FS Toastmasters

Five members of the FSTM Board clicked their way into an application called Zoom on Friday, March 20th, in a big meeting room provided by Trinity Presbyterian.  After an hour they established that it would not be humanly possible to get everyone “fluent” in Zoom by this coming Friday but they affirmed it can, with time and practice, get done. Let us make a gallant effort to launch from our laptops and smart phones and tablets!!  And we will communicate in a semblance to a regular Toastmaster meeting at 8:00 to 8:40 AM.  Forty minutes is the maximum time the basic plan allows.  (It's also the maximum time most humans can stand at one time clicking away at buttons until one or more will give in to the temptation to smash a screen.) President Susann Swan will try to schedule several 40-minute meetings before Friday morning and notify the members of the various time slots so they can choose one that fits into their schedules. ·  ...

It would be "credulous" to think the superstition theme caused Pardee* to close its doors to our club.  Yes, Toastmaster Carole Kitchen and other members thought we'd be safe in the shelter of the hospital.  President Susann Swan had a premonition that finding an alternate location would be prudent, and she said so in the meeting. Melinda Lowrance came to the rescue when a joke master could not be found.  She told a humorous story involving Oprah Winfrey, President Trump, former President Obama, and a school girl, three parachutes, and a back pack. Ray Daley really broke the ice with his speech about his reason to join Toastmasters.   He explained that after 40 years in the newspaper business, he'd moved to Henderson County by way of Florida.  His wife found a job as a tour guide at Biltmore, and his daughter took on a newspaper internship,  so he went about finding interesting things of his own to do, like Toastmasters.  Judy...

Josh Gravley took the reverse of last week's theme and dealt with "last's."  Josh lasted throughout the meeting with interesting information, including the last trip to the moon (1972), the last word in the dictionary (the zyzzyva, a snouted beetle), and The Last of the Mohicans movie (1992).  Joke Master Karen did not have the last laugh, but she opened with some. Word Master Ray Daley was "optimistic" about getting some word usage, and near the last of the meeting he got some. Jeanne Resen gave a very enlightening view of the stage manager's job.  She gave entertaining stories of holding up a show, saving  flying effects, managing 14 kids and dog, and carrying a firearm across the border on a road show.  Her audience gained a new appreciation of all the responsibilities entrusted to this liaison to the show's director.  She was evaluated by Stan Coss. Sally Jones was Table Topics Master and supplied prompts in support of the ...

The official theme of our meeting was "Firsts," and, appropriately, we had a number of "first-time" guests.  But one of the most gratifying additions to the meeting was a guest who was a member from the past, Don Emon.  He was joined by another guest and past member, his wife Deanne. Judy Groff was Toastmaster, but she is not pictured until the very end with the link to her Youtube video that won second place in last Saturday's contest. Carole Kitchen took center stage with her first, her first ride on an ATV.  She was very descriptive with her gestures to simulate accurately her adventure, which included flipping the ATV upside down.  Carole was animated throughout in showing the various moves of the vehicle up and down the hills, or mountains they seemed to be.   Betty McCallister, another member highly reputed for gesturing, was her evaluator. A Vision was the objective of Stan Coss, who first played up the vision Judy Groff had in moving ...

FSTM had three audience members, some filling roles, at the Area Contest at Habitat for Humanity in Asheville on Saturday, February 22:  Karen Alexander, Susann Swan, and Ray Daley.  Our club also had three contestants.  Above is Judy Groff, who won second place in the International Speech Contest. Above Don Groff wins second place in the Table Topics Contest, surrounded on his right by Area Director Bryan Smith and "Quality Control" Director Michael Beach.  Below, Stan Coss is part of the same sandwich.  Stan won first in the International Speech and Table Topics in representing another club, Ridgefield.  He was a bit tied up to represent FSTM, as he was contest master of our speech contest February 7th. Make plans to join us at the April 4th, Saturday contest for 8:00 to 12:00.   There should be a carpool to make the trek to the Morganton event.  The area's top two finalists in each event are invited to compete in the divisio...

Toastmaster Betty McCallister led the Valentine theme with history and other intriguing information.  Don Groff gave a double dose of laughter with his joke duo.  Word master Jeanne Resen presented "relationship" as the word of the day.  Melinda served faithfully as Sergeant at Arms and Susann opened and closed as President. Our featured speaker of the day was Hoyt Griffith.  "A Matter of Time" spoke of Hoyt's fascination with his luxury watch, an Apple that tempted his indulgence with its changing watch face, animation, GPS, internet access, wind speed, maps, 911 notification, and another 40 or so features.  Undoubtedly, "Reading your Mind" was the ultimate element of Hoyt's watchfulness.  Susann Swan was Hoyt's evaluator. Judy Groff was table topics master in reinforcing the Valentine theme.  She included some references to what she gleaned from the current   Toastmaster Magazine .  The five love languages of Gary Chapman's 199...

Here are all the contestants from the International and Table Topics Speech Contests.  L to R: Ray Daley, Molly Garnett, Judy Groff and Karen Alexander (the two International Speech contestants), Caitlin Owens, Carole Kitchen, and Don Groff. Consider how you would respond to this TT prompt:  "Every four years,  there's a leap year, the presidential election, and the Summer Olympics.  How would you compare or contrast two of these three events happening this year?"  Two of the five TT contestants chose to not mention the presidential event. In light of the presidential omission of shaking hands with the Speaker of the House two days before, Contest Master Stan Coss spoke of there being maybe a greater courtesy in using the fist bump over the handshake to relinquish control of the speaking area.  It was, after all, the peak of the flu and virus season. The contest was well attended by all the support team members in timing, counting, and judging....