Ready to pay your dues?

Hello Humorous people!

Our contest is tonight, but you can still pay your dues!  I will be there to collect dues before and after the contest. 

Here is the info:


What: Simply Speaking Toastmasters Membership Dues

When: By 9/30/12

How much: $48 - covers 6 months of membership - what a bargain!

How to pay: You have two options:
1) Bring a check in to the meeting on 9/20 or 9/27 - I will collect all checks.
2) Mail a check to: 19428 E. Crestridge Circle, Centennial, CO 80015

The due date is coming up soon!  Check your budget and pay soon!

~Felicia

Simply Speaking Minutes

Colorado Community Church

08/23/2012 

 

The theme was “Happiness is….being a Toastmaster!” 

The word of the day was loquacious – talkative, gabby, chatty, garrulous.

 With two folk tales for speeches it was a story book night.   Joel Weissman filling in as Sergeant of Arms we opened with a reminder to turn off our cell phones and the Pledge of Allegiance.  Joel then introduced us to Toastmaster Dale Jenkel. 

Our Inspirator, Leo Chen told us of an athlete who had lost many games, had been called on to take the winning shot and missed 26 times, and is a six-time NBA champion named Michael Jordan.  Leo urged us to be like Mike, get in the game and keep trying because every time we try we get better. 

 Sherry Thomas shared her version of Repunzel with Repunzel: The Remix.  Oakley and Agnes lived next store to an evil witch who grew a plant called Repunzel.  Oakley was caught stealing the plant and had to surrender his daughter to the witch, who locked Repunzel in a tower.  Repunzel was eventually saved by a prince who married her.  Of course her hair kept growing and had to be cut.  That led Repunzel to opening a hair weaving business.  Some of her customers included Goldilocks, Cinderella, and Snow White!

Darryle Brown, our second speaker, gave us a speech titled “Win the Interview, Win the Job/Promotion.  It is a ten part series in which he answered the question “Why interview?”  Now we know the answer and you can learn why and many other things during this ten –part series.  He told us about his years working for the Denver Sheriff’s Department, getting laid off and landing a new job soon after because of the skills he learned at Toastmasters.

Marcy Brack, our third and final speaker for the evening told the story of the Velveteen Rabbit.  The toy rabbit was given to a small boy who loved the rabbit and told it someday it would be a real rabbit.  He later became very ill and had to be quarantined.  All his toys were put out by the trash and the Velveteen Rabbit started to cry, he was turning real.  In the spring the boy was recovered and saw his toy rabbit was real as it played with the other rabbits.  She ended with a great line, “It doesn’t matter what you look like as long as you are loved”

David Bounds led the Table Topics with questions related to fairy tales.  Participants included guest Joy Davidson with her interview as Red Riding in the hood.  Concetta Palmnieri was another guest with what people will have at Applebee’s –Mary will have a little lamb and Red will be wolfing down her food.  Guest Rich Burton had to tell the story of the 4^th little pig and Louis Kamga-Ngameni talked about the ass in the lion’s den.

Diane Nuss was our General Evaluator for the evening.  She introduced the evaluators, as well as evaluating the meeting, which started on time and moved along very nicely.  She also evaluated the evaluators, commenting on their strong points.

Will Osagiede said in his evaluation of Sherry Thomas that she told it as if she had written it.  He also noted that Sherry has a knack for telling stories.

Kathy Fortune was equally enthralled with Darryle’s topic on interviewing.  She appreciated the fact that he drew on his own experiences for his speech.

Pete Hazlet told Marcy that her speech was great.  It was vivid and people wer drawn to it and it was easy to visualize the boy getting the rabbit, becoming sick and having to throw out all his toys.  Of course it had a happy ending and a great closing line.

Anne Tacznosky was our timer for the evening and she did a great job of keeping time.

Joel Weissman was our Ah counter, catching them all, unfortunately.  But that is an opportunity for all to learn, too.  This was Joel’s first time in this role, too.

Margaret Seyer filled in as the Grammarian, keeping track of who used the Word of the Day which was used eight times, not counting the two times after her report.

Quizmaster Dale Jenkel tested our listening and memory skills for the evening.  As Toastmaster he also handed out the awards.

The awards were presented to:

Table Topics:  Concetta Palmieri
Best Evaluator:  Pete Hazlet
Best Speaker:  Sherry Londo-Thomas

Next meeting is August 30, same time, same place.   Please sign up for a role.

Members present: Dale Jenkel, David Bounds, Margaret Seyer,  Louis Kamga, Darryle Brown, Leo Chen, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas,  Deborah Frauenfelder, Kathy Fortune, Diane Nuss, Joel Weismann, Anne Tacznosky, Cybele Antonow ,Will Osagiede, and Marcy Brack .

Guests: Rick Burton, Margaret Seyer Sr, Joy Davidson, and Concetta Palmier

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Simply Speaking Minutes
08/16/2012

The Word for the day was Evocative – bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind. 
The theme for the evening was “Ride the Rail”, as in light rail, something everyone should for getting places.

Margaret Seyer filled in as sergeant-at-arms and led us in the pledge of allegiance after the call to order and the reminder to turn off cell phones.  She then introduced the Toastmaster for the evening, Deborah Frauenfelder.  

Felicia Arambula was our Inspirator with a simple message – smile.  It can make you feel better.  She also urged us to smile before we start our speeches to ease nervousness and we as audience members should smile at the speaker. 

First speaker Maura Thompson titled her speech “How’s About a Roll”, but it wasn’t the kind you eat.  She showed us new links to meeting roles and covered the responsibilities of each role.  Her purpose was to get us all on the same page in performing the roles we select.  More information is available on the website.  Great job, Maura!

The second speech, “Staying in Shape:’ presented by David Bounds told us the story of a young girl in Colorado Springs who decided she didn’t like circles anymore.  She was undecided on what she liked, but David was definitely in favor of circles because of their round, continuous shape.

Kathy Fortune astounded us with her soulful interpretation of narrative poetry.  There are five types of poetry, and Kathy did a super job with this. 

Alan Swartz was our Table Topics master for the evening, offering some evocative questions for the participants.  Participants included Diane Nuss, Davorka Lipovscak, Connie Akins,  Zelimir Adamic and guest Rick Burton.

Margaret Seyer was our General Evaluator for the evening.  She introduced the evaluators, Ah counter, Grammarian and Quizmaster, as well as evaluating the meeting, which started on time and moved along very nicely.  She also evaluated the evaluators, commenting on the great job they all did.

Joel Weismann provided an excellent evaluation for Maura’s presentation on selecting roles and researching them so we know what’s expected of us when we fill a role.  He also complemented her for making the website very interesting.

Second evaluator Leo Chen complemented David Bounds on his great humor and said David missed his calling.  He also noted David’s visuals with the picture of the little girl and use of the whiteboard.

Danae Deal finished up the evaluations with her fine evaluation of Kathy Fortune.  Danae complimented Kathy for her strong vocals, great interpretation and speaking skills.  She also noted she got a lot of meaning from the selection.
Great job by all three evaluators on three great speeches!

Connie Akins kept track of the time. We had two speakers and all Table Topics participants were in time.
Darryle Brown counted all the ah’s and other filler words.  He mentioned who went over five and those who have improved.
Lee Johnson filled the role of Grammarian, keeping track of who used the Word of the Day which was used six times, three of those by Alan.
Kreg Lyles was the quizmaster, who did a fabulous job tested our listening and memory skills.

The awards were presented to:
Table Topics:  Davorka Lipovscak
Best Evaluator:  Leo Chen, his first time in that role!
Best Speaker:  Kathy Fortune

Next meeting is August 23, 2012 same time, same place.  
Feel free to sign up for a role.

Members present:
Dale Jenkel, David Bounds, Margaret Seyer,  Kreg Lyons, Darryle Brown, Leo Chen, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas, Zelimir Adamic,  Deborah Frauenfelder,  Felicia Arambula, Danae Deal, Kathy Fortune, Connie Akins, Davorka Lipovscak, Alan Swartz, Diane Nuss, Joel Weismann, Maura Thompson, and Marcy Brack .

Guests: Rick Burton, Margaret Seyer, Sr, and Colleen Shannon .


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Simply Speaking Minutes

08/09/2012

The word of the day “empower”, which means to be given authority or power to do a task. 
Our theme for the evening was “Turning your weaknesses into growth opportunities”.

What a fantastic meeting we had this Thursday night.  The meeting was opened with Joel Weismann filling in as sergeant-at-arms. Joel led us in the pledge of allegiance after the call to order and the reminder to turn off cell phones.   He then introduced the Toastmaster for the evening, Darryle Brown. 

Our Inspirator for the evening was Connie Akins, who told us to connect with our passion to empower ourselves to rise above our problems in this dog-eat-dog world.

Deborah Frauenfelder was our first speaker.  She described her skiing lessons in Tyrol, Austria and showed us the difference between going downhill in Europe and the United States.  After several falls she was told to sit and rest.  She was back at it the next day, and finally, on Thursday, she went down a ski ramp and had a perfect landing!  She definitely connected with her passion and determination to rise to that challenge!  Great speech, Deborah!

Second speaker, Mauricio Cortes, when asked to give advice told us he gives guidelines instead.  His examples were to trust yourself, create the type of individual you can live with; we act and believe, trust and believe; the key is to keep company with those who uplift you.  Great 3^rd speech from Mauricio!

Sherry Thomas was our third speaker and gave speech #2 from the Storytelling Manual.  It was a vivid retelling of a visit to her grandparents.  A call from an Aunt informed Sherry’s grandmother of Uncle Nod’s death.  Her grandmother screamed into the phone ”Hattie what happened?” and started  crying when told about the death but when someone reminded Grandma that she didn’t like Uncle Nod it was “like somebody turned the faucet off” in Sherry’s words.

Table Topics were presented by Anne Tacznosky with some great questions.  Participants included Ian Humphrey, Diane Nuss, Cliff Long, and Kreg Lyons.

Kathy Fortune was the General Evaluator.  She introduced the evaluators, as well as evaluating the meeting, which started on time and moved along very nicely.  She also evaluated the evaluators, commenting on the great job they all did.

Kreg Lyles was the evaluator for Deborah Frauenfelder.   She got high marks for dressing the part with a vest and gloves as if she was actually skiing.  She gave a very vivid speech with swooshing down the mountain and falling to show us her many falls.  Kreg also offered suggestions on how Deborah might do the speech differently.   Excellent job, Kreg!

Second evaluator Felicia Arambula commented on Mauricio Cortes’s speech with his subtlety in getting his proposals across.  He also used only three note cards, which had his proposals written on.  She also provided feedback on how he might do differently.  Great job, Felicia!

Evaluator Pete Hazlet was impressed with Sherry Thomas’s vivid retelling of the visit to her grandparent’s house.  Sherry had great projections and vocal changes during the speech.   We could easily picture the living room and imagine ourselves there with her.  Pete also offered ideas for Sherry’s next speech.

Ah counter Cybele Antonow counted all our ah’s and other filler words and double clutches.  She also related to us how she listened to a speaker at work who had 27 ah’s in his speech!  He needs Toastmasters!

David Bounds was our Grammarian, keeping track of who used the Word of the Day  

Margaret Seyer was our Quizmaster, testing our listening skills.

The awards were presented to :

Table Topics:  Ian Humphrey (Did I mention he’s in another speech contest, in Orlando?)

Best Evaluator:  Felicia Arambula

Best Speaker:  Deborah Frauenfelder

Members present:
Dale Jenkel, David Bounds, Margaret Seyer,  Kreg Lyons, Darryle Brown, Leo Chen, Pete Hazlet, Sherry Londo-Thomas, Zelimir Adamic, Anne Tacznosky,  Deborah Frauenfelder,  Felicia Arambula, Kathy Fortune, Connie Akins, Tom Marrs, Diane Nuss, Mauricio Cortes, Cybele Antonow, and Joel Weismann

Guests:  Cliff Long, Ed Pens, and Ian Humphrey.

Next meeting is August 16 and Deborah will be our Toastmaster.   Don’t miss signing up for a role!

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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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