We had another great meeting Friday (the 27th) of October with 21 members and 5 guests present, thereby continuing our recent series of highly attended meetings. This is the best such stretch since Fall 1978! Next week we will vote on our 20th new member since July 1st - this achievement is virtually unheard of in any Toastmasters club anywhere!
Carl Thormeyer led us through a well-run meeting featuring three icebreakers… Bill Harley, Dave Mazur and Shenequa Mitchell all delivered outstanding speeches. Shenequa won “Best Speaker”, while Dave was “Most Improved”. New member Elizabeth Mitchell won “Best Table Topics” over two other new members, while General Evaluator (GE) Arnie Buss awarded the “Best Evaluator” trophy to our president Brendan Epps. Arnie commented as GE that Carl had effectively conducted a clinic in “how to be Toastmaster”, but actually Arnie conducted his own clinic in “how to be a General Evaluator”, even to the point of sending detailed instructions to the evaluators ahead of time! Additionally, several people got credit for performing various roles in the new Competent Leader manual.
The nominating committee, headed by Arnie Buss, is looking for members willing to serve as an officer during the next term, Jan-June 2007. If no-one from the committee has contacted you and you would like to run for one of the offices, please contact Arnie soonest. The nominating committee will report out on November 3rd with the election at the following meeting on Nov. 17th. Anyone may run for office from the floor on the 17th; you don’t have to be nominated by the nominating committee. The only qualification is that you are willing to serve a full six-month term if elected.
Reminder: No meeting on 10 and 24 November due to holidays. Last meeting before the end of 2006 will be our annual fun-filled holiday gift exchange meeting on 15 December. Meetings will then resume the first Friday in January, when the newly elected officers will be installed.
Reminder: Treasurer Fred Sadler will be hosting a “pot-luck” club social to be held at his house in Carmel on Sunday
afternoon November 12th. He has provided details, so put the date aside now!
And one last thing…. Sign up now at a reduced price for the District 4 Fall Conference in Milpitas on Saturday November 18th! Our very own Glenn Tolle will represent Division A in the Humorous Speech Contest, having won the Club, Area, and Division contests previously. Details at www.d4tm.org.
For better listening, thinking and speaking,
- Carl
Friday, October 27, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Politics....As Usual?
Today was such a fantastic meeting on so many levels! Before the meeting, we had the special treat of finding new tables and chairs in the meeting room, courtesy of the NSA Department. I'm sure they did it just for our club!
We had 21 members and 7 guests, continuing the recent tradition of great attendance. The meeting started on-time, and begin with voting in and inducting our newest member, Pete Blouin, who jumped right in as vote counter.
Robin Walker as Toastmaster of the Day ran the meeting like a well-oiled (non-political) machine. The theme was "Political Campaigning," a very timely one with elections just around the corner. The energy was raised even higher with Robin's Clark Kent impression - except instead of a big red S he sported a campaign tee shirt under his shirt & tie!
Wil Wooton gave an inspiring speech #5 to rouse interest in the club's mentoring program, and spoke persuasively about its benefits. The high point of course being the Harry Potter/Albus Dumbledore graphics! This speech embodied all that Toastmasters and our club is about!
Presenting her Icebreaker speech, Erika Hunsicker spoke about growing up, farms in Germany, bilingual pigs and her work in the Peace Corps in a village in Kyrgyzstan.
Alec Metz gave another impassioned speech #4 about the meaning of being male in today's world, another educational and inspiring moment in our club! And Brian Anderson, gave an even more energetic and impassioned evaluation!
- Arnie
We had 21 members and 7 guests, continuing the recent tradition of great attendance. The meeting started on-time, and begin with voting in and inducting our newest member, Pete Blouin, who jumped right in as vote counter.
Robin Walker as Toastmaster of the Day ran the meeting like a well-oiled (non-political) machine. The theme was "Political Campaigning," a very timely one with elections just around the corner. The energy was raised even higher with Robin's Clark Kent impression - except instead of a big red S he sported a campaign tee shirt under his shirt & tie!
Wil Wooton gave an inspiring speech #5 to rouse interest in the club's mentoring program, and spoke persuasively about its benefits. The high point of course being the Harry Potter/Albus Dumbledore graphics! This speech embodied all that Toastmasters and our club is about!
Presenting her Icebreaker speech, Erika Hunsicker spoke about growing up, farms in Germany, bilingual pigs and her work in the Peace Corps in a village in Kyrgyzstan.
Alec Metz gave another impassioned speech #4 about the meaning of being male in today's world, another educational and inspiring moment in our club! And Brian Anderson, gave an even more energetic and impassioned evaluation!
- Arnie
Sunday, October 15, 2006
A More Serious Theme
Friday's meeting was another excellent one, ably chaired by Linda Larson. In keeping with October being National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Linda chose violence against women as the theme of the meeting. This of course is a serious issue, and one that affects nearly everyone, men as well as women, as Linda pointed out. Thanks to Linda for raising our awareness of this painful and important contemporary problem.
It was another well-attended meeting, with 21 members and 9 guests! We welcomed and inducted our newest member, Elizabeth Mitchell, who promptly showed her skills by winning best Table Topics speaker.
We were treated to two more outstanding prepared speeches. Robin Walker re-gave his Icebreaker speech to introduce himself to our club (he had originally given it to his former club in Washington D.C.). Lars Olberg gave a #4 speech about the challenges of finding appropriate words, and walked away with both Best Speaker as well as Most Improved Speaker. Fantastic job everyone!
We had a special guest, Joanne Garden from TGIF Toastmasters, who graciously agreed to be "Ah Counter" for the meeting, and she gave a virtual clinic on ho to perform that function. Her ringing of the bell was particularly effective in being not overly loud, nor too timid. She gave a great explanation of why learning to remove these verbal "fillers" from our language is so important. Thanks so much Joanne!
As you can see by the following post, Fumie Nakamura, a former member, sent an update on her activities and some pictures of the Sudan where she is working for the United Nations. We miss her of course, and are thrilled that she is carrying out such important work.
-Arnie
It was another well-attended meeting, with 21 members and 9 guests! We welcomed and inducted our newest member, Elizabeth Mitchell, who promptly showed her skills by winning best Table Topics speaker.
We were treated to two more outstanding prepared speeches. Robin Walker re-gave his Icebreaker speech to introduce himself to our club (he had originally given it to his former club in Washington D.C.). Lars Olberg gave a #4 speech about the challenges of finding appropriate words, and walked away with both Best Speaker as well as Most Improved Speaker. Fantastic job everyone!
We had a special guest, Joanne Garden from TGIF Toastmasters, who graciously agreed to be "Ah Counter" for the meeting, and she gave a virtual clinic on ho to perform that function. Her ringing of the bell was particularly effective in being not overly loud, nor too timid. She gave a great explanation of why learning to remove these verbal "fillers" from our language is so important. Thanks so much Joanne!
As you can see by the following post, Fumie Nakamura, a former member, sent an update on her activities and some pictures of the Sudan where she is working for the United Nations. We miss her of course, and are thrilled that she is carrying out such important work.
-Arnie
Greeting from Sudan!
The following is from an e-mail received from Fumie:
Hope all of you are doing well. After I finished my assignment at UNDP in Geneva in June, I moved to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan at the beginning of July.
Recently I organized a strategic planning workshop for our UN DDR unit. I am attaching some photos from the pyramid trip (in northern Sudan).
Please say hello to everyone at TM. Due to the super slow email, I cannot get everyone's email addresses.
-Fumie
Note: More of Fumie's pictures can be viewed here.
Hope all of you are doing well. After I finished my assignment at UNDP in Geneva in June, I moved to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan at the beginning of July. Recently I organized a strategic planning workshop for our UN DDR unit. I am attaching some photos from the pyramid trip (in northern Sudan).
Please say hello to everyone at TM. Due to the super slow email, I cannot get everyone's email addresses.
-Fumie
Note: More of Fumie's pictures can be viewed here.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Glenn Tolle Wins Division Humorous Speech Contest!
Fellow Toastmasters,
This is the second in the new series of meeting wrap-ups for NPS Toastmasters, and has been approved by the club’s Executive Committee.
Breaking news…. Our very own Glenn Tolle once again emerged as a humorous speech contest winner - this time as the Division A champ with his victory this past Saturday October 8th in Aptos! Next level is the District 4 contest in Milpitas on November 18th… where Glenn will compete with the winners of the other seven Divisions in District 4. (District 4 consists of over 200 Toastmasters clubs from San Francisco south through Monterey County.)
We had another great meeting this past Friday 7 October with 19 members and 10 guests present. Once again, we had to bring in chairs from the next room! Four of those 19 members were voted in and inducted at the beginning of the meeting - welcome aboard to Mary Ann Kleine, Dave Mazur, Ned Powley, and Glenn Woodson! Mary Ann is from the outside community, the other three are associated with the Naval Postgraduate School. This brings our total of new members since 1 July 2006 to 17, with at least one more being voted on this coming Friday.
Friday’s meeting was a real treat - Toastmaster Mary Lineberger and GE Robin Walker shook things up by restructuring the normal order of participants and bringing some fresh thinking into our programming! Speakers were first, then Table Topics, and then evaluators. That gave the evaluators extra time to prepare contest-quality evaluations, which is what Robin as GE expected them to do. The speakers were an “all-Anderson” team, with Angi giving a very unique icebreaker and Brian delivering his #4 speech. Angi beat out her husband as “Best Speaker”, while Brian received “Most Improved”. Warner Howser was “Best Table Topics”, while President Brendan Epps took “Best Evaluator”. Congratulations to all!
Treasurer Fred Sadler announced a “pot-luck” club social to be held at his house in Carmel on Sunday afternoon November 12th. He’s providing details, but put the date aside now!
For better listening, thinking and speaking,
- Carl
This is the second in the new series of meeting wrap-ups for NPS Toastmasters, and has been approved by the club’s Executive Committee.
Breaking news…. Our very own Glenn Tolle once again emerged as a humorous speech contest winner - this time as the Division A champ with his victory this past Saturday October 8th in Aptos! Next level is the District 4 contest in Milpitas on November 18th… where Glenn will compete with the winners of the other seven Divisions in District 4. (District 4 consists of over 200 Toastmasters clubs from San Francisco south through Monterey County.)
We had another great meeting this past Friday 7 October with 19 members and 10 guests present. Once again, we had to bring in chairs from the next room! Four of those 19 members were voted in and inducted at the beginning of the meeting - welcome aboard to Mary Ann Kleine, Dave Mazur, Ned Powley, and Glenn Woodson! Mary Ann is from the outside community, the other three are associated with the Naval Postgraduate School. This brings our total of new members since 1 July 2006 to 17, with at least one more being voted on this coming Friday.
Friday’s meeting was a real treat - Toastmaster Mary Lineberger and GE Robin Walker shook things up by restructuring the normal order of participants and bringing some fresh thinking into our programming! Speakers were first, then Table Topics, and then evaluators. That gave the evaluators extra time to prepare contest-quality evaluations, which is what Robin as GE expected them to do. The speakers were an “all-Anderson” team, with Angi giving a very unique icebreaker and Brian delivering his #4 speech. Angi beat out her husband as “Best Speaker”, while Brian received “Most Improved”. Warner Howser was “Best Table Topics”, while President Brendan Epps took “Best Evaluator”. Congratulations to all!
Treasurer Fred Sadler announced a “pot-luck” club social to be held at his house in Carmel on Sunday afternoon November 12th. He’s providing details, but put the date aside now!
For better listening, thinking and speaking,
- Carl
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Attendance Records Broken at 29 Sept Meeting!
What a terrific meeting we had this past Friday September 29th! The electricity and energy in the room kept going for nearly an hour after the formal adjournment! Here are some highlights:
Our September 29th meeting set two all-time records for a regular weekly meeting of our club
Welcome to our newest member, Erika Hunsicker, from MIIS. Erika had been a guest of Lars Olberg, also of MIIS. Erika is our 13th (count ‘em!) new member since July 1st. What a great
group of folks to all start out together in the Toastmasters program.
Of our 15 guests this week, three submitted membership applications on the spot! We’ll tell you who they are after we vote them into membership next week.
We had two outstanding speeches:
Fred and Linda are neck-and-neck in the race to see who will be next to finish the basic manual and achieve “Competent Communicator (CC)”. Any bets?
Congratulations to Glenn Tolle (Best Evaluator) and to Robin Walker (Best Table Topics). Robin also ran a mean “Ah-Bell”…. No slack for anyone!
It was good to see Charlie Eskridge back after many months. He was immediately called upon as a Table Topics speaker by another of our energetic new members, Bill Harley (as Table Topics Master)! (No “slack”, Charlie!)
And, believe it or not, the meeting started and ended on time (not counting guest comments). Good work, Warner (as TM) and Brendan (as President). And thanks, Linda, for that terrific
and insightful general evaluation!
Plan NOW to attend the Division A Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest at the Aptos Academy in Aptos on Saturday afternoon October 7th. Registration starts at 12:30PM.
Our own Glenn Tolle, NPS Club and Area A-1 humorous speech contest winner, will be competing for the right to move on to the District 4 contest in Milpitas on November 18th. See Area Governor Arnie Buss for a flyer with directions.
Our September 29th meeting set two all-time records for a regular weekly meeting of our club
- Most guests (15), and
- Largest attendance ever (35).
Welcome to our newest member, Erika Hunsicker, from MIIS. Erika had been a guest of Lars Olberg, also of MIIS. Erika is our 13th (count ‘em!) new member since July 1st. What a great
group of folks to all start out together in the Toastmasters program.
Of our 15 guests this week, three submitted membership applications on the spot! We’ll tell you who they are after we vote them into membership next week.
We had two outstanding speeches:
- Lars Olberg (#3) dazzled us with an absolutely hilarious PowerPoint presentation using the “smart-screen” about being a world-wide traveler. (I particularly liked his map of the world!) He won “Most Improved” for his effort.
- Fred Sadler (#7), in "period" costume, explained to us how George Washington was NOT the first President of the United States - he was the 8th! (Huh?!?!? Actually, there were seven previous Presidents under the Articles of Confederation. And, we found that we were woefully ignorant about our country’searly history!) Thanks, Fred - and congratulations on being voted “Best Speaker”.
Fred and Linda are neck-and-neck in the race to see who will be next to finish the basic manual and achieve “Competent Communicator (CC)”. Any bets?
Congratulations to Glenn Tolle (Best Evaluator) and to Robin Walker (Best Table Topics). Robin also ran a mean “Ah-Bell”…. No slack for anyone!
It was good to see Charlie Eskridge back after many months. He was immediately called upon as a Table Topics speaker by another of our energetic new members, Bill Harley (as Table Topics Master)! (No “slack”, Charlie!)
And, believe it or not, the meeting started and ended on time (not counting guest comments). Good work, Warner (as TM) and Brendan (as President). And thanks, Linda, for that terrific
and insightful general evaluation!
Plan NOW to attend the Division A Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest at the Aptos Academy in Aptos on Saturday afternoon October 7th. Registration starts at 12:30PM.
Our own Glenn Tolle, NPS Club and Area A-1 humorous speech contest winner, will be competing for the right to move on to the District 4 contest in Milpitas on November 18th. See Area Governor Arnie Buss for a flyer with directions.
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