Urban Legends

With 15 members and 1 guest, we celebrated the Bisextile with an exciting meeting featuring two #2 speeches by two of our newest members. Cathy Lee guided the meeting with a rather different theme of "Urban Legends" and throughout it regaled us with some of the more interesting ones, like spiders under toilet seats and the like.

Table Topics Master Arnie Buss had three victi.. ... er members play a version of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me's "Stump the Listener" challenge. Three stories were read, and only one of them was true - the others were Urban Legends. Mary Lineberger, Carl Thormeyer, and Rosetta Ishag all tried to guess the right one, and Mary won Best Table Topics for her reasoned and well-crafted response.

The first speech was John Armstrong's #2 Bitten by the Golf Bug, which included both an informative brief history of the game and its origins, and some of the reasons he gets such pleasure from playing it. John was awarded Most Improved Speaker for his speech.

The second speech Joyce Laker giving her second speech Accountability to the Poor, a heartfelt and passionate one that persuaded us to look more closely at the plight of the poor and of the problems of poverty. Joyce won Best Speaker for this.

Speech evaluations were likewise well executed by Mike Barksdale and Zeki Yildirim, in his first evaluation. For his concrete suggestions to Joyce, Zeki was given Best Evaluator by General Evaluator ("what's this thing called?") Carl Thormeyer.

Cathy Lee tells another plausible Urban Legend, and then ponders how anyone could believe some of these things...
































John Armstrong's #2 speech, Bitten by the Golf Bug.

Joyce Laker's #2 speech Accountability to the Poor.

A Smashing Smedley

There were four excellent prepared speeches on this Smedley Saturday orchestrated by TMoD Fred Sadler. Three guests joined us at the La Mesa Community Center from 1 pm -3 pm.

Masami Maeda won "most improved" for her # 2 speech entitled "My experience with Japanese Immigrants" - a prescient discussion of the plight of people who are displaced and replaced when governments change and don't think through their policies. Evaluation was by Karen Woodson.

Corban Spraker's #2 speech "The entropy of life" used examples from his experience, which can cause disruption to a smoothly functioning life such as being in a hurry and putting your mind on vacation. Alec Metz was awarded "best evaluator" for his spot on assessment of Corban's excellent # 2.

Fred Sadler's # 4 speech from the advanced manual "Speaking to inform" entitled "Blood pressure - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" included an opportunity for all present to measure their own blood pressure and question the implications. Glen Woodson evaluated and Fred won "best speaker".

Glenn Woodson's advanced speech from the "Technical Speech" manual addressed "Civil Affairs:An Education and Training Model" in 8 to 10 minutes followed by question and answers ably provided by Glen. The power point presentation revealed a fascinating glimpse of Glenn's work on a very important topic. Evaluation was by Fred Sadler.

Next Smedley is March 29. See you there.

Leapin Leapers it's a Bisextile!

What a great way to spend a cold and rainy Friday afternoon! We got off to a great start by inducting another new member, Lt Col Bill Gibbons from Fleet Numerical. We also celebrated the fact that Alec Metz has completed all his speeches for Competent Communicator - congratulations Alec!

Glenn Woodson, in his fourth time as TMoD this year, ran an exciting and innovative meeting with the theme of "Leap Day" - or "Bisextile" as we learned. Being a "Leaper" himself, he shared interesting information about the history and meaning of February 29.

Table Topics Master Leena Oh challenged Elie Ishag, Warner Howser, and Masami Maeda with questions on the theme of Leap Year. When the voting was finished, it was Elie who was declared best Table Topics speaker.

Emilie Staryak led off the prepared speeches with her Swim, Bike, Run, the second speech in the CC manual. Emilie took us through the experience of competing in a triathlon, and she was awarded Most Improved speaker. Arnie Buss followed with his "Icebreaker" speech (his third one) The Education of Mr. Spock, telling how he is learning to be more right-brained. Alec Metz finished with his first speech as a fresh new CC, My Dinner with Arnie, relating his experience the previous afternoon visiting the Talk the Line Toastmasters club in Soledad Prison. Alec got the nod as Best Speaker for his speech, the first in the advanced manual "The Entertaining Speaker."

Three terrific evaluations followed: Elie, in his first speech evaluation, evaluated Emilie. Carl evaluated Arnie, and Angi won Best Evaluator for her evaluation of Alec's speech.

Elie Ishag's winning Table Topics:


Emilie's speech Swim, Bike, Run:


Elie's evaluation of Emilie's speech:


Arnie's speech The Education of Mr. Spock:


Carl's evaluation of Arnie's speech:


Alec Metz's speech My Dinner with Arnie:


Angi's evaluation of Alec's speech:

Happy Birthday NPS Toastmasters!

Thirty-seven years ago tomorrow NPS Toastmasters club was chartered, so today we celebrated with cake (graciously brought by Cathy Lee). We were joined by several guests, including honorary member and past Area A1 Governor Rachelle Onishi and present Division A Governor Tim Childers. Tim presented the club with the world's biggest coaster in recognition of 2032 being the first club in District 4 to reach President's Distinguished status.

Today was also the club's Table Topics and International Speech contests, and it was quite an exiting competition! As contest chair and Toastmaster, Cathy Lee asked the question "Tell us the story that explains the Mona Lisa's mysterious smile." The creative responses are below. When the ballots had been tallied, Brian Anderson was the winner, with Glenn Woodson second.

Glenn Woodson's Table Topics Response (She was happy about the volunteering going on):

Brian Anderson's Table Topics Response (She was responding to a bodily sound by Da Vinci):

Alex Bein's Table Topics Response (Da Vinci was cracking her up):

Michale Barksdale's Table Topics Resonse (She was happy about the Enlightenment):


Brian Anderson led off the International Speech Contest with a creative speech about his difficulties in Toastmasters following achieving Competent Communicator and what he plans to do about it. He was followed by the other half of the dynamic "Team Anderson," Angi, whose gave us three simple steps to learning to "love what you have." The final speech was given by Arnie Buss, who persuaded us to "listen" before trying to be heard. When the dust settled, Arnie was declared the winner, with Brian a close second.

Brian Anderson's speech I Lost My Voice.


Angi Anderson's speech Happiness


Arnie Buss's speech Listen!


Please come to the Area Contest March 22 to cheer your contestants as they compete against other clubs in Monterey and Salinas!

Passion!

In keeping with the season of Valentine's Day, TMoD exraordinaire Mary Lineberger chose Passion as the theme of today's meeting. And what an appropriate theme for such a fantastic and impassioned meeting it was! Michael Barksdale's got us started with an excellent reading of a poem for opening remarks. Brian Anderson expertly led the assembled Toastmasters through Table Topics filled with various dimensions of passion. One of our newest members, Joyce Laker, beat out Arnie and Emilie for top honors with her response, the highlight of which was her list of things she would "leave behind" - like hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.

We were then treated to two Icebreaker speeches by our newest members. First Corban Spraker (A Fork and a Bump in the Road), spoke about what happens when you continually choose the road less traveled - and how a life-threatening bike accident helped him continue to make mindful choices in his life. His effort garnered him Best Speaker.

The second Icebreaker was by John Armstrong (Photographic Memories), about how photography helped him stay connected to the past without having to be tied down by it and how digital photography has led to electronic pictures gathering electronic dust instead of photographic prints gathering actual dust.

Finally, Zeki Yildirim gave his #3 speech Turkieya - My Country Turkey, an entertaining and informative travelogue of the different regions of Turkey with their customs and wonderful history. He showed how Turkey is indeed the bridge between Europe and Asia, and finished by extending an invitation to all to visit him when he returns there. Zeki received the nod for "Most Improved" speaker for this.

Corban Spraker's Icebreaker A Fork and a Bump in the Road.


















John Armstrong's Icebreaker Photographic Memories.


Zeki Yildirim's #3 speech, Turkieya - My Country Turkey


Reminder: Next week is the club's speech contest for Table Topics and International Speech. Come and hear our club's members compete for who will represent NPS at the Area contest (and beyond)! Please contact Steve Skaggs if you wish to compete in the International contest and Cathy Lee for the Table Topics contest.

Continue to Dream

First time Toastmaster of the Day Michale Barksdale led the club through an action-packed and emotion-filled meeting. The 20 members are 4 guests were all treated to some remarkable speaking. Mike's theme of "Continue to Dream" resonated with everyone in attendance, and was also very synchronous with the prepared speeches.

Table Topics Master Glenn Woodson threw out some challenging questions. Alex Bein was asked about how to respond to a question asked by one's boss when attention had wandered. Donna Cunningham talked about her "third wish" being getting over fear of public speaking; if there was an award for the slowest sentence, Donna would have won hands down! Finally, Robin Walker spoke of his dreams and how the efforts in achieving them is an integral part of his values, for which he won Best Table Topics Speaker.

We were treated with three remarkable prepared speeches, starting with Joyce Laker's moving Icebreaker speech about following her passion for social justice, especially for women, having grown up in an area of the world for which justice is often just a dream. Luke Lazzari continued with a thrilling true-life adventure with a helicopter, and a caution about being so eager to reach the destination that safety takes a back seat. Finally, Mary Lineberger departed from her prepared speech to give an impassioned impromptu one about the importance of giving speeches about which one is truly passionate.

Joyce Laker's inspirational Icebreaker speech Led by Passion.


Luke Lazzarri makes a dramatic point during his #6 Speech GetHomeItis.


















Mary Lineberger's speech, which was to have been What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You:


Glenn Woodson's evaluation of Mary's speech: