Simply Speaking Minutes

July 26, 2012

The word of the day was “Convergence” – come together from different directions so as eventually to meet. The theme was “Celebrate life”. 

Another great meeting with Lori Bibeau calling the meeting to order and reminding us to turn off our phones before leading us in the pledge of allegiance.  
  
Will Osagiede was our Toastmaster for the night and reminded us that after the past weeks tragedy at the Aurora Century16 we need to come together and enjoy life.

Cybele Antenow was our Inspirator for the evening. She and her husband saw the movie “Brave” and she thought about the true brave acts by some of the people who died shielding others from bullets during the rampage at the Century 16 Theater. 

Connie Akins, in a speech titled “Searching for Hope” told us about ADHD in women. Most studies have been conducted on male subjects. Over 5 million women suffer from ADHD. Women who suffer from ADHD are twice as likely to develop depression or drug or alcohol dependence. Well known and famous women with this condition include Cher, Charlize Theron, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Our second speaker, Sherry Thomas, gave a very emotional speech entitled “Pain for a Purpose”. She detailed the pain she went through in her marriage and divorce, dealing with depression after all that pain. Joining Toastmasters has helped her move past the pain & she told us to use our pain to help others move to the other side of pain. She’s come a long way, giving her 10th speech, putting her at the Competent Communicator level! Way to go, Sherry!

Maura Thompson presented her speech, “Let’s Get Social” about how to use the website. She went over the links on the left side of the screen to get to Easy speak, Simply Speaking blog and Facebook plus many other links. She also explained how to sign up for roles, so now we have no excuse. After we go to Easy Speak,we do need to contact our VP Education, Dale Jenkel to get ourselves into a speaker’s role.

Table Topics Master Pete Hazlet brought a grab bag of items to pull out and talk about. Out of all those items, each participant pulled the same item. The participants included Kreg Lyles, Zelimir Adamic, and our newest member, Leo Chen.

Timer Margaret Seyer noted Sherry was in time and table topics participants were in time. Connie was 6 seconds over and it was decided that she would qualify.

Lori Bibeau, our General Evaluator for the evening said the meeting had great energy, started on time and introduced the evaluators. 

Felicia Arambula evaluated Connie and told her she always strives for greatness, she is emotional and inspirational. She commended Connie for speaking about the subject. Felicia also said she’d like to see Connie explode onto the stage.

In his evaluation of Sherry, Darryle Brown said he remembered when she first came to Toastmasters she clung to the lectern, but now she has grown a lot and finally reached the CC level. He had a couple recommendations for her, but overall her speech was fantastic.   

Deborah Frauenfelder, in her evaluation of Maura complimented her on a very informative speech. She also offered a couple recommendations for improvement like slowing down when scrolling.
Margaret gave the timers report for the Evaluators noting that only Deborah was in time.
Lori, in her evaluation of the evaluators, said they all did a great job and thanked them. She also told Sherry that she inspired Lori with her speech.

Ah Counter Alan Swartz caught all our Ah’s. Um’s, and double clutches.

Dale Jenkel in the role as Grammarian and counted the people who used the word of the day. A pat on the back to those who did.

Quizmaster Davorka Lipovscak tested our listening skills.

Toastmaster Will then handed out the awards.
Best Table Topics: Leo Chen
Best Evaluator: Deborah Frauenfelder
Best Speaker: Sherry Londo-Thomas

President Cybele Antonow introduced VP Membership Diane Nuss who inducted Leo Chen, Davorka Lipovscak, & Zelimir Adamic into Simply Speaking. They will all be great additions to Simply Speaking!

Members present included: Leo Chen, Davorka Lipovscak and Zelimir Adamic, Anne Tacznowsky, Cybele Antenow, Will Osagiede, Margaret Seyer, Peter Hazlet, Maura Thompson, Kathy Fortune, Sherry Thomas, Darryle Brown, Dale Jenkel, Connie Akins, Alan Swartz, Felicia Arambula, Lori Bibeau, Deborah Frauenfelder, Lee Johnson, Diane Nuss, Kreg Lyles, & Anne Tacznowsky.

Guests included: Cliff Long, Margaret Seyer Sr., Cindy Thomas, & Brittany Cook.
_
______________________________________________________
Simply Speaking Bloggers: Remember to let your group know you created a blog post.

Simply Speaking Google Group