Simply Speaking Minutes

Colorado Community Church

May 2, 2013

Our meeting at Colorado Community Church began with Sergeant-at-Arms Joel Weissman leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  He then introduced our Toastmaster for the evening, Margaret Seyer.

Our theme was “Pressing Toward the Mark”.   The word of the day was “Determination” noun  - the act of coming to a decision or fixing or setting a purpose.

Inspirator Pete Hazlet inspired us with a quote from Duane Michaels asking us to trust that little voice in us that asks “What if” and then doing it.

First speaker Darryle Brown gave us tips on managing conflict in his speech “Mastering Conflict Management”.  Both sides need to feel like they won, but people can react in different ways.  Some might withdraw while others might have the attitude that they are always right.  Mastering conflict is a matter of becoming a better communicator or leader because it requires listening and paraphrasing what someone has said.  He also had a few minutes of role playing after his speech with Karen Hall.  Thanks Darryle & Karen for a great presentation.

Second speaker, Maura Thompson’s speech was “A Tale of Folk”.  She started by explaining that a folk tale is a tale that is passed verbally by common folk.  Maura mentioned gave some examples of folk tales, such as the tale of Paul Bunyan and “Stone Soup”.  She then revealed the background of “a poor mountaineer” who” barely kept his family fed”.  It seems he wasn’t much of a hunter or fisherman, but he liked his moonshine.  One day he was shootin’ at some food and up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude.  He was such an embarrassment to his family they told him he belongs in Beverly Hills, along with some other embarrassing family members.  Thanks, Maura, for revealing the truth!

Table Topics Master Cybele Antonow made it “New Members Night” by calling on some of our new members.  We had Jeff Baker, Xiao Leong, Dave, and Benita.  All were in time and gave some excellent responses.

Kelli Malcom was our General Evaluator. She introduced the evaluators and evaluated them and the meeting.  We started on time and Margaret kept the meeting moving smoothly.  There was a lot of participation from the new members also.

In her evaluation of Darryle, first evaluator Sherry Thomas told him he asked questions we can all relate to.  He had great examples an drew us in.  She also told Darryle that he has a large personality and gret stage presence.

Second evaluator Deborah Frauenfelder told Maura that she was expecting a fabulous speech and we got a fantastic one.  Maura put a great spin on things.  Deborah liked the history and the play on words with “Mauralization”.  

Time Keeper David Bounds reported that all Table Topics participants were in time.  Speakers and evaluators were also in time.

Ah Counter Monica Alvidrez reported on the  uh’s and ah’s.

Grammarian Jeff Baker told us two people used the word of the day, but there were a lot of great phrases and Maura has a great singing voice.

Joel Weismann was our Quizmaster and did a great job testing our listening skills.

Awards went to

Best Speaker: Maura Thompson

Best Table Topic: Xiao Leong

Best Evaluator: Deborah Frauenfelder

Present at the meeting:Monica Alvidrez, Darryle Brown, David Bounds, Margaret Seyer, Pete Hazlet, Deborah Frauenfelder, Xiao Lang, Kelli Malcom, Sherry Thomas, Matt Dudzick, Tom Marrs, Joel Weismann, Cybele Antonow, Maura Thompson, Jeff Baker, David, and Veneeta.

Our guests for the evening were Margaret Seyer Sr, Karen Halll, Mike and Sandy.

Simply Speaking is invited to the May 29 Aurorators meeting at Empire Beauty School.