FS Toastmasters

Stan Coss was Toastmaster and chose  Women’s History Month as the theme. We learned much about “Homer Blanchard,” the first woman in Toastmasters who later became International President. Curiously, it was the men in her club who were her advocates and helped her join under the Homer alias when women were not allowed. We learned more interesting facts about women in leadership positions and other situations during Table Topics. Ron Climer was grammarian, and word master. The word of the day he chose was “bonafide”. It means authentic, genuine. Ah-counter was Melinda Lowrance and Timer was Jackie Branscum. Sally Jones told a very funny joke to get us in the right mind frame. Then Nathan did his Icebreaker. Nathan was funny, articulate and very well organized in his presentation. His title said it all in “Band Nerds, Political Mishaps, and Escaping the Corporate World”. We gave him several standing ovations. Speaker #2 was Rei Fuller, our Division Director and two time D...

After Don Groff, Sergeant at Arms, did the opening Pledge of Allegiance , Carol Walters, President, introduced Judy Groff as Toastmaster. Judy chose “Bring on Springtime!” as the theme. She noted it is also Pi Day, which notes the significance of math in our daily lives. First on the agenda Judy introduced Betty McCallister, VP Membership, to conduct the Induction of New Members Ceremony. We voted to induct Nathan Garnett and Melinda Lowrance as new members.  (Jeanne Resen's induction will come soon; she could not join us today due to the weather.) Following the ceremony Nathan gave us a joke as Jokester. Judy then introduced the Evaluation Team of Don Groff, Timer with Nathan shadowing him; Don Glovan as Ah Counter; Sally Jones, Grammarian and Word Master. Sally presented the Word of the Day as  assume . Judy introduced Stan Coss as Speaker #2. He was doing project 3 from the Advanced Storytelling Manual. He developed this from a TV show called Myth Busters. His ...

Betty McCallister was Toastmaster for our March 7 meeting. The theme she chose was “Looking at things from a different perspective.” Area Director Ed McGowan was special guest. After the opening pledge and comments from President Carol Walters, Toastmaster Betty introduced Ed McGowan to bring remarks from the Area. He reminded us all that dues are due March 31. We need more new members. The other important date he highlighted was the Area Speech Contest to be held at Habitat for Humanity in Asheville on April 7. He also encouraged us to register for the District 37 Conference in Charlotte May 4-6. He said there is an opportunity for the club to sponsor a basket to be auctioned in the Silent Auction as a fundraiser. He said this is a great way to promote our town. Hoyt Griffith told a couple of very humorous jokes involving dogs. The Eyes and Ears Team were the following: Grammarian/ Word Master, Ivan Beggs; Ah Counter, Nathan Garnett, Timer, Sally Jones. The word of the day wa...

Ron Climer took care of Toastmaster duties at today’s meeting. After a prompt opening by Don Groff, Sergeant at Arms and President Carol Walters, Ron handed off to Joke Master Don Glovan. Don gave us a great funny story about Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick. The Evaluation team included Nathan Garnett as Grammarian, Carol Walters as Word Master, Stan Coss as Timer, and Sally Jones as Ah Counter. Judy Groff was Speaker 1 doing her inspirational speech she plans to deliver at the Area International Speech Contest on  April 7 . The title was “Finding My Voice” which focused on her journey with Multiple Sclerosis. She was interested in solid, constructive feedback and got that both from Evaluator Jeanne Resin and from the group as a whole.  Hoyt Griffith gave us a Mentoring Moment about Table topics. He said he overcame his fear of Table Topics by inventing a clever strategy he called Table Topics Tango. After describing how he used that, he said he can’t recommend u...

Toastmaster for the day Sally Jones focused on Presidents since we just celebrated President’s Day. Stan as Table Topics Master did the Valentines topics which time didn’t permit doing last week.The word of the day that Brad Deinst selected was “nimble.” The Evaluation Team included Brad, also doing Grammarian, Ron Climer (with Nathan Garnett shadowing) doing Ah Counting, Betty McCallister doing Timer. Speaker #1 was Jackie Branscum. She did the second project from the Competent Communicator Manual on Organizing Your Speech. She motivated us to purge all our STUFF. This is Jackie’s second time doing this manual. Ivan Beggs did Project #`1 from the Persuasive Speaking Manual. He recruited Sally to be a customer at the Beggs Appliance Store. His goal was to show us how to meet a new customer, read them, and make a sale. For Table Topics, Stan started with prompts about love of objects before progressing to more complex aspects of love. He got our two new members, Nathan Garnett a...

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...