FS Toastmasters

Hoyt served as Toastmaster on the theme of "State Fairs."  He fared well in recruiting two members to very capably fill in at the last minute: Don Emon with a speech on squatter rights and Don Groff with being joke master.  "Concessions" was John Glover's word of the day. Don E. conceded that you need to keep watch of any property that you have.  A squatter may encroach within a 10-year period and take hold if not discovered.  Jeanne Resen planted herself firmly with a mostly glowing evaluation. Ron Climer gave his storytelling with a moral project.  He said from age 13-15 as a Floridian he helped load up watermelons in the field at the end of each row.  His task was to heave up the watermelon about seven feet for the foreman to catch and stack.  Unfortunately, his summer's work was made more difficult as the double axle tractor became in vogue.  It could pull a flatbed with a heavier load, which meant his seven foot heave became only fi...

Today, we were privileged to see two of our newest members give their first speeches. Amy and Michael both gave their Ice Breaker speeches which is a way to formally introduce yourself to the group, and both did excellent jobs. Amy's speech was a moving one titled "Performing for a Different Audience," and she talked about her life of performing: Piano, Dance, Magician's Assistant, Her Children, Her Customers, and Her Fellow Toastmasters. Amy was later evaluated by Brad who described her speech as picturesque and gave her glows such as word choice and evoking emotion as well as grows such as trying to get more comfortable speaking away from the lectern. Michael's speech was biographical in nature as he discussed being a fifth generation Henderson County resident, his family's business Piggy's where everyone in the family is involved, his work as an attorney at Van Winkle Law Firm, and his newest venture being the Chairman for the Hendersonvi...

John Glover breathed a deep sigh of relief after NAILING his Ice Breaker speech.   "Always Prepared" was the theme of today's meeting. Amy Sahf had her debut as Co-Toastmaster and led our meeting alongside Karen Alexander.  Brad gave our meeting a humorous start with a joke about a frog, a fortune teller, and a most unfortunate realization for the frog that his future would involve a biology class, a student princess, and a scalpel.  We had two Ice Breaker speeches. The first was from John who spoke on his work life as a financial advisor, his home life as a dog lover and easy commuter, his athletic life as a  triathlete , and what he hopes to gain in his new Toastmaster life. Stan was our second speaker and gave his Ice Breaker speech as part of the Pathways program - 4 and a half years after his first Ice Breaker speech. He spoke on his love of art, drawing, and public speaking and about his upcoming project which will be teaching a public spea...

Co-Toastmasters Karla Reese and John Glover provided the theme of vacations which was reinforced by Table Topics Master Judy Groff.  She had us imagine the benefits of travel as well as the negative points.  This led to a debate between Hoyt Griffith and Melinda Lowrance.  In his table topic, Hoyt picked benefits and spoke to seeing always new places rather than returning to old haunts.  Melinda grabbed ahold of the negative side in her fear of flying, avoidance of older drivers, run-ins with discourteous hotel staffers, and especially, having to fumigate against dust mites and bed bugs.   Stanley Yurth gave his ice breaker to say how in Toastmasters and in his career he was becoming a better version of himself.  He said his mother had migrated from Hondurous and met his dad in 1998.  He described how he'd become an entrepreneur with electronics.  Jeanne Resen gave a Powerpoint on Team Building.  She gave us lots of take aways t...

Nathan led our meeting as Toastmaster of the Day. He chose the theme "Sleep: The Lost Third of your Life" and sprinkled in some interesting facts, weird phenomena, and helpful advice throughout the meeting to encourage us to appreciate and respect our nightly slumber. The theme of sleep was also incorporated by our Word Master, Stanley, who chose the word "siesta." This was also reinforced by our Table Topics Master, Don Glovan, who had all the table topic participants speak "progressively," coming to the front simultaneously and talking about a continuous dream, picking up from where the last person left off.   We had two speakers. Speaker 1 was Hoyt Griffith who's project was called Speaking to Inform. He tackled a very difficult subject: Universal Basic Income. He focused on both the economic and emotional benefits of having a UBI and helped us visualize a near future where a UBI could redefine work, leisure time, and humanitarian p...

Sally Jones led our meeting from the lectern as Co-Toastmasters of the day.  Stanley Yurth was Co-Toastmaster from his seat but led in revolutionary fashion by creating a special template for the agenda.  He made this available to all members in Google Docs. Our Eyes and Ears team were as follows: Melinda Lowrance as Ah Counter, Brad Dienst as Grammarian, Don Groff as Timer, and Ron Climer as Word Master. Sally and Stanley included the descriptions of their roles on the agenda which was helpful for our guests. Our guests included   Bernie Fox, Beth Cohen, Diane Emon, and Julia.  Ron introduced our Word of the Day, bellicose, which he defined as an adjective that means demonstrating aggression. "Bellicose" was used abundantly throughout the meeting. He filled in as joke master to kick off our meeting with an impromptu joke about St. Peter and The Pearly Gates. We had two speakers today. Our first speaker was Melissa English who's project was called How to...

Our meeting this week revolved around the theme of Work in Progress, a theme given by our president and Toastmaster of the Day Judy Groff, that represented some of the changes we're undergoing now that we're in the new year. We were honored with two guests this week, Bernie Fox and Margaret Davis. The Eyes and Ears team were as follows: Karla Reese as Grammarian, Brad Deinst as Timer, Michael Thompson (shadow) and Melinda Lowrance as Word Masters (Word of the Day: Progress), and Don Groff as the Ah Counter. After being thoroughly entertained with a joke from Don Gloven, we heard from our first speaker Stan Coss with a project was from the Informative Speaking Advanced Manual, the Fact-finding report.  He was to conclude with a question and answer section. Stan gave a very entertaining and informative speech on the destruction of the district-wide Toastmaster's Humorous Speech Contest. He proposed that we keep the humorous speech contest alive at the club level and e...