Capital City Toastmasters Meeting Recap - May 6, 2010

Submitted by Wade Hudson

 

Today's Theme: Honor Your Mother

With Mother’s Day coming this weekend, we honored our Mother’s at our meeting this morning as Mike Eaves led us as Toastmaster with the theme “Honor Your Mother.” Dean Dilillo introduced Mike and shared that Mike’s claim to fame is that his cousin is married to our Governor, Bev Perdue.

Mike then shared with us a few tidbits about his own mother, especially that she’s been keeping a journal for the last 25 years. Mike also recognized our own Mothers who were attending the meeting: Vernita, Jillian, Mary Lee and Tanya.

Vernita then took the stage as our Invocator. She shared a poem about “Mean Moms” and the importance of tough love. (See the bottom of this page for the full poem.)

Wade, our Jokemaster, shared a tip about finding a good joke or story 1st, then finding a way to tie it into the theme so you’re not limited by the theme. He then told a story about a mime in an ape suit.

David Kiker, keeping with the meeting theme, challenged us with “abbess” as the word of the day. Abbess means a woman who is the superior of a convent of nuns.

Then, Sonja Person outlined the time parameters.

Our speakers were Cherry McRae, Alyssa Mozingo, and Simon Phillips-Hughes.

Cherry opened with “Tips to Transform a House on a Shoestring Budget.”  Motivated by the television show, Extreme Makeover, Cherry transformed her own home and shared her top tips with all of us.

Alyssa followed with a her speech, “Five Ways a Law Clerk Can Best Utilize a Paralegal.”  She spoke to us as if addressing a new group of law clerks starting work in Raleigh. One tip we all enjoyed was her advice to eat at Big Ed’s.

Simon closed the speaking session with a tribute to our group, “Toastmasters Changed My Life.”  He shared some of the valuable lessons he’s learned in his 18 months with us and how he will miss us as he is moving to Washington, D.C.

Next, Kerry Leeburn led table topics and called on Sara Salek and Ariel Ward. Sara told us about her mother and about her own hard road to reading and understanding English and mostly how her persistence paid off. Ariel told us about the non-verbal communication she learned from her mother.

Tom Beaulieu, Trey Bason and April Young evaluated the speakers. Their excellent advice included the following tips:

  1. Instead of writing out your speech, use bullets for notes
  2. Tell a story or share an anecdote to make your speech more personal
  3. When you’re not using your hands, rest them at your sides

Jillian Bowlin gave the Grammarian’s report. She complimented some of the images Cherry created when she spoke of the “vibrant colors” and Tom’s use of the phrase “mental agility” and she noted we had 34 ahs and ums overall.

Tanya Hunte subbed in as our General Evaluator and gave us high marks for the meeting.

We had 3 guests – Mary Lee, Dorsey and Charles – and 23 folks overall.

Award Winners:
Best Speaker:  Simon
Best Evaluator: April
Best Table Topics: Sara

Final note:  In his talk Simon noted that he tries to be a good ambassador for the UK; then he gave us all a tremendous compliment saying that our Capital City Toastmasters Club is a great ambassador for the city of Raleigh!

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Mean Moms


We had the meanest mother in the whole world!
While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.
When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.
And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.
Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times.
You'd think we were convicts in a prison.
She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them.
She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.
We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work.
We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, and all sorts of cruel jobs.
I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.
She always insisted on us telling the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds. Then, life was really tough!
Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up.
They had to come up to the door so she could meet them while everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.
Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced.
None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's property, or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.
We never got drunk, took up smoking, stayed out all night, or a million other things other kids did.
Sundays were reserved for church, and we never missed once. We knew better.
Now that we have left home, we are all God-fearing, educated, honest adults.
We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.
I think that is what's wrong with the world today. It just doesn't have enough mean moms anymore.