Capital City Toastmasters Meeting Recap - April 8, 2010

Submitted by Wade Hudson and Brian Simpson

 

Today's Theme: SPEECH MARATHON!

 

Today’s meeting was different.  Instead of our usual meeting with multiple roles, we had a speech marathon with 5 speakers and 5 evaluators. We had 24 folks attending (including 3 guests).

Mike Eaves served as the Sergeant at Arms and introduced our Toastmaster, Dean DiLillo. Dean took care of a few details then got right to the business at hand, getting our speakers out on the floor.

Wade Hudson led off with his talk, “Did It Anyway,”  a humorous speech about the perils of acting younger than your real age. He discussed his fatherhood adventures, Santa's infinite wisdom and an "aha!" moment he experienced at age 40.

Firefighter Kevin Coppage spoke from experience in an important speech called, “The Neglected Insurance Policy.” Kevin explained the merits of making a small investment in a quality fire detector and detailed exactly how that small task could save our lives.

Bruno Gagnon followed with his humorous and informative IceBreaker titled, “Change.”  Bruno told us about his culture-shock filled journey from Quebec to Montreal to North Carolina (where everything is fried) and revealed that he has lived in 18 different houses, 13 different cities, headed down several career paths and has even gone through several different sports activities through his years. Tennis anyone?

Sara Salek then took the stage and told us about her three 'children' – the piano she received at age 5, the violin she took up at age 9, and "Taylor," her trusty guitar – in her Icebreaker, “My Babies.” Her presentation was fantastic (as her evaluator said, she spoke like a talented veteran Toastmaster giving her 15th speech, rather than her first).

Last but not least, Kerry Leeburn talked about personal accountability in a speech called, “It’s All about Me.” Kerry encouraged us all to become thermostats (which change the temperature in a room) instead of thermometers (which merely measure a room's temperature), as he used this analogy and many concrete examples to show us how to take more control over our own lives. He even quoted an excerpt from J. G. Miller's book, The Question Behind the Question. Per our meeting's custom, Kerry received a standing ovation upon completion of this, his 10th (and final) speech in the Toastmasters Competent Communication manual. Congrats Kerry for earning your CC designation!

Lesley Cates, Bob Crump, David Kiker, Brian Simpson, and Vernita Griffith evaluated each of the five speakers, respectively. A few of the many constructive tips they provided included:

  1.  If you have a display, make sure you step to the side so the audience can see it.
  2. Make sure you practice with your props ahead of time, so they don’t slow you down.
  3. If you move around, stop and ground yourself when you want to emphasize a point.
  4. Use the “stinging stare” to really emphasize a point (as if to say, "I’m TALKING to YOU!")

The meeting was fantastic!  One guest commented that he was “blown away!”

And the April 2010 Capital City Toastmasters Speech Marathon winners are...

[drumroll please]

Best Speaker: Sara Salek
Best Evaluator: David Kiker

Many thanks to everyone who served a role and filled the audience in this unique meeting!

Today's guests were Jeremy Hicks, Jennifer Park, and MaryLee McDaniel.