The first meeting of 2012 for Parker Toastmasters was a great success. We had 10 members present, as well as three guests: Cole Mayer, Les Crosby, and Nathan Bolema.
President Joanna Knott opened the meeting with our customary Pledge of Allegiance. Joanna then did a great job of introducing our three guests to the club.
Kellan Stephens took over as Toastmaster and shone brightly in his first foray behind the podium. Not only did Kellan present himself well in a friendly and composed manner, he did an excellent job in offering encouraging words to every one in his transitions on the stage.
We had three speakers tonight – Kellan, Eric Dunham and Bill Morgan. Eric and Kellan shared the Best Speaker Award for the evening.
Our Speakers
Kellan Stephens – Speech 2 Competent Communicator [Organize Your Speech], “Why Exercise?”
Kellan did an excellent job in making the case for exercise. His points were delivered in good humor and were encouraging. He made a strong impression in helping us understand how impactful regular exercise is for every one of us. His finish was memorable – he pointed out that we each have 1440 minutes in a day, and that giving yourself 30 minutes a day three times a week isn’t really daunting in terms of all the time we have available.
Eric Dunham – Speech 1 Advanced Manual Persuasive Speech [Persuasive Speech] “The Persuasive Sales Process”
Eric had a challenging assignment which had three elements: 1) a short illustration of the sales process 2) a role play with Kellan to demonstrate the sales process (selling him a toaster) and 3) facilitating a short Q&A session at the end of speech. Eric’s mastery of the material and his confidence shone through in all three dimensions of his speech, and Kellan provided a good foil in the role play. Eric completed his toaster sale to Kellan by delivering him an unforgettable toaster with rainbows AND polka-dots.
Bill Morgan – Speech 1, Advanced Manual Interpretive Reading [Read a Story] “The Dead”
Bill read excerpts from James Joyce’s short story “The Dead”, from the book Dubliners. Bill’s speech was solemn and serious, ending with Joyce’s brilliant “he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
Bill Morgan evaluated Kellan’s speech, Bill Bevard evaluated Eric’s speech, and Eric evaluated Bill’s speech. Bill Morgan won Best Evaluator.
Table Topics was very memorable. Table Topics master Joanna Knott had her 9 year old daughter Veronica help select topics, and there was good participation.
Kudos to guests Nathan and Les for participating. Nathan scored a rare coup – being a guest and winning Best Table Topics! Great job Nathan – we were all impressed on your view of pollution. Les, Bill Bevard, Eric and Michelle also participated in table topics. And thank you Veronica Knott for helping us think more about important subjects including smoking, healthy eating, drinking and driving, and why shaking babies is something we will never do.
Joanna Knott did double-duty as Grammarian/Ah-Counter and the word of the day was Recognize. Let us RECOGNIZE our guest Les Crosby and member Sandy Marthaler for using the word of the day!
Eric Dunham was our Vote Counter, Sandy Marthaler was our Timer and Michelle Devore stepped up as our General Evaluator – great job everyone!
Overall it was a meeting with lots of energy and excellent participation, especially by our guests!
Members Attending: Joanna Knott, Sandy Marthaler, Eric Dunham, Caroline Nguyen, Bill Morgan, Stacy Hayden, Michelle Devore, Jyoti Jain, Kellan Stephens, Bill Bevard.
Post author: Bill Morgan