Capital City Toastmasters Meeting Recap - January 28, 2010

Submitted by Wade H.

Our ToastMaster Tom P. led us through another excellent meeting this morning. Our theme was,

“What do you want Toastmasters to do for you?”

Because of some longer speech times, Tom cut Table Topics for this meeting.

Peter G. delivered the invocation by sharing Thomas Edison’s wisdom about goal setting and relating it to his personal Toastmasters goals as an example.  Ariel W. followed with a joke about a man taking an airplane ride to get us warmed up and laughing. Marian H.’s theme response was to learn to be more concise, so naturally she gave us the word of the day -- concise -- meaning brief; compact; terse.  Stephen B. then set out the time parameters and reminded us all to be concise.

Chris R. led off our speakers with his talk “Challenging and Changing My Beliefs” where he related how his personal experience with a death-row inmate influenced his thinking about capital punishment. Uzoma N. then shared his insights from his personal journey toward getting fit in his speech, “I went Paleo, Sort of.” And Brian S. encouraged us all to use the skills we are developing in Toastmasters outside our weekly meetings in his talk “Going Beyond Our Club.”

Chuck R., Lesley C. and April Y. evaluated. Chuck provided several points of praise then gave valuable ideas for improvement by providing examples and demonstrating his suggestions. Lesley gave an encouraging evaluation and April pointed out how well Brain tackled a difficult talk – a scripted speech.

Richard K. then delivered a knock-out Grammarian’s report by breaking his observations into four categories: questionable expressions, flowery language, grammar, and the “uh” awards. Very funny; and made his points. Mike E. was our General Evaluator and praised Tom for stepping in as our Toastmaster with short notice and running a strong meeting.

We had 24 folks attend, including 2 guests, Bruno and Jon. Bruno joined our club after the meeting. Yeah!

Award Winners:

Best Speaker: Brian S.

Best Evaluator: Chuck R.