Capital City Toastmasters

Our last meeting of 2009 was led by one of our Distinguished Toastmasters, Patrick.  He schooled us in the etiquette of re-gifting just in time for our holiday party on December 19th.  We learned key lessons in re-gifting including remembering to change the name on the gift, update the wrapping paper, and of course clean the item before passing it on to another.  Excellent words of wisdom – thank you, Patrick.

Casually suave, Brad was Table Topics Master tossing out questions to Robby, Wendy, and Amy whose answers surprisingly erred on the side of sentimental – well, except for Amy’s response.  Robby shared with us a touching story about his Schwinn childhood bicycle he hasn’t been able to part with.  As many of us can relate to, Wendy admitted that while her parents annoy her at times they are cooler than she once thought and she truly respects and admires their work ethic as well as their life successes.  Amy tickled our funny bones as she recounted the time her parents forced her to pick a graduation present, which she turned around and re-gifted to her next boyfriend.

The speaking agenda for the meeting was packed with Joey’s icebreaker, Raj’s “Ode to Christmas”, and the second piece of Brian’s technical presentation series.

Joey related his life history to us through a football analogy highlighting the key lessons he has added to his playbook over the years and the people who have been instrumental in teaching him those lessons.  His first speech illustrated he has many of the basic speaking skills at his fingertips.  He even illustrated a flare for comedy as he skillfully slipped in a one liner about a his decision to nix the idea of using a golf metaphor since Tiger’s recent indiscretions have brought forth so many double entendres to many golf phrases.

Raj made his annual appearance to give the “Ode to Christmas” speech – a ten-year tradition at Capital City Toastmasters.  The “Ode to Christmas” was originally written by Chuck Kramer and is broadcast on NPR each year; however, no one can deliver it quite like Raj.  He made the tongue twisting, rapid fire, head spinning and yet, rhythmic delivery appear easy.  At the end you can’t help but ponder, “Good Lord, what have we done to Christmas?!”

Brian delivered his second technical speech in a series of four regarding lessons learned through backup and recovery at Dell.  He started off his speech with a clever cartoon that illustrated his main point for the speech: first adapters work out the bugs in new technologies paving the way for others.  He successfully walked us through discovering one of the early glitches in attempts to improve Dell’s back and recovery system.  We are looking forward to learning how these bugs were addressed in Brian’s upcoming speeches.

Ribbon Winners:

Best Table Topic – Amy

Best Speaker – Joey

Most Enthusiastic – Corky

Best Evaluator – Stuart

Best Humor – Amy