Capital City Toastmasters

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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John Schmidt received his Advanced Communicator Gold award yesterday. Congratulations, John.

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!!

Leeanne Pacatte, our club Treasurer, received her Old Competent Leader Award today! That’s the equivalent of the Advanced Leader Bronze. Congratulations, Leeanne.

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

John Schmidt received his Advanced Communicator Silver today! Congratulations, John.

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!

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.