It's Time to Hit the Road!

The meeting today was planned to be a dry run for a workshop we are hoping to do for the Chamber of Commerce members on June 7. We are prepared after today to do it for them or take to other businesses or organizations as an outreach to educate about Toastmasters.

We had a visitor today in Stanley Yurth who is in sales. He was very helpful in giving feedback about the quality and format of the workshop.

Betty McCallister served as Leader of the workshop after Don Groff did our customary opening of thought for the day and pledges. Judy Groff conducted an Ice Breaker to help members become better acquainted and ready to learn. Everybody was asked to get up and find someone to share two things: 1) what do they really like about living in Hendersonville; 2) what do they like most about Toastmasters. Judy explained that this will be very close to what will take place at the workshop.

Jackie Branscum did a speech on “The Bare Bones of an Effective Presentation”. This will serve as the meat for organizing the speech. It will be followed by an exercise conducted by Judy that will engage participants in utilizing the points Jackie makes in her speech.

The next speaker was Don Groff doing his speech, “Pickles” which is about communicating effectively. Don used a story to capture the importance of communicating effectively and the tools of voice, gestures, and body language. After Don finished, Judy followed with a small group discussion of what he did that captured their attention and made the speech memorable.

Stan Coss followed with a speech about making a speech interesting. The core of his speech was on collecting personal stories and using them in speeches. Stan had an exercise included in his presentation, but at the workshop, Judy will follow-up with another short exercise to make his ideas personal for each participant.

Melinda filled in impromptu fashion with a speech on Why she joined Toastmasters. At the workshop that portion will be followed with a sharing in triads of personal goals in speaking.

 And what would a TM meeting of any sort be without table topics!  Karla Reese did great pinch hitting to fill in with assorted, challenging prompts.

The meeting ended with a quick feedback session. 


Newcomer Stanley and Old-timer Stan speak with Jackie and Betty,
two of the coordinators for the "touring" show.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Who is that Masked Man?"

Image
  In Attendance:  Jeanne Resen, Karen Alexander, Brad Deinst, Judy Groff, Don Groff, Dick Miley, Susann Swan, Sally Jones, Ron Climer, Hoyt Griffith, Betty McAllister, Melinda Lowrance, James Bender, Stan Coss, and guest Mitchell Robinson. Our Toastmaster, Don Groff, began with a timely theme, “Who is That Masked Man?”   He intertwined stories of Pandemic masks with the infamous Lone Ranger, the ultimate Masked Man. Our newest Toastmaster, Dick Miley, shared his passion with a delightful tale on a few of his bicycling experiences.  My favorite was the Rocky Mountain adventure with the wild goats demanding a toll of stacks, apples and oranges. As Dick progressed through stopped traffic, the goats followed him, releasing the cars to proceed.  I evaluated Dick’s WHY speech and thoroughly enjoyed learning more about his bicycling adventures.  We now know WHY. Jeanne Resen, our resident thespian,  charmingly share several stage experiences, one of which involved two of her granddaughters as
Read more

We Need YOUR Help!!

Image
Ray Daley premiered as Toastmaster on July 10, 2020.  On his theme of baseball, he mentioned a story of Jackie Robinson who felt all alone before a riotous, insulting crowd.  One teammate crossed over part of the field to help him and silence the crowd.    This has some real relevance to our Toastmaster club. How you ask?  Well, we have one lone speaker, one speaker only to face a wide audience.  That speaker is the only one that has signed up for the next four months of speaking! ! !  One lone speaker  for four months. Do we have such a riotous, insulting audience that speakers are afraid to speak.  Of course not!  So, why not offer to help that speaker and help that audience and  sign up right now online.  Just cross on over to the online schedule and support our club with this gesture.  Our club cannot exist without speakers, and that is the one role that you will never  be "voluntold" to do.   In the next four months there are about 30 spea
Read more

Longevity and a Quality of Life that Matters

Image
Toastmaster Brad Dienst gave interesting insights and interludes into longevity, and Word Master Susann Swan supported the theme with "venerable."  Joke Master Betty McCallister incited laughter with a teenage son whose father with the wisdom of Solomon withheld driving privileges:  if Jesus and others of his time had long hair, that did not mean the teen could forego cutting his hair and still get a car to drive.  Jesus and others also did not have motorized vehicles. Speaker Stan Coss converted his back pocket speech before another club two weeks ago into a Pathways project that emphasized body movement.  His title was "These Black Lives, especially, Mattered."  He explained how three people gave lessons in a life that mattered.       Truth be told, the slide used above, along with the mule, was much smaller than Stan recalls.  The mule at times had to pull a rubber-tired wagon loaded with green tobacco leaves, not just through the tobacco field r
Read more