Capital City Toastmasters

Hi Hooooooo!

If Walt Disney had been thawed out from his cryogenic slumber and brought to our meeting yesterday he probably would’ve been slumped over against a wall attracting flies because science hasn’t yet worked out how to bring dead people back to life. But I think if we had forced his cold, stiff mouth into a smile, it would’ve been appropriate because this meeting brought a smile to my warm, living face. But wouldn’t a recently thawed Walt Disney make a great animated character for a Disney film? Yes.

Louis Burns made a crazy debut as our new club President. He dropped down from the ceiling suspended from cables, soared over the audience as a pyrotechnic display shot smoke and flames into the air and Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ blasted from 40ft high speakers. I was so excited I threw my underwear at him. I may have exaggerated but he did make his debut and I am missing my underwear.

Reynetta DeVeau, our Toastmaster, never mentioned which Disney character she’d like to be though I think her character would be whoever the opposite of Cruella De Vil is. Rey loves doggies. She ran a well organized, fun meeting with a great theme.
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Table Topics
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Our Table Topics Master, Keith Smith, misunderstood the email asking which character he’d want to be and he replied Jasmine – the hottest Disney chick ever. Or maybe he understood it perfectly and he’s dressed up like Jasmine right now while he’s typing this.

How would Taline handle working with an angry, half-naked sailor (Donald Duck)? Taline did not like the question. Taline doesn’t know much about Disney films or half-naked sailors not having grown up watching Disney or subscribing to certain magazines featuring sailors. But Taline does like contests where they give you a ‘Goofy’ medal if you win.

If David had the option, would he cryogenically freeze himself? Definitely! Not only that, he would like to be put on a meat hook, the latest fad in body piercing.

Which Disney character would new member Steven be and why? Steven first said he’d be Pooh. We think he meant Winnie the Pooh. But he mostly identified with Rabbit who happily ditched Winnie the Pooh in the spooky woods.
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Speeches
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Carol “Fairy God Mother” Connor gave a great speech about Adult Literacy. She informed us about the rewards from such a program for those who take the courses and those who volunteer to tutor. She gave us inspiring examples of personal experiences including her own as a volunteer.

Amy “Cinderella” Samet spoke to inform and inform us she did about the wonderful world of mentoring, mentoring Toastmasters that is. There are 5 easy steps but, if you weren’t there, you missed a fun, well-polished explanation of each. Maybe Amy could put those steps in the download section of our website??

Louis “Peter Pan” Burns gave an inaugural speech looking back at what our club has accomplished in the past and gave us encouragement to work harder on our educational goals in the future which will energize our club. “If we’re in Toastmasters, why not give speeches?” asks Louis. Indeed.
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Evaluation
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Albert “Walt Disney (because Disney is the god of all the characters)” Cantara smoothly and chiefly ran the evaluation half of the meeting, providing his own valuable comments on the speeches and speakers.

Jenny “Genie” Brookover used her PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWERS to evaluate Carol’s speech.

The Good

• Professional
• Confident
• Organized
• “You nailed it!”

Areas for Improvement

• explain more how the literacy program helped you personally
• choose one student example and go into depth
  

Corky “The Frog Who Hasn’t Yet Been Kissed” Logue evaluated Amy’s speech and was hardly politically incorrect or sexist at all. I was personally disappointed.

The Good

• used more than 3 talking points (5! A 67% increase!)
• government jokes (she has the whole workday to come up with them)
• “Always fun to listen to”

Area(s) for Improvement

• shouldn’t have passed out crowns and papers during speech but it had little effect on speech because of Amy’s experience
• stood still for much of the speech, body didn’t appear relaxed
  

Lora “I hate the ending to ‘Old Yeller’” Schneider evaluated Louis’s speech.

The Good

• well defined
• gave us a vision for our club
• (BEST QUOTE OF THE MEETING) “The great thing about Toastmasters is you get to see people grow up, like little Louis.”

Area(s) for Improvement

• had a strong opening, needed to keep energy going throughout speech especially when closing
• lighten it up some. It got a little too serious when talking about people leaving the club

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Ribbon Winners
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Table Topics – Taline
Speaker – Carol
Evaluator – Corky
Enthusiasm – Amy
Humor – Keith
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Miscellaneous
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Can’t forget our other characters:
Invocator/Chuckle – Maria “Tigger” Harp
Grammarian – David “Tigger” Jorgensen (I thought the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is that there is only one)
Timer – Wendy “Pocahontas” Fisher

Now it’s time to say goodbye to all our company, M-I-C – See you real soon!
K-E-Y – Why? Because we like you!
M–O–U–S–E