It’s not necessary to have 5 or 6 speeches to have an awesome meeting.
Sometimes 2 or 3 speeches will do, as demonstrated at our June 9
voice-fest, led by Toastmaster of the Evening Loan Carrison, ATM-B.
After Joe
Austin’s thoughtful table topics session, ladies of eloquent
and wiggly tongue pretty much took
center
stage, including our resident speech therapist Mary Grover. Mary
was totally in her element helping our overflow crowd of orators to warm
up their vocal chords and other body parts. Tantalizing our audience
with her “four secrets for vocal power”, Mary’s performance was so
visceral, so connective, she seemed to be coaxing our flock of chickens
to lay their eggs.
In between speakers, however, Jokemaster Donna Stewart wasn’t laying any eggs as she found one of the most receptive audiences in recent memory for her widely popular brand of humor.
In an advanced speech, Rose Lane, DTM, marvelously recounted a real estate career here in the SF Valley, harking back to a time when men owned the profession. “I was greener than green, a pollyanna if ever there was one”, Rose recalled. “I didn’t even know I had to have a license.”
Rose broke into the trade with dogged persistence, rising, as evaluator Maya DeBus noted, to become the number one real estate sales person in the Valley. Maya pointed out that in her extended career as a real estate trainer and problem-solver, Rose toured the nation with top speakers like Zig Ziglar and Tommy Hopkins.
“How you approach people, how you deal with people and make them feel comfortable with you, is the essence of being successful in real estate”, Rose said.
In his June 9
icebreaker, Nitin Arneja described life from the
immigrant-professional’s
cutting
edge, slicing the country in half with travels from Minneapolis to
Mississippi and dusty points in between, a journey that was not without
it’s difficulties.
Due to insurmountable technical difficulties, our last Toaster’s Choice was not published, but let’s not forget our sensational May 26 meeting in the Hidden Hills room, which featured a wide spectrum of oratory, including icebreakers from French-African computer engineer Lionel Mafouta, and Elyse Galvin, the Ms. Petite contest winner and bass player.
Shelly Bright delivered a number two talk about being thankful, which, apparently, is the only technique we need to solve personal problems. Then Denny Grimmett gave his number three speech about what it was like to get his first tattoo and it’s personal meaning to him. His casual, confident delivery (he later confessed considerable nervousness), mostly from the front of the lectern, eloquently delineated a personal and inevitably painful voyage into the world of body modification.
Our
elder statesman of Toast, Chick Saffell, ATM, returned from his
desert hideout to hit the bullseye with another award-winning speech, an
ingeniously amusing tale of RV travel. There’s nothing like a simple,
linear story, rich with word pictures, to capture an audience! It’s
worth noting that Chick will be helming our upcoming meeting, slated for
Thursday, June 23rd.
And now, a final note. As summer comes upon us at WCTM, it’s time for our annual retrofit, as a new WCTM Board has now been elected. We here at Toaster’s Choice, and the entire club, would like to offer grateful thanks to our outgoing team, including VP Publicity John Graves, VP Education Helen Wax, VP Membership Carolyn Goldman, Secretary Lois Coburn, Treasurer Arnold Arch, and of course President Vicki Vaughn, who has presided over unprecedented growth in WCTM’s membership. Thanks, Vicki, good luck with your pursuit of your law degree, and we hope to see you soon!
(and private) speaking skills, improve
your self-confidence in business and personal situations, and to help
you define yourself
to your world more clearly. Why fumble around in the dark with your
self-image? You can communicate more effectively than
you ever dreamed possible!
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