Capital City Toastmasters

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Quit your daydreamin, I think we’ve found our ideal Toastmaster! Rey’s creative theme got everyone excited and forgetting they had to go back to their NON-ideal jobs at the end of the meeting. Eric was the boss of table topics this week; asking us to step into his office. Taline almost quit, but gracefully stuck it out. New hire Stephen was initiated with his first table topic today, on why he’s not doing his dream job: lots of benefits but no $$$. Bert told us his boss is eccentric and difficult to deal with — completely the opposite of Corky’s boss, who is laid back, level-headed, and knows how to dodge a sexual harassment complaint!

Two people were working on the same project today: the third speech in the basic manual. David managed to Get to the Point pretty well although he admitted he barely managed to get to the meeting on time! Louis also “got to the point”, AGAIN, since he is going through the basic manual for a second time! Anyone who hasn’t finished their manual for the FIRST time should be motivated by Louis’s drive.

I already mentioned that Stephen Sharpe joined today, but so did another returning guest: Staci Livesay, who brought an enthusiastic entourage!! Can’t wait to hear your icebreakers!!!

Employees of the Week Awards:

Best Table Topic: Corky
Best Speaker: David
Best Evaluator: Lora
Best Humor & Creative Vote Counting: Corky
Most Enthusiasm: Bert VUNK!!

Capital City Friends,

The stated theme of yesterday’s meeting was “Elections.” But the covert theme was “Sharp Dressed Guys”

Our Toastmaster, Capital City Toastmasters Presidential Candidate Louis Burns, wore a deep blue shirt and coordinating black silver and blue tie, dress pants, and fancy shoes, while Candidate Keith Smith was reportedly home watching cartoons in his underwear J

Grammarian John Schmidt’s shirt and tie did much to lend an air of distinction to his role. Word of the Day was “contender” as in “He coulda been a contender.”

Speaker Jason Callendar made a compelling appearance in a black suit, starched white shirt, and a burgundy tie for his poetic and polished speech about the upcoming United States presidential election. So smooth was Jason that it was not actually clear which candidate he was backing.  That’s political savvy.  He won everyone over because he made us feel proud to be Americans, he inspired us to go vote, and damn! he looked good.

(Leeanne kept pace with the boys by delivering her speech in a lime green jacket and kept us on our toes with low-tech neon cue cards that she threw on the floor when she was done covering them. And her voice was as loud as her jacket.)

Albert Cantara was a GQ cover as he made a noble statement on behalf of Louis Burns. Handsome Patrick Reznik wore a jacket and presided over the elections with terrific dignity and efficiency. Topic Master Stuart Cook looked presidential as always, and his outfit was irrelevant. When you’ve got it all going on like Stuart, there is really no need to gild the lily.

It was wonderful to see many members we had not seen in a while: Raj Bhattarai, Lora Schneider, Maureen McReynolds, and Wendy Fisher.

And we have a new Capital City Toastmasters President for the July 2008 – June 2009: Louis Burns.

Congratulations to Louis and to the rest of the slate (everyone else ran unopposed):

President: Louis Burns

Vice President of Education: Rey DeVeau

Vice President of Membership: Wendy Fisher

Vice President of Public Relations: Jenny Brookover

Secretary: Taline Manassian

Treasurer: Jason Callender

Sergeant-at-Arms: Lora Schneider

And Congratulations to yesterday’s Ribbon Winners:

Best Speaker: Jason Callendar

Best Table Topic; Maureen McReynolds

Best Evaluator: Brendan Owens

Best Humor: Leeanne Pacatte

Most Enthusiastic: Corky Logue

Thanks to all for a great meeting, and for all the work that went on behind the scenes to get next year’s officer roles filled, and to facilitate a fair and efficient election.

Next time I’m Toastmaster, the theme will be “Hooray for Short Skirts”

Amy

Capital City Friends,

Can a theme make a meeting or what? Toastmaster Jason Callendar chose “Music of the 80’s” - an AWESOME theme that seemed to resonate with everyone: from love songs (think Lionel Richie and Journey) to inspirational anthems (think Survivor and Queen) to Disco hits (Donna Summer) to the music of Madonna, Boy George, George Michael, and Michael Jackson.

Brendan Owens has still got it, and he proved it in a memorable speech that included everything we have come to expect from Brendan: humor, charm, great stories, and he even snuck in a point. In a six minute speech that included a solid minute of silence, Brendan reminded us of the good old days when things mattered more because people did one thing at a time.

Our second speaker, Maria, wore adorable shoes that matched a killer outfit and by the way she also talked about exercise and how we should all help ourselves.

General Evaluator Eric “Eye of the Tiger” Peterson wished he could have answered all the Table Topics, but instead they were fielded by Corky “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” Logue, David “Shiny Happy” Jorgensen, Carol “Last Dance” Conner, Taline “Walk Like an Egyptian” Manassian, and Stuart “Rocky” Cook.

Congratulations to our Winners:

Best Speaker: Brendan
Best Evaluator: Rey
Best Table Topic: Stuart
Best Humor: Brendan + Corky because Keith wasn’t there
Most Enthusiasm: Carol

Remember we’re ALL winners, as long as “Eye of the Tiger” is playing in our hearts:

Risin’ up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I’m not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive

It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all in the eye of the tiger

Amy

PS and how could I forget Taline’s Invocation: an ode to the lovelorn Eric over the news of Scarlett Johansson’s engagement to another, made up entirely of 80’s song titles.  Taline threw down the gauntlet for all future Cap City Invocators.  Way to kick off a meeting, Taline!

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…)

Extras, Extras!

Our meeting this week STARTED with a standing ovation for Stuart’s well-performed invocation.  But Rey was the (really bright neon green) star of the show as Toastmaster.  Or was it Maria, who dramatically acted out scenes from Titanic, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and more to introduce her table topic questions.

Brenda, a previous capital city member, made a special guest appearance during the table topics.  We were all glad to see Corky’s lovely wife at the meeting (especially Corky)!!!

David Jorgensen gave his second speech which started out with Amy’s voice in his head, and ended with his singing voice and guitar in ours.  Bravo!   Then Louis came up and gave his second icebreaker speech!!  Starting the CC manual over again is such a great idea — I just hope he doesn’t lap me before I finish mine!!

Best Table Topic & Humor: Jason “Cuckoo” Callender
Best Speaker: David “Guitar Hero” Jorgensen
Best Evaluator: Jenny “Still evaluatin” Brookover
Most Enthusiasm:  Rey “POGO” DeVeau!!

Our last-minute toastmaster volunteer Louis was second to none in this timely meeting.  And with just one speaker time was definitely on Sheena’s side today, waiting patiently for all nine table topic-ers to answer her questions.  Eric, Gene and Carol were at the top of the hour: They went on a wild adventure from San Antonio to Austin with Scarlett Johannsen at SXSW, who never gets around to exercising!  (That was a table topic mash-up, like a song mash-up where they put two songs together and Oh, you get the point - they’re mashed!)

Bert, Corky and I talked about vacationing in Aruba, driving around a beat-up car and getting senior discounts.  The final hour brought three ladies, Rey, Maureen, and Maria up, all admitting their poor time management skills — but it’s not Rey’s fault… she has DIAL UP!

One and only speaker Wendy is getting closer to her CC award after clocking out speech #9 today - a gentle nudge to get out and volunteer all that time you’re wasting!   And Maria, with only a few moments to prepare, gave her first evaluation, hopefully inspiring other members to take on the challenge soon, too.

The Winners:
Best Table Topic: Maureen
Best Speaker: Wendy
Best Evaluator & Most Enthusiasm: Maria!
Best Humor: Corky
Best Club in the District:  Capital City (according to the area gov Steve Lockwood who visited us today!)

Hey batter-batter-batter-batter…

Ace hitter Brendan Owens stepped up to the plate as today’s Toastmaster and wow - if I knew how to use the term “wheelhouse” correctly in a sentence, I’d be doing it right now.

Table Topics Master Maureen McReynolds threw out her best sinkers, sliders and spitballs.  Wendy showed us her CURVE, Corky corked his bat, Jason hit a GRAND SLAM, Louis proved his worth as a utility player, and Albert was the CLEAN-UP HITTER.  Performances were spectacular because everybody was on steroids. Hey it makes for a more exciting game, despite the fact it messes with a time-honored American tradition.

Rookie David Jorgensen was first in the speaking lineup with his IceBreaker. It was a line drive: powerful, memorable, heartfelt, and funny too. First base coach Rey Deveau was there to provide guidance and direction and she did a great job evaluating him too.  Veteran Patrick Reznik hit one out of the park with his speech, a reading of “Tile M for Murder,” a story of marital animosity and death by Scrabble.

Congratulations to our Opening Day Ribbon Winners:

Best Table Topic: Jason Callendar
Best Speaker: Patrick Reznik
Best Evaluator: Rey Deveau
Most Enthusiastic: David Jorgensen
Best Humor: Patrick Reznik

Those of you who could not make the game  - we’d love to see you back in the stands next week.

Capital City Stadium Peanut Vendor
Amy Samet

This week we didn’t have the awesome meeting we normally have, because it was BETTER than that!!!  That’s because our favorite animated Italian Corky, also a past president of Capital City, was our Toastmaster!  He welcomed John’s international students in his native south austin tongue: “Hey Bubba”, and charmed the lady-guests we had too.  Oh, the meeting was also better than normal because it was the international speech un-contest contest!

For not being a “competetive contest”, there sure was a lot of trash talk…  Albert came out with fightin words like, “Ya see this face?” Well now ya don’t - POW!!  right hook in the eye. That was his black fist coming from his “black heart”.

Rey “POGO” DeVeauVeau scaled 25-foot tall rope webs, and jumped from a pole to her (near)death, just to get ready to take you down!  If you don’t take your “leap of faith” I think she might make you!!

Last up was Ania — who we already know carries a gun when she speaks — and her strategy was to scare the other contestants from competing, with the most elaborate conspiracy theory in toastmaster contest history *ever*.  They’re all out to get you…

so watch your backs, and guard your trophies!!!

3RD PLACE went to Albert “but it’s my birthday” Cantara
2ND PLACE went to Ania “cute Polish accent” Joseph
1ST PLACE, and the biggest trophy went to Rey “POGO” DeVOVO.

Congratulations, Rey!!  She’ll be moving on to the area contest, on saturday April 12th at 1030am, and everyone should go out to support her there! (at the LCRA on Lake is enAustin Blvd).

While the un-contest un-votes were being counted, Brendan got into the table topics, not afraid to throw them at the *english student* *guests*, plus a few of our funniest guys: Eric, Gene (yes, another funny one!), Jason and of course Keith who gets a giggle every now and again.

Green people, green shamrocks, green cookies, and green SALSA!! Take that, Ireland! We know how to do St. Patrick’s Day right here!! I’d love to take credit for it all but lucky for me… Maria, Amy and Wendy were the laboring lasses!

Even without her lucky speaking shoes, Amy rocked as table topics master. She can’t be blamed for Eric’s “charming” answer… apparently the ladies are always after his lucky charm. Leeanne was a lucky kindergartener, and guest David Jorgensen always makes sure his daughters’ boyfriends are NOT so lucky.

Jason cracked us up with some stories from this past week that can be summed up with the true meaning of DST: “Daylight Screw-with-my-life! Time”. Then Maria shocked us with tales from her vacation to Honduras: she snorkeled with that fish that killed the crocodile guy, AND almost got arrested in the ocean!!!!! Finally, we met Jalapeno Taco Gal (Wendy Fisher to us) who gave a fantasmic, fully stocked, entertaining cooking demo for making salsa verde! Not only is jalapeno taco gal a really cool nickname that Wendy will never live down, it’s also an acronym for all the ingredients in the salsa — simply amazing.

In the evaluations, Drew kept the theme going strong with a reference to a pot of gold that you just had to be there to hear. Rey, Louis, and Patrick always give insightful evaluations - always, and they did again this week. They’re like the MVE’s of capital city.

Finally, I’d just like to thank everyone who wore GREEN, even those who meant to, but forgot in the morning because daylight saving time screwed you up once again: Leeanne, Bert, Amy, Jason, Wendy, Sandra, Albert (McCarthy) Cantara, and you know who the rest of you were!

WINNERS:

Best Speaker: Jalapeno Taco Gal, aka Wendy O’Fisher
Best Table Topic: David O’Jorgensen (Guest)
Best Evaluator: Louis O’Burns
Best Humor: Jenny O’Brookover
Most Enthusiasm: Jason O’Callender!!

Just when you thought things were getting predictable… when meetings are all the same… agendas? boring! punctuality? loosen up! We’re here to relaaaax with Bert as our toastmaster. Strolling in right on Bert time, he picked up right where Wendy, our table topics master, left off. She was truly relaxed, knowing she wouldn’t have to answer one of her own table topics! Or would she? Nope, she wouldn’t.

But a whoooole lotta other people did. Lora, Corky, Amy, Maureen, AND Jason all strolled on up to talk about their good, bad, terrible, and much-needed vacations. Then, to make things even more unusual, Lora evaluated herself when she was general evaluator later in the meeting!! A bit harsh, but hilarious.

Both speakers were offbeat, too. Ania performed mouth-to-mouth for her self-proclaimed 3rd “jesus speech”, and Louis described his foot-in-mouth problem, whose only cure is to go to “your happy place”.

The highlight for me, though, was the moment when we realized the grammarian wasn’t there yet, and Maria, certainly no *flaneur*, pulled a Word of the Day, appropriate and already printed out, out of her purse!!! It was amazing, although I’m sure that Paul had an equally awesome word, but he just missed it by a minute.

WINNERS:

Best TableTopic: Amy “Plan It!” Samet
Best Speaker: Louis
Best Evaluator: Albert
Best Humor: Amy
Most Enthusiasm: Ania!!!