Club Contest

Today was a special meeting: the club Table Topics and International Speech Contests to determine the speaking champions who will represent our club at the Area contest - and beyond. We had 18 members and eight guests, including Barbara Sadler from Bayview Toastmasters.

The meeting got off to a rousing start with Glenn Tolle serving as acting Sergeant at Arms (for the unfortunately ill Brian Anderson) as well as his usual role as El Presidente. Member Mary Lineberger brought a gaggle of guests from MIIS, who all seemed to enjoy the meeting.

The Table Topics contest began with Chief Judge Carl Thormeyer explaining the rules for the contest and Fred Sadler taking the lectern as Contest Toastmaster. His question about finding the blessing in a seemingly tragic event challenged each contestant's impromptu speaking skills. Glenn Woodson spoke about how his fear of raising $20,000 caused him to go to college instead to study engineering, a path that eventually led him to the Army National Guard and most important, meeting his lovely wife Karen. Robin Walker then spoke of how a college breakup led to more insight into himself. Angi Anderson rounded out the contestants by describing how the difficulties of growing up in a military family prepared her for life being married to a Marine. Angi was voted the club winner for Table Topics and will advance to the Area contest. Glenn was runner-up, and will compete in the Area contest if Angi is unable to.

The International Speech Contest featured three of our club's best speakers. Angi was a contestant in this contest as well, speaking about the voices in our heads that can build us up or tear us down, and how we can learn to silence the "bad" voices and bring out the affirming ones. Glenn Tolle' spoke of learning to conquer one's fears through facing the dreaded dental visit. Glenn's imitation of the sounds of the drill were amazing, and brought the experience home to the audience in a visceral way. Fred Sadler also spoke of conquering the fear of public speaking by ... speaking in public - and was inspirational in relating how Toastmasters is such an aid in overcoming that. When the dust settled, Fred was voted the club champion, with Angi the runner-up. The next step for Fred is the Area contest - and after that, the Division, District, Regional, and ultimately the World Championship of Public Speaking!

Congratulations to Angi and Fred for such an outstanding job and for being such exemplar toastmasters! We look forward to hearing you compete at the next levels! Let's all turn out to support them at the Area contest on March 24th!

The club contest was a huge success, thanks to the many members who helped put it on. Fred Sadler was the Toastmaster for the Table Topics Contest and Robin Walker for the International Speech Contest - your work behind the scenes in organizing the events made them the successes they were. Yours truly was the chief vote counter. Thanks to Carl Thormeyer who served as Chief Judge for both contests and kept us on the straight path in conducting them (as well as verifying the vote counts for accuracy). Thanks to Mary Lineberger and Eric Timmerman who served as exemplary timers. Finally, thanks to all the members of the club who attended to support their fellow members as contestants and to cheer them on in future contests.

This was another outstanding meeting, continuing our tradition of excellence in the club! I was proud to have all the guests observe the meeting, and their responses indicated that they too were quite impressed with what they saw, with several indicating interest in becoming members.