FS Toastmasters

Jeanne Resen gave an "Anatomy of a Show" with eight different roles of those in theatre.  Seven of these are behind the scenes: the playwright; the producer; the director; the set and sound and light designers; the stage manager.  Of course there's the actor as well who lives out the role of someone else.  Jeanne gave lots of insights as she has filled all the roles multiple times and currently is heading up a play in Brevard.  Her antagonists, of sorts with this speech, were three interrupters or disruptors that were planted in the audience.  One objective for her project was to handle this disruption smoothly, and she did.  Susann Swan was her evaluator. Karen Alexander was the Toastmaster, and she gave highlights about Dr. Martin Luther King and other effects of Dreams.  Josh Gravley was Word Master with "surfeit," meaning excess or overabundance. Judy Groff acted out her part as the most persistent disruptor.  FSTM is honored ...

Actually, Danielle Messer is responding to a prompt on her favorite winter Olympic sport, skiing, which she described with falling on her posterior, picking up speed, and being deposited in the woods.  But she might just as well have been describing a bout between Clemson and LSU. The meeting's Toastmaster was Caitlin Owens, who gave some interesting observations on the winter theme.  Judy Groff as GE complimented Caitlin in her role.  Judy also evaluated the six responders to table topics by Karen Alexander. Stan Coss speech was on "A-walkin'."  It was about his departing with a portion of one of his organs under the watchful care of a Pardee Hospital surgeon.  It was the simple act of walking that allowed his quick recovery.  Melinda Lowrance was his evaluator. In table topics, Betty McCallister spoke of feeling like a foreigner sometimes despited being a Henderson County native.  Jeanne spoke with satisfaction about her son's ma...

Veteran Toastmaster Betty McCallister was the "fill-in" TM for this first meeting of the year with a fully lined up, printed out agenda with only the Toastmaster position to be decided.  Don Glovan gave the joke for the day. Karen Alexander gave a sampling of an International Speech, the variety that is to be part of the February 7th speech contest.  She gave an inspiring speech on "Attitude is Everything."  She gave examples of how a smile can make a great difference.  Her attitude check included a number of great ideas transferable to Toastmasters, such as thinking only "I got to do it" versus "I get to do it." Stan Coss was Karen's evaluator.  Table Topics Master Wendy Whitaker gave various prompts that included reflections on the past year The Eyes and Ears Team consisted of the following:  Word Master (Resolution), Caitlin Owens; Grammarian, Molly Garnett; Timer, Hoyt Griffith; Ah Counter, Carole Kitchen, who gave the start...

Table topics were comfortably, effectively run at four tables for the thirteen in attendance that included two guests.  It was a great time to become better acquainted in the delivery of one to two minute responses to the prompts that were randomly drawn from the center of each table.  Each response was timed and then reacted to with grows and glows. Mary Beth Dallman and Carole Kitchen told of graduating from leadership training at Pardee earlier in the week.  They joined Caitlin Owens in each giving a speech before a gathering of over 30 people. They were in a select group of only five people giving speeches of about four minutes each.  It was a great use of the skill they'd been learning in Toastmasters.  Josh Gravley, at Mary Beth's table,  had returned from a week before showcasing his speaking skills as well with a visit to Winston Salem representing our club in the Humorous Speech Contest.  The next contest at our club is a quick...

"Home for the Holidays" was the theme of the meeting with Karen Alexander as Toastmaster.  Candy canes served up a second prompt for table topic responders like Jeanne Resen.  Karla Reese was the Table Topics Master.       Don Groff was the impromptu joke master and Carole Kitchen was the word master with the holiday choice of "gingerly."        Karen Alexander had planned out a great program for an open house, but the weather was not at all inviting for any guests that may have planned to visit.  Judy Groff gave a mentoring moment that recounted the leadership through the years, memories of Lake Pointe, and all the quality people involved in the club.         Stan Coss spoke on project two of the Humorously Speaking manual on "What's in your Bucket?"  He gave three stories to reinforce points of advice on filling the bucket list.  He pulled out various props that cannot be viewed here ...

Josh Gravley didn't just represent us well.  Henderson County has never even been represented before at so high a level as the District (state) level; that's not for for the Humorous Speech or the Table Topic Speech. Only Tucker Cox made it to District in the Evaluation Contest some time after 2010 and Moose Penfold from the "old" New Dimensions sister club made it in 2014 in the International Speech Contest. Josh's journey began only two weeks after his Ice Breaker speech when he accepted the invitation to compete and got first out of five contestants in our local contest of September 20th.  From there it was first place in the area in mid-October and then a round-robin back at our club to help propel him through the division on November 9th.  This statewide audience of December 13th was quite massive in comparison, going from only about 40 members  in the area and division to well over 200.  Josh's competition in the district were mainly f...

Naturally, "Parade" was the theme of this meeting with Wendy Whitaker as Toastmaster.  The parade itself was the very next day and photos below show the outcome.     In reverse order, the mysterious woman in black had returned from an African safari and shared a great story about being faced with a tremendous bull elephant.  Fortunately, her small but spirited tour guide intervened and allowed Jeanne Resen to survive and come share her experience.  Karen Alexander was Jeanne's evaluator.      Josh Gravley was unable to share but a minute of his speech before he was overcome by his bout with the flu.  (He was in great form by the next Friday at the contest and will be reviewed in next week's blog.) Just as Wendy gave transitions on the parade, the parade itself gave opportunity to move among the swarms of bystanders and hand out candy and flyers about the open house. Table Topics Master Sally Jones supported the parade th...