“Last Minute Meetings” Meeting Recap – 05/13/09

Lee as Toastmaster taught us that last minute meetings really can work. Though he apparently aggravated Staci with his last minute topic, the whole meeting went off beautifully.

Staci, despite the short notice, did a wonderful job as Table Topics Master. She welcomed Albert back after his European vacation with a question about what he likes to do spontaneously. He told of music and architecture from his trip and also mentioned some activity that is probably best left off a recap. When asked about an impromptu party he threw or attended, Bert taught us to enjoy strawberry ice cream and red port or mango ice cream and white port. Finally, Staci welcomed Wendy back by asking what she would do if she was skipping out on work and got called into a last minute meeting. Wendy proclaimed her unavoidable level of responsibility and said she would do her job.

Then we had two speeches from two long time members. Amy identified some lessons that new Toastmasters won’t learn from the Toastmasters manual. The handshake is a sign of respect and a passing of the baton. We don’t interrupt one another when speaking. And finally, we do not insult people or make them feel uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about difficult subjects. We can. We just discuss them respectfully. Then Louis gave a speech on the benefits of eating raw food. He made an argument that people are carnivores and then gave tips for going raw gradually, with meat, eggs and the like.

Jenny, Rey and Robin evaluated. Make openings strong. Humor is good, but don’t allow it to undermine your content. These were two tough speeches to evaluate, but our evaluators did a wonderful job. Congratulations, Robin, on a fantastic first evaluation.

Best Table Topic: Wendy
Best Speaker: Louis
Best Evaluator: Robin
Best Humor: Robin
Most Enthusiastic: Bert