July 30, 2009 Meeting Recap

Toastmaster:  Larry Everett

Even though attendance was low for this meeting, the meeting was up-beat.  Everyone was energized to be there, laugh a little, and to learn from our two speakers.

The theme for the meeting was “It’s A Guy Thing”.    There are some traits that seem to be associated with males – probably married males.

·          Getting dressed – Honey, that shirt does not match the suit or pants you are wearing.

·          Or your favorite socks – Honey those socks have holes in them – don’t wear those, and throw them away like I told you last time.

·          Doing laundry – Honey, I told you “do not mix the colors with the whites”, and also do not wash the blouses that say “cold water” wash in hot water or put them on with the heavy duty cycle.

·          Looking in the ‘fridge’ - Honey, I can’t find the ketchup.

·          Honey, will you run to the grocery store for me and get some milk and eggs? Only you come home with three or four sacks of groceries.

·          Looking for a location in a not too familiar area - Honey, why don’t you just stop and ask for directions.

·          Lastly – You’re not listening to me – are you?

We all need to improve our listening skills, and Toastmasters helps all of us with improving our listening skills.

Dawn Anderson gave a book speech # 5 from the C&L manual titled “You broke your what?”  This was a very humorous speech, and entertained us with an embarrassing anecdote from her life at a younger age.

Ravi Bakshi gave a book speech #10 from the C&L manual (going through this manual again) titled “A Needy Child’s Dream Come True”.  We are lucky to have enough resources to fulfill our wishes and dreams. But, NOT ALL of us are so lucky. Others have dreams too - particularly small children. Ravi talked about how each of us can make a needy child’s dream come true. He made reference to the Resource West Hopkins Minnetonka Family Resource Center – www.resourcewest.org.

Ravi also presented the Table Topics portion, and was entertaining to have members respond to questions associated with the theme for today. And yes, there appears to be some annoyances experienced by both guys and gals with relationships related to the theme.

Tom Schmid presented the word of the day – “Druthers” as a noun.  This is a contraction of multiple words, and was used appropriately by a number of members.

DRUTHERS (noun);  The noun DRUTHERS has 1 sense:

1. the right or chance to choose -  Familiarity information: DRUTHERS used as a noun is very rare.

Synonyms: - druthers; preference

Context example: given my druthers, I'd eat cake

Toastmaster of Day Award – Dawn Anderson

Announcements:

·         Aug 6 – EC Board Meeting at 8:10 am prior to the regular meeting

·         Aug 27 – Club speech contest

·         Minnesota Twins group outing – hand out with possible dates – more information to follow

 

Regards,

 

Larry Everett

 

Marsh Winds Toast Masters Mentors

Mentoring

Mentoring can be an excellent way to improve your ToastMasters experience. The mentor serves as a role model, coach and confidante; offering knowledge, insight, perspective or wisdom useful to the person being mentored. Membership in Toastmasters offers many opportunities, but none so rich and rewarding as the chance to work with a mentor.

Mentoring allows ToastMasters to:

• Share their expertise
  
• Obtain fresh perspectives
  
• Build teamwork skills
  
• Expose themselves to new situations in which to apply their skills
  
• Earn credit toward your Competent Leader award (complete project 9 by mentoring a new OR an existing member)

Even experienced ToastMasters can benefit from having a mentor. You can develop a particular aspect of speaking – such as speech organization or humor. If another club member excels in your area of interest, this person could be your mentor and help you to further develop that special skill.

As Co-VPs of Education, Crissy Roeglin and Lee Handwerger have the pleasure of helping match Marsh Winds members with mentors who will help their ToastMasters development.

Check Mentor Information on Roster

Please take a moment to review your record on the Marsh Winds roster. There are two mentoring related fields at the bottom of each record:

• “Serve as Mentor?” -- If you are interested in acting as a mentor the “Serve as Mentor?” field should be “Y”
  
• “Mentoring:” -- Current mentor assignments are indicated in the “Mentoring:” field

Let us know if you have updates to either of these two fields.

If your “Serve as Mentor?” field is blank, we encourage you to consider being available as a mentor for another Marsh Winds member. You do not need to be a DTM or have years of ToastMasters experience to be a mentor. You just need to have a passion for the group and a desire to help others by sharing your experiences.

Mentor Requests

If you do not currently have a mentor and are interested in having one, please contact Crissy and Lee. We can discuss your interests and match you with someone who can help your development.

We look forward to hearing from you had helping everyone achieve their ToastMasters goals.

Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests - August 27th

Our club contest will be held on Thursday, August 27th during our regular meeting time. Any member is eligible to compete in either the Humorous or Evaluation contests (or both). Sandy Ryan and Dawn Anderson are co-chairing the contest. 

The roles needed to run a contest are: Toastmaster, Chief Judge, Sergeant at Arms, ballot counters, judges, and timers (2). Your help in running the contest will be GREATLY appreciated and comes with all the training you need. (You'll be briefed before the contest begins.) Please contact Sandy or Dawn via email with the position you are able to fill.

TOOLmasters Meeting Recap

Hello Fellow Toolmasters! I hope this day finds you feeling powered up to use your "Toastmaster Tools" more effectively and with renewed clarity after our meeting yesterday. I have to admit, I felt a little "toolish" as Toastmaster in my hard hat and safety glasses hammering it up by using such phrases as, "You know the drill!" It was pleasing to see so many construction crew members present on site as well as three guests!

The tools were flying as our Grammarian, Stacey Modahl, Ah Counter, Susan Budig, and Timer, Mike Kennedy helped us build a stronger foundation for our speaking. We had three outstanding presenters who shared their speech crafts:

Ruth Fernandez gave her Ice Breaker titled, "A Place I Now Call Home." Her transparency and beautiful telling of her story engrained a sense of purpose in all of us as to why we joined Toastmasters. She brought new meaning to the "personal growth" aspect of TM because of her desire to improve upon and embrace her blueprint of life.

Dawn Anderson delivered her 4th speech from the C.C. manual title, "I Was There." Manuals are to help us use our tools the right way, and I'm thinking Dawn wrote the manual given her telling of the 35W bridge collapse using vivid word pictures and fantastic voice inflection with her engaging presence.

Betty Liedtke, DTM, absolutely accomplished her goal of inspiring us to become aware of our purpose. She did it "On Purpose," (the title of her speech) by sharing astonishing discoveries she's made on her amazing journey since joining Toastmasters. Everyone was in agreement that Betty's toolbox is pretty darn polished!

Mark Forsberg, DTM aptly used the theme of the day with his clever, thoughtful questions regarding the variety of Toastmaster tools available to us. Our General Evaluator, Larry Everett, approved our meeting permit with his magnetic musings about our timely meeting. Evaluators Deborah Dora, Tom Schmid, and Ravi Bakshi all provided a safety net of feedback for our speakers to land in.

Our meeting opened and closed with our capable foreman and Presiding Officer for the day, Lee Handwerger. He presented Ruth Fernandez with the Toastmaster of the Day award, and announced our club's receipt of the 10 for 10 certificate from District 6 for accomplishing all 10 goals in the DCP last year.

With all due respect (Thank you, Betty!),

Sandy

Recap Farm Theme Meeting

Very theatrical meeting today. Thanks to all who came out on a beautiful day to enjoy your fellow toastmasters and share many laughs.

Dawn did an exceptional job as Presiding Officer. Jenn Ray was Toastmaster. The theme was Old MacDonald.

We started with a resounding rendition of Old MacDonald had a Farm. I would suggest that Lisa and Dawn compile a TM's rendition to be sung at the opening of every meeting!!!

Three fabulous speakers, Lee Handwerger, where we learned of his skill in catching something, not necessarily fish. Lisa Jenks who kept us in suspense for the closing punch line, there always is one with Lisa. And a beautiful read fable from India, Winners Never Quit, from Ravi Bakshi.

Marlene Geyen as Table Topics Master had us all laughing at the great way she wove our theme into some pretty thought provoking questions for our members.

Sandy did a lovely job at evaluating an excellent meeting. Trichy, as Ah Counter; Shaun our Grammarian, word Theatrical; and Timer, Larry Everett kept the meeting on perfect time.

Thanks to all for coming. Jenn Ray won TMOD award. So good to be back!!!

Hope all have a great day!!

Godspeed,
Jennifer Ray

High Standards

Of course I always want to do my best when presenting, but a little nudge now and then is valuable. I did another presentation about online networking. What is the catch? There was a Toastmaster in the audience.

Those of us who get comfortable with Toastmasters know that we need to push ourselves to present in other venues to grow as speakers. But having a Toastmaster in the audience reminded me not to leave all of that great training behind in the club.

The protocol we learn, ditching those ums and ahs, the basics of good speaking are appreciated by audiences whether they know they should be expecting that from speakers or not. I have a new goal:

When speaking at Toastmasters I will hold myself to the standards of an outside speech. When speaking outside Toastmasters, I'll assume there's a Toastmaster lurking in the audience checking my ums and ahs...

Dr. Shaun Jamison, DTM
www.guideonyourside.com

First Message from Our President

Dear Fellow Marsh Winders,

Greetings to all, and I hope this afternoon finds each of you active, healthy, and with a song in your heart.

I have been president for ten days now, and golly, how time has flown. It is an honor and a blessing to be trusted by all of you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to serve and learn.

My learning curve is steep, and I will continue to work on figuring out who does what, and what I need to do to best serve our fabulous club. Please know that I will strive to continually improve my communication and leadership skills and also welcome any and all direct feedback. We are all on this journey together, and many of us recognize and appreciate how supportive and convivial our club is. (A good Toastmasters vocabulary word – convivial - which is an adjective meaning enjoyable because of its friendliness
;-) ) It is truly a blessing to part of Marsh Winds (really!).

I would like to thank the past executive committee for setting up everything to run smoothly and with excellence in every corner. Bravo! I would type the names here, but fear I would forget someone, so please just know that these thanks are specific to each of you.

We all appreciate the marvelous variety of talents and temperaments in our club, and because of unified efforts by all members, Marsh Winds achieved all ten out of ten points in the 2008-2009 year towards the Distinguished Club Program. Here is the web address for all of the District Clubs and their point scores. It has not been updated for the end of the year, so check it in a few weeks again, to see how we have a “P” for President’s Distinguished Club by Marsh Winds. Amazing! I believe that it is definitely again a realistic goal for our club to achieve this level of distinction for the coming year.

One of the most pivotal roles at our club meetings is that of Toastmaster. The Toastmaster at a meeting helps set a creative and energetic tone, enriches our lives with individual personality and new ideas, and organizes the agenda so the meeting flows smoothly. Also, the Toastmaster makes sure that most of the other jobs at the meeting are filled. We have even had a brand new member be Toastmaster, and my goodness, that went smoothly. I think the whole team pulls together beautifully when the need is there, too. Please feel free to sign up to be Toastmaster on the duty roster for the upcoming months. It would help reduce my stress level and that of the VP’s Education (Crissy and Lee) if that particular job is signed up for weeks in advance. So sign into the duty roster and pick one future week. It’ll be fun! And even if it isn’t fun, it’ll be wonderful.

This coming week, there is an executive meeting at 8:15. At the 9:15 meeting (we can all arrive by 9:05 or 9:10 to make this happen on time), we look forward to speeches by Lisa and Lee, Table Topics by Marleen, and also pitching in are Sandy, Shaun and Jennifer Ray. We do still need Toastmaster most of all, then also two evaluators. Plus, there is still room for one more speaker… and the theme is still up in the air. The possibilities are plentiful, so check out that duty roster and sign up soon, please.

Just a few times a year the District sponsors a "TELI" and we get to have one in a week… Check on-line at the District 6 website:

http://www.d6tm.org/TELI

Every single one of us welcome, and without the luncheon, the cost is only 5 dollars. I went to my first TELI before I was even a member, and it impressed me with how organized and professional Toastmasters is; plus I learned some wonderful things, met a few new people, and enjoyed seeing fellow Marsh Winders there.

Thank you all,

We’ll have a fun, thought-provoking, joy-spreading and creative year!

“Dare to be Distinguished

Accept the Challenge”

. . .Toastmasters!

Dawn Anderson

President, Marsh Winds Toastmasters