The Westminster Dog Show

Toastmaster Katherine Alford whipped out her car keys and dog leash and had her audience’s ears perked and mouths salivating.  She is a dog lover, and it showed with her relish in describing the Westminster Dog Show theme. Two shared “Tiddlebits” included the Best in Show:  the smallest was the four and a half pound Pomeranian and the largest was the 150 pound Newfoundland.

The eyes and ears team was composed of the following:  ah-counter, Alicia Hughes; grammarian, Katherine; timer, Stan Coss, who has given the times below.

Dada Maheshvarananda’s speech was titled “The Best Advice I Ever Received.”  His project was practice for the international speech contest.  “It’s hard to believe,” he said, “but at age 21, I was rather normal.”  He took a free yoga class and began meditating twice a day to overcome stress.  He said all people want three things: be happy, be loved, and feel peace.  (He advanced to the area contest to represent the Asheville Toastmasters Club.) This wasn’t a Pathways Project as it was not appropriate.  Time: 6:25.

John’s speech was titled “You Don’t Really Know Me.”  John pointedly did not have an introduction by the Toastmaster until the end of the speech.  He showed the importance of using introductions before speaking to give the audience reason to listen and believe, pave the way for the speaker, give information the speaker may want known but not want to say directly, and to smoothly transfer power.  Examples, with tongue in cheek, were Brian wanting us to know he was abducted by aliens, Guest Dodd wanting us to know he was the crossing guard at the Doggie Day Care Center, and Rei wanting us to know she put down her pet goldfish.   This was Pathways, Presentation Mastery, Level Two, Understanding Your Communication Style.  Time: 7:40.

Phyllis’s speech was “Education for Ministry.”  This EFM purpose was to deepen the listener’s role as a lay person.  She spoke of seeing the world through the theological lens to understand God.  Her flip chart was drawn on in the course of her speech to reveal the ear, sound waves, the eyes, and brain.  This was CC manual, project two, organize your speech.  Time: 7:08.

Kathleen Klawitter was Table Topic Master and presented six prompts on a variation of the dog theme for Tony (1:50), Tres (1:15), Stan (1:30), Rei (1:33), Alicia (1:42), and Brian (1:40).

General Evaluator Rei Fuller introduced her evaluators for each of the speakers:  Tres (2:55) for Dada; Brian Roberts (3:22) for Phyllis; Tony (2:50) for John.  After each evaluation, Rei asked for a couple of remarks from members who volunteered for a round robin evaluation.  Next she introduced her eyes and ears team members for their reports.  Then Rei (13:48) gave her evaluation of the whole meeting.  She did ask that a member give a 5-7 minute speech for the open house to be evaluated based on Brian Woolfe’s techniques.  Stan Coss, seeing no one else coming forward and being unable to compete in the speech contest himself, submitted his name to Rei after her remarks were over.  

In attendance were the following: Rei Fuller, Stan Coss,  Alicia Hughes, John Bowen, Tony Kombol, Phyllis Kombol, Kathleen Klawitter, Katherine Anne Alford, Tres Magner, Guest Brian Roberts, and Guest Dodd Ellsworth.

The link for our club’s website is the following:   https://6988955.toastmastersclubs.org/

The next meeting will be on 3-16, with noted author Brian Woolf giving a 30 minute presentation on 

effective evaluations, the “test speaker” Stan Coss, a round robin of ATA evaluators, etc.  

Minutes submitted by Secretary Stan Coss.