IT'S PICNIC DAY!!!  10 am-2 pm
There will be Food, Family, Friends and FUN!
Come on down!

Remember... bring you own beverages.

Piney Creek Park 6140 S Tower Rd, Aurora, CO  MAP

Tower Rd just south of Orchard.

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Simply Speaking Minutes

08/02/2012

Our Word of the Day was “Fellowship” – sharing of experiences; a sharing of common interests, goals, or views.  The theme was “Be an Olympian”.

What a fantastic meeting we had this night.  The meeting started on time with Lori Bibeau filling in as sergeant-at-arms leading us in the pledge of allegiance after the call to order and the reminder to turn off cell phones.  She then turned it over to herself, as she was the Toastmaster.

Our Inspirator for the evening was Kathy Fortune.  Kathy used bugs and critters as metaphors that get in our way of working on our speeches, or whatever else we need to do.  She then offered up a humorous prayer that we may be free of bugs and critters as we write our speeches.

Our first speaker, Leo Chen, gave us his icebreaker and told us about his formative years as he moved to other countries.   His dad was a doctor for The World Health Organization and he and his sister were eventually sent to Michigan to live with a friend of his dad’s.  He’s got a great background to draw on for speeches.  Great job, Leo!

Second speaker, Darryle Brown, gave us little history on poetry before reading his poem The First Time.  Did you know that poetry was one of the earliest forms of communication?  Darryle kept us on the edge of our seats as he described, with much innuendo, his first time….. milking a cow.

Third and final speaker Anne Tacznosky did a little “Trash Talk” showing us how plastic, Styrofoam and other single use items take up space in landfills and take forever to break down – if they do at all.  By tossing items on the floor as she spoke about them Anne provided some great visuals.  She offered up a great argument for recycling, or just not using plastic and Styrofoam whenever possible.

On to Table Topics, presented by Maura Thompson, the participants were presented with some challenging questions.  With the audience saying “Today is August 12, on this day in…” with Maura presenting participants their challenges.  Participants included Kreg Lyles, Davorka Lipovscak, Deborah Frauenfelder, and Joe Long.

Lee Johnson evaluated Leo Chen’s speech and said Leo seemed to speak from the heart.  He also gave some good ideas for Leo’s next speech.

Alan Swartz evaluating Darryle Brown’s speech commented on Darryle’s great energy and movement, not to mention using a great innuendo that picked up on Darryle’s poem!  Alan also offered up some great suggestions for Darryle’s next speech.

Our third evaluator, Connie Akins, complemented Anne Tacznosky for her great opening, striking visuals, and great use of the note cards.  Connie also offered some suggestions for Anne’s next speech.

Our General Evaluator, Margaret Seyer, thanked the people who filled roles.  The meeting started on time and Marcy Brack, our Timekeeper reported all speakers and table topics participants were in time. 

Deborah Frauenfelder kept track of the “Ah’s” and Grammarian Felicia Arambula kept track of great uses of grammar.  Quizmaster Gigi De Gala tested our listening skills before Lori handed out awards.

The Gold Medal Winners:

Table Topics: Joe Long

Best Evaluator: Lee Johnson

Best Speaker: Laing (Leo) Chen

Members present: Dale Jenkel, Maura Thompson, Marcy Brack, David Bounds, Margaret Seyer, Kreg Lyons, Darryle Brown, Lori Bibeau, Lee Johnson, Leo Chen, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas, Zelimir Adamic, Davorka Lipovscak, Anne Tacznosky, Deborah Frauenfelder, Joe Long, Gigi De Gala, Felicia Arambula, Kathy Fortune, Connie Akins, & Alan Swartz.
Guests:   Cliff Long and Ben Rushing.

Next meeting is August 9th Darryle Brown will be our Toastmaster.   Be sure to sign up for a role!

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SIMPLY TIP

As a Table Topics participant what you answer doesn’t have to be the truth, let you imagination go wild! 

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.
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CONGRATULATIONS Sherry Thomas on your Competent Comunicator!!
We look forward to your next 10 speeches.  :0)

Simply Speaking Minutes

July 19, 2012

Another great meeting Thursday night!  Lori Bibeau called the meeting to order, reminded us to turn off our wireless devices, and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The word of the day was Plethora: overabundance, excess, the theme was “Opportunity is a’ knockin’, as in each week opportunity is knocking for people to fill roles.

Maura Thompson was our Toastmaster.

Lee Johnson was our Inspirator for the evening remining us how a smile works on others. 

Dale Jenkel was our first speaker The title of his speech was Evaluate to Motivate from the High Performance Leadership Series.  He told us how valuable they are in providing immediate feedback.  He mentioned covering key points, build self-esteem, and provide 5 -7 positives for each recommendation. 

Our second speaker, Darryle Brown, gave a speech from the Better Speaker Series Manual entitled “Selection Your Topic”.  He noted two areas where we can all pull ideas for speeches from, personal experience and reference material.
Great job from both speakers in providing us with a lot of information!

Table Topics Master Diane Nuss offered up some great questions for participants guest Steve Coe and members Marcy Brack, Lori Bibeau, and Will Osagiede.

Timer Sherry Londo-Thomas noted that all speakers and table topics participants were in time.

Cybele Antenow returned tanned, rested, and ready to evaluate the meeting and introduce evaluators David Bounds and Alan Swartz.  She also evaluated them in their roles in evaluating and offering up suggestions, in addition noted what a great job the speakers did. 

In his evaluation of Dale, David Bounds said that Dale had touched on all his points and made a good point that the speaker and evaluator should get together before the meeting to go over the objectives of the speech.  He did suggest that Dale work the floor a little more and have a stronger summation, but overall it was a great speech.

Evaluator Alan Swartz liked Darryle’s opening, asking what gives us the jitters when choosing a speech topic.  With some great ideas from the speech, Alan suggested handouts and suggested we all register our next 3 projects so we are committed and we can prepare.

Ah Counter Deborah Frauenfelder caught all our ums and double clutches. She also recognized the people who didn’t use them.

Grammarian Anne Tacanosky counted the people who used the word of the day, quite a few did!  A pat on the back to those of you who did.

Quizmaster Gigi De Gala tested our listening skills before Maura handed out the awards.

Best Table Topics: Guest Steve Coe
Best Evaluator: David Bounds
Best Speaker: Darryle Brown

ANNOUNCEMENTS
President Cybele welcomed our new members Davorka Lipovscak and Zelimir Adamic, as well as our guests for the evening. 

Cybele also mentioned Toastmasters Leadership Institute on 7/21/2012, which is open to everybody.  There is one coming up in Ft Collins and in Colorado Springs.  The next one will be in 6 months.

Margaret Seyer gave Cybele a warm welcole as or new President

Maura reminded us all to go to the website for event information.

Members present included: Davorka Lipovscak and Zelimir Adamic, Anne Tacznowsky, Cybele Antenow, Tom Marrs, Connie Akins, Alan Swartz, Joe Long, Joel Weismann, Margaret Seyer, Darryle Brown, Maura Thompson, Diane Nuss, David Bounds, Marcy Brack, Felicia Arambula, Deborah Frauenfelder, Lori Bibeau, Dale Jenkel, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas, Will Osagiede, Kreg Lyles, and Gigi De Gala.

Guests: Cliff Long, Leo Chen, and Steve Coe.

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Toastmasters D- 6 Potluck Picnic

Simply Speaking, Aurorators, Toastamatics, Absolutely Articulate, Orbiting Toastmasters, and Defenders of Speech!

We will gather and have lots of FUN FUN FUN!!! There will be some great games and activities for everyone.

Feel free to bring your friends and family!!

Please bring drinks (for you and your family) and a dish to share.

Piney Creek Park 6140 S. Tower Rd., Aurora, CO MAP

up

Prepare for your most successful Toastmasters Year yet!
Toastmaster Leadership Institute  Saturday, July 21
It’s free to all toastmasters – whether you’re an officer or not.

In addition to club officer training there is an opportunity to attend informative educational sessions and network with other Toastmasters.

You may invite guests from Service Clubs like the Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis too.
As they become better club leaders too we will improve our communities even more.

8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Red Rock Community College
13300 West 6th Ave, Lakewood CO MAP

Simply Speaking Minutes

July 12, 2012

We had another great meeting with Lori Bibeau filling in as Sergeant-at-Arms calling the meeting to order & leading us in the pledge of allegiance. 

The Toastmaster was Peter Hazlet and the theme was “Summertime”. The word of the day, which was used frequently, was “vacation”.

Inspirator Anne Tacznosky asked us to close our eyes, imagine ourselves at a very young age, hugging someone tightly. When she told us to open our eyes she asked “What can be more inspiring than to be loved”. Great job, Anne!

Our first speaker, Alan Swartz told us about herbicide resistant weeds and how to counteract them. Weeds, just like bugs and bacteria, can become resistant to herbicides over time and the best way to counteract them is to use different types of herbicides and to make better choices in weed control.

Second speaker Kathy Fortune presented us with the type of sermon she would deliver if she was a minister. Her purpose was to adapt a play for interpretive reading, a job she did quite well by posing as a young Jesus being questioned at the temple. She also informed us that Bathsheba was named that because she liked to take baths.

Table Topics was presented by Connie Akins. Asked to cover at the last minute, she posed some great questions to our Table Topics participants. Participants were Diane Nuss, Lori Bibeau, and our two guests: Leo Chen and Cliff Long.

General Evaluator Sherry Thomas noted that the meeting started on time and Toastmaster Pete kept things moving smoothly. She also had some great suggestions such as late comers waiting until the speaker is done speaking before entering and placing baskets on the tables for collecting the ballots.

First evaluator Deborah Frauenfelder (filled in for Deneen Stone, who was at home taking care of a sick child) noted how Alan made something as technical as herbicides interesting. He broke it all up in to modes and used handouts to help us follow along. She did suggest that he could start it out with a story to make it more interesting, but he was very effective in his presentation. 

Second Evaluator Felicia Arambula was impressed with Kathy’s costume and she spoke with a lot of emotion. She suggested a little more variation between the characters by concentrating on voice variations, but it was a very effective and humorous speech.

Ah counter Dale Jenkel kept track of the “ahs & ums” while Grammarian Connie Akins kept track of our grammar. Tom Marrs was our quizmaster, checking our listening skills.

Best Table Topics: Leo Chen
Best Evaluator: Deborah Frauenfelder
Best Speaker: Kathy Fortune

Members present included Connie Akins, Alan Swartz, Lori Bibeau, Deborah Frauenfelder, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas, Dale Jenkel, Anne Tacznosky, Kreg Lyles, Diane Nuss, Tom Marrs, Felicia Arambula, and Kathy Fortune.

Guests included Leo Chen and Cliff Long.

Simply Speaking Minutes

July 5, 2012

We had another great meeting with Toastmaster Margaret Seyer calling the meeting to order. Sergeant-at-Arms Danae Deal leading us in the pledge of allegiance

The theme was the Olympics and athleticism was the word of the day.

Inspirator Deborah Frauenfelder urged us to find out where we are on the educational path with Toastmasters and share it with our VP of Education, Dale Jenkel. This way we can set our goals for the coming year and develop a plan to reach them.

First speaker Mauricio Cortes told us more about the financial industry and his plans to start his own business. His financial advisor role would focus on the needs of the investor, not the financial advisor.

Second speaker Marcy Brack entertained us with an incredible tale of love, divorce, and shared custody of a son. It was a tragically funny story with a great ending with her son developing some of the great artistic skills of his dad.

Third speaker Kathy Fortune left us laughing telling us about working in her office in Arvada, going to Franklin Covey, buying $400 dollars worth of books, only to have them thrown out. She became a “dumpster diver’ in a successful effort to find them, with the aid of the Arvada police. She told us seeing an African-American in Arvada is like seeing a UFO.

Table Topics was presented by Deneen Stone. Using cards like they do in the Olympics for scoring, table topics were chosen by selecting a letter or number and then answering the question.
Table Topics athletes included Kreg Lyles, guest Zelimir Adamic, and guest Jason Lee.

General Evaluator Pete Hazlet noted that the meeting got off to a bit of a late start, but Toastmaster Margaret kept things moving smoothly. He also noted Deneen’s creative method for Table Topics.

First evaluator Joel Weismann noted how informative Mauricio’s speech was and how he was looking forward to learning more.
Second Evaluator David Bounds remarked on Marcy’s story telling ability. She made the story sound so real and had a great many great lines, including “you can take someone out of Jersey, but you can’t take Jersey out of someone”.

Third Evaluator Dale Jenkel explained the sandwich approach and used it for Kathy Fortune’s evaluation. She, too, had a great line: “Seeing an African-American in Arvada is like seeing a UFO”.

Best Table Topics: Kreg
Best Evaluator: David Bounds
Best Speaker: Kathy Fortune

Members present included Connie Akins, Alan Swartz, Margaret Seyer, David Bounds, Deborah Frauenfelder, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas, Deneen Stone, Lee Johnson, Dale Jenkel, Danae Deal, Marcy Brack, Mauricio Cortes, Darryle Brown, Joel Weismann, Anne Tacznosky, Kreg Lyles and Kathy Fortune.

Guests included Annie, Stormy, Cindy Thomas, Margaret Seyer Sr, Davorka Lipovscak, Zelimir Adamic, Jason Lee, Joyce Lee.
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