Smedley Friday - post Thanksgiving

Four members and one guest followed TMoD Karen Woodson's lead into Toastmasters heaven on a special Smedley Friday - the day after Thanksgiving.

David Perez led off with his # 2 manual speech on the things and people that he is thankful for. "And for that I am thankful" was the tag line he used throughout his beautifully organized speech evaluated by Karen.

Karen Woodson lauded the seven virtues of exercise in her #9 speech entitled "Let's get physical". She showed us as well as told us how to exercise - always with a smile on her face. David Perez added thoughtful suggestions in his first gig as an evaluator.

Fred Sadler gave his first speech from the advanced manual (The professional Speaker) - "the Keynote Address" in 20 minutes - an opportunity for him to practice a commemcement address he will deliver on December 8 at the Physician Assistant Program graduation at Yale Medical School. This is the 38th graduation class of a Masters level Program he founded in 1970. He says - "Thank you Toastmasters - this might actually be fun". Evaluator Carl said "crank up the vocal variety if you want your audience to have fun with you".

Carl Thormeyer gave his fifth speech (the Motivational Speech) from the Professional Speaker manual - a manual he started working on in 1999. Now that is persistence! Carl was very motivational indeed in encouraging us all to be better leaders and using examples from Abraham Lincoln to Barak Obama as well as from Toastmasters to make his point. His 20 minute speech had us enthralled and was evaluated by Fred.

John Steinbeck

With 17 members present, TMoD and VPE Emilie Staryak led a spirited meeting on the theme of "John Steinbeck," California's central coast literary giant. She asked each partcipant to comment on what kind of book they would like to write.

Elections were also held and the slate submitted by the nominating committee (see last week's blog) was elected without any opposition.

Peripatetic traveler Joe Tacker returned home to lead Table Topics...
Art Testani responded creatively and won Best Table Topics Speaker:

Michael Kensick addressed the complexities of the current housing crisis in a beautifully organized #2 speech entitled Foreclosure, which garnered him Most Improved speaker:

John Armstrong's #8 speech From the Depths of the Earth was a tour de force about alternative energy sources complete with maps and scientific charts:

Elizabeth Mitchell won Best Speaker for her very creative use of language in her #4 speech Tai Chi in Shanghai:

Veteran Carl Thormeyer was selected Best evaluator by GE Fred Sadler:

This was the last meeting for two of our newer members, Aysun Caliskan and Michael Kensick. We bid them a warm farewell and wish them all the best in their future public speaking. Michael will take his family to the Las Vegas area upon graduation and looks forward to joining Toastmasters there. Aysun, who plans to continue speaking at Toastmasters in Ankara, gave a moving farewell along with some Turkish delights in her role as vote counter:

There will be no regular club meeting the Friday after Thanksgiving but we will have a "Smedley Friday" for anyone interested at 10 am November 28 at Glasgow 389.

Sibling Rivalry

With 20 members and one guest in attendance, TMOD Elizabeth Mitchell chose an entertaining theme which reached all of us - sibling rivalry! Fred Sadler opened with "Anything you can do I can do better" in which he took on his invisible but real twin brother Blair. Elizabeth regaled us with stories about her older brothers and then added a sibling snippet about each of our functionaries and speakers - the very model of a successful Toastmaster.


David Perez' winning Table Topics response to Chance Litton's extemporaneus question:



Aysun Caliksan, drawing on the experience of Sir Isaac Newton was voted "Most Improved Speaker" for her #2 speech Luck or Success?


Tonya Holloway won Best Speaker for her beautifully crafted #2 speech Shoot Anyway:


Tito DeJesus' took us from classical to pop in his #4 speech Music is Music to my Ears:


Art Testani was selected Best Evaluator by General Evaluator Cathy Lee:


Finally, VPPR Tito Dejesus produced another fine club newsletter which highlighted the fact that we are the first club in District #4 (212 member clubs) to have achieved seven of our ten club goals for the year.

You can't keep a good Smedley down!

Although there was no "power" in Glasgow Hall on Saturday November 1, a loyal band of Club # 2032 Toastmasters convened at 10 am in a third floor hall in front of a large window to carry on the tradition of Smedley Saturday. TMoD Emilie Staryak presided over three speeches, three traditional evaluations and then a round robin evaluation popularized by the Peninsula Pros group that allows everyone to comment on the speaker's performance and in turn give the speaker a chance to respond.

Fred Sadler delivered an interpretation of "Long Day's Journey into Night" - Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece, in which he channeled each of the four principal characters as one by one each expresses his/her own "truth". This 12-15 minute presentation was from the "Interpretive Reading" manual.

Arnie Buss discussed "followers and leaders" and how you can't have one without the other. In fact we often have leading and following backwards or upside down.

Tonya Holloway did a practice run of her # 2 speech entitled "Shoot First". The rest of the club gets to hear this on November 7 so hold on to your seats for this (Tonya was a theater major in college) surprise.

Aysun Caliskan served as timer and joined in for the evaluations.

The small number of participants allowed for an open and "powerful" sharing before we sent Arnie off to play his violin at an afternoon concert.