Smedley Saturday #3 on 24 March

Nine members (including two from Bayview Toastmasters) and one guest attended NPS Toastmasters 3rd monthly “Smedley Saturday” on March 24th. Smedley Saturday allows members needing to make progress in the Toastmasters educational program to have an additional opportunity to give manual speeches. Past Area Governor Rachelle Onishi of Bayview did an outstanding and professional job as Toastmaster of the Day. All but one of the speeches were from various advanced manuals, which often require more time than the standard 5-7 minutes. The speeches presented were:

Karen Woodson - C&L Manual #2: “Make a Difference in the Life of a Child”



Arnie Buss - Communicating on Television Advanced Manual: “A Parcel of Rogues”

Robin Walker - Interpretive Reading Advanced Manual: “The Cremation of Sam McGee”



John Lente (Bayview TM) - Specialty Speeches Advanced Manual - The Sales Speech: “Turn your Fat into Fuel”

John Lente (Bayview TM) - Specialty Speeches Advanced Manual - Speak Off the Cuff: “Being an Arab Linguist”

Mary Lineberger - Public Relations Advanced Manual - The Good Will Speech: “I Love Toastmasters”

Robin Walker won Best Speaker, having recited perfectly the very long poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee” from memory! Fred Sadler was Best Evaluator, and Karen Woodson, for the 2nd day in a row, Most Improved. Congratulations to all!

NEXT UP: Regular meeting on 30 March at NPS Glasgow Hall Room 389.

AREA CONTEST on Saturday 31 March at 1PM at the La Mesa Community Center in Monterey - come and support our contestants Fred and Angi !

An All-Table-Topics Meeting on 23 March

The theme was “Earth in the Balance”, and it was a “first” for NPS Toastmasters… no speeches; all Table Topics! Yes, we had the normal functionaries, but the better part of the meeting was taken up by three separate Table Topics sessions with 15 brave members and two guests in attendance.

The first session, led by Angi Anderson, was a regular set of four topics, which was won by Robin Walker. Other brave souls answering questions were Ned Powley, Ryan Squires and Karen Woodson.

The second session, led by Glenn Woodson, consisted of two panel discussions / debates with presentations and rebuttals. These panelists were all cynics! The first panel delved into the subject of how the Monterey Peninsula should grow. Andrew Kennedy said we should pave over the Peninsula, kick out the residents, and establish an Olympic site! Fred Sadler insisted on a squash court as well. And Brian Anderson said we needed to “go vertical” with skyscrapers - “The future of Monterey is looking up”! Panel #2 dealt with how we should balance the competing themes of endangered species and economic growth. Panelists Scott Ceremuga, Carl Thormeyer ranted and raved about everything from whales to tigers to the sand gilia plant on Fort Ord! Brian Anderson won Best Participant in the overall session - possibly because he seemed to be the most calm and collected.

The third session was an exercise in storytelling and listening…. Six members came up front and generated a collective story line about what Earth would be like in 2067, as Topics Master #3 Mary Lineberger stopped and started individuals in mid stream! This was hilarious - if you weren’t listening as a participant you were in trouble - we were all in tears from laughter by the end of the session. Once again, Robin Walker walked away as Best Participant. Other players were Karen Woodson, Warner Howser, Angi Anderson, Ned Powley and Glenn Woodson. Karen ran away with the “Most Improved” award for the entire meeting.

It was great to shake things up and have a change of pace - it was “finals week” at NPS and that way no-one really had to prepare very hard for Toastmasters. Just getting those speeches ready for “Smedley Saturday” the next day!

COMING UP 31 Mar: Area A1/A2 International Speech and Table Topics Contests, also at the La Mesa Community Center from 1300-1630. Plan now on attending to support Fred and Angi as our contestants in the respective contests.

Submitted by:
Carl Thormeyer, DTM
NPS TM Club Historian

A Sporting Venture

Fellow Toastmasters,

First-time Toastmaster-of-the-Day Glenn Woodson led 19 members and four guests through a sports-filled meeting, shaking things up by having the three speakers first followed by Table Topics. All participants were introduced by explaining the way that sports had impacted their lives - still the question remains between the two “Glenns” as to whether Chess is actually a sport!

MIIS student Elizabeth Mitchell won “Most Improved” with her icebreaker speech, in which she demonstrated how her late father had influenced her life. Karen Woodson followed with HER icebreaker, describing what it was like to grow up in North Carolina as an identical twin! Meanwhile, Angi Anderson won “Best Speaker” with her #6 (Vocal Variety) speech entitled “What color is your Underwear” - a humorous description of the daily life of her two young boys - and then read us the children’s book of the same name!

First-time evaluator Eric Timmerman was awarded the “Best Evaluator” trophy by General Evaluator and VPE Robin Walker for his excellent evaluation of Karen - way to go, Eric! Robin also reminded us that the lectern must always be attended (having the “conn” in Navy parlance), and that the approaching speaker ALWAYS passes in front of the person who is leaving the lectern.

Shahid Abrar ul Hassan led the Table Topics, which was won by the very humorous Ryan Squires. Of interest in the Grammarian’s report was the use of the word “like” - which can mean “want” (I would LIKE some ice cream), fondness (I LIKE you), or similar to (You’re just LIKE your father!). Or as, LIKE, a word filler popular among young people! No wonder it’s so hard to learn English!

NEXT WEEK: Special all-Table-Topics meeting! This will be loads of fun and will challenge our listening skills as well as our impromptu speaking prowess.

COMING UP 24 Mar: Our third monthly “Smedley Saturday” at the La Mesa Community Center, from 1300-1500. Past Area Governor Rachelle Onishi of Bayview Toastmasters will be Toastmaster for this event, which can count as credit for “chairing a club event” (a Competent Leader manual requirement).

COMING UP 31 Mar: Area A1/A2 International Speech and Table Topics Contests, also at the La Mesa Community Center from 1300-1630. Plan now on attending to support Fred and Angi as our contestants in the respective contests.

Submitted by:

Carl Thormeyer, DTM
NPS TM Club Historian

Toastmasters International Around the Globe...

Hello Fellow Toastmasters!

Just wanted to let you know that I have recently returned (yesterday) from a successful recruiting trip in Asia! I was in Taiwan and Thailand recruiting graduate students for our programs at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

While there at an event in Taipei, I met a very enthusiastic Taiwanese Toastmaster! He was distributing information about Toastmasters International at this American Education Expo, to encourage students interested in studying in the US to attend Toastmasters in order to improve their English! We had a great discussion about the benefits of Toastmasters, and about what a wonderful international organization it is... I learned from him that the first TM club was established in 1924, in Santa Ana, California, by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley (hence Smedley Saturdays - duh!)

Here is a link to his Toastmasters Club in Taipei and click here to find a club anywhere in the world!

NPS and Monterey Institute students - listen up! Your education in public speaking is not limited to your time in Monterey. You can find great English speaking (and Spanish-speaking, French-speaking, Japanese-speaking, etc. etc.) clubs around the world where you can improve your communication and leadership skills. Oh, and it is great networking too!!!

See you this Friday,
Mary

P.S. For the Grammarian - I know that I used excessive exclamation points in this email.

Laughter is the Best Medicine!

Fellow Toastmasters,

With our top two leaders absent, VP Membership Fred Sadler excelled as acting President, which was followed by yet another exemplary TMOD performance by Area Governor Arnie Buss. Arnie’s theme of “movies” wove its way throughout the entire meeting, as all scheduled participants were introduced in part by their favorite movie!

It was an off-week attendance-wise, with only 16 members and no guests - the lowest since September. However, what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality, as this meeting was perhaps the most filled with laughter in many months! As if by design, Brian Anderson’s winning #6 speech (vocal variety) was about laughter - the hows, whys and what-fors. Add to this a terrific Icebreaker by Mash Otgonbayer, who shared with us his fight against a chronic heart disease during his childhood in Mongolia in a humorous way, and how he overcame these hurdles. That earned him “Most Improved” speaker for the day.  Luke Lazzari and Carl Thormeyer tied for best Table Topics as they tackled some insightful questions posed by Topics Master Cathy Lee.

Our Grammarian - new member Ryan Squires - was absolutely hilarious, as he purported to measure our grammatical efforts against the standard of a West Virginia dialect! Meanwhile, our Pakistani member Shahid Abrar ul Hassan boosted the treasury with a solid job as Ah Counter. First-time General Evaluator Glenn Woodson did a terrific job at capturing the essence of the meeting, and citing today’s meeting as an example of last-minute flexibility which was possible as a result of early planning.

NEXT WEEK 16 Mar: Glenn Woodson will be our Toastmaster for the first time. There are still some speaking roles available - contact Glenn.

COMING UP 24 Mar: Our third monthly “Smedley Saturday” at the La Mesa Community Center, from 1300-1500. We are still looking for a person to be Toastmaster and run this event, which will count as credit for “chairing a club event” (a Competent Leader manual requirement).

COMING UP 31 Mar: Area A1/A2 International Speech and Table Topics Contests, also at the La Mesa Community Center from 1300-1630 (or 1:00-3:00 p.m., whichever comes first). Plan now on attending to support Fred and Angi as our contestants in the respective contests.

Submitted by:

Carl Thormeyer, DTM
NPS TM Club Historian