A Toast to New Beginnings



Toastmaster Tres Magner led on the theme of New Beginnings.  He had the eyes and ears team explain their roles:  Glenda Teams-Edwards as ah counter, Linda Pierce as grammarian and introducer of the word of the day (auspicious), and Bob Pierce as timer.  

Tres then followed up on his theme.  His speech was titled “A Toast to New Beginnings,” and he toasted  Rei Fuller, our founder and president, for her vision to get our club up and running. He had members toast Rei with juice boxes.  He also toasted every individual member present by noting a memorable speech, image, or contribution each had made.  Then he toasted the club itself and encouraged members to find “the quiet ones to share their story.”  This was from the manual of  Special Occasion Speeches, “Mastering the Toast.”

Rei’s speech was “From the Big Bang to the Present.”  She dealt with the eight fundamental thresholds of big history.  The first four thresholds dealt with the origin of the big bang through the creation of the earth and solar system, and the last four dealt with life, homo sapiens, agriculture, and the modern revolution.  Rei’s exploration had been prompted by a big history course at the College for Seniors at UNC-A.  Her project was Pathways, Presentation Mastery, Level Two, Effective Body Language.  



John Bowen made some suggestions on Rei's Body Movement.

Tim Edwards’ speech was a  revision of his inspirational speech on “One More Minute” from the December meeting.  This showed refinements on his upcoming entry into the International Speech Contest.This was Pathways Motivational Strategies, Level One, Evaluation and Feedback.   
   


Tony Kombol was Table Topic Master and presented a form of “new” in the prompt for each participant.  Alicia felt prompted to use new, interesting body movement and sound effects in her TT.



General Evaluator  Phyllis Kombol introduced her evaluators for each of the speakers:  for Rei’s speech, John Bowen;  for James Magner’s speech, Stan Coss; for Tim Edward’s speech, Katherine Alford.  After each evaluation, Phyllis called on every single member and guests for remarks for a round robin evaluation.  Next She introduced the eyes and ears team members for their reports:  Glenda Teams-Edwards as ah-counter;  Linda Pierce for grammarian/word of the day; Bob Pierce for timer.  Then Phyllis gave her evaluation for what had not already been evaluated.  Two comments were to move the lectern and table out of the way as this in place could inhibit movement and consider using the blue card to signal that the 30 seconds after the maximum red card had been reached.

In attendance were the following: Rei Fuller, Stan Coss,  Glenda Teams-Edwards,  Tim Edwards,  Alicia Hughes, John Bowen, Tony Kombol, Phyllis Kombol, Katherine Alford, Tres Magner, Linda Pierce, Bob Pierce, and our two guests, Mark Shimkaitis and Lark Tragesser.

In a called business session, club members voted to eliminate the club new member fee of $10 and to lower the semiannual club dues from $15 ($2.50/month) to $9 ($1.50/month).  The club also decided on the bad weather policy.  Glenda Teams-Edwards will put it on the club website (https://6988955.toastmastersclubs.org).

Meeting Minutes submitted by Secretary Stan Coss; 
Rei Fuller recorded minutes for the Executive Committee in Stan’s absence

Attendance:  President Rei Fuller, VP Education and Treasurer John Bowen, VP Membership Alicia Hughes, VPPR Glenda Teams-Edwards, Sergeant at Arms Tres Magner

1.     Open House— An Open House is scheduled for 3/16/18 in conjunction with the Talk Up Toastmasters award.  We will receive a Talk Up Toastmasters ribbon if we recruit 5 new or reinstated members.  We decided not to offer a discount of the club membership dues but ask the new members to pay $63.00 (International dues of $52.50 and club dues of $10.50) through September 2019.
We will solicit door prizes from local businesses and possibly ATA members.  We should give a gift to the keynote speaker Brian Woolf.  We should give an IRS 501(c)(3) designation letter when we solicit gifts from local businesses so that they will get a tax deduction.  We should also tell them we will recognize them as gift donors. The gifts are for guests and those members who have the most guests joining the club.

2. President Report— We may be able to achieve 9 DCP goals but need members.  We currently have 18 members and have lost 3 members and likely lose two more who have not attended meetings.

3. Vice President Education Report—International Speech and Table Topics Contest scheduled for 2/16/19.  Tim Edwards and Dada Maheshvarananda are Int’l Speech contestants, Tres Magner TT contestant.
Rei Fuller will ask Dada Maheshvarananda if he would compete at his home club and possibly Area 1 and forgo competing at ATA so that we do not have to hold a contest.

4.   Treasurer’s report by John Bowen for 9/1/18 through 1/18/19,  shows income of $817.50, expenses of $754.22, and net income of $63.28, with the ending balance of $498.28

There are some opportunities to help out youth groups with their competitions by serving as judge.

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