Birthdays!

Tonya Holloway was masterful in conducting today's meeting. Her theme was Birthdays - and she focused on the special significance of today's date April 24, it being her beloved mother's birthday. She channeled the meeting in such a way that it honored her Mom. Seventeen members and five guests were present.


Arnie Buss gave opening remarks:


Margaret Stevens let Table Topics and treated us with an excerpt from We Are by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Kate Daniels Kurz was voted best Table Topics speaker for relating the lyrics to her experiences with having her child:


To hear Sweet Honey in the Rock perform We Are click here.

Jim Burlison gave his Icebreaker speech entitled Parachute Jump, and was voted Most Improved Speaker:


Jim was evaluated by David Perez, who was selected Best Evaluator:


Emilie Staryak was voted Best Speaker for her #7 speech Children's Cognitive Development:


Emilie was evaluated by veteran Art Testani:


During the business section of the meeting, we passed a new standing rule requiring that the timer's yellow light stay on for the full required time, regardless of actual time elapsed at that point. The rationale was to not penalize a speaker when there was a timer error or malfunction. This and other standing rules are listed on our club website.

Personal Sacrifice

With 17 members present at a rare guest-free meeting, David Perez as TMOD ran a ship-shape meeting with military precision. Even with three speakers, we still finished on time!Also, we voted in and inducted Jim Burlison and Ryan Crais as new members.Elizabeth Mitchell's Opening Remarks;


Arnie Buss was "voted" best table topics speaker when all the others failed to qualify on time:


Craig started off the prepared speeches with his Icebreaker speech entitled So Here I Am:



Craig was evaluated by Elizabeth Mitchell:



Natalie Laudier followed with her Icebreaker:



Natalie was evaluated by Art Testani:


Cathy Lee finished up with #3 from the advanced manual "persuasively Speaking" entitled A Stitch in Time:


Cathy was evaluated by Tonya Holloway:

Hidden Talents

Toastmaster of the Day, Cathy Lee chose "bringing out your hidden talents as the theme for the day. Seventeen members and two guests were present.

Fred Sadler's channeled his hidden magician during Opening Remarks:


Craig responded to Art Testani's Table Topics question and won the ribbon for best Table Topics:


Newest member Lacey Raak was voted Most Improved Speaker for her outstanding Icebreaker The Story of Me Times Three:


David Perez was selected Best Evaluator for his evaluation of Lacey's Icebreaker:


Tito DeJesus was voted Best Speaker for his #7 speech They Don't Call it "Space" for Nothing:


Arnie Buss' evaluation of Tito's speech:

Random Acts of Kindness

With term break over, we nearly doubled our attendance from last week, with 20 members and four guests present.

Lacey Mae Raak and Moyara Ruehsen were inducted as new members by Club President Fred Sadler.

Elizabeth Mitchell as TMoD led us through a spirited meeting around the theme of Random Acts of Kindness.


Carl Thormeyer channeled William Penn for Opening Remarks:

David Perez dished out some TT questions and
Kate Daniels Kurz was voted best Table Topics speaker:


Margaret Stevens was voted Most Improved Speaker for her #5 speech Move, Stretch, and Dance:


Fred Sadler's evaluation of Margaret's speech:


Arnie Buss was voted Best Speaker for his #10 speech Leadership and Love:
Part I:


Part II:


General Evaluator Tonya Holloway selected Emilie Staryak as Best Evaluator for her critique of Arnie's speech: