Waiting for Results

Today was a big day for Four Seasons Toastmasters. In addition to a great meeting, our meeting was video recorded to be featured as part of an English curriculum for international students. We also did an outreach event at Pardee Hospital and had our monthly officers meeting (notes below, including information on the upcoming TLI conference for those interested).

In honor of the election this week, Hoyt chose the theme "Waiting for Results" as meeting leader. 

Michael and Sally were our featured speakers. Michael's Research Project from the Pathways program was about the Russian Adoption Program and his personal story of adoption. Sally gave the second half of her Evaulation and Feedback Integration Project and gave an improved version of her speech called "The Hero and the Peach", an entertaining account of her family history. 

Stan brought a newspaper to the meeting and used some of current events to create speech prompts as Table Topic Master. The prompts fit into the "Waiting for Results" theme, and subjects included sports and politics.

Nathan and Ron were our speech evaluators, and some of the feedback included adding more humor, embracing the silence, and being mindful of "Um's" and "Ah's" as they detract from the quality of the speeches. Don Groff ended our meeting as General/Table Topic evaluator. 

Thanks to our Eyes and Ears Team:  Grammarian - Don E.; Ah Counter - Judy; Word Master - Melinda;Timer - Jeanne

And thanks to our two guests, Vanessa and Ann Marie, for joining us! 

Don faced no backlash from the Word Master as he used the word of the day; he was clearly driven with excitement with his table topic that anticipated the start of the college basketball season.

Here are our officer meeting notes/reports:

Stan - Treasurer

The next TLI, the leadership training,  will be not be close by, as Concord is two hours away, just outside Charlotte. Two meals will be included in the registration fee of $29.99. The keynote speaker will be the Toastmaster Susan Khan, who was featured on the cover of the April Toastmaster Magazine. Stan said he thinks the club can support four members going at a total cost of $120. Jeanne, Sally, and Stan have already expressed interest in attending.

Melinda - Sergeant at Arms

The Speech Contest team is searching for either another venue or maybe another go with Interfaith Ministries. We all thanked Melinda for pursuing this for the club.

Nathan - Secretary

Reported the blog will continue the member focus but not in every week’s post. He thinks twice a month perhaps. We commended Nathan on use of pictures creatively. He thinks Amy’s work with us on using Facebook better will be very helpful.

Sally - VP Education

All the sign-up schedules through December are complete. Need to begin work on January. We discussed promoting who will be speaking and on what topic at the end of the meetings and also featuring in the blog for that week. This is something we agreed will take a team effort.

Jeanne - VP Membership

Reports that while we picked up another new member in Ruthie, we are falling behind in the projected goal for the month. 

Judy - President

Requested that the notes from this officers meeting be shared on the blog.  She also noted that it would be nice to include pictures and a report of the workshop being held November 7 at Pardee Hospital. Nathan is taking these requests under advisement.