"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:

The Toastmasters Cult

Robin Walker (AKA "The Grand Pooh Bah") led the proceedings today with an entertaining and spirited theme of the Toastmasters Cult. Complete with funny hats, secret handshakes and gestures, and even Kool Aide, the meeting was carried on as it might be for a secret society (I'm not sure how many "secret societies" have their own web page and blog!)













The Grand Pooh Bah Toastmaster

We started the meeting with 17 members and 2 guests, but ended the meeting with 18 members and 1 guest - since Bradley McNary joined and was inducted by acting president Angi Anderson.

Table Topics Master Leena Oh asked some great questions around the "cult" theme, with excellent responses by Brian Anderson, Alec Metz, and our newest member Bradley McNary. Alec won best table topics for his spirited description of the "cult's" new uniforms - which included kilts!













Three excellent speeches were given by newer members. Margaret Stevens gave her Icebreaker "Surprise and Adventure" and won Best Speaker for her evocative description of being a singer, massage therapist, and mother. Alex Bein gave his #2 speech "Performance Eating" and Michael Barksdale also gave a #2 speech "Effective Speaking: The Tool of a Competent Leader" for which he won Most Improved speaker. The meeting was rounded off with evaluations from Arnie Buss, Ryan Squires, and Glenn Woodson, who won Best Evaluator for his insightful feedback on Michael's speech.

Margaret Stevens' Icebreaker Surprise and Adventure:

Alex Bein's #2 speech Performance Eating:

Michale Barksdale's #2 speech Effective Communication: The Tool of a Competent Leader:


Upcoming events:

• Smedley Saturday tomorrow, 1:00 p.m., La Mesa Community Center
  
• District Conference, November 17
  

New Blogger

Arnie,
I have signed on to be part of the NPS Blog team. Thanks.
Fred

Kentucky Wildcats Football and Evening Social

University-of-Kentucky Alum and present MIIS student Elizabeth Mitchell thrilled us all with her cheerleading and Kentucky footbal trivia as she led us through another exciting weekly meeting! Elizabeth's first-time Toastmaster performance was enjoyed by 20 members and one guest (former member and past President Mary Lineberger, ATMB - welcome back, Mary!).

Luke Lazzari won "Best Speaker" for his 5th speech about his escapades at a yard sale, while Leena Oh was "Most Improved" with her #3 speech (thus enabling Angi Anderson to complete her mentorship and thus achieve her "Competent Leader" award). Robin Walker entertained us with an advanced manual speech about his cooking escapades, while his evaluator Angi Anderson was awarded "Best Evaluator". Meanwhile, Cathy Lee's description about "herding cats" won "Best Table Topics".

Leena's #3 speech, Tell Me What You Do, Already!:


Robin's speech #4 from "The Entertaining Speaker" advanced manual, Dinner at Monica's:


But the day was not yet over. Several members and guests gathered that evening for a "potluck social" overseen by Angi Anderson at the La Mesa Community Center. Highlight of the party was Robin Walker's "after dinner" advanced manual speech, which completed his requirements for Advanced Communicator Bronze. Congratulations, Robin --- that now gives us seven (7; count 'em) goals toward the 2007-08 Distinguished Club Plan, making us already "Select Distinguished" and it's still only October!

The food was delicious and the company great! In addition to Robin's after-dinner speech, the dinner itself was punctuated by an impromptu, friendly "toast-off" between the two tables (instigated by Robin). And what is a Toastmasters speech without an evaluation? Robin's evaluation was graciously provided by Fred Sadler, who gave a picture-perfect sandwich - and after dinner, no less! An excellent time was had by all. Many thanks to Angi and Brian, "Team Anderson" for organizing the event!

Robin's After Dinner Speech:

Chance Wins Division Humorous Contest!

NPS Toastmaster extraodinaire Chance Litton won the Division A Humorous Speech contest in Aptos today, besting with his hilarious speech "The Life and Times of Mr. Spock." There was some stiff competition, including one from a human-size banana slug!

Congratulations Chance! All members, come and support Chance as he competes at the District Contest on November 17.

Unfortunately, Robin Walker, the other Area A1 champion, couldn't attend the contest, but his replacement, runner-up Kristian Crump from Bayview Toastmasters won. Congratulations Kristian!

This means that Area A1 swept the Division!

OKTOBERFEST !!!

Well, no beer flowed (a Federal workplace, after all), but the joviality was definitely there as 17 members and three guests (two of whom committed to join) watched Angi Anderson's awesome #10 speech, for which she won Best Speaker (see below). Fred Sadler presented a special module on Evaluation, which he needs for one of the advanced awards.

Fred's speech Evaluate to Motivate


Angi's inspirational #10 speech Remember to Say "Thank You"


Chance Litton won Best Table Topics, Leena Oh was Best Evaluator in her first time in that role, and soon-to-be-returning-member Elizabeth Guzman won Most Improved.

And, with Angi's speech, we now have 6 of 10 goals for the year, and are again a "Distinguished Club"!

Don't forget to come to the Division Humorous Contest tomorrow and support Chance as he represents Area A1 against the other areas in our division!

Teachers

Welcome to our newest member Emilie Staryak! That gave us 15 members and one guest who witnessed Ryan Squires' first go at TMOD. With a theme of "Teachers", Ryan led us through another great program with his usual wit and humor.

We had two icebreakers (including one "backbreaker"; just ask Alex Bein!), and a #6 speech by Cathy Lee which won "Best Speaker". "Most Improved" was Steve Skaggs, while Glenn Woodson won "Best Table Topics". Robin Walker again won "Best Evaluator" as he gets ready to represent the club and Area A-1 in the Division A contest on October 13th.

Steve Skaggs' Icebreaker Together by Ourselves


Michael Barksdale's Icebreaker Why Being the Little Man on the Bottom is Not So Bad


Cathy Lee's #6 Speech The Play's the Thing

NPS Sweeps Area Contest!

In the Area A1 competition, Robin Walker won the Evaluation contest and Chance Litton won the Humorous contest, making a clean sweep of the area by NPS Toastmasters.

Robin evaluated Test Speaker Carl Nail of San Jose, who spoke about "Showing Up".... the importance of doing your part for team by being there - whether at work or at Toastmasters! Robin was first in a field of four evaluation contestants. Second place went to Kristen Crump of Bayview Toastmasters.

Chance delighted us once again with the adventures and antics of his cat "Mr. Spock". He beat out two other speakers, including second-place winner Alisha Empleo, also of Bayview.

Congratulations Robin and Chance! Be sure to come to the Division A Contest on October 13 to support them as they compete against the winners from the other areas!

Baseball...

Fourteen members and two guests (welcome back, Elizabeth Guzman - hope you re-join us soon!) enjoyed another fine meeting, featuring an interpretive reading advanced speech of two Bobby Kennedy speeches by Robin Walker, and a seven-continent travelogue of sorts by Elizabeth Mitchell as she gave her #2 speech. Robin won "Best Speaker" while Elizabeth was Most Improved. "Best Evaluator" was awarded to a very deserving Shenequa Mitchell for her evaluation of Robin's speech.

First-time TMOD Cathy Lee assembled a great program, deftly switching assignments at the last minute when not everyone scheduled showed up. Baseball was her theme.... because she didn't know much about the game and wanted to learn more!

Margaret Stevens also showed she was on the "fast track" by taking on the Table Topics Master role, with five baseball-related questions. "Best Table Topics" was won by Mike Barksdale, who demonstrated his jiu-jitsu moves on Alex "I'm turning blue" Bein.

Robin's #5 speech from the Interpretive Reading advanced manual, Indianapolis Part 1:

Part 2:

Elizabeth Mitchell's #2 speech: Seven Lessons from Seven Continents:

Two of our stalwart members will be leaving us soon for the East Coast, where they plan on continuing their Toastmasters career with a local club there. We export Toastmasters at NPS!

Congratulations to Scott and Jolene for the birth of their son! Scott Wilbur's Farewell:

Shenequa Mitchell's farewell:

Message from Brendan Epps

I've recently been reading "Where Have All The Leaders Gone" by Lee Iacocca. It's a great read and a call to action. What struck me and drove me to write this message was the word curmudgeon. The instant I saw the word, I recalled an NPS TM meeting, where curmudgeon was the word of the day. Even after seeing it again, I couldn't use it in a sentence, but the point is the power of those words each week. They expand our vocabulary and expose us to something new. Pay attention to those words and make an effort to learn new words. Wordmasters, be sure to choose challenging words, words that will force members to grow and expand their vocabularies.

-Brendan Epps, past club president

What did YOU do this summer?

And so it was with this week's theme, as Immediate Past Area Governor Arnie Buss gave us a lesson in "how to do it" by leading us through another excellent meeting as TMOD. With 19 members and four guests present, our newest member Donna Cunningham was voted into membership and duly inducted. Donna is our 7th new member since July 1st!

One of the guests was former member Elizabeth Guzman, who we sincerely hope will be re-joining the club soon.

In addition to Shenequa Mitchell's excellent #4 speech below, Cathy Lee practiced her lawyer skills by delivering prosecution closing arguments for a criminal trial as her #5 speech. Cathy won Best Speaker, while her evaluator Scott Wilbur was awarded Best Evaluator.

Best Table Topics went to Alec Metz, fresh back from Mongolia, who described his recent marriage and associated travels. Most Improved was Donna Cunningham, who talked about her long-distance marriage. Congratulations to all!

Shenequa Mitchell's #4 Speech The Art of Communication


AREA CONTEST: Note that the date has been changed to the afternoon of Saturday 29 September, and will take place at the Agricultural Conference Center on Abbott Street in Salinas starting about 1PM. Chance Litton (Humorous Speech) and Robin Walker (Evaluation) will be competing.

India

Nineteen members and two guests were treated to three terrific speeches, which were well orchestrated by TMoD and Club President Robin Walker. Robin "set the example" with a precise, efficient meeting program which ran like clockwork. His theme of "India" helped us all get into the spirit of his upcoming around-the-world trip to Singapore, India, and Washington, DC. Table Topics Master Shenequa Mitchell hit the Web to come up with some outstanding Indian-related Table Topics.

We also inducted Masami Maeda into membership. Welcome!

Winners were:
*** Best Speaker: David Schulz's Icebreaker (see below)
*** Best Evaluator: Fred Sadler, evaluating Glenn Woodson's #6 speech
*** Best Table Topics: Luke Lazzari (In his Table Topic, he spoke of his favorite adventure sport!)
*** Most Improved: Alex Bein (In his Table Topic, he said he would buy his wife a Lexus if he could!)

We're #1 (actually, tied...)! We have now achieved three of 10 goals for Distinguished Club Plan recognition for 2007-08. We are tied with three other clubs for the District 4 lead among 200+ clubs. We have met half of three additional goals - let's be first in District 4 to become distinguished, and the first to get all 10 goals as well! To become distinguished, we need two of the following:
*** Two more new members,
*** Dues paid on time (by 30 Sept.), or
*** One more Comptent Communicator!

David Schultz's Icebreaker speech I Have Yet to Work a Day in my Life


Chance Litton's #3 speech A Mystery of Matter


Glenn Woodson's #6 speech Beyond the Nineteenth Hole


Note 1: Due to waning interest, Smedley Saturdays will be scheduled in the future only if at least three members are prepared to give speeches.

Note 2: We now have a vacancy in the office of Sergeant-at-Arms. Eric Timmerman has submitted his resignation from that office due to his overwhelming workload. An election will be held soon to replace Eric for the rest of the term through December.

Note 3: TI WHQ has rolled out the new public and members only Web sites. These sites will take some getting used to, as they are now much different in look-and-feel. For the "Members Only" Web site, you will need to establish login information in order to access all the available goodies. Your member number (as shown on the label to your TOASTMASTER magazine) is your default login. From there you can request and be assigned a password from TI WHQ, which will be returned to you via email. However, one can still conduct club business without logging in as in the past, simply by registering the club number and club password (once you figure out how to get to that part of the Web site).

Time well Spent

VPE Angi Anderson led this meeting as TMOD with the theme of "Time Well Spent" in her usual style of "setting the bar high"! The speeches below were enjoyed by 15 members (including our newly inducted member, Margaret Stevens) and one guest. We also voted into membership Masami Maeda, an MIIS student from Japan - but she was unable to attend this particular meeting. Welcome, Margaret and Masami!

Here is Angi's poem, which codified the theme of the day:

For everything there is a season:
A time to speak, a time to wait
A time to listen and evaluate
A time to ah and a time to ding
A time to practice impromptu speaking
A time to join, a time to adjourn
A time to return control of the lectern.


Best Speaker was Arnie Buss, while Carl Thormeyer was selected as Best Evaluator for his evaluation of Fred Sadler's advanced speech. Most Improved was Margaret Stevens, in her initial foray into Table Topics! Meanwhile, the Best Table Topics award was won by Brian Anderson, who explained how he would use an hour of time prior to evacuating from "Hurricane Angi" (!!!).

Fred's #1 speech in the advanced manual Speaking to Inform, "The Oh So Different World of Identical Twins"


Arnie's #10 speech in his second time through the Competent Communication Manual, "Tell Me Who You Are"


Upcoming Events:

Sat 22 Sept: Area A-1/A-2 Contest (afternoon-ish).
Sat 29 Sept: Smedley Saturday, La Mesa Community Center (afternoon).
Sat 13 Oct: Division A Contest - afternoon - Aptos Academy in Aptos.

Toastmaster 1 and Toastmaster 2 ...

Saturday 25 August 2007
Advanced Manual Speech at Smedley Saturday!

In an intimate setting, Brian Anderson gave his first advanced manual project from the Interpretative Reading manual. His project to read a story was delivered to a "sellout" crowd of 1 other toastmaster at this Special Event Speechathon! In true Toastmaster fashion, it only takes an audience that includes another toastmaster to evaluate your presentation to get credit for the project. Today, Brian earned Best Speaker honors for his interpretative reading of the Dr. Seuss classic "The Cat in the Hat". Angi Anderson was Acting President, TMoD, Timer and Best Evaluator.
Stand by for our next Special Event Speechathon Smedley Saturday on Sep 29th.

Submitted by Brian Anderson

Food and ... Sockpuppets (?)

With a theme of "Food" (no, we didn't eat the sock puppets; but they threatened to eat us with their big long teeth - see Angi's speech video below), 14 members and 4 guests enjoyed another great meeting. And,two of the guests are submitting applications for membership! A third guest was visiting Toastmaster Ngan Tran from Evening Toastmasters in Capitola.

Alex and Leena shared the "Most Improved" award for their speeches, while Angi won another "Best Speaker" award for her very unique #9 persuasive speech. Glen Woodson was awarded "Best Evaluator" by GE Arnie Buss, while new member Amy Treadwell won "Best Table Topics" with a dissertation on Julia Childs as her favorite celebrity chef. Congratulations to all!

Here are the speeches:

Alex Bein's Icebreaker speech Junk Food Gestapo:



Leena Oh's #2 Speech, Adventures in Hiking:



Angi Anderson's #9 Speech, Fear Itself:



Touchdown Club:

Beaches, Water, and....Motivation!

What a great show for visiting Area Governor John Lente! Fourteen members and six guests (including two from MIIS) cheered on Brian Anderson's #10 speech (now our newest Competent Communicator) and Carl Thormeyer's final speech in the "Communicating on Television" Manual.

We also received the happy news of the birth of Eric Timmerman's baby. Congratulations to Eric and his wife!

Acting President Angi Anderson presented the "President's Distinguished Club" award ribbon for the 2006-2007 Toastmasters year - we achieved all 10 goals and World Headquarters has recognized this!

So far this new Toastmasters year (2007-2008) we have already achieved 3 goals outright and half of two additional goals out of 10 total - as once again we work to achieve "President's Distinguished Club" for the 6th time in 7 years!

Amy Treadwell's Opening Remarks (her first) - she won "Most Improved Speaker":



Angi Anderson's winning Table Topics:



Carl Thormeyer's speech #5 from the advanced manual Communication on Television: The Eight Steps to Making a Motion (Click on link to view the video).

Brian Anderson's #10 speech, When I Say Motivation... - he won "Best Speaker".



Arnie Buss' Evaluation of Brian's #10 speech - he won "Best Evaluator" (in a field of 1):



Upcoming events:

Saturday 25 August: Smedley Saturday - See Angi to speak.
Saturday 22 Sept: Area A1/A2 contest; venue TBD.
Saturday 13 Oct: Division A Contest - Aptos Academy.

Presidential Debates

Fourteen members and four guests cheered on Scott Wilbur in his inaugural run as TMoD with his theme of "Presidential Debates". The three excellent speeches follow:

Luke Lazzari's #4 speech about overcoming procrastination:


Shenequa Mitchell's #9 speech about how endings are really beginnings:


Karen Woodson's #4 speech about the joys of NASCAR racing, for which she won both "Best Speaker" and "Most Improved":


Angi Anderson's picture-perfect evaluation of Karen's speech, for which she won "Best Evaluator":


Peter Blouin led Table Topics with three questions related to elections and politicians. Here is Robin Walker's winning Table Topics speech:

General Evaluator Brian Anderson declares Scott's TMoD debut a touchdown...

Next week August 10th: Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation contests. We need everyone there to help select our winners to send on to the Area Contest in September!

Frustration!

Another great meeting.... 17 members and 8 guests became 19 members and 6 guests as we voted Amy Treadwell and Alex Bein into membership. Welcome, Amy and Alex! That brings our paid membership up to 40, so once again we are a "President's 40" club.

TMoD Fred Sadler became frustrated over his computer problems earlier in the week, but he got past that with a little help from his friends (especially Arnie) and that spawned the theme of "Frustration". Fred vented his as he started the program by singing a song of frustration.

Ryan Squires led us in Table Topics, where Scott Wilbur and Alex Bein tied for "Best Table Topics".

Karen Woodson won "Most Improved" for her #3 speech entitled "Have a little faith in yourself" (see below).

Angi Anderson followed with her #8 speech titled "Bag of Tricks", winning "Best Speaker" with her three piles of props representing her past, present and future (see below).

Andrew Kennedy then reported on his High Performance Leadership project, which was performed when he was an Area Governor (see below). Once the paperwork is accomplished, this completes Andrew's final requirement for Advanced Leader Silver.

Chance Litton won "Best Evaluator" for his first-time evaluation, beating out the club's graybeards Arnie Buss and Carl Thormeyer. Here is Chance's award-winning evaluation:

Coming up August 10th: Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests. Sign up with Angi to participate!

We're Back to Normal!

"Friday the 13th" didn't even merit a mention, as first-time TMoD Eric Timmerman led us through another great meeting with 17 members and four guests present. Eric's theme, "Hollywood and its Impact on your Life", was woven into the meeting throughout, as we all learned of each other's favorite movies.

To add icing on the cake, our visiting dignitary Division A Governor Tim Childers installed the new officers that were present. (Division A consists of 20+ clubs in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.)

Scott Wilbur led Table Topics, with Shenequa Mitchell capturing the "Best Table Topics" award with her dissertation on who she would like to play in a movie if she were a movie actress. New member Steve Scaggs (congratulations!) also participated; we specifically voted him into membership at the beginning of the meeting so he would be eligible for Table Topics!

We had three good speakers once again - Ned Powley gave his #6 speech about the different types of speech detractions (ahs, ums, like, you know, fade-aways, etc.). Chance Litton won "Best Speaker" for his strong defense of nuclear power while debunking the various nuclear power myths (his #2 speech). Arnie Buss won "Most Improved" for his third #2 speech (working on his 3rd CC) on "Servant Leadership".

"Best Evaluator went to Fred Sadler for setting the example with his excellent animated suggestions regarding Ned Powley's speech. General Evaluator was Carl Thormeyer.

Robin Walker as Wordmaster started what may become a new tradition in our club - if everyone uses the word, then the Wordmaster gets fined five cents as the word must have been too easy! (He didn't have to worry...)

Upcoming:
20 July: Chance Litton volunteered to be TMoD. Please help him and volunteer for a job!
28 July: Smedley Saturday. Sign up to speak with Angi.
10 Aug: Club Evaluation and Humorous Speech contest.

Surprise!

At our July 6th meeting, we had 11 members and four guests present (one of whom signed up after the meeting)! Alec Metz, with his smooth and flowing mastery of the English language, led us as TMoD in another terrific meeting with his theme of "surprises"!

The biggest surprise was that there was no assigned Table Topics Master! Instead, pieces of paper were attached to the bottom of each chair in the room, and the three lucky individuals with a black dot on their piece of paper got to each be a Table Topics Master and call on one person each! This went unexpectedly smoothly, with Scott Wilbur emerging as the "Best Table Topics" winner for his "Ugly American" diatribe about his menu expectations in a foreign country where he didn't speak the language! We even voted for a "Best Table Topics Master" among the three who drew the assignment - that award went to Leena Oh.

Oh, yes... we had speeches, too! Eric Timmerman was "Most Improved" for his #4 speech about camping in Big Sur. Scott Wilbur then won "Best Speaker" for his #3 speech on bone marrow, and how to be a donor. "Best Evaluator" was a tie between Glenn Woodson and Brian Anderson.

Another very pleasant surprise was the return of Michael Barksdale, who we promptly voted into membership!

We hope to see the rest of the active members back again soon now that the NPS term break is over. We can get a little lethargic when there are a lot of empty seats!

Upcoming events:
Mon July 16: Executive Board meeting, 6PM, La Mesa Community Center
Sat July 28: Smedley Saturday, 1PM(?), La Mesa Coomunity Center
(Sign up now with Angi to get one of the ten speaking slots)
Fri Aug 10: Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest