Trial of a New Format



We had a slightly different look to the meeting today. The theme was “Change is in the Air”. Stan Coss, Toastmaster, took us on a lively trip exploring a new format suggested to shake up things a bit. The purpose being to see if we can get more table topics into the meeting line-up. He did accomplish that.

 We skipped the Pledge of Allegiance and went straight from Sergeant at Arms calling the meeting to order to Toastmaster taking charge. The agenda is an important tool in this format as it has the responsibilities of each member of the Eyes and Ears Team printed in a side-bar. Don Groff, Word Master and Grammarian did respond to a prompt from Stan to give us the word of the day. Don Glovan and Hoyt, Timer and Ah-counter respectively were given one prompt for only one to respond to. The prompt had to do with the protest gesture of taking a knee at sporting events. Don Glovan responded, reluctantly.

Our speaker was Ron Climer with a persuasive speech entitled, “You Need a Document Reader” Ron introduced us to the Reader which is old school in concept but delivered in high technology fashion. This “must have” reader tool costs approximately $350 and allows the user to show visuals that can be written on paper or from print. It plugs into a regular projector or computer. Judy’s evaluation suggested it would have been fun to actually do a demonstration of a cold call presentation with a volunteer from the audience. 

Jackie Branscum gave us a Mentoring Moment focusing on improving meetings by dedicating ourselves to self sign-up of roles. The link for doing this will be sent each week with the meeting notes.

Stan was also Table Topics Master and gave simple prompts that focused on changes of different sorts. There was plenty of time for table topics today. 

The Eyes and Ears Team gave excellent reports and Brad Dienst finished with a General Evaluation.  Check out the club website at fourseasonstoastmasters.com

Comments

  1. ToastmastersJanuary 10, 2018 at 3:04 PM

    I can still see the first stunning protest during our national anthem. It was at the Olympics in 1968, and two athletes stood with their medals on and raised their fists. At age 13, I didn't understand all the symbolism, but I did experience, at least on TV, the turbulent times, with the Vietnam war raging, and the assassinations of leaders. I remember vividly seeing protests in my little Southern town after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and I remember being in the middle of desegregation of schools. We don't often mix politics with speaking at TM. So, I understand reluctance to address a prompt on the anthem. But I also appreciate the importance of speaking on heartfelt topics. I have just such a topic for my speech next week.

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