Capital City Toastmasters Meeting Recap - January 7, 2010

Submitted by Wade

Mike introduced our Toastmaster, Bob, right at 7AM, and Bob launched us into the meeting with the theme about predictions for the year 2019.

Tom B., our Invocator, shared a passage from The Articulate Executive: Learn to Look, Sound and Act Like a Leader by Granville Toogood that highlighted the value of speaking including good speakers surprise themselves, grow and push themselves.

Mike then came back up -- this time as Jokemaster -- and spun a funny story about a blind man and his dog leading him across a busy street.

Grammarian Kevin C. gave us the word foible -- a minor weakness or failure of character -- as our word of the day.

Then, Johnny (our Timekeeper) outlined the time parameters for our speakers and evaluators.

Andrew led off our speakers with a personal story about controlling his weight with his talk, “The Battle of the Bulge.” He concluded by saying, "I hope you see less of me." :)

Richard followed with his talk, “GROW Coaching,” in which he outlined and provided examples for how to break down -- and reach -- your goals. Richard included some back and forth dialog (with himself) that was really clever.

Simon rounded out our speakers with his talk, “Proactive in 2010,” encouraging us all to take action toward our goals. His talk included some sage advice that he quoted, such as “personal victories precede public victories, and number one is be proactive.”

Trey then led Table Topics and asked Kerry to tell us about newspapers in 2019 and Leslie to tell us about herself in 2019. Kerry wove quite a witty on-the-spot story.

Gwen, Colleen and Vernita served as Evaluators, and all three made sure to both praise and make suggestions for our speakers.

Tracey was our Grammarian, and she highlighted some of the key phrases and pointed out some of the filler words people used when speaking this morning.

April -- our General Evaluator -- then gave the overall evaluation and shared a few suggestions, including "evaluate in the third person so you include everyone in your suggestions for improvement."

We had 25 folks including 3 first-time guests (Alyssa M., Mark S., and Scott U). Both Sarah (a repeat guest) and Alyssa joined today. Yeah!

Responses to the theme, "What will it be like ten years from now, in 2010?" included:

  • All computers, phones and PDAs will be driven by voice recognition
  • Computers will be embedded everywhere – furniture, jewelry, clothes
  • Pin-headed size cameras will be everywhere
  • Half the cars will run on natural gas
  • T. Boone Pickens will be even richer
  • Green will be a way of life
  • Electric vehicles will be mainstream

Award Winners:

Best Table Topics: Kerry

Best Speaker: Simon

Best Evaluator: Colleen