Capital City Toastmasters

We have a new 16 min video on club roles and responsibilities on our Helpful Videos page.

If you’d like to view it directly, go to Club Roles.

Fellow Toastmasters,

I saw a couple of cool new features and went ahead and installed them. The first is called KeywordLuv. It allows you to put the keywords of a site of your choice in the name field to improve your SEO. If you have a personal or company website, you can include the keywords with this feature.

The second is a “subscribe to comments” feature. We haven’t had any comments yet aside from the ones we copied from our yahoo group. Maybe that was because it can be tedious to comment and then have to keep checking back to see if anyone else commented. Well, now you don’t have to check. If you check that box, you’ll be automatically notified if someone else comments.

Of course if you’re commenting for the first time, your comment will have to be moderated. You’d be surprised how much spam we get.

So comment away. Not everybody at once though.

This meeting theme was UNPRECEDENTED!! Jackie Robinson just broke yet another barrier.. a PERSON can be a theme now. Next week, I propose the theme be “Eric Peterson” in honor of his Toastmaster skills this week.

Louis knocked table topics out of the park with incredibly on-topic yet fun to answer questions. As general evaluator, I forgot to mention that Louis should have warned our guests what table topics was before you got into it… but at least one of the two already knew. Guest Rob who has been a few times before even had the gall to answer one, and then WIN! Maria, Carol, and Maureen also were exceptionally entertaining today on their turns.

Coach Rey “POGO” DeVeau blasted us with energy in her second Successful Club speech, which was the last step to getting her Competent Leader Award!!!!! Woohoo, congrats Rey! And thanks for doing the club a solid. We all learned a lot about about what meeting role players do, and what club officers should be doing. Oh, and I saw Taline pop in at the end of the speech — great to see you Taline, even briefly!

Patrick put on his Albert mask and did an interpretive reading of Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again”. Inspiring on many levels.

Keith and Amy also set the precedent that all evaluations must also be hilarious. Good luck to the evaluators next week!

Best Table Topic: Rob, a guest!
Best Speaker & Most Enthusiasm: Rey!!!!!
Best Evaluator: Keith (but he was counting the votes…) so maybe Amy
Best Humor: Keith (again…)

Capital City Toastmasters shine at back-to-back Area Contests!

Keith Smith did a terrific job as Toastmaster of the Area L-40 Contest yesterday.  He was polished as well as entertaining. Most attendees did not realize how hard they were going to laugh at 9:30 in the morning.

Reynetta Deveau did us proud by taking home a trophy from the L-41 contest where she represented Capital City Toastmasters – second place.  She looked great, she had humor and inspiration, and even added a Power Point presentation.  Rey’s got skills!

Amy Samet won the L-42 Contest. She will move forward to the Division L Contest on May 3.

Louis Burns served as timer and all-purpose support role player at all three contests.

Carol Conner and Leeanne Pacatte came out to support Rey and Amy.  There is nothing a speaker likes more than seeing some smiling faces in the audience!!  Thank you Carol and Leeanne!

Long-lost Capital City Toastmaster Taline Manassian was also there to support Rey.  Come back to the club, Taline, we miss you!

John Schmidt, Capital City member, who is also the L-42 Area Governor was also instrumental in making all three contests a success. And kudos to our own new Area Governor Steve Lockwood who has been serving us so well since his recent appointment to that position.

Thanks to everyone!  We have a club you can all be proud of.

Amy

He already gave a table topic as a guest, and is signed up to give his icebreaker next week!  We voted him in unanimously based on his 3 answers:

fav color:  Orange

fav cartoon: Beavis and Butthead?!

AND he knew that Bob Denver played Gilligan!  bonus!

Welcome, David!

Gene Butler joined the club at last week’s meeting, the first member in over a year to be voted in with the old tradition of asking 3 questions.

Favorite color?   Blue

Favorite TV show? The Wire

Who played the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island?  … that’s a gimme …

He’s in, and he’ll be back after a couple weeks vacation!

New ways to pass the time when you’re at work!!

To bring you out of the dark ages, Louis created a couple website tutorial videos. New members can get a comprehensive tour, and vets can find some cool tools on Toastmasters International’s site.

We’ve also got Rey’s fantastic speech on evaluating, in case you missed it!

They’re all under the Helpful Videos link in the menu.

Leif Brown joined the club at yesterday’s meeting!  But he’s no newbie, as we saw in his first table topic, he’s got plenty of Toastmaster experience.

Welcome, Leif!  We look forward to your first speech at Capital City!!

Michael Schuttloffel has joined our club. Welcome, Michael.

Capital City Friends,

Yes, it is already time to start thinking about the 2008 Toastmasters International Speech Contest…the excitement of the competition, the spectacular showcase of our club’s talent, the roar of the crowd!

We will need a Contest Chair, a Toastmaster, role players (timers, vote counters) and of course contestants. Present a 5 to 7 minute speech on the topic of your choice.  Winners have historically brought a mix of information, inspiration, and entertainment to their speeches.  This is an excellent opportunity to challenge yourself and build your skills.

At tomorrow’s meeting we will vote on the date, so please check your calendars. The contest will be scheduled for either March 19 or March 26 at noon, taking the place of our regular meeting. (AISD Spring Break is March 10-14)

The winner will move forward to the Area L-41 Contest, which is already scheduled for Satruday April 12.

Amy Samet, your president
Capital City TM