Let the Contest Begin

Paul called the meeting to order and asked Joe to lead the Invocation and Pledge.

Due to the contest and the amount of speaking ahead, Paul quickly passed the meeting to the Chief Judge Marvin.

Marvin briefed the members on the aspects of judging the contest, passed out ballots, and then handed the contest over to the Contest Master Barbara.

The first contest was the table topics contest with the following question: “Who would you like to have a secret meeting with and why?”

Roger was up first and talked about a meeting with Barack Obama.

Mike  was up second and talked about (Well I wasn’t there and don’t know).

Stephen J was up last and talked about a meeting with Martin Gardner.

The votes were collected and while the vote counters and Chief Judge were out, Barbara regaled us with a joke.

On to the Speech Contest.

Mike was up first with his Speech “”, discussing the importance of critical thinking and how it is missing in today’s America.

Bill was up second with his Speech “The Best Deal I ever Made”, a speech centered on a story of a deal he walked away from, which turned out to be the best decision he could have made.

Roger was up third with his Speech “”, where he told us all of the things he had learned from his dog that he had obtained after his last child went off to college.

The votes were collected and while the vote counters and Chief Judge were out, Barbara brought up the contestants to have them tell a little bit about themselves.

Finally, the contest results were revealed.

Table Topics:

First Place: Stephen J
Second Place: Roger

International Speech Contest:

First Place: Roger
Second Place: Bill

The area contest for Area 46 will be on February 27th – Location to be announced.

February 2009 Officer’s Meeting

We met at a new place and were surprised to find that the front door said they didn’t open until 7:00, which is when our meeting starts. We talked about this a bit since we would like to grab some breakfast before the meeting starts. Well it turns out that regardless of the sign they let us in and let us buy breakfast earlier than 7:00. So we’ll try this location at least one more time.

Attending today were Paul, Stephen J, Mary, Marvin, Barbara, and Chuck. Paul began the meeting by announcing that the “Last Chance” TLI is this Saturday. Looks like all of the Officer’s will get trained this time.

Mary said that she has 11 prospects and we all discussed what would happen if the club got too large. No action taken but something to keep in mind if our membership continues to grow. Mary said that 2 or 3 of her prospects had told her they would join this month. Since most of our new members come to us through the web site, we discussed making sure to keep the member bios and Officer Bios up to date.

Marvin talked about President’s Distinguished Club. Mary is 2 speeches away from CC. That and Officer’s Training and our Dues Update in March will give us a total of 9 points. We would need 2 more CCs to get 10 points and that is possible but not for sure. We also discussed making sure of Mentor assignments, ensuring we have people involved in the upcoming contests, and reviewing the concept of Table Topics for all of our members to ensure everyone knows they need to talk for at least a minute.

Barbara needs more magazines for her publicity campaigns to our guests. We also talked about how to get some publicity from the upcoming contest winners.

Stephen said that we only had one transaction this month, a new member paid dues. We expect an influx of money in March from Dues Renewal. Paul will be receiving the roster by email, a first this year at it usually comes by mail.

We also discussed a new table arrangement to give our speakers a chance to work the room differently. We will try this after the contest.

We adjourned a bit early but all agreed that we liked the place for meetings.

Not a Tumultuous Meeting

Paul called the meeting to order with a full house, 20 members and 3 guests (Doug, Rick, and Justin). Bill S lead us in the Invocation and Pledge.

Our Toastmaster, Jerry, had a tumultuous weekend but he brought a full and complete agenda for the meeting. He introduced his helpers:  Timer: Steven B; Ah Counter: Roger; Vote Counter: Mary; and Grammarian: Paul.

Our speakers today included:

Chuck working in an Advanced Manual with “Watching the Game” and some dialog with Charles.

Brian with his #7 speech: “Just Say No to Waterfalls”

Ollie introduced his “Division Project for 2008-09″

Stephen J lead table topics and called on Charles, Joshua, and Sonya. For some reason, only one was able to stay up for a full minute.

Pete lead the evaluation team consisting of: Rick, Marvin, and Barbara.

Awards were given to: Table Topics: Sonya; Evaluator: Barbara; and Speaker: Chuck.

Joshua was our Jokemaster and we all had a good laugh.

Jerry turned control of the meeting over to Paul who reminded us about the Officer’s meeting on Thursday at a new location.

The meeting adjourned right on time.

One of Texas’ Best Assets

Paul called the meeting to order right on time and asked Chuck to lead the Invocation and Pledge.

Our very able Toastmaster, Mike, introduced his helpers: Timer: Sonya; Ah Counter Paul; Grammarian Brent; and Vote Counter Bill S.

Prepared speeches were given by:

Charles gave his Ice Breaker entitled: “Buicks and Railroad tracks.

Joe talked about “Egress.:

Joshua talked about “Misery.”

Bill B ran the Table Topics and included Carol, Chuck, Brian and Sonya.

Marvin was the General Evaluator and introduced Mary, Roger and Barbara.

Awards today to: Table Topics: Chuck; Evaluator: Barbara; Speaker: Joshua.

Reminder of the International Speech Contest and Table Topics Context on Feb 10th. For an icy day, we had a good turnout (17).

Enthusiasm was Omnipresent

Even though the importance of our meeting was overshadowed by the events of Inauguration Day, Paul called the meeting to order right on time. Morry lead the invocation and pledge. Out Toastmaster today is Bill.

Bill’s helpers today are: Timer: Mary; Ah Counter: Rick; Vote Counter: Jerry; Grammarian; Joe.

Our formal speeches today are:

Brent’s Ice Breaker: Just Enough to be Dangerous”

Barbara told us about “Holding Hands and Singing Kum-ba-ya.”

Stephen B. was “In Search of..”

Table Topics was lead by Chuck and included Stephen J, Marvin, and Mike.

Our General Evaluator was Marvin and he introduced Ollie, Pete and Paul.

Awards today for: Table Topics: Stephen J, Evaluator: Ollie, and Speaker: Barbara.

Control of the meeting was returned to our President and he called on our VP Education for next week’s Toastmaster and speakers. The meeting ajourned on time so we could get to work and watch the Inauguration.