Talking Turkey while having Fun

                                                      

                                                                                                    Toastmaster John Bowen served up a feast of Turkeymania.  He said Turkey sold guinea fowl throughout Europe.  Upon first seeing our turkey in the new world, Europeans named it for “Turkey” for its similarity to the guinea.  This was all “bracing,” Tony Kombol’s word of the day, meaning fresh or invigorating.

          Bob Pierce’s speech,  “The Killer,” was a personal story about Jerry Lee Lewis, who has been described as rock & roll's first great wild man.  Bob had been asked to be a co-pilot to fly Lewis to a concert engagement.  Bob was to give a flight lesson back at home the next day, so he was under a tight schedule, but the price of $200 some 30 years ago was an offer he couldn’t refuse. There was thunder rolling in, and Lewis’s party in the back of the plane was going crazy.  The plane, in Bob’s words, was “rocking and rolling,” and he was assigned the mission to try and get Jerry Lee to settle down.  Bob had things thrown at him in the process, but he helped land the plane safely on his first and last flight with “the Killer.”  This was the Connect with Storytelling project with Pathways. 

         Dada Maheshvarananda’s speech was “Spiritual Activism.”  Why, he questioned, would a peace-loving monk feel righteous anger.  He sees suffering, like in the three million children that die each year of hunger, the 40 million in the US who live below the poverty line, and the seven million who die worldwide due to air pollution.  He spoke of other activists who sought justice, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Arch Bishop Tutu.  Dada said he also was filled with hope for the moral power of the people in this most important time in history.  This was the Level 2, Project 2 of Pathways in the use of body language.

     

     Tres Magner spoke on “Beginning Your Speech,” from the Better Speaker Series module.  He encouraged his audience with ways to make a speech as "memorable as a grizzly bear attack."  He prodded us with tools to include and things to avoid in our speech toolbox.  What to include items were the following:  state the importance, audience participation, arouse curiosity, get to the point, suspense, memorable stories, rhetorical questions, humor, and quotes.  Things to avoid included the following: dullness, telling how long it took or excuses for unpreparedness.

Rei Fuller, as Table Topics Master, gave various prompts on the Thanksgiving theme, with Tony Kombol, Stan Coss, John Bowen, Idris Rasheed, and Katherine Alford as participants.

Katherine Alford was General Evaluator and introduced her evaluators for the main prepared speakers:   Deb Lee for Bob’s; Phyllis Kombol for Dada’s; and herself for Tres’s.  She continued a round-robin for each speaker after the evaluator finished, with other members making their own comments.  Next she introduced the eyes and ears team to give their reports:  Deb Lee for Ah-counter; Tony Kombol for Grammarian; Stan Coss for Timer.  Finally, she concluded with her own remarks.

Tony Kombol was escorted out by Sergeant of Arms Tres Magner so the quorum of nine members could vote on his induction, which was unanimous.  “A Toastmaster’s Promise” was read out by all.  Then Tony was installed as a club member.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:38 and then a short executive board meeting was held for three main issues:  1) It was decided that members could be polled to see if any were interested in being appointed to represent ATA in the area’s International Speech and Table Topics Contest to be over at least by April 6th.  Club contests need to be held by March 15; 2) Brian Woolf was to be contacted to see if he could give a workshop on evaluation for the March meeting; 3) Deb Lee announced the need of a VP Education, as she needed to step back for a while from all Toastmaster duties and roles.  The board commended her on her very positive contributions.

Katherine Alford reacts to an element in the speech toolbox while Dada meditates on its deeper meaning.   It was observed that the train of thought got just a bit off the track as it went around the bend. 

Tres did his best to keep the train on track and make his points with good humor and insight.

In attendance were the following: Tony and Phyllis Kombol, Stan Coss, John Bowen, Guest Idris Rasheed, Deb Lee, Bob Pierce, Tres and Guest Karen Magner, Rei Fuller, Dada Maheshvarananda, and Katherine Alford.

Bob Pierce is having too much fun with the tool box as Guest Idric Rasheed looks on.


President Rei Fuller made this clarification on the speech contest:  

"We will poll the members on whether anyone is interested in representing ATA at the area International Speech and Table Topics Contest.  If only one expresses interest in either contest, we can designate him/her as our club representative; however, if more than one member expresses interest in either contest, we need to hold a contest."

Dec. 15th, as the third Saturday, will be our next meeting.

Minutes submitted by Stan Coss, ATA Secretary.