FS Toastmasters

Toastmaster Sally Jones  welcomed two returning guests, Nathan Garnett and Jeanne Resin. The meeting was totally informational about the new Pathways Program which is going to replace the current educational program. Our official Pathway Guide and guest speaker was Sharon Port, member of Land of Sky Toastmasters and former Area 1 Director. Sharon gave us an overview of the program, it’s contents and how we can get started. The program is projected to allow more flexibility to members because it is self paced. There are five competencies. Four of the five can be taught and include Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Strategic Leadership, and Management. The fifth competency is Confidence which is a result of the other four being achieved. There are five levels and 59 projects in all. The curriculum is most accessible and available on line. There are numerous tutorials on line that are not available in hard copy format. The hard copy format is available for an added $25 c...

Carol Walters, President and Toastmaster for the day, set the theme of this meeting, Stand Up, Stand Out. The word of the day was “Reconcile”. We had two guests that were real standouts: Nathan Garnett, a Mills River resident specializing in long term care insurance, and Ernest Mowell with the League of Women Voters.  (It was great to have guests and some members hanging out afterwards.) Brad Dienst was Grammarian in addition to being Wordmaster. Stan Coss was Ah Counter, Melinda Lowrance assisted Hoyt Griffith on Timer and Jackie Branscum got us happy as Joke master. Sally Jones did Project 1 from the Persuasive Speaking Manual. She gave us the main points of knowing your audience, getting their attention, and finding what they want or need and then making the close. She followed this with a demonstration with volunteer Betty McCallister. Judy had Table Topics around the theme of Stand Up, Stand Out. Don, Brad, Stan, Jackie and Melinda all responded to prompts focused on adv...

Jackie Branscum, Toastmaster, had us Listening: Two Ears and One Mouth. This was the theme of the day and she quizzed us at the end of the meeting with three simple questions to see if we indeed were listening. Don Groff was Timer, Ron Climer, Joke Master, Sally Jones, Ah Counter, and Hoyt Griffith, Word Master and Grammarian. The word of the day was “holus-bolus” (all at once). We had two guests, Arlene Dwayne Hemingway, DTM, and Tomai Webb. Melinda Lowrance gave her Ice Breaker speech titled, “The Renaissance Woman”. We learned about all the many different roles Melinda plays plus owning and operating her cleaning business. The second speaker was Judy Groff doing project #4 from the Interpretive Reading Advanced manual. This project was a Monodrama where she had to project a character while engaging another unseen character. She did an “Introduction to Winnie the Pooh”. Brad Dienst as Table Topics Master, used a strategy of citing six people which we were supposed to remember...

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...

“What’s Up?”, the theme for our first meeting of the 2018 year, featured several new possibilities for doing things at our meetings.  The room was set in a semi circle arrangement partly because the tables were still standing in the room and partly because we have had a  recommendation to change the room seating to make it more intimate. Did it work? Ivan Beggs presented a memorable speech on “Impromptu Speaking” from the Better Speaker Series. As a DTM, Ivan is using this speech to complete a second Advanced Communicator Silver Award. He said he chose impromptu speaking because we use this skill daily. He gave us strategies for approaching an impromptu opportunity and a simple process to be effective win delivering the message. Most important he said is to be brief, confident, and sincere. In her evaluation, Jackie Branscum said she couldn’t find any meaningful “grows” to improve Ivan’s speech. The audience had a couple of minor thoughts. Don Groff the second speaker...

Some Toastmasters had to go to work or other engagements, but after the regular meeting at LPL, these Toastmasters carried on the last TM fun and fellowship of 2017 at Starbucks. Jackie and Sally took charge at LPL and planned an unusual, fun meeting. We only had a timer, Don Groff, a speaker, Judy, and the rest was fun in a Group Story and in Table Topics. Judy did a poem for Project 2 in the advance manual, Interpretive Reading. She read the classic poem, "The Night Before Christmas" which set the stage for the rest of the meeting.  For the group story, Jackie just gave the first prompt, which was “Twas the night before Christmas and ….."  Ron picked up the story leaving us in a Catholic Church for a Christmas Eve service, followed by Betty, Hoyt, Don Groff, Sally, Don Gloven, Ivan, Jim, Melinda, and ended by Judy. Everyone contributed to this story which convoluted into multiple situations about a box of various sizes with lots of presents hidden inside...

(The officer meeting followed the regular meeting; the regular meeting had a Christmas theme and the board meeting had the theme of building membership.  Some ideas from the officer meeting resonated from ideas presented two weeks prior at the officer training.  VP of Membership Betty McCallister, R, and VP of Education Sally Jones, L, show eagerness to learn.) After some role clarification, we had a fun and entertaining meeting. Carol served as Toastmaster, Brad was Grammarian, Hoyt as Wordmaster, Gon Gloven as Ah Counter, Jackie as Timer (and Ron read off the good and naughty list as GE) . Don Groff told a great joke about a parrot that used lots of swear words.  Stan Coss was our only speaker, but he was enough. He captured our full attention and kept it during his Interpretive reading titled the “Drowning Man”. This was a play with three characters by Anton Chekov and adapted to by Neil Simon. Judy’s evaluation spoke highly of Stan’s technique in diffe...