A Smedley Medley

It's the last Saturday of April, the sun is shining in a bucolic part of the world - where else would you find members of NPS Toastmasters but at our monthly Smedley Saturday. And today was no exception! We celebrated a veritable medley of speeches, ranging from North Korea to Boston, from monthly phone calls to parents in China to a Monterey organization that promotes international peace, from the practical decisions about growth in our own community to the inner depths of the spirit experienced through yoga. Even more impressive was the fact that two die-hard Red Sox fans (Peter and Carl) chose to forgo watching the game to attend - now that's dedication!

Continuing the tradition of exciting, fun-filled meetings, we were ably led by Angi and Brian ("Team Anderson") with Brian performing the role of TMoD. The first "inning" consisted of Scott presenting an objective case for North Korea's involvement in international drug trade, followed by Shahid informing us of Global Majority, an international organization promoting world peace that started here in Monterey. Batting "cleanup" in this inning was our guest, Ying Shiroma from Bayview Toastmasters, who gave an entertaining speech about her monthly call to her parents in China. The evaluators were, respectively, Carl for Scott, Angi for Shahid, and Arnie for Ying. Maybe it was the fact that it was Saturday, but none of the speakers or the evaluators managed to come in within their time limits.

We did better time-wise after the "seventh inning stretch." Cathy led off by a humorous account of her encounter with Yoga, Pete continued with a hilarious speech about the tribulations, and occasional joys, of a Red Sox fan. Glenn Woodson finished with a persuasive #9 speech urging us all to become informed voters in the upcoming election over the Monterey General Plan. The evaluators were Arnie for Cathy, Scott for Peter, and Glenn Tolle for Glenn Woodson. Peter won best speaker and Arnie best evaluator.

Thanks to our timer for the meeting, Karen Woodson - and thanks also to Glenn Woodson for setting up the video taping on his sturdy tripod!

So it was indeed a Smedley medley, in the great evolving tradition of Smedley Saturday!

Below are some pictures and a video from the meeting.

Scott presents a briefing on North Korea



Carl evaluates Scott Ceremuga



Arnie Evaluates Ying



Pete extols the Boston Red Sox in "Bostonian"





Cathy Lee confronts Yoga

Glenn Tolle achieves Competent Communicator!

With Glenn's terrific #10 speech, NPS TM has again reached the pinnacle of Toastmasterism by achieving all 10 goals as a President's Distinguished Club for 2006-07. Glenn's speech, entitled "Roads", discussed the choices he had made through life and how those choices made him a better person - and how we could "grow" in the same manner. And yes, our newest Competent Communicator won "Best Speaker"!

Luke Lazzari gave a terrific #3 speech describing and evaluating key personnel decisions that Admiral Chester Nimitz made in the Pacific theatre during World War II. Luke was voted "Most Improved". Best evaluator was Brian Anderson evaluating Luke's speech.

(Ed. note: Luke's speech mentioned ADM Halsey, who ADM Nimitz supported in the Pacific theatre in spite of insisting that the fleet perform an underway replenishment (UNREP) in the path of a typhoon. This typhoon ended up sinking three of four destroyers in a picket line with over 800 men lost. The fourth destroyer, the USS Buchanan, included a resident sailor by the name of (our very own) Joe Tacker! Joe has given several speeches about this incident in his life and our country's history.)

Leading the charge as Toastmaster in a well-structured and well-executed meeting was recently anointed Competent Communicator Scott Ceremuga. His theme? "Dreams, Desires and Wishes". Eric Timmerman led us in Table Topics - out of five participants, one of our newest members Scott Wilbur took away the trophy for the second week in a row.

Fourteen members and five guests enjoyed this well-run meeting. Next up: Smedley Saturday tomorrow April 28th from 2-4PM at the La Mesa Community Center.

Another "squared away" meeting...

Nineteen members and four guests became 20 members and 3 guests as Dave Schulz was elected into membership today. Welcome, Dave! (That's 28 new members and one reinstatement since last July 1st.)

Brian Anderson as Toastmaster led another outstanding meeting in true Marine-squared-away fashion, which featured three speakers in yet another successful shakeup of the normal agenda. Speakers went first, followed by Table Topics, followed by the speech evaluators. The theme was "April 20th", which has different meanings to different people.

Shahid Abrar ul Hassan gave his #3 speech entitled "Be Concerned", where he objectively made the case that we all live on the same planet and need to learn to get along. Angi Anderson's well-presented speech on "Depression " (without notes and without lectern) won Best Speaker, while Pete Blouin won Most Improved with his #5 speech describing poker-playing body language.

Shenequa Mitchell was awarded Best Evaluator for her critique of Pete's speech by first-time General Evaluator Eric Timmerman. Best Table Topics went to new member Scott Wilbur. Third-time guest Leena Oh was brave enough to participate in Table Topics as well! Thanks, Leena, and congratulations on your participation.

NEXT UP: Regular meeting of 27 April will feature Scott Ceremuga as TMoD and Glenn Tolle with his #10 speech. Plan now to attend!

Saturday Afternoon 28 April: Smedley Saturday at La Mesa Community Center from 2PM -4PM.

NPS TM achieves "President's Distinguished" Once Again !

Using the live Internet capability we have in our regular meeting room, VPE Robin Walker entered into the TI WHQ database the recent Competent Leader manual completions for Fred Sadler and Carl Thormeyer after Friday's meeting. Fred and Carl are the first to finish this new manual and achieve the new CL award. Congratulations!

With these accomplishments, NPS Toastmasters has achieved 9 of 10 goals for the 2006-07 Toastmaster year, and is again a President's Distinguished Club! We have now achieved this level of club excellence in five of the past six years (we were "Select Distinguished" in 2005-06 with seven goals). We will make it unanimous this year by achieving Goal #10 within the next month.

And, as Arnie mentioned in an earlier blog entry, our club received more recognition awards at the Division A contest yesterday than any of the other clubs in the Division!

Flash from Salinas: Angi Wins Table Topics!

I'm just back from the Division A contest in Salinas, and it was a wonderful one! Being at the Agricultural Conference Center brought back memories of last fall's Areas humorous and evaluation contest.

The highlight of course was Angi Anderson winning the Table Topics contest - so she will represent Division a at the District Contest on May 18. The question was one of the toughest I have heard at a contest - "How do you justify your existence?" All four contestants gave outstanding responses, and Angi's was more outstanding than the others - Congratulations Angi!!

Here is Angi receiving her award from District 4 Representative, our own Carl Thormeyer:















More photos from the contest can be viewed here.

The other highlight was our District Governor Ken Cawley giving out special awards to clubs who have met various goals in the DCP. Our president, Glenn Tolle (who also served as the chief judge for the International Speech Contest) got his exercise in from all the times he was called for yet another award to NPS.

It was a terrific event - what better way to spend a rainy day than at a Toastmasters contest - especially if our contestant won!

As Luck would have it...

First-time Toastmaster of the Day (TMoD) Luke Lazzari wowed us all with his smooth running of our Friday-the-13th meeting using a theme of "luck". With only two scheduled speakers, Luke continued the format of last week with speakers/evaluators first and table topics second. This permitted no fewer than seven (7; count 'em!) table topics participants, with Brian Anderson's smooth presentation coming away as the winner.

Our resident Mongolian Mashbat Otgonbayer presented his #3 speech which expounded on the importance and advantages of traveling to different lands. And Area Governor Arnie Buss gave a short-notice but hilariously funny "hip pocket" #5 speech on body language, with a title of "Breaking Through the Fourth Wall". Arnie, already an ATM-S, is working on his second CC award and is halfway there! Arnie won Best Speaker while Mash was Most Improved. Fred Sadler won Best Evaluator, in part for pointing out how Arnie was setting the example for the rest of the club (second CC, hip pocket speech, and various speech techniques).

Welcome to our newest member, Scott Wilbur! Once we voted him in, Scott was one of 17 members and 4 guests who thoroughly enjoyed this meeting.

NEXT UP: 20 April regular meeting. Details soon!

28 April: Smedley Saturday. Sign up now for a speaking slot!

A "Mastery" of a Meeting - and, a new CC !

Our newest "Competent Communicator" (CC; formerly CTM) Scott Ceremuga showed his public speaking mastery by completing his #10 speech in the Communication and Leadership Manual , as President Glenn Tolle led the April 6th meeting with his theme of "Mastery". Scott used the occasion to do a "dry run" of the speech he hopes to present at the upcoming Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) graduation, and won "Best Speaker" in the process! Scott is in competition with several other graduating MIIS students for the coveted assignment of commencement speaker. Good luck Scott, and congratulations!

Glenn Woodson jumped in as a speaker following a last-minute cancellation, and presented his #5 speech describing his experience with the sport of rowing. His evaluator, Eric Timmerman, came away with the "Best Evaluator" award.

In a variation of the normal schedule of events, Table Topics followed (rather than preceded) the speeches. TT Master Pete Blouin called on six (!) members to answer questions centering on the word "Master". They were:
* Master of Puppets: Angi Anderson
* Blaster Master: Robin Walker
* Master Card: Warner Howser
* Master of Ceremonies: Fred Sadler
* Masters of the Universe: Brian Anderson
* Jedi Master: Luke "Skywalker" Lazzari (he won "Most Improved")

Karen Woodson served as Grammarian, Shahid Abrar ul-Hassan raised a lot of money as "Ah" Counter, while Angi Anderson did a great job as a first time General Evaluator. We had a good crowd with 18 members and two new guests.

NEXT UP: 13 April meeting - see emails from Toastmaster Luke Lazzari.

14 APRIL: Division A Contest, 12:30PM, Agricultural Conference Center, 1432 Abbott Street, Salinas. Cost: $5.00. Come and support our Table Topics contestant, Angi Anderson!

28 APRIL: Smedley Saturday. See Robin to sign up for a speaking slot.

Angi Wins Area A-1 Table Topics Contest!

Congratulations to our very own Angi Anderson, who walked away with the 1st place trophy in the Area A-1 Table Topics Contest on Saturday. The competition was tough and against some very seasoned Toastmasters, but she prevailed with a very uplifting answer to an extremely tough question. Second place went to long-term Toastmaster Mary Jeanne Vincent, representing Monterey TM #934.

Fred Sadler also did himself proud with his International Speech Contest entry about how to overcome his fear of public speaking. It was the best speech Fred ever gave, but alas, he was up against some very tough competition. Winner was John Lente from Bayview Toastmasters, who spoke of his experiences in Iraq. Second was Barry Kilzer of TGIF Club, with his "southern preacher" parody on the TM Communications and Leadership manual.

Area Governor Arnie Buss also presented the award for "Area A-1 Toastmaster of the Year" to a very deserving Rachelle Onishi of Bayview.

NPS TM members Glenn Tolle and Carl Thormeyer served as International Speech Contest Toastmaster and Chief Judge, respectively.

NEXT: Division A Contest at 1PM Saturday 14 April in Salinas. Details to follow.

April Fools Theme at 30 March Meeting

Twenty members and two guests enjoyed another exciting meeting with VPE Robin Walker at the helm, with his theme of "April Fools" . With "chicanery" (trickery; deception) as the Word of the Day, how could we miss?!?!

Robin started out by announcing speeches by (to their surprise) Glenn Tolle, Angi Anderson and Elizabeth Mitchell. APRIL FOOL! Actually, Elizabeth was Table Topics Master, with Brian Anderson  as Best Table Topics for their answers on April Fools' questions.

New member Ryan Squires geve his Icebreaker and described his Army career. Eric Timmerman's #2 speech described his love for golf, where his two most important words are "mulligan" and "fore" (not necessarily in that order)! That got him "Best Speaker". Mashbat Otgonbayer, our international student from Mongolia, talked about what a "mongolian barbeque" REALLY was, and had us in stitches all speech with his humor. He was voted "Most Improved". "Best Evaluator" went to Ned Powley.

NEXT WEEK APRIL 6th: Glenn Tolle takes over as Toastmaster of the Day and, as of this writing, has the slate about complete. Come and listen to Scott Ceremuga's #10 speech, which will earn him his CC award!