Riding high

Top of Texas Toastmasters Meeting Recap – January 23, 2016

Top of Texas had another great meeting on Saturday with three speakers, a large audience, and one guest.  Our guest, Wayne, is a past member of our club who is back in town after five years of living out of state.

In honor of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo that is currently taking place at Will Rogers Memorial Center, the theme of our meeting was the Stock Show & Rodeo.

Our first speaker was Carenthia who gave her Ice Breaker speech.  We learned about Carenthia’s childhood, education, and her strong desire to serve her country.  Carenthia used humor and storytelling skills in her speech and did a great job!  We thank Carenthia for her service to our country.

Next, Jennifer told us about her experience with the Beachbody products and fitness plan.  From the sound of it, the Beachbody supplements have been very good for Jennifer’s body and has helped her health.  With this speech Jennifer is halfway to completing her CC (Competent Communication) manual and attaining her CC education level! 

Our third speaker was Ken who educated the members with a speech from the Toastmasters Successful Club Series.  Ken walked us thru the two Toastmasters educational tracks: the Communication track and the Leadership track. 

Ken provided us with a number of online resources that are available and can help members move toward earning the DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) award.  This speech provided a good overview for many of our new members, and a good refresher for some of our long-time members.  Here are some links from Ken’s speech below:

§  Toastmasters Education Flowchart

§  Links to Advanced Competent Communicator Topics & Objectives

§  District 25 Toastmasters

§  Top of Texas Website

§  Successful Club Series Downloads

§  Best Speaker Downloads

§  Successful Leadership Series Manual

§  Successful Communication Series Manual

§  High Performance Leadership Manuals (for purchase)

§  Youth Leadership Manual & Supplies (for Purchase)

Our club welcomes all guests and we meet every Saturday morning (except holidays) at 9 am at the Northwest Bible Church in northwest Fort Worth.  We hope to see you at our next meeting!

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                               - Ana Ortega  ALB, ACB

"If the Pumpkin Fits, Wear It!"

                                                           

Saturday's meeting theme was pumpkins!  I love everything pumpkin... pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin candles, pumpkin hand soap!  It reminds me of fall – perfect for an October meeting with my fellow Top of Texas Toastmasters.

At our morning meeting, Aparna presented a speech from the Better Speaker Series manual on Preparation and Practice.  Based on her own experiences, she gave us all some great tips on things to become familiar with prior to speaking somewhere unfamiliar.  She also advised us to practice our speeches thoroughly and mentally.

Farah gave her second speech from the Competent Communication manual.  She spoke about The Power of Strategy of IKEA.  It was interesting to hear how the founder of this furniture and housewares empire, Ingvar Kamprad, built up a store we all love to browse for hours!

During Table Topics, Aijnel shared some interesting tidbits about pumpkins.  Did you know pumpkins are a fruit and not a vegetable?  She called on Ken to tell us about his favorite fruit and Vanessa told us a humorous short story about Ken and pumpkins.  Our visitor, Avinash, braved the lectern and took his turn at answering a table topics question!

As always, I enjoyed hearing speeches with new bits of information.  Not only did I gain helpful tips to help myself improve as a speaker, I got a chance to get to know our club members a little more.

                                                                                                                - Lina Choun

February 7, 2015 Meeting Recap

Three wonderful speeches were the highlight of Saturdays meeting.  

Richard Gonzales started us off with with a motivational message about lessons learned from his kids. Jodie Sanders then inspired us all to achieve our Toastmaster goals through partnering and accountability. She told us the story of how she and several others in our club decided to finish their DTM's together in a very aggressive timeline. In sharing this story she encouraged us all to find partners and work on our goals together. Eunie Yook was a guest speaker on Saturday. She was practicing an Ice Breaker speech that is to be delivered for her schooling. 

Regina Clay, as Table Topics Master, provided some wonderful questions about favorite vacations spots. We discovered that Ana likes to visit castles and Jerry would like to time travel backwards to watch the Big Bang.

We had two guests in attendance. Richard Layne from Sprint Speakers and Eunie Yook. Please welcome Eunie as she is now the newest member of Top of Texas.
Richard will be visiting again and is on next week's agenda as a guest speaker.

Submitted By 

Jeff Wright

President Top of Texas 

January 31, 2015 Meeting Recap

What a fun meeting we had on Saturday morning! Not only did we have two speeches, but we also had two guests. We also had the opportunity to officially vote our newest member, Jerry, into our club.

But first our toastmaster of the day, Anne, reminded us how silly The Super Bowl viewing ritual can be! Our theme of the day was The Not So Super Bowl. Leftovers for days and cleaning up after your party guests, anyone?

Our first speaker, Judy, shared with us a brief portion of a real-life workshop she recently held for after-school program organizers. Judy's workshop gave the program leaders tips and suggestions on how to lead and operate programs that are fun for the kids and stress free for the leaders. It was a privilege to hear Judy give us a small sample of her exciting job with the city of Fort Worth!

Next, Sandra told us the story of how she came to adopt three "dachshunds." The funny part is that each time she thought she was adopting a true dachshund, she came to find out that only one of the three is a true dachshund! Nevertheless, Sandra and her husband could not turn their backs on the critters and one by one they were each adopted and currently live happily at the Price residence.

As always we had a fun Table Topics session and our topics master of the day, Aparna, led our participants through some fun answers.

Overall we had a great meeting: we got to meet some new guests, saw some returning members, and we took advantage of a quorum to vote a new member into the club. Lots of fun packed into one hour!

Submitted by: Ana Ortega, ACB, ALB

Picture Credit: Sandra Price

January 24th Meeting Recap

This Saturday's meeting was chock-full of advice for the attendees.  Our Toastmaster was Dudley.  The theme -- Advantages of Having a "Rip and Read" file.  I was the Table Topics master for the meeting and thought the theme was related to ripping DVDs to computers... boy was I wrong!  Dudley explained that a rip and read file is a file containing articles we rip from a magazine or newspaper and file away to read later.  This is useful for speech topic ideas and having conversation pieces.

Our two speakers for the day were Richard, a fairly new member to the club, and Jeff, a veteran Toastmaster.  Both speakers added to Dudley's advice and gave us all some more tips to help with our speeches.  Richard encouraged us all to speak up without worrying too much about having the perfectly prepared speech, because there's quality hidden in quantity.

Jeff told us about his "Constipated Brain" and how he plans to work through his writer's block.  He encouraged us to carry a notebook so we always have something handy to write down any ideas that pop into our heads.  He also suggested reading more effectively to feed our minds.  For example, instead of reading book after book about vampires, throw in a nonfiction book such as The Way of The Seal by Mark Divine.  His last bit of advice was to write a list of 10 ideas every day centered around a theme.

I always learn something at a Top of Texas meeting and this meeting was no exception!

Submitted by: Lina Choun

Photo Credit: carpewebem via Compfight cc

Candy Canes, Mistletoe, Christmas Pickles

The theme for our first December meeting was "December Traditions." As the Toastmaster for the day, I researched a few December traditions to share with the group throughout the meeting.

• Sticks of sugar shaped like a shepherd's crook was used by a choirmaster in the 1670s to quiet the younger children during long services. These became what we know today as the candy cane.
• Mistletoe is a parasitic plant. In the 1800s, couples would kiss under the mistletoe, plucking a berry after each kiss. Once all the berries were gone, the kissing stopped.
• The Christmas pickle ornament is hidden in the Christmas tree.  The first child to find the ornament on Christmas morning gets an extra present.

Our first speaker of the day was Richard, a member of Toastmasters for only a few weeks!  He presented his Ice Breaker speech from the Competent Communication manual. He opened up to us about one of his weaknesses, told us about his family, and shared his interest in being a lifelong learner. Ken, our second speaker, presented Project #3 from the Storytelling manual. We learned about a few interesting methods he used to teach classic stories to this sons. One of the adventures they went on included taking a trip to a fish farm when they read Moby-Dick.

Jeff tried out a new method for Table Topics this week which I thought was very successful!  Instead of posing a question, he used word association and allowed us to take our answers down our own paths. We took one to two minutes to present our thoughts on Santa Claus, Black Friday, Christmas Movies, and Holiday Foods. Is this the start to a new Top of Texas tradition?!

Submitted By
Lina Choun

A Walk Down Memory Lane

With contest season drawing to a close this coming weekend at the District 25 conference, attendance was back up at our weekly meeting this past Saturday! Not only did we have a guest, we also gained a new member.

Shannon, the meeting's Toastmaster, chose High School Bands for the theme.  She took us all back to our high school days with most of us reminiscing about the instruments we played when we were younger.

Jodie gave a speech from the Speeches by Management manual.  She told us about the three new District 25 Toastmasters clubs that formed this past month!  A question and answer session followed her speech.  We all learned a little more about what goes into forming a brand new Toastmasters club.

During Table Topics, Aparna asked quite a variety of questions.  Judy demonstrated the drill team's walk that influenced her to try out for the drill team instead of playing an instrument.  Richard, our guest, told us about the instruments he dreamed about being able to play.  I gave my thoughts on what kids learn from being in a band.  Dan closed out the Table Topics portion of the meeting by telling us about the pride and joy he feels from his son's journey as a piano player.

It was a lively meeting and I'm looking forward to finishing out the year with this great group of Toasmasters!

Lina Choun, TM

Photo Credit: DaveWilsonPhotography via Compfight cc

Lessons Learned from a Scrambled Agenda

Top of Texas meetings are always fun and exciting. Last Saturday was no exception.  We played a fun game call "Scramble the Agenda" where the object was to rearrange as many agenda items as possible.  Seriously, it was nice to see how adaptable we are to change when things don't work out exactly as planned before a meeting.

One of the "on the fly" agenda items added was a round robin evaluation.  Lina had the opportunity to practice her speech evaluation skills before the upcoming division contest.  After that evaluation, we all were able to provide her with praise for a job well done and with suggestions for improvement.  I am sure Lina will represent Top of Texas well at the November 1st Division A Contest.

There were several lessons learned I took from the meeting.

Be Flexible - While we always have assigned roles going into a meeting, these are subject to last minute change.  Be willing to step out and take on a role that you weren't prepared to fill.  Sometimes the best learning opportunities arise from unplanned events.

Be Prepared - Have a speech in your back pocket that can be delivered spur of the moment. This could even be a half-baked speech that needs further work. Practicing in front of a live audience is a great way to get feedback that makes your speech stronger.

Be There - It can be hard to get up on Saturday mornings.  Life happens and absences are necessary.  But Top of Texas is an ingredient that always enhances my weekend much like a fine wine enhances a meal.

Jeff Wright, ACB, ALB

Photo Credit: vincen-t via Compfight cc

Mentorship and Competition!

Saturday’s meeting was small but very productive! With all the excitement later that day at the Area 14 contest, we had a club meeting that was short in attendance but rich in content.

Our toastmaster of the day, Jodie Sanders, did an excellent job in encouraging member Jennifer Jones to give her impromptu, practice, Icebreaker speech. We learned about Jennifer’s early life then we provided feedback so that when Jennifer gives her Icebreaker speech the next time, she will do even better. If you missed Jennifer’s Icebreaker speech, stay tuned because you still have a chance to hear it.

At the same time, Lina used the meeting as practice for that afternoon’s Speech Evaluation contest. We gave her tips on what she could do to improve her evaluation technique and guess what? Lina incorporated those changes and went on to win the Speech Evaluation contest that afternoon and now she will be representing Area 12 in the Division A contest in November! Way to go Lina!

We managed to fill the entire hour of the meeting with excellent content, practice, and feedback. Kudos to Jodie for helping to mentor both Lina and Jennifer! There was only one casualty: the yellow-jacket wasp that made its way to the meeting… unfortunately he met his quick demise during our meeting.

Ana Ortega,  ACB, ACL

September 20th Meeting - Small, Intimate, and Full of Content

Saturday's meeting was an intimate one. Lina, who graciously stepped in to be Toastmaster picked the theme, "An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away." What did she share with us all? Interesting facts about apples, of course, because it was Eat an Apple Day. Did you know there are 7500 varieties of apples around the world? I learned this among facts about apples!

Ken was the only speaker, and he spoke out of the Competent Communication manual Speech #8: Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids. His speech title was "Space and Nanotechnology." It was a fascinating explanation on the expanse of the universe versus even the expanse of the "microuniverse" we cannot see in terms of atoms and molecules. It is through nanotechnology, attributes of things as common as plastic and foil can drastically change once they are broken down to its smallest components. It was a captivating speech which piqued my interest in the advancements we're making in technology. Ken spent a considerable amount of time preparing for this speech, and he is showing a strong dedication to Toastmasters.

Table Topics was fun because everyone was called upon twice to speak! Fun questions. It was a tie breaker!  Both Jeff and Lina won! Shannon asked terrific questions ranging from topics on organic foods to holistic medicines. I think everyone did a great job on participation.

Next week Jeff will be the Toastmaster, so it's definitely going to be the meeting to attend!

DeAnne Wolf, CC, CL

Photo Credit: radiant guy via Compfight cc

National Read a Book Day Theme at Top of Texas

Saturday’s Top of Texas Toastmaster’s meeting had two themes – National Read a Book Day, and Football.  You see, the toastmaster (me) inadvertently failed to advise the Table Topics Master of the theme and he felt it should be football because ‘tis the season for football. Nevertheless, we still had a great meeting with two speeches and three guests!  Our area governor paid a visit to the club and Aparna brought one returning guest and a brand new guest.

During his speech, Ken provided his ideas on how to reinvent education and with it he is just a couple more speeches away from completing his CC (Competent Communicator) award. Next, Jeff gave a speech from the Toastmasters Educational Leadership Series: Goal Setting and Planning. A job well done to both speakers on personalizing their speeches in order to draw in the audience.

When Table Topics time came around, Thomas, our Table Topics Master still managed to ask a question pertaining to reading, even though in his heart the theme should have been football!  One of our guests took the plunge and got up in front of the members and provided her answer to the Table Topic question about reading, and in doing so won the Best Table Topics ribbon!  It’s very exciting for our members when a guest overcomes his or her public speaking fears, gets up to the lectern, and gives a great answer to the Table Topics question.

Next week will be very exciting at Top of Texas Toastmasters when we hold our Fall club speech contest!  We have a good number of competing speakers and the entire club will participate in one form or another.  The fun begins at 9 am Saturday September 13th!  I’m looking forward to the speakers, the fun, the food, and the camaraderie!

Ana Ortega, ACB, ACL

Photo Credit: venspired via Compfight cc

A Rockin' Good Time

Before Saturday's meeting with my favorite Toastmasters club began, we rocked out to some "Jailhouse Rock" while setting up. The theme was "Elvis Presley," so our skilled Toastmaster Jeff warmed everyone up with some tunes. It was a very nice touch. Ana called the meeting to order, and Jeff gave a brief history of The King who passed away 37 years prior.

We had one speaker that morning, Anne, and her speech on Anxiety was exceptional. She provided us with facts on the types of anxiety, how many people are afflicted by it, and some remedies to relieve the symptoms. How appropriate for a Toastmasters meeting! That's what makes Toastmasters unique - it caters to those who are good speakers and want to improve, but also those who dread speaking in front of people to the point of feeling physically ill.  Many in the audience, including myself, know the feeling all too well. Anne, where was this speech sooner? She did an excellent job. Judy gave such a positive, informative evaluation that I, myself, learned a thing or two about how to structure an evaluation.

Table Topics was an interesting one, with our word of the day handed to us by Sandra. Euphemism - a word or phrase used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive. Many of us during Table Topics struggled with shoehorning that word in our response, but everyone did it! Shannon's questions were perfect, not too hard, definitely not too easy! Jennifer, our newest member by the way, won with her speech on her only concert experience, but a memorable one, watching Motley Crue. Kudos, Jennifer, especially because if you only go to one concert, I think you picked a good one! But also, because winning the coveted ribbon is an accomplishment especially after attending only a handful of meetings.

DeAnna Wolf, CC, CL

Photo Credit: Dusty J via Compfight cc

A Truly International Organization!

The phrase “international” is used often by corporations when they have operations outside the United States, even if they have one small office in Canada. However, at Toastmasters International, International truly is worldwide! Toastmasters have clubs all over the world with active clubs in China, India, Australia, and any other country that you can think of.

When you join Toastmasters, you don’t just join your local club, you are automatically a member of a worldwide organization of like-minded individuals with a common goal: to improve communication and leadership skills. As a member you will open your horizons to the area, the district, the nation, and beyond.

During our most recent club meeting, member Cindy Hinkley, who is one of District 25’s leaders, shared with the members how she has met and become friends with Toastmasters from all over the world by attending the Toastmasters International annual convention. Cindy is looking forward to attending the upcoming International Convention being held August 20-23rd in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Now that’s international! For the first time in the 83 year history of annual conventions, Toastmasters is holding the convention outside the United States – and it looks to be really exciting and exotic.

Think about this: in what other organization could you travel to many different countries in the world, and each time be able to attend a function with complete strangers that will welcome you because you are one of them? With Toastmasters you can, and many members do. More about connecting with international clubs can be found on the Toastmasters International website, which is where I found the following line which really resonated with me: Members around the world speak a universal language – the vocabulary of Toastmasters.

Ana Ortega, ACB, ALB

Photo Credit: Hadi Zaher via Compfight cc

"Friends" - August 10th Meeting Recap

We had an exciting meeting Saturday with all the elements of a Golden Gavel meeting except one.

Everyone was enthusiastic in greeting each other and our two guests. We were excited to welcome Rey back. Our colorful table tents made the room more festive as DeAnna, our presiding officer, opened the meeting right on time. Our Toastmaster, Shannon, had the meeting well arranged and with only two agenda changes we were off!

As Marshall set up props for his speech from the Speaking to Inform manual, there was some movement in the audience away from the center of the room. Honest, cross my heart, to those of us in the back, it looked like he might be hitting that long ball right down the center aisle! Instead, Marshall showed us all the components of “How to Hit the Long Ball” without ever actually hitting the ball. His speech was delivered and received with enthusiasm as he entertained and educated us.

When Jeff, our scheduled 2nd speaker, was unexpectedly unable to attend, I was excited to have a speech already prepared with handouts and visual aids ready to go! My speech, “Building a Team” from the Leadership Excellence series, had some good ideas we can all use in our growth as leaders. This speech included what the benefits are and how to select, organize and train a team.

With the theme of “Friends” provided by our Toastmaster, how could Table Topics be anything but interesting? Ana had questions that had us all thinking, “Pick me! Pick me!” I enjoyed hearing about how Judy, Aparna and Cindy make, keep and value friendships.

Thomas and Jodie provided evaluations that were both supportive and helpful with relevant and constructive suggestions for Marshall and me.

We began our meeting wrap up with positive comments from our guests Megan and Jessie. Our short business meeting included the information that our club contest is scheduled for September 13th with Anne Brown as our Contest Chair. Contestants and team helpers were encouraged to volunteer. And, at last, ribbons were awarded for the Best Speaker - Marshall, Evaluator - Jodie, and Table Topics - Judy!

You might wonder with such an outstanding meeting what element was missing from a Golden Gavel meeting. We were two members short of the 15 necessary. Kudos to DeAnna for reminding us to check!

Sandra Price, DTM

Photo Credit: SoulSense [Oscar Ordenes] via Compfight cc

Condiments, Condiments, Condiments!

The theme for this past Saturday's meeting was... Condiments!  A very fitting theme since we also had our annual Top of Texas barbecue that day.  Sandra, the meeting's Toastmaster, fulfilled her Facebook promise to let us know how condiments apply to speeches.  She explained that condiments are a type of seasoning and, as they make our food colorful and exciting, they also "add flavor" to our speeches.

DeAnna gave her first speech from the Special Occasion Speeches manual, "The Lady of the Hour."  She toasted Sandra's ability to create a meeting out of nothing while they lounged on a yacht before returning home on a super sonic jet.  Ken gave his seventh speech titled "The Deficit We Have in Our Understanding of the Federal Deficit."  A tongue twisting title for a speech that explained the federal deficit to fellow Toastmasters in layman's terms.  I was awed to hear it would take 32 years to count to one billion and 55,696 years to count to 17 trillion, the amount of the federal deficit.

After the morning meeting, we got together for the annual Top of Texas barbecue.  We mingled, ate some great food topped with condiments, and had an all around wonderful time.  Check out more pictures from the barbecue on our Facebook page!

Submitted by Lina Choun

All or Nothing

The theme was All or Nothing for the July 27, 2014 Top of Texas Toastmaster Club meeting, and it fit the day very well. Ana Ortega was our Toastmaster and Jeff Wright called our meeting to order as the presiding officer. Recent new member Bobby Russell who was a little under the weather graciously introduced “Eclipse” as the word of the day, acted as Grammarian, and also was the team’s Timer.

Ken Dorsey and Jeff Wright both provided speeches while Table Topics was lively with an All or Nothing twist. Ken’s sixth speech met the requirement for Vocal Variety and was entitled “Life Thru the Eyes of a Child”. Ken described colorful encounters he had with his boys when they were younger and how sometimes what they are thinking is anything but what you expected.

Jeff Wright’s speech was an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet Act II Scene II. With this speech, Jeff completed his Advanced Communicator Bronze Certification. Way to go Jeff! DeAnna Wolf and Apama Valluri provided Evaluations. DeAnna shared the importance of protecting the lectern space and never leaving it unoccupied. A valuable tidbit for everyone! 

Ana wrapped things up as JokeMaster and shared several clever and funny anecdotes that had everyone amused. Great meeting!

Submitted by Ken Dorsey











Photo Credits: vramak via Compfight cc and SFPrice

Do-It-Yourself

Oh what a meeting this was this morning (July 19th)! First, let me start off by saying that one of our former members/location setup/location liaison/gracious hostess Faith Pinto stopped by and stayed for a meeting!  For those of our members who do not know, Faith and her husband Dan run the church where our meeting is located, and she has been busy working and going to school, so we wished her luck while she pursued her desire to care for others. Good news, she is now officially a Registered Nurse, and it was such a breath of fresh air to see her again.

Our meeting was excellent! I was the Presiding Officer and Toastmaster, so I noted that it is an interesting duty to pass the lectern over to oneself. I picked out a fun theme, Do-It-Yourself-Projects, and if anyone knows DeAnna, they know that when I pick a theme, there is always a twist, this time mine being “When Do-It-Yourself Projects Go Wrong.” I showed everyone wonderful pictures of what a project is supposed to look like, and the disasters that ensued when people attempt them themselves. My favorite disaster was someone’s front porch looking like a murder scene after a red food coloring fiasco.

Shannon Watenpaugh, as usual, delivered a beautiful story from the Storytelling Manual of how the Sparkling Fire Owl got its name. Shannon was timid, Shannon was brave, Shannon was soft-spoken, Shannon was intimidating. Shannon also did not use notes. Shannon, how come you’re not a writer? How come you’re not an actress?

Table Topics was great. The winner, Judy Perez, won with a story of how after looking at a DIY show once on building a bench led to her, from her own imagination and common sense, to create a bench and update a chair. We can learn so much about our fellow Toastmasters just from Table Topics.

I had a great time, the members and two guests had a great time, and I think we all were entertained by everyone’s participation. A guest comment was, “This meeting was a lot more fun and jocular than I expected!”

I’ll see you all next week!
DeAnna

Photo Credit: Victor W. via Compfight cc

Meeting recap for 7/12/14 - Summer Blockbusters

Top of Texas was its usually lively and inviting meeting on July 12th. Even with only eight members and one visitor we were able to keep up the energy of a full house meeting. The theme of the day was Summer Blockbuster Movies. As the Toastmaster for the day I threw in a few tidbits on interesting movies that were in the theater and how much money some of these popular movies grossed. 

Only two changes were made on the agenda and we jumped right into the meeting. Aparna guided the general evaluation team through the necessary roles. The word of the day, truculent (aggressive / savage) was chosen by Shannon. It was used 5X during the meeting. Interesting phrases that were noted were “freshly squeezed” and “shining my lights”. There were four table topic participants, Shannon, Aparna and new members Jonathan and Bobby. Aparna took home the best table topic ribbon for the day. 

Bobby, braved the waters of being the timer for the first time. He did a great job of juggling the timing jobs of the table topics, a speaker with a Q & A session, an evaluation and even handing over the duties so he could jump in to participate in table topics himself. Bobby says he was not nervous while being the timer and he asked a few clarifying questions to help him understand for the next time. 

The speaker of the day was Jeff Wright. Jeff spoke from the Speaking to Inform advanced manual and completed project #4, Fact Finding Report. This was a 5 to 7 minute speech with a 2 to 3 minute Q&A session. His speech title was “Raw Milk, It Does a Body Good”. Jeff gave information on the differences between pasteurized and raw milk and gave two sources to find raw milk available commercially. Jeff was quick on his feet when answering questions from the audience and he did a wonderful job speaking to inform. 

Regina gave Jeff’s evaluation. She found Jeff’s speech informative, well prepared and complemented his dialog with the audience over the Q & A session. The only suggestion was to use visual aids when speaking to inform in the future. Overall Regina said that the speech was timely and well delivered. 

I served as the listener and quizzed the audience on detailed questions of the meeting. Lina Choun, our presiding officer, asked visitor Lucia R. for her guest comments. Lucia said she liked the group and would like to be a part of it again. New member in TOT? I believe Lucia will be back for more. 

It was discussed that the TOT annual barbeque will take place on August 2. Brisket, black bean soup and veggie burgers will be served. All members are welcomed to bring a side dish. Invitations and a list of sides will go out soon. 

Submitted By
Judy Pérez, DTM

Summer Solstice - June 21st Meeting Review

The sky may have been cloudy outside but inside our Saturday morning Top of Texas meeting the sun was shining with the Summer Solstice theme. Out toastmaster DeAnna gave us her long list of to-dos for the longest day of the year. I'd be interested to know how many items she managed to complete!

During out Table Topics we found out that a few of our members were spending their entire day working on Toastmasters business. Now that's dedication!  I'm sure whatever they worked on will benefit many clubs and their members.

We also had two speeches. The first speaker, Ken, is on his one-speech-a-week streak and gave his fourth speech titled "Kanban Meets The Family." Kanban is a methodology by which tasks are listed on a signboard, and we learned how the concept was developed by Toyota. Ken told us how the concept of Kanban could be utilized at home to keep all household chores prioritized and completed.

Our second speaker, Jeff, completed another project from the Interpretive Reading manual: The Monologue.  I have to say that Jeff's speech (or one-man act) was funny, entertaining, and one of my favorite of Jeff's speeches. He had the audience laughing and I think that there is a future for Jeff in theatre!  Great flair Jeff!

Last but not least DeAnna and Sandra announced that Top of Texas Toastmasters has earned the distinction of being a President's Distinguished Club for 2013 - 2014!  Our club earned *all ten* goals for the Toastmaster year! Our club is awesome and no doubt will have another great year coming soon.

Ana Ortega, ACB, ALB

Meeting Recap from June 14 - Mystery

Saturday's Top of Texas Toastmasters meeting on Saturday can only be best described by the theme. "Mystery."  

Regina Clay led the meeting with her interesting take on picking the theme, noting that we were all as a meeting going to improvise because... "That's the mystery!"  

Ken Dorsey continued his run of consecutive weeks doing speeches, doing his third speech. For a new member, he is showing us all up! Actually, he is doing an excellent job, continuing his excellence with the speech of the hour, "What's Next?" He described how predictions in the 1970s and 1990s of life today are actually coming true, and what we can expect next from those predictions. Truly, the possibilities are endless. It was such a befitting speech given the theme.

Ana Ortega led the Table Topics with interesting and fun questions, such as "How do you get your mystery fix?" "What's the biggest mystery to you?" "Do you believe in extra-terrestrial life?" and the biggest one answered by the winning response (Marshall Lehr), "What is the meaning of life?"

It was a very entertaining meeting, everyone had a chance to speak, and afterwards we handed out the Education Award to Lina Choun for reaching the halfway mark to her Competent Communicator after completing five speeches. Here's to five more Lina!

DeAnna Wolf, CC

Photo Credit: i k o via Compfight cc