Perhaps you can remember a time you were truly inspired. It may have been a grand accomplishment or a simple acknowledgment.

If you ask a random sample of Toastmasters why we do it, you’ll hear anything from engaging the personal challenge of public speaking to the friendships we’ve made. For some it’s the career advancement. For others it’s the mid-week boost of energy to break it all up.

Whatever your reason, I want you to be inspired at Capital City...

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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!!!

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!

Louis Burns, our Vice President Education, received his Advanced Communicator Gold and Distinguished Toastmaster awards.

Hello, hello,

Sheena’s Beatles-reminiscent theme was a hit this week, although surprisingly we never broke out into song.  Okay, Lora did, but without backup.

Instead, we broke out into table topics, with Sandra introducing 5 thoughtful questions to 5 charismatic questionees.  Say hello to sarcasm, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of it with Michael “It was so hard to say goodbye to all of you after that first meeting” Schuttloffel.  But it really is hard for ME to say goodbye to wiffleball apparently, since I talked about it again during my table topic.

Drew was more than happy to say goodbye to her grandmother, or so she says: a battle for the sarcasm title, me thinks.  Then Corky laid it all out in a 2 minute diatribe on Albert’s manliness (or lack thereof as he suggested).  Oh no he didn’t!  Anyway, last up was Maria, who had the most awkward hello when she met George Bush and passed on her flu to him!!!  As Nelson from the Simpsons would say: “Ha hah”.

New member Gene was off the hook for table topics this week, but we put him on the spot at the end of the meeting when we voted him in, despite not knowing who played the Skipper!!  Everyone say HI to Gene when he comes back from travel *in three weeks*!

The two speeches were quite different from each other this week.  For his third speech, Jason confidently conducted a very organized, well thought out credit crisis seminar, something he must do every day since he was so good at it!  Oh yea, he is a mortgage specialist…

Then the veteran toastmaster John gave his 126,215th speech, encouraging everyone to evaluate the political candidates for their public speaking skills — not a hard sell in this election I guess.

And finally, did anyone else notice that Amy redeemed herself from last week’s grammarian gaff by being an excellent grammarian this week?  Nice one.

RIBBON WINNERS:
Best Table Topic & Humor & Enthusiasm: Corky “Cheap Shots” Logue
Best Speaker:  Jason Callender
Best Evaluator: Bert VUNK!

And one update on the international speech contest: we weren’t able to find a contest chair, so you can kiss it good-bye!!  There will be an informal contest selection on March 26th instead.

Capital City Constituents:

I do solemnly swear that last week’s prezidential meeting was awwweesome, thanks to the distinguished leader Mrs. Reynetta DeVeau.  Awesome, despite scandals involving neglectful grammarianism by Amy and timer flip flopping by Bert.

Table topics was a close race between Carol the not-so-benevolent dictator, Drew the presidential dictator, Raj the clear choice for 2012, and Sandra, but Sandra made the connection to her people, talking about her crazy boss: who can’t relate to that??

I gave a speech that Keith could really relate to, simply titled “Hooray for Beer”.  This was a prelude to the happy hour party on Friday with Drew, Wendy, Albert, Sandra, Louis, Amy, me, and Eric!!  All in favor of making happy hour a regular event??  AYE.

Leeanne motivated us to get involved in the club’s mentoring program with her speech. Cuz hey, forget about those famous role models, you’ll never meet ‘em!  It’s just US!  Seriously though, we do have a mentoring program, and anyone can GET a mentor AND anyone can BE a mentor!  Talk to Louis!

2008 Presidential Winners!

Best Table Topic: Mrs. Metoyer
Best Speaker: Ms. Brookover
Best Evaluator: Mr. Owens
Best Humor: Mr. Smith
Most Enthusiasm: Mrs. Pacatte!!

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.

This one’s for my girls in the hood.

The annual Capital City Battle of the Sexes started with a bang! And her name is Amy Samet, the most prized female in our club, the PRESIDENT, and also today’s Toastmaster and completely unbiased referee.

Representin’ for da boyz, Jason brought us a word of the day from the urban dictionary: Weapons of Mass Distraction. Those are… well, Dolly Parton’s got ‘em for sure. Louis stepped up next, pitting guys and girls against each other in head-to-head table topics bouts.

Leeanne was the yin to Jason’s yang, both trying to explain what I believe were the universal men and women’s restroom signs that Louis drew on the board. Eric outrageously claimed that dogs are better than women, but no, no, no, Lora rebutted that dogs are better than every single male in her household, citing laziness and destruction against the men. Touché!

Michael’s icebreaker was a sneak attack on the men’s behalf: a hilarious story of being the fastest kid in school for 3 years.. until… Gretchen. Yes, she beat him. Score another one for the girls today!

Rey, the Toastmaster talk show host extraordinaire, used a gimic and a laptop to spice up the Successful Club Series speech on evaluating. Don’t worry if you missed it, there’s a video!! And it’ll be posted on the website sometime this week. You may want to check it out if your name begins with Alb or Cork. Great material on how to evaluate, and a fun advice column portion! Awesome!

Our two guests, Dennis and Gene, really enjoyed the meeting (despite all the male bashing) so we hope to see them again soon. Sheena popped in today to be our general evaluator, giving the girls an edge in the battle: hope to see you again soon too!

There was a vote and somebody won, but I can’t seem to remember who it was. If I had to guess, I’d say it was THE GIRLS, obviously. I’ll keep you updated if the memory ever comes back to me.

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!!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!!

The good times, they did roll at today’s Mardi Gras meeting with Maureen as emcee!! She brought beads, mardi gras chocolate coins, and for her own personal amusement she threw in some FAKE [PLASTIC] chocolate coins. (Maureen we’ll be sending you our dental bills soon).

Rey “the Party Girl?” DeVeau, wearing a rather large collection of beads and wielding an empty whiskey jug, threw out table topics instead of candy, and all 3 participants dutifully exposed themselves: New member, yet experienced Toastmaster Leif recounted hilarious stories of his fanatically anti-Catholic mother who saved him from a baptism attack at the very last moment!! Noone will be surprised that Drew has NO regrets from her Mardi Gras on 6th street. Lesson learned: never take beads from strangers, especially Drew, she’ll make you pay! Carol also let it all out, with her alter ego Foxxy Brown coming out on sixth street. Apparently Foxxy loooves Maker’s Mark, or is it Marky Mark?

Miss Triple Threat Ania Joseph gave a motivational preach, I mean speech, on how to get over our habitual flaws and get ready for the International Speech Contest!!! Although starting out looking cute and professional enough, by the end of her speech, it looked like New Orleans threw up on her, with all the props and costumes she picked up on the way. “Feeling shy? carry a gun.” Best tongue-in-cheek presentation. ever.

Louis scared the pants off of us with a White House press release announcing that the all too possible war with Iran has begun. Afterwards, the audience assaulted him with questions, to which Louis responded with the familiar government doubletalk. Spot on! And congrats on completing another advanced manual!!

CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS!

Best Table Topic: Leif
Best Evaluator: Amy
Best EVERYTHING ELSE: Ania!

Everyone, check out the website!! Same address www.capital-city-toastmasters.org, but a new look PLUS A BLOG!! All meeting recaps will be posted here, new member announcements, and whatever else we think is cool!! You can still use the online agenda signup — the Agenda link on the right will take you there.

If you have any feedback, good or bad, we want to hear it! Email me, Louis, or all the officers at capitalcityofficers@yahoogroups.com !!

Due to the continued outrageous demands from Ms.Brookover’s agent, attorneys and personal hairdresser, the writer’s strike continues and you have to once again endure the ramblings of Keith, the oozy scab.

Capital City Peeps,

Hola mi amigos y beetches!

Lora gave us an appropriate theme for our meeting today: Weather.  Appropriate cuz I noticed when I stepped outside there was indeed weather and there continued to be weather most of the day.  Our polished Toastmaster was her usual engaging self, weathering the responsibilities of Toastmastering with gusto, skill and humor.

John added a fun twister as our Table Topics Master by allowing some of the visitors he brought from South America to present the questions to the participants, thankfully in English.  We found out some interesting tidbits: Jason would go to South America in any season but would prefer the warmer weather so he could wear his grape smuggler.  It was a visual many of the women and Albert enjoyed.  Stuart’s long absence was explained as he told us he was riding the range and cowpoking in South America, falling off his steed and injuring his back causing to him wear the largest fanny pack anyone has ever seen.  He taught us that the Spanish word for “lasso” is “lasso”.   The coldest weather Louis had to endure was in the military, lying in a puddle in the cold rain, lobbing fake grenades at fake people.  If ever we go to war with mannequins, he’s our first line of defense.  And don’t think they’re not planning something.  I spewed some disjointed drivel long enough for the green light. And yellow.  And red.  And then some.  It was all true and poetic and came from the heart all for my beetches. Taline claims she is the worst dancer in the world but would dance with Ethan Hawke barefooted on broken glass while on fire.

Maria gave us a speech about her occupation which deals with the world of insurance in the state of Texas.  “Make sure you have enough and you’re properly covered (one hand on hip, the other shaking a finger at us)”, she might have said.  I especially enjoyed her example of me and my “friend” or wife or who ever that woman was laughing maniacally as we ran over Amy Samet repeatedly with my under-insured car.  The speech was informative, consumer-oriented and she even had related literature in English and Spanish - good job.  Wendy scurried away from her usual rat-related speech topic to discuss a serious topic, breast feeding the homeless. I mean, tube feeding sick people.  She did her research well discussing a little history, procedural facts and the importance of not lying on your tube.  It was a well-crafted, effective speech delivered with her usual warm smile.

Corky evaluated Maria suggesting that she infuse her speech with more stories, true or not, but the big meanie never said anything nice so our General Evaluator, Albert, provided the softer side of the evaluation noting her improved eye contact and voice projection.  Amy evaluated Wendy pointing out her enthusiasm, good research though reminding Wendy we not be smart, too much detail make head hurt.  Albert didn’t like our piggish, American speaking style.  We need to enunciate, slow down and speak louder so our foreign visitors can more easily understand us.  I guess he’s right because, this is the truth, after the meeting one of the South American ladies asked me if I said “boobs”.  At first I thought she was reading my mind but then I remembered I said “booze” in reference to something that keeps me warm.  Unfortunately, booze is more readily available to me.

Rey provided us the word of the day, “Sunshine” and yes, she even said, “Rey of Sunshine”, which she is.  Patrick timed us, spattering his info with breezy weather-related commentary.  Brendan insulted a nation of people and two major religious denominations with his chuckle.

And the winners were -

Best Table Topic: Stuart
Best Speaker: Windy (get it?)
Best Evaluator:  Amy
Best Humor: Keith (back on top)
Most Enthusiasm: John

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