Advanced Toastmasters of Asheville

     New Member Idris Rasheed contemplates how he will respond to Glenda's prompt in table topics.      Toastmaster Rei Fuller gave insights into her Father’s Day theme.  The eyes and ears team was composed of the following:  Grammarian, Katherine Alford;  Timer, Tony Kombol, timer.      Stan Coss’s speech was titled “Speaking of Father’s Day. . . .”   He tried to encourage Father’s Day memories in his audience with three sets of memories of his own:  lessons in humility, self-control, and productivity.  His tales included a run-in with poison ivy, impact with spinach, a CB handle of “Red Eyes,” and “Crying in the Bucket.”  This was from the Entertaining Speaker manual, project three of Make Them Laugh.       Alicia Hughes’s speech was titled, “If It Could Talk.”  “What does it mean to touch history?” she asked.  She then described aspects of the Battle of Gettys...

      Toastmaster Alicia Hughes had us “flip our slides” for an interesting journey down memory May lane.  Members had individual mini-print-outs and Alicia had us look at a set of photos as she provided introductions and transitions.  These past May events included the Hindenburg airship disaster of May 6, 1937; the Supreme Court ruling unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional on May 17, 1954; the founding of the American Red Cross  by Clara Barton on May 21, 1881.       The eyes and ears team was composed of the following:  Stan Coss, ah-counter; Alicia Hughes; grammarian as well as being “agog” as word master; Tony Kombol, timer.         John Bowen’s speech was titled “I Hate this Speech.”  His entrance was a pugnacious one that included foot stomping, hand banging, and a kicked chair: just the sort of response a school system gets in requiring teachers to w...

Advanced Toastmasters practiced advanced listening skills as Toastmaster Tony Kombol spread enlightenment about the whole “April showers bring May flowers” scenario, with some science, some history, and some Old English to boot. The Eyes and Ears team was composed of the following:  ah-counter and grammarian, Alicia Hughes, who also offered “insipid” as the word of the day, meaning “uninteresting”;  timer, John Bowen. Rei Fuller’s presentation was titled “How to Listen Effectively.”  This was from the Success Communication Series, which normally runs 2-3 hours.  As this was an advanced club, she was done within 50 minutes time.  The workbook for this project was filled out by all audience members in the process of listening to all the information given.  Some group exercises were also completed. These were the techniques for better listening that were explained: L— Like to listen I — Ignore distractions S— Summarize T— Tame emotions E...

Greetings to our 10 guests for the open house!!  We hope you'll visit again any time.  If you join a local Toastmaster club, then before long you could soon join us, too, as a full-time member.  Check out the toastmasters.org site and search for a club near where you live.  As you can see in the map below, there are eight clubs in the immediate Asheville area. This will not be the traditional set of minutes as it was a non-traditional meeting.  Guest Speaker Brian Woolf has sampled the two sessions he led and has graciously approved the recordings to be put online.  These are on Youtube separately with the headings at the very bottom, and then all three are featured on the Speechmojo website.  The first video of the tools is 30 minutes; the second is the eight-minute test speaker, Stan Coss; the third is 26 minutes of the audience critique of the tools' use. President Rei Fuller acted as Toastmaster. The meeting began with a joke by Tim Edw...

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 repr...

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 ...

Toastmaster Rei Fuller introduced the theme of “It’s the Holidays.”  The room had been configured for the holidays due to Earth Fare’s need of  some meeting space for special packaging.  It wasn’t quite as dire as fitting a square peg into a cylinder hole, but as our first speaker said of Apollo 13, the new mission was accomplished. Guest Kathleen Klawitter’s speech was “A Successful Failure.”   She gave the background story of Apollo 13’s fuel tank explosion, the aftermath in switching from module to capsule, and the mission to return safely to earth.  She used objects to suggest the box and cylinder that had to be engineered to supply life-sustaining oxygen.  And, yes, duct tape, was revealed as a real life saver.  Her project was from the advanced manual on Storytelling, Project Five, Bringing History to Life. Tres Magner’s speech was titled “Dive in!  The Water’s Fine.”  It featured  Tres’s experience as a lifeguard at t...

                                                                                                                                                           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...

Toastmaster Deb Lee introduced the theme of autumn colors, and even if weather dictated fall colors not as spectacular as for some other autumns, the stage was already set for a spectacular (word of the day) meeting.   What makes an advanced Toastmasters club spectacular is the quality of the speakers, speakers so good that evaluators are hard pressed to give meaningful grows.   John Bowen’s speech was an invitation to “Dinner at John’s house.”  As hospitable a host John was, his power point slides gave images that looked like vegetarian garbage, which in fact was the fare.  The audience was to play the role of compost worms.  And John delivered in great humor our three job descriptions:  eat, shed worm castings, and make babies.  As John said, it was all a win-win in the worm bin.  His project was level two, project two in Presentation Mastery Pathways, Effective Body Language. Alicia’s speech, titled, “Bet You Didn’t K...

Toastmaster Rei Fuller introduced the theme of the 1970’s.  Katherine Alford, as grammarian, supplied “chill” as the word of the day and supplied various props to usher in the spirit of the 70’s.  Tim Edwards was timer and Alicia Hughes was ah-counter. Karen Alexander spoke on  “Directionally Challenged.”  She directed her audience in stories of delivering refreshments to a TLI with an unexpected detour, departing from a husband that was the nicest guy, and deciding that a Toastmaster that was an alcoholic was too much to take.   Her speech was the Pathways Leadership Development Project 2, Part 2 (Evaluation and Feedback). Doug Brown spoke on “History— The Greatest Story Ever Told.”  He began with Hammurabi, known for his code of law of ancient Mesopotamia dating to about 1754 BC.  Then he went to Moses and found parallels with Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.   He concluded by saying our own stories could be added to the ...

      Dada Maheshvarananda  and Linda Pierce both showed off their colorful garb in the opportune lighting provided by having the new lectern face the door.  It was all to face the Brave New World of Pathways.  Dada quoted classic masters of mentoring to underscore Linda’s presentation on Base Camp 101.  The basic theme was that advanced Toastmasters need to dig into Pathways in order to mentor, to be awakeners, to kindle the fire, to coach to create the stars in others.       Supporting roles were filled with Doug Brown as Grammarian, Rei Fuller as Ah Counter,  and Alicia Hughes as Timer.       Linda Pierce interspersed her 45 minute presentation with insightful information to enhance her handout and answer questions raised by an avid audience of present and future mentors.  Some basics included the thought that tutorials, the key to base camp, are delivered by people that talk fast, so be prepared to pa...

      Mike Kesselring felt right at home as Toastmaster and also in filling in as Sergeant at Arms.  His theme was “Going Home.”  Mike inducted the new officers by passing along his crystal gavel and reading out the duties:   President, Rei Fuller; Vice President Education, Deb Lee; Vice-President Membership, Alicia Hughes; Secretary, Stan Coss; Treasurer, John Bowen.  (Absent were Sergeant at Arms, Tres Magner; Vice-President Public Relations, Glenda Teams-Edwards).       Supporting roles were introduced with John Hayden as Ah Counter,  Brian Woolf using “unique” as the Word of the Day and as Grammarian,  and Karen Alexander as Timer.       Rei Fuller presented the Facilitating Discussion Project One on the topic of “Renewable Energy.”  She served as moderator for three distinguished panelists:  Dr. John Plant (John Bowen) on Biomass; Dr. Windy Blade (Alicia Hughes) on Wind Power; Dr. Sunny Brow...

Toastmaster Fern Webb got the meeting off to a rousing start with members singing a fresh rendition of Cohan’s “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”  The theme of Flag Day was unfurled for every transition of this spirited, full-fledged meeting.  Supporting roles were introduced with Rei Fuller as Ah Counter, Stan Coss “proclaiming” the Word of the Day and as Grammarian, and Beth DeLap as Timer. Toastmaster Fern Webb got the meeting off to a rousing start with members singing a fresh rendition of Cohan’s “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”  The theme of Flag Day was unfurled for every transition of the spirited meeting.  Supporting roles were introduced with Rei Fuller as Ah Counter, Stan Coss “proclaiming” the Word of the Day and as Grammarian, and Beth DeLap as Timer. Phyllis Kombol spoke on “Succession Planning is Like Discharge Planning.”  Succession planning meant talking one on one to recruit prospects for officers early on.  She said to start with the ending in mind...