Groupthink

Today a number of milestones were celebrated. With 24 members in attendance, we had a full and fun-packed meeting! Milestone #1 was a "first" for Emilie Staryak filling in as acting Sergeant at Arms. She did a great job getting the room set up and starting the meeting. Next, President Robin Walker announced that our own Chance Litton is the District's funniest speaker! He then passed out pins to all NPS Toastmasters for being the first club in District 4 to achieve "President's Select" status. He recognized Arnie Buss for achieving Advanced Communicator Gold, which gives the club its eighth goal out of ten for the year. Congratulations also to Arnie who now qualifies for Distinguished Toastmaster - the highest award given by Toastmasters International!

Brian Anderson as TMoD led the meeting with Marine precision, on the theme "Groupthink"- that mob mentality groups possess that can suppress creativity or encourage dissenting opinions.

Two outstanding speeches followed - a #3 from one half of the globetrotting Ishags, Rosetta, who spoke of her son's dyslexia and how that was a challenge as well as a gift; and Alec Metz, who inspired us to travel the world and learn about other cultures. This was Alec's #10 speech, and with it he achieved Competent Communicator status and our club will have fulfilled its 9th goal (once the paperwork is filed with World Headquarters)! Alec Metz was voted "best speaker", Rosetta Ishag - "most improved" and Fred Sadler received "best table topics" for his response to Luke Lazzari's question about group think.

Rosetta Ishag's #3 speech, Dyslexics are Anything but Dumb!:


Alec Metz'1 #10 Speech, Inspiration Indeed!



In the business portion of the meeting, a new slate of officers was elected for the January-July 2008 term. Our new club #2032 officers will be:

President: Angi Anderson
VP Education: Fred Sadler
VP Membership: Michael Barksdale
VP Public Relations: Emilie Staryak
Secretary: Cathy Lee
Treasurer: Warner Howser
Sergeant at Arms: Steve Skaggs

Congratulations to our new leadership team.

Mark your calendars for December 14 for the annual Holiday Table Topics Gift Exchange meeting! Bring a wrapped, unisex gift costing no more than $10. It is always an hilarious time - hosted by Carl Thormeyer.

Also, Wednesday evening, December 12 at 6:00 p.m. at the Monterey Beach Hotel will be the Area Holiday Dinner and Table Topics Gift Exchange. This will be a catered dinner, social, and gift exchange. It is a great opportunity to meet toastmasters from other clubs in the area, as well as to enjoy a delicious dinner and have fierce fun! The cost is $30.60 per person - guests are welcome, and are also welcome to participate in the table topics gift exchange, if they bring a gift of course! Bring a check made out to NPS Toastmasters on the 9th-the club will underwrite $5:oo per person.

Thanksgiving Smedley Saturday

Seven members and three guests came out for the November 2007 edition of Smedley Saturday, NPS Toastmasters' monthly speech-a-thon. Ably emceed by Carl Thormeyer, perhaps still a bit groggy from his oh-dark-early stint on the KSBW morning show, the meeting featured three advanced speeches, including one from guest and honorary NPS member Rachelle Onishi.

Arnie spoke of a technique for negotiating a win/win outcome, and followed the speech with a participative demonstration of a couple trying to decide between a baseball game and the ballet. Arnie's speech Negotiating to Agreement from the advanced manual Interpersonal Communication:

Rachelle Onishi's accepted an award as the 1990 MVP of the NBA - a first for a 5'2" (and 3/4!) Japanese woman! Her speech Accepting an Award from the advanced manual Special Occasion Speeches

Finishing off the speeches, Fred Sadler reminded us to breathe from the belly, and showed us how. He was voted "best speaker" for his entertaining and educational presentation. His speech, Ahhhh, the Breath of Life! from Speaking to Inform:

We finished the meeting with three excellent evaluations: Cathy Lee, in only her second evaluation of Arnie's speech, Fred, doing double-duty, evaluated Rachelle's speech, and Robin evaluated Fred's speech, for which he was voted best evaluator.
Robin's winning evaluation:

Chance Dominates at District!

Today at the District Humorous Speech Contest, NPS's own Chance Litton took first place with his hilarious rendition of The Life and Times of Mr. Spock. Robin, Angi, Carl, and Arnie from NPS all attended for the fun-filled sand educational day, that was of course made all the sweeter by Chance's win. Chance's wife and daughter were also present to cheer him on. Congratulations Chance!

The Bayview contestant in the evaluation Contest, Kristian Crump, also won, completing a sweep of Area A1 in the District. Congratulations to Kristian!

Cell Phones versus Land Phones

Our club Treasurer, Warner Howser led a spirited meeting with a theme of "Cell Phones versus Land Phones." We started the meeting with 17 members and 4 guests present, and finished the meeting with 18 members and 3 guests - welcome to our newest member Alex Simmons! Alex wasted no time jumping right in to the club by being Wordmaster. We were also happy to welcome back Elie and Rosetta Ishag, who will be on the peninsula for another few months still. The both acquitted themselves wonderfully in today's Table Topics, but Brian Anderson was voted the best Table Topics speaker for his description of an extremely annoying gentleman having an argument with his cell phone in public. We also bid a sad farewell to Adam Otto, who has visited the club for the past few months as a guest, and is now off to Seattle, where he plans on joining a Toastmasters club when he arrives.

In yet another return, Elizabeth Guzman marked her return to the club "for real" with her #4 speech The Endangered Species Act. She won "Most Improved" for her moving speech.


Glenn Woodson achieved the milestone of Competent Communicator with his inspiring #10 speech The Glass is Half Full which included stories of his daughter who has struggled through a bone illness with pluck and courage. He won "Best Speaker" - congratulations Glenn of reaching the first milestone in your Toastmasters journey!
Part I:

Part II:

As always, NPS evaluators stepped up to the plate with Angi Anderson and Fred Sadler giving stellar ones for Elizabeth and Glenn. Fred won "Best Evaluator" for his feedback that was insightful as well as emotional.

"Playing Grown Up"

Toastmaster of the Day par excellence, Angi Anderson led a rousing meeting of fifteen club members and four guests on the theme of "playing grown up" with many fun and mind twisting permutations. There were 15 members and four guests, one of whom, Alexander Simmons, joined up right after the meeting! We were also honored by a brief visit by LTG (retired) Robert Ord, erstwhile Toastmaster and Dean of the School of International Graduate Studies.

We had three outstanding prepared speeches featuring Donna Cunningham's "icebreaker" entitled "You did what? (the short version) which was so good that she won Best Speaker. Arnie Buss described the preparation of the recent Division Contest which he chaired as part of an advanced leadership project he completed to achieve Advanced Leadership Silver status. Brian Anderson delivered a moving interpretive reading of the lovely Robert Frost poem "The Mountain" for which he won "Most Improved Speaker".

Amy Treadwell came away with best Table Topics Speaker for her accomplished response to Mary Lineberger's query about "the most difficult thing about being grown up". Best Evaluator went to Arnie Buss for his spot on assessment of Donna Cunninham's presentation. Robin Walker and Leenah Oh also provided high quality insightful evaluations.

Donna Cunningham's Icebreaker You Did WHAT?? - The Short Version

Arnie Buss's High Performance Leadership project report:

Brian Anderson's dramatic reading of Robert Frost's The Mountain: