by Nikita Kazakov
Secretary

We had a great turn out for tonight’s Parker Toastmasters.  Our Toastmaster, Nina Minary, thanked the club for their willingness to step up to take on roles when others were not able to due to last minute circumstances.  With a strong membership, the Parker Toastmaster program continues to thrive with education and speaking experience.

The first speaker of the night was Bruce Ekins, who made us stop and think about our working routine and thinking.  His speech made it clear that thinking differently is something that is here to stay and we cannot easily predict what will happen in the future by predicting from the past.  As Bob Dylan once said: times are a-changin’.  The evaluator for Bruce was Eric Dunham.

Our second speaker was Nikita Kazakov, who gave another perspective on how we can energize our total body in the morning.  He mentioned that while coffee gives our nervous system a jolt, a physical sport such as running primes our skeletal, muscular, respiratory, nervous, and immune system as a whole.  Perhaps there is more to running than meets the naked eye?  Michelle DeVore evaluated Nikita’s speech.

Joanna Knott delivered a speech where she gave a toast, literally as one would at a dinner event.  Joanna dedicated it to the military veterans, and aimed for sincerity and heartfelt.  She successfully hit the mark!  Marcy Brack was the evaluator for Joanna.

Eric Dunham presented a speech on the Tracy Brown event that took place at Parker Toastmasters.  His motive was to show how the event was put together from the very beginning of planning it, to the final execution stages.  Eric is knowledgeable in project planning, and this speech gave us another perspective of the nuts and bolts that go into carrying out a successful event.

Other Roles of the Evening included:
Grammarian : Bruce Ekins
General Evaluator: Bill Bevard

A “Lady in Red” was our Toastmaster for the evening. Ashley Jones, donning a belted red sweater dress, took a turn in the lead role of the evening for our club and as Evaluator Marcy Brack noted, she did so with innate grace and poise. She also accomplished the double-feat of delivering a speech on the same night!

Our other two speakers were Eric Dunham, who delivered a speech on how to take a speech from good to great. Eric used a hand out to supplement the speech in lieu of Power Point presentation–since “life happens!” Nikita Kazakov was our other speaker. He deftly described the anatomy of our feet and why we’re torturing them in regular shoes, and showed us a special foot “glove” that one can use to strengthen the feet and help one’s overall ergonomic function.

Jodi Horner was called upon in spur-of-the-moment fashion to lead Table Topics since there was a last minute need. The line of thinking was “leadership” since national elections are this coming Tuesday. The question she posed was, “When have you stood up to authority? To whom, when, why, and what was the outcome?” Participants included Eric Dunham, Alissa Tenorio, Nina Minary, and Jodi Michael Horner.

The meeting ended at nearly 8:00pm sans club business. In total the meeting ran 1 hour 12 minutes–not bad!

Awards for the evening:                      Roles:
Best Speaker: Ashley Jones                      Toastmaster: Ashley Jones
Best Evaluation: Marcy Brack                  Grammarian: Bruce Ekins
Best Table Topics: Eric Dunham              Timer: Nikita Kazakov
.                                                                      Table Topics: Jodi Michael Horner
.                                                                      Evaluators: Bruce Ekins, Marcy Brack, Bill Bevard
.                                                                      General Evaluator: Alissa Tenorio

October 18, 2012 Meeting Summary

Vice President of Education, Nina Minary opened the evening and introduced our guests Richard and Jared. This evening was packed full of speeches and table topics.

The Toastmaster for the evening was Eric Dunham who was working on his final project for the Advance Communicator Bronze award. His objective for this final project was to be Toastmaster and introduced each speech. A little different from how we traditionally introduce speakers but it did make for an interesting evening and we learned a little about the speakers.

The roles for the evening:

Grammarian/Ah counter – Nina Minary

Timer – Ashley Jones

Vote Counter – Sundeep Gopagoni

General Evaluator – Marcy Brack

Table Topic Master – Bruce Ekins

Tina Sorenson opened the evening with her speech, “Sweet Home Colorado.” Tina shared with us how as a child, she had a vision of moving to Colorado and prayed for the day to come. Once her prayers were answered and her parents told her they were moving Colorado, she was excited and has been here since. Her passion for Colorado and everything Colorado offers was clear in her presentation.  Tina’s evaluator was Bill Morgan.

Who would have thought that humor could come from boot camp? Elaine Chancellor shared with us her experiences from boot camp with her speech, “Lessons from Boot Camp”.  Elaine learned three things:  1. Never call a female drill sergeant, Sir. 2. Careful when firing an M16. It can give you a black eye. 3. Don’t step out of rank…it can result in a domino effect. The humor….well, you had to be there. Elaine, thank you for your service to our Country. Elaine’s evaluator was Michelle DeVore.

Look out, here comes the coal train. With his speech, “A Little about Coal”, Bill Bevard taught us more about coal than I ever knew. We learned that graphite, yes; the lead in your #2 pencil is actually a type of coal. Bill walked us through how coal is formed, the history of the use of coal, types of coal and options of how to burn coal cleaner and in more earth friendly manner. Thank you Bill for lesson. Bill’s evaluator was Nikita Kazakov.

“Straight Talk” – News alert…news alert. From the Advance Communication Manual, Communicating on Video, Nina Minary gave us a 3 minute simulated video editorial broadcast. Nina selected the topic of being a responsible parent, something that should have more focus. She used examples of tragedies and how she has observed a mother seat belted in her car and driving while her young child is in the back seat and not buckled into a car seat.  Nina’s evaluator was Ashley Jones.

Bruce Ekins was the Table Topic Master for the evening. He posed the question of; if you could change anything to improve you and the community, what would that be.  The participants were:

Marcy Brack – End campaign ads

Nikita Kazakov – Have politician were the patches of their special interest groups; just like NASCAR

Alissa Tenorio – Require high school students to take classes on parenting

Ashley Jones  – High school students should take classes on building honesty, trust and respect

Eric Dunham – Teaching children to be personally accountable, responsible and how to create plans for their future.

And the winners are:

Best Speaker: Tina Sorenson

Best Evaluator: Bill Morgan and Michelle DeVore

Best Table Topics: Ashley Jones and Eric Dunham

Nina Minary recognized the following individuals with pins for their recent awards:

Michelle DeVore – Advance Communicator Bronze

Eric Dunham – Advance Communicator Bronze

Our next meeting is October 25, 2012 at 7pm.  Next week’s Toastmaster is Bill Bevard.

October 11, 2012 Meeting Summary

Believe it or not, we started our last meeting on time, 7 pm promptly, and ended at 8:01 pm. See the photo on PTM Facebook page, as the evidence. What great news for those of you who value time!

Nikita Kazakov, as a first time Toastmaster, opened up the meeting with a great point: get up and move, help your body circulate its fluids, and viruses will stay away. Nikita knew what his role very well, and led the meeting in a professional manner, with confidence and composure.

While reading “A Famous Speech”, Eric Dunham, gave us the perfect example of how interpretative reading should be presented. His voice inflections, gestures and mannerisms, helped us picture what the author of this famous speech felt. It was the famous speech by Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty, or give me death.” It is a very patriotic, moving and forcing to reflection speech on something we have enjoyed since it was written, that is freedom. Don’t we take it for granted too often? Freedom is still a privilege in many countries, so be proud to be an American and be grateful for your freedoms.

Bruce Ekins in his speech “My favorite job” took us to the past, and told us about two events in his life that are still vivid in his memory that were related to his job as an ambulance attendant. He has two very special behavioral traits: in a moment of crisis he stays on an even keel and doesn’t panic, and he likes to help others.
He gave us two simple tips that could be used while searching for a purpose in life, or a perfect job:
– Look for something you are good at
– Find something you like to do
It was a project number 5, so congratulations to Bruce for getting half way through his CC.

The Table Topic introduced by Ashley Jones, was in line with Nikita’s opening: get up and move. It will make you feel better, clear you mind and help you stay healthy. Look for inspiring examples among athletes and follow their steps. Participants in Table Topics were: Bill Bevard, Elaine Chancellor, and Nikita Kazakov.

Our Timer was the newest member of PTM, Sundeep Gopagoni, who didn’t want to waste time and got involved in the Club roles right away. Great job!

Grammarian and Ah counter, Elaine Chancellor, gave us a yellow card, and a total number of vampire words: 19. Parker Toastmasters, you better watch out…

Eric congratulated Joanna Knott on achieving her Advanced Communicator Silver this week.

Tina Sorensen was our vote counter and she announced:
The Best Speaker – Bruce Ekins
The Best Table Topic – Nikita Kazakov
Nina Minary and Bill Bevard tied as Best Evaluators.

Reminders from the VP of Education, Nina Minary:
October 13th – Metro Division Contest – Bruce Ekins will be competing so please meet us at the Anschutz Medical Campus at 1 pm (Map)
October 26th – the last Wine Walk in Parker
Parker Town Council Debate – Nina will send more details
November 3rd – Speak-A-Thon, Parker Library – more to come
Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at DAM – Dec 1, 4 pm – look for more details

Contact us if you have any questions: parkertoastmasters@gmail.com

Warmly,
Joanna Knott
Immediate Past President, Club and District 26 Treasurer

By Eric Dunham, President

What a great evening at Parker Toast­mas­ters. One of our newer mem­bers, Tina Soren­son took the reins and was our Toast­mas­ter for the evening. She was awe­some. The meet­ing was very well orga­nized and ran very smoothly. Her orga­ni­za­tion and fore­thought shined.

Sun­deep Gopag­oni is our newest mem­ber. He joined the club this evening. Please wel­come Sun­deep to Parker Toast­mas­ters. We all look for­ward to hear­ing his speeches.

All three speeches were excel­lent. Ash­ley Jones started the evening with a speech about her grand­fa­ther who chose life over death after bat­tling a brain tumor. Ash­ley pulled the audi­ence in as she shared her very per­sonal story about her grand­fa­ther and how he inspired her to “pay it for­ward” with ran­dom acts of kind­ness. I per­son­ally was very moved by her story and how she told it.

Nikita Kaza­kov took the stage and explained the Parkin­son Law. The law states that as the demand for a resource expands, the capac­ity for the demand will expand as well. One of the exam­ples Nikita used was how the avail­abil­ity data grows, so will the capac­ity to store the data. Long are the days of floppy disks…we now talk in giga and ter­abytes of data.

Bill Mor­gan brought his pas­sion of read­ing and enter­tained us with a read­ing from the book, “Things that are” by Amy Leach. The story; “Don­key Derby.” As always, Bill brought the story alive before the audi­ence. His pre­sen­ta­tion sparked my inter­est in pick­ing up the book and read­ing it.

The speech eval­u­a­tors also did a ter­rific job. Marcy Brack eval­u­ated Nikita, Alissa Teno­rio eval­u­ated Bill and Eric Dun­ham eval­u­ated Ash­ley. All three eval­u­a­tions were spot on.

Due to time con­straints, we did not have a table topic session.

Eric Dun­ham ended the evening with a pre­sen­ta­tion from the Excel­lence in Lead­er­ship series on goal set­ting and plan­ning. He tied in the pre­sen­ta­tion back to Parker Toast­mas­ters. As the Pres­i­dent of the club, Eric explained how he included the offi­cer team in set­ting the club goals and how the offi­cer team exe­cutes the plan in achiev­ing the club goals. Upon com­plet­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion, Eric ful­filled the require­ments for the Advance Leader Bronze award.

At the con­clu­sion of the meet­ing, Tina Soren­son was inducted as new mem­ber by read­ing the Toastmaster’s Promise to the club members.

And the win­ners are….

Best speaker: Ash­ley Jones

Best Eval­u­a­tor: Eric Dun­ham

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the fol­low­ing indi­vid­u­als for their recent accomplishments.

Bill Mor­gan – Hav­ing his arti­cle, “The Gra­cious Guest” pub­lished in the Octo­ber 2012 issue of the Toast­mas­ter magazine.

Joanna Knott — Advance Com­mu­ni­ca­tor Sil­ver (ACS)

Nikita Kaza­kov – Com­pe­tent Com­mu­ni­ca­tor award (CC)

Marcy Brack – Advance Com­mu­ni­ca­tor Sil­ver (ACS)

Eric Dun­ham – Advance Leader Bronze (ALB)

Our next meet­ing is Thurs­day Octo­ber 11, 2012 at 7pm.