This meeting was not like our club contest meeting of February 21 that had a record number of people who participated in the Toastmasters experience. On the March 6th meeting, 10 people entered the meeting room at Wesley Homes Administrative Center to enjoy three great speeches, exciting Table Topics, and heart felt and thoughtful evaluations. Although the crowd was small in size, we sure had a great meeting and are already making plans to attend the upcoming area 41 contest that will be held on Friday March 14, (Net Friday), at the ERAC Building in Burien.
The meeting was called to order at 7:02 by President Lorylee Lejon. The evening's Toastmaster was the one and only Theresa Frasch who's theme was, "10 Mistakes that Changed the World." We had a lot of people pulling double or triple duties because many members were missing from he meeting. Thought of the Day that was to be done by Darlene Burrill was done by Lorylee in Darleen's unexplained absence. Lorylee also took the job of being our ballet counter in the absence of our newest member, Trudymarie Devilla. Timing our meeting in place of Jason Steel who was also absent was Mary Videen. General Evaluator for the meeting was Carl Johnson and the Grammarian position was also done by the multi-tasking, Lorylee Lejon. Finally, rounding out our players for this evening's meeting was the Table Topics person and that job was given to Elora Smith who also collected the dues from members who were present.
As always, we had three dynamic speakers. They were; Gary Towe, our newest member Jim Boland who give his Icebreaker speech and last but not least, Theresa Frasch who redid her speech and gave it again to be critiqued by the participants of tonight's meeting. She will be entering the speech in the upcoming area 41 contest next week. After a few adjustments to the schedule to accommodate absent members and some tidbits from a book that she used to fill us in about the 10 mistakes that changed the world, the theme, Theresa Frasch, Toastmaster introduced Gary Towe to the lectern to do his speech which was supposed to be from a manual but he forgot the manual so, it was a non-manual speech. Gary entitled the speech, "Numbers Game."
The speech was centered around how numbers play vital roles in the lives of everyone, including Gary. He explained that there are numbers in everything from 7 step solutions; 12 step programs; numbers are, virtually everywhere we go! He was evaluated by Carl Johnson. When Gary's speech was finished, he returned control of the lectern back to Theresa who, again, dished out more on the 10 mistakes that actually made life somewhat better in the long run for all of us. Then it was time to introduce one of our newest speakers, Jim Boland who was going to do his very first speech for our club-the Ice beaker Speech!
Jim Boland walked to the lectern and shook Theresa's hand with a warmness that only a true professional speaker would do to his new club member. For a first time speaker in our club, Jim brought to the lectern a new confidence that will surely add to his tenure as a Toastmaster! He began his speech telling the audience his background of growing up and living in downtown Seattle with its challenges, trials and tribulations in an apartment he could no longer afford. During the middle of his speech, Jim took us through his move to Federal Way and his accepting a job with a social service agency that helps the poor and persons in the disability community.
Jim ended his speech by letting us know of his goals and dreams before handing the lectern back to Theresa, our Toastmaster, for the next part of the meeting. Welcome, Jim, to our club and congratulations on completing your Iicebreaker speech. As the professional speaker you have shown us with your first speech, there will surly be more memorable speeches yet to come from you and our club can hardly wait to hear your next speech! Jim's evaluator was Lorylee Lejon who, as noted above, was also multi-tasking for the meeting.
They say that practice makes perfect and, in order for a speech to be perfect, the speaker needs to practice it. Theresa Frasch, the evening's last speaker, is entering her speech she did for our contest meeting entitled, "The Lesson of the Bicycle." Over the past couple of weeks, Theresa had polished the speech by trimming down some of the items that were mentioned and making it more presentable for the contest. She seemed to have more vocal variety this time and far more gestures were exhibited when she performed the speech. Theresa received favorable feedback from an evaluation that was given by John Dolbeck that lasted 3:50 minuts that was in turn followed by a round robin evaluation from the audience who suggested that maybe she could bring an actual bike to the ERAC next week to use as a prop. Everyone liked the way Theresa wove practicing Toastmasters speeches with learning to ride a bike in her speech. It goes without saying that practice makes perfect and Theresa's speech was nearly perfect and will, certainly, do well in the contest!
When the speech was finished, Theresa handed the lectern back to John Dolbeck who acted as a makeshift contest coordinator to coduct the proper way of introucing Theresa's speech to the audience. John then gave back control of the lectern to Theresa who gave some more tid bits from the book she was using about the 10 mistakes that changed the world. She then introduced the Table Topics leader of the evening and that job was done by Elora Smith.
Elora approached the lectern and used a book full of questions that were asked to each of the participants. Most of the 10 meeting attendees participated in the Table Topics session and when the votes were tallied, both Carl Johnson and John Dolbeck came out as winners of the Table Topics. By the way, the our vote counter for the evening was the one and only Lorylee Lejon who seemed to be wearing more hats than usual for a single Toastmaster meeting. When Elora's Table Topics session ended, she gave the lectern back to Theresa to call upon the General Evaluator of the night. The person handling the General Evaluation portion of the meeting was Carl Johnson.
Carl approached the lectern and wasted little time in calling upon the first evaluator for the first speech of the evening. The speaker was Gary Towe and his evaluator was also Carl Johnson. Carl immediately gave Gary an avaluation worthy of a true professional. He was able to point out some of the weaknesses in Gary's talk but, overall, Carl's evaluation of Gary Towe's "Numbers Game "was very good. When he concluded Gary's evaluation, he called upon our next evaluator of our newest member, Jim Boland, and that was; you guessed it, the one and only multi-tasker that is not only the President of our club; she gave the thought of the day and counted the ballets for the meeting and now she was going to come back up to the lectern and give Jim an evaluation of his Icebreaker.
Lorylee put her things asside and approached the lectern with a confidence that only a professional Toastmaster could display. With a gentleness to her demeanor, Lorylee gave Jim a pretty favorable evaluation of an Icebreaker that was well done. She ended her piece with the feeling that we all have for Jim...we can't wait for his next speech! Lorylee then handed the lectern back to Carl so he could call upon the last speaker of the night which was Theresa.
Therea's speech evaluation was a little different from other speech evaluations. Since she was doing a contest speech, she had her acting speech contest coordinator(John Dolbeck) give an evaluation. John came up to the lectern while Theresa returned to her seat and gave his thoughts on Theresa's speech. About three minutes later, John opened up a round robin session that lasted a good ten minutes. Everyone in the room was able to give his or her two cents worth regarding the speech. Most of the feelings were favorable and, as mentioned earlier, it was suggested that Theresa round up an actual bike to bring to the contest next week. There was some discussion on the bike issue before John wrapped up his evaluation. He then handed control back the General Evaluator, Carl, for his wrapup of the entire meeting. It was a pretty good meeting and once Carl's work was completed, he handed control of the lectern back to Theresa for her final words of the evening. She told us more facts from the book she was using all through the evening and then gave the meeting to Lorylee.
With the speeches, evaluations and Table Topics out of the way, Lorylee steered the club through the business meeting that lasted a little longer than usual. There was discussion about the pending 'Garage Sale' to benefit the club and raise money. This Garage sale is to take place in mid or late Spring and is tenitively planed to be held at Elora Smith's house. More will come either next month or in one of our May meeting.
There was discussion concerning the upcoming contest. Some of us will bring some door prizes for the contest and there was some discussion on what kinds of beverages to bring. The business meeting ended around 8:45 and Lorylee ajurned the Soundwaves meeting for March 6 at 8:46 P.M. Only four of us went to Red Robin afterwards for the tradiditional bi-weekly, after meeting social. They were; Theresa Frasch, John Dolbeck, Carl Johnson and Mary Videen. We had a very good time at Red Robin and our bi-weekly social meeting ended at approximately 10:20.
The reason I entitled this piece, "10 Mistakes Meeting That Almost Wasn't," was due to the fact we had so many members who were 'Missing in Action.' Lots of reasons could be given for not showing up and doing a part to contribute to making the meeting a success but if one Toastmaster chooses not to attend for a reason, it makes it hard for the others to feel good about coming to the meeting. Other attendees, like Lorylee Lejon, needed to do some serious multi-tasking in order to make the meeting go smoothly. A good Toastmaster can get worn out by being asked to do two or three jobs at a meeting and may choose not to attend that club again for fear that they could be called upon to take on too many tasks at once! A good Toastmasters club should have enough people who are ready, willing and able to do a job for which he or she has signed up for or has been assigned to do and there should be meetings where the participant shows up to a meeting and can just enjoy it without being asked to perform tasks every time.
The bottom line of this piece is that we, as Soundwaves Toastmasters, should make every effort to recruit new members and help these new members to achieve their good communication and leadersip skills and, hopefully, they will be willing to come to each and every meeting and help out whenever they can.
If you are reading this blog and want to know more about our club, I invite you to come to the Wesley Gardens Retirement Homes, here in Des Moines, on the first and third Thursday of each and every month! Our meetings begin at 7:00 and usually last until 8:45. Everyone is more than welcome to come and check our meetings out. As mentioned above, we have a bi-weekly social meeting that is open to even you, the newcomer! If you find that our club is just right for you and you choose to join us as an active member, we will even pay for your first meal or drink! We are harmless and we won't even ask you to speak if you should come for the first time to our meetings. So, please feel free to come ride the wave to your new communications success--Soundwaves Toastmasters Club!
Remember old members and newcomers make for great meetings!
Mary Elizabeth Videen, Secretary
Soundwaves Toastmasters Club #5777
