the agenda and their roles.

The meeting ended late at 7:39

 Roles for meeting 5/11/15:

Toastmaster: Randy Lee Theme:   

General Evaluator:   Aditi

Speaker 1:  Annamarie project #?

Evaluator 1:  Trey

Speaker 2:  Sergio Project #1 icebreaker

Evaluator #2:   Lara

Table Topics:  Samya

Grammarian: OPEN   Word of the day: _______

Timer: Joe

Ah Counter:  Jorge

Vote Counter:  OPEN

April 27, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

April 27, 2015

Attendees: Lara, Leif, Randy, David the Area Governor, Annamarie, Martin, Joe, Samya, Chris, Trey

Guests:  Jorge, Belinda

Theme of the day: Sleep

Word of the day:  tender

Samya reminded everyone about the upcoming district conference.  She mentioned Aditi, Annamarie and Trey would attend the District conference.  Samya indicated she would send out an email with more information.

District conference is in Santa Clara on May 16^th.

Aditi reminded everyone about the video contest and wants to get lines from people after the contest.

Aditi was the Toastmaster, Randy Lee led Table Topics, Trey was the General Evaluator, Chris was the Grammarian, Annamarie was the timer, Leif was the Ah Counter, Martin was the Vote Counter

Table Topics:  Randy Lee led Table Topics

Speaker:  Joe

Speech: Mental Fatigue Awareness Project #5 Research your Topic

Hours of Service – Department of Transportation employee research established the basic rule.  The Basic Rule established 8 hours to get quantitative sleep?

Good sleep is defined as quantitative sleep – people could risk their own lives and co-workers’ lives by not getting quality rest.  Joe noted exhaustion could affect immune system and personal system, circadian rhythm.

Joe related to most of us when discussing using the alarm clock.  He discussed sleep centers that could help with sleep disorders diagnosis.  Joe shared he had discovered he had a sleep disorder and described the wires that were applied for the sleep test.  He said his sleeping improved after discovering he had a sleep disorder.  Over-sleeping is as bad as poor sleep quality.

Speaker:  Samya

Speech: Yoga for Voice improvement and tonality  Project #3 The Persuasive Approach

David introduced the objectives.

Samya spoke about being a polished speaker, being seen as trustworthy and credible.  She outlined ways to become a better speaker.  Practice is the first one.

Samya indicated that feedback helps, but asked what we can do with the feedback?  She shared that she consistently received feedback saying her voice needs to improve.  She indicated the weakness of her voice made it hard for people to hear what she is saying and they are interested.

Voice tonality has to do with breathing, not shyness.  Samya connected this with yoga, which is focused on breathing and her focus of study.  She started practicing yoga exercises for breathing.  Samya paused, breathe and projected her voice in demonstration of what she learned when practicing her mantra.

Samya went into detail about the Om Mantra and the steps, using gestures to show how she learned how to project her voice.  With Mantra, the intent is to build energy and attune the body with the earth.  She demonstrated how to use the same sound with her voice.

Asanas:

·         Kokikasana

·         Sarvangasana

·         Simhasana

·         Yoga Prathna

·         Breathing:

·         Ujjaji

·         Bharamani

Samya listed the exercises on the board that would help speakers improve vocal tonality and improve physical and mental health.

Trey called on his team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  Lara evaluated Joe’s speech

Evaluator #2: David the Area Governor evaluated Samya’s speech

Chris noted terrific phrases used in today’s meeting.

David the Area Governor noted the enthusiastic applause throughout the meeting.  He recommended technical problems should be let go and suggested people should move to the front when participating in Table Topics.

Leif won the Table Topics contest.

The meeting ended at 7:18

 Roles for the next meeting 5/4/15:

Toastmaster:  Lara,  Theme:  Music

General Evaluator:  Aditi

Speaker 1:  Trey project #4

Evaluator 1:  Annamarie

Speaker 2:  Pieter pieterkark@gmail.com

Evaluator #2:   Samya

Table Topics:  Chris

Grammarian:    Word of the day: _______

Timer: OPEN

Ah Counter:  OPEN

Vote Counter:  OPEN

April 20, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

April 20, 2015

Attendees: Aditi, Chris, Joe, Lara, Lefteris, Randy Lee, Samya and Trey

Guests: JP, Sergio

Theme of the day: Spring

Word of the day:  configuration

Samya reminded everyone about the upcoming district conference.  She mentioned there are funds available to apply to someone’s trip to the District conference.  Samya proposes having a special event with multiple speakers or a raffle to determine who would go.  District conference is in Santa Clara on May 16^th.  Trey and Aditi are interested in attending,  Samya will send an email to follow up with missing club members.  All the winners of the division contests will be competing.

Aditi reminded everyone about the video contest and wants to get lines from people after the contest.

Trey was the Toastmaster, Joe led Table Topics, Lara was the General Evaluator, Sergio was the timer, and Randy Lee was the Ah Counter

Table Topics:  Joe led Table Topics, on the subject of work: good days and bad days.  Lara, Randy Lee, Chris, Trey and Lefteris shared stories using the word of the day: configuration.

Speaker:  Samya

Speech: How to Prepare and Present a Speech Communicating on Video Project #5 Instructing on the Internet

Part 1: Presentation recording

Chris introduced the objectives.

Samya started her equipment and after getting set up, she went over how to select a project, outlining the objectives and sharing images of the pages from the book.  Samya verbally explained the content such as the executive summary, detailed description and advised on how she customized her presentation based on the project criteria.

1.    Executive Summary

2.    Project description

3.    Objectives – what she will be evaluated on

After points 1, 2 and 3, develop a strategy:

·         Where – selecting a room

·         Selecting a time – offering online training available anytime

·         Choosing the equipment, rehearsing the speech

·         Don’t read the slides, focus on main points

·         Select the best tool for the presentation

o   Example: preparing a PowerPoint, recording the audio and slide transitions. 

Samya ended her presentation by encouraging others to develop and implement their own strategies for communicating with video.

Speaker:  Aditi

Speech: To know or not to know, that is the question, Project #9 Persuade with Power

Lefteris introduced the objectives.

Aditi spoke about the availability of information, and how much data can be recorded.  She spoke about how information is collected and then pondered where the collected information goes.  Aditi declared that we should all know what happens to information on ourselves and saying there should be more transparency, since someone is making these decisions in secret.

She spoke about Julian Asange and Edward Snowden as well as Sony’s information security breech.  Aditi thinks the public should decide what information should be public and what should be private.  

Political information should be shared in order to hold governments responsible.

Aditi gave an example of an actress disputing a salary discrepancy with Sony based on information shared from the Sony information leak.  Wikileaks had released information about brutality, letting everyone know what water-boarding really was and that this was happening in prisons run by the United States.

Instead of condemning the people who reveal information, we should educate ourselves on what we should know and what should be kept private and we should have the right to dictate where our information goes.

Aditi encourages everyone to think about it and get involved in the politics.

Lara called on her team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  Chris on Samya’s speech: How to Prepare and Present a Speech

Chris thought Samya’s voice was consistent and gestures were good.  He said she was making eye contact with her audience, but not with the camera.

Chris thought Samya was informed and connected well with her physical audience.  He recommended being more aware of camera presence

Evaluator #2: Lefteris on Aditi’s speech To know or not to know, that is the question

Lefteris said Aditi has a natural stage presence that always comes across.

He said she met her objectives when she encouraged everyone to be more politically active about data privacy issues.  Lefteris said Aditi made logical arguments, had an easy to follow structure, with short and effective sentences.

He said Aditi should share where she works to improve credibility.  Lefteris said her examples (show business versus human rights) should be aligned with her calls to action.

There was no Table Topics contest

The meeting ended late at 7:20

Roles for Meeting 4/27/15:

Toastmaster: Aditi Theme:  

General Evaluator:  Trey

Speaker 1: Joe

Evaluator 1: Lara

Speaker 2: Samya

Evaluator #2:  OPEN

Table Topics: Randy Lee

Grammarian: Chris  Word of the day: _______

Timer: OPEN

Ah Counter:  OPEN

Vote Counter:  OPEN

April 13, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

April 13, 2015

Attendees: Annamarie, David K, Lara, Lefteris, Randy Lee, Samya and Martin

Guests: Sergio

Theme of the day: Comedy

Word of the day: humorous

Samya spoke about the EC meeting that will take place following this meeting.  Samya also noted that a decision will need to be made regarding club meeting frequency. 

David K was the General Evaluator, Sergio was the Ah Counter and Grammarian, Randy was the Vote Counter and Martin was the timer.

Speaker:  Martin

Speech: Travel, Travel Travel, Project #2 Organize your Speech

Lara introduced the objectives.

Martin spoke about his recent trip to Cambodia, Vietnam and Korea.  He started off by asking the audience if they loved travelling, inviting people to raise their hands with a gesture.  When one person didn’t, Martin asked why and the member said he never had many opportunities.  Martin shared his perspective about tours versus self-guided exploration.  Martin spoke about experiencing another culture and how he realized he was a guest and the importance of respecting another culture’s values and rules.  

Martin used body language to share his experience learning how to cross the street in Vietnam, tying it to his main idea of learning another culture’s rules.  Martin concluded with a story about speaking with a Korean person and how the Korean person didn’t like the messiness of America but really appreciated the freedom of expression.  Martin encouraged everyone to travel, to help understand other cultures as well as appreciate one’s own.

Speaker:  Annamarie

Speech: Never Give Up, Storytelling Project #5 Bring History to Life

Annamarie summarized the objectives from her missing book.

She spoke about Abraham Lincoln and his attempts to run for office, how he was often defeated and continued to run.  He helped the oppressed and those who were enslaved.  He made courageous decisions and drafted the Emancipation Proclamation that would free men from slavery.  One hundred years later, Martin Luther King Jr. showed courage in Selma Alabama. 

Annamarie personalized her speech by sharing her experience listening to a speech at church.  She wondered if she would take action and stand up for the oppressed.  Annamarie spoke of more recent events where people of color were victims/oppressed.  Annamarie spoke of “Black Lives Matter” and how a fear of failure would prevent her from moving forward and that she had to make a decision to be courageous.  Annamarie summarized by asking the audience if they would stand up to fear when faced with the decision to be courageous.

Table Topics:  Samya led Table Topics, on the subject of comedy.  Martin, David K, Lefteris, Sergio, Randy, Lara and Annamarie participated.

David called on his team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  Lara on Martin’s speech: Travel, Travel, Travel

Lara said Martin met his objectives.  Lara observed the speech was well-structured and Martin immediately engaged the audience by asking audience members to raise their hands with his own gesture.  He interacted with members based on their responses, which drew the audience in more.  Lara noted Martin shared his personal perspective on the travel tours he went on as a child and how he found his own way of travelling as an adult.  

Lara noted Martin incorporated a lot of gestures in his speech to illustrate the experiences he had during his vacation.  Lara mentioned that adding vocal variety could enhance the “storytelling” aspect of Martin’s presentation, though his voice was fine for this speech.  Lara noted Martin’s strong conclusion: that by travelling and experiencing other cultures, one can also develop an appreciation for their own culture as well.

Evaluator #2: Round table on Annamarie’s speech: Never Give Up

Lefteris said he found Annamarie’s speech engaging and how she highlighted having motivation and communicated effectively.  Lefteris thought Annamarie could have balanced facts about specific historical figures. 

Samya asked if the speech was about the development of a historical event and if the speech objectives should be more about a historical event rather than multiple historical figures.  Samya thought it was a fascinating and well-developed speech and encouraged Annemarie to focus on one event or historical figure. 

Randy Lee noted that Annamarie keeps getting better and better.  Randy Lee expressed that mention of events in Ferguson kind of turned him off to what the topic of the speech was, the focus was spread out. 

Sergio thought Annamarie’s speech was great and felt the topic was on a person and noted how the topic shifted.  Sergio said he came away with the impression that she was encouraging people to find courage.

Lara said it was magnificent, a strong speech that was well-expressed.  Lara noted the use of facts and acknowledged the challenge of remembering and using facts as evidence for this particular project.

David K said Annamarie’s speech was very well written and that she efficiently expressed the topic of having courage and how it related to fear.

Martin admired Annamarie’s powerful projection and agreed with others that the story shifted focus. Martin noted Annamarie’s topics focus on the same topic: Activism.  Martin encouraged Annamarie to try other topics to develop skills.

Annamarie won the Table Topics contest.

The meeting ended at 7:20

 Roles for the next meeting on 4/20:

Toastmaster: Annamarie Theme:  

General Evaluator:  Lara

Speaker 1: Samya

Evaluator 1: David K

Speaker 2: Aditi

Evaluator #2: Lefteris

Table Topics: Randy Lee

Grammarian: OPEN   Word of the day: _______

Timer: OPEN

Ah Counter:  OPEN

Vote Counter:  OPEN

March 30, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

March 30, 2015

Attendees: Samya, Leif, David K., Suzanne, David N., Joe, Annamarie, Aditi, Lara, and Trey

Guests: No guests

Theme of the day:  Spring Time 

Suzanne was the Toastmaster; Lara was the General Evaluator; David N. was the Grammarian, Aditi was the Ah Counter, and Trey was the Timer.

Samya started the meeting by making announcements.

Speaker #1:  Leif:  “Responsive Navigation:  Visual Design 2014 - 2015”

Leif went through his new navigation system that was just completed and used several power point slides to explain this process.  He talked about the goals that needed to be met with this project.  Leif spoke of the requirements of the improved design, which are to make the site easier to use and less confusing.  When indicating the different brands, it is important to have the “story talk through a large picture, fonts, color needed, etc.”.  Each brand has their own home page.

Speaker #2:   Joe:  “Security is a Competition”        

Joe opened his speech with a story about a bear that immediately grabbed our attention.  He then talked about how the security training changed after the bombing in Oklahoma.  They were impressed by the intelligence of the terrorists.  They looked through the security system that they had and looked for potential vulnerability to eliminate intentional actions.

The team focused on three things:  The technology, The Practice, and The Accountability.  They created a two week training called, ”The Day After”.  It seems that the day after an event, we already start to forget it.  

Lara called on her team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  Annamarie evaluated Leif.  He knew this subject very well.  Leif was articulate, well organized.  He displayed a very sociable and kind demeanor.  Annamarie suggested that Leif use a pointer to clarify where we were to focus our attention and perhaps to stand up during his presentation.  It would also be helpful to give a brief introduction about the subject. 

Samya gave some additional comments about the technical aspects of his presentation. She further stated that he could clarify the specific desired results of his project and indicate when they were met.  This was a practice run for Leif as he is giving this presentation tomorrow, an excellent use of Toastmasters.   

Evaluator #2:  Samya evaluated Joe.  He established his credibility on the subject right away.  Joe defined the meaning of security very well and gave us his criteria.  It was the first time she had heard security combined with accountability.  The speech was well organized.  This is a difficult subject to address, and he drew us in.  Samya suggested that he use the more familiar term of “suicide bomber” and not “human born bomber”.  It was an overall very effective speech.      

Samya asked for remarks and then closed the meeting.  

March 23, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

March 23, 2015

Attendees: Samya, David K., Suzanne, Chris and Joe

Guests: Jug and Maria

Theme of the day:  Spring

Joe was the Toastmaster; Suzanne was the General Evaluator; and Chris was the Timer.

Samya started the meeting by introducing the guests and making announcements.  She announced the possible split of Toastmasters District 4 and will make further announcements and the plans are finalized.

Speaker #1:  Samya:  Advanced Manual Series, “Presentation and Practice”

Samya gave an excellent speech on how to give a good presentation and practice for the desired results.  She is giving her first presentation on May 27^th.  Samya shared the following ideas:

1.  Practice is key.  Practice your ideas and not the words.  Memorize the opening and the ending.
2.   From where are you speaking?  Do you have a lectern, a stage, etc. or a constricted space?  Always use your space to your advantage. 
3. Who is your audience?  Speak to them so that you are understood. 
4.  Microphone?  Have a microphone if the room is large so that you are heard with ease. 
5.  What is the room condition?  The lighting, noise level, etc. are very important considerations.
6.   Visuals are very effective and more memorable.

“Good luck happens when preparedness meets opportunity.”

Evaluator:  Since the group was small in number, we had a round table evaluation for Samya’s speech.  It was an excellent presentation with valuable ideas for us to utilize as we prepare to give a presentation.  The information was concise and to the point.  It was presented in an organized manner that was easy to follow.  The ending quote summarized the essence of her speech and high-lighted the meaning.  Samya’s voice tends to be soft at times so it important that she projects her voice.  Samya knew this subject well and appeared well prepared.    

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

March 9, 2015 Club Meeting

Chamber Speakers Circle Toastmasters

March 9, 2015

Attendees: Samya, Lefteris, David K., Suzanne, Randy, Joe, Annamarie, and Chris

Guests: Tony

Theme of the day:  Springtime

Suzanne was the Toastmaster; David K. was the General Evaluator; Randy was the Ah Counter, and Tony was the Timer.

Samya started the meeting by introducing the guest and making announcements.

Speaker #1:  Samya:  Advanced Manual Series, “Release of My Book”

Samya gave a thorough description of her book and the meaning of this project.  She went into some detail on two of the major practices of the book.

1.     Practice of Mantra:   An instrument of thought

Leads to concepts (ideas), which leads to our reality

2.    Teaches us to have purpose

3.    Good breathing techniques

4.    Practice of meditation:  mindful living

Speaker #2:   Lefteris:  Project #2, “Value of Money”        

Lefteris began his speech by posing the question, “What is the value of money?”  He described the life on a Polynesian Island many years ago.  This island was isolated until the year 900.  The people used stones as a means to transfer ownership of possessions.  This was by verbal agreement.  Their monetary value was determined by their belief system.

At his current job, they place the value on internet services and products.  The value of websites that has been agreed upon is the number of clicks that it receives.  Lefteris continued to use personal stories and other examples of how we place value on money.  His main premise is that we place our values on a belief system that we all agree upon.     

David K. called on his team of evaluators.

Evaluator #1:  Joe evaluated Samya.  She projected well and had excellent use of vocal variety.  Good rationalizations,  anduse of concrete knowledge.  Samya talked about herself and you could really see the value of her work.  It would be very beneficial for Samya to share more of her credentials with her audience.  We would understand her expertise and experience.  This was an overall very good presentation.

Evaluator #2:  Annamarie evaluated Lefteris.  He made good use of props.  She liked the value of his speech and the explanation of money.  We have all heard the expression, “The Value of Money” and Lefteris made good use of the history he presented.  He used audience participation.  

Lefteris gave a great opening, body of speech and good conclusion.  He used antidotes, and personal experience, as well as the use of quotes about money.  Annamarie suggested that he pause during his speech to emphasize his main points and move to enhance his statements.  He had good vocal variety and gave an overall excellent speech. 

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