February 8, 2007                                             Club #2966                                         Editor: Bill Anderson
                                                  Meeting Theme: "Valentine's Day"

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Discovering Your Toastmaster Muse (Recap of WCTM’s January 25^th Meeting)

          Creativity was the theme of the night as 28 members of Warner Center Toastmasters (WCTM) and 8 guests gathered at the Warner Center Marriot for the club’s January 25^th meeting. WCTM’s President, Carolyn Goldman, CTM, greeted the assemblage and then turned the meeting over to the club’s Vice President, Education, Erin O’Neil, CTM, who presented “Do You Want to be Fit?”, an educational module from the Toastmasters International Successful Club Series. Urging WCTM members to seek leadership opportunities outside of the club, Erin laid out a program whereby members could develop their leadership skills. This included setting and achieving personal goals in a manner similar to that of a physical fitness program.

          Returning to the lectern, this time in the role of the evening’s Toastmaster, Carolyn Goldman offered several observations on creativity and its application to public speaking. “It is our creativity that makes our speeches come alive for the audience,” she observed. “Now, let’s get this creative show on the road!”

Table Topics: Thinking Outside, Inside & Around the Box

“Table Topics,” the first segment of the evening’s program was led Topics Master, Shelly Bright. Providing an explanation for her choice for the evening’s theme, she offered, “I chose this topic because I recently attended a lecture on the subject. Creativity is the mother of invention.” With that, the cerebral Ms. Bright plumbed the imaginations of the following eight WCTM members for their thoughts on creativity and creative thinking: Alan Reveles, Ann Philippon, John Graves, CTM / CL, Stuart Juggler, Maisie Lee, Glen Rankel, Jonathan Krausche, and Bill Anderson. The Best Table Topics award went to Bill Anderson for his answer to the question, “How has Toastmasters helped you think creatively?”

Prepared Speeches: Four Members, Four Steps Forward

The center piece of each Toastmasters meeting is the “Prepared Speeches” portion of the program. Here WCTM members apply the lessons that are being learned in the various Toastmasters manuals to the real world of public speaking. Each speech given by a club member represents a step forward in terms of both technical skills and self confidence. The steps taken by the four speakers who were on the January 25^th program ran the gamut from an Ice Breaker to an Advanced Speech with several points in between.

Francisco Rotich led off the segment with his Competent Communications Manual (CCM) Ice Breaker, “From Kenya to the U.S.” Speaking of his mixed, Spanish / Kenyan heritage, Francisco described the tight family unit whose love and support have enabled him to leave Kenya, pursue graduate studies in finance at a university in Georgia and enter the mortgage banking profession in Los Angeles. “I consider myself a goal-oriented person and an outdoors person,” Francisco said. “One of my biggest achievements is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.”

In her speech #4 from the CCM, “The Real Terror of Marshall Law”, Eva Barry graphically described the night in September of 1972 that agents of Philippine President, Ferdinand Marcos, stormed the dormitories of her university, arresting so-called “dissidents”, some of whom were her close friends. Movingly, Eva communicated the intense fear of that night and the personal anguish that resulted from the subsequent realization that her friends had disappeared…forever.  “To this day, I still have nightmares about my friends, my sorority sisters who disappeared that awful night,” she said in closing. “Let us never stop protecting the inalienable rights we have in this country of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Colin Giles was up next with his speech #6 from the CCM entitled, “Terrorism and the Borders”. In it, the always thoughtful Mr. Giles lamented the fact that our borders with Mexico and Canada, once the most open in the world, now require a passport to be crossed due to terrorism. Expressing the hope that passport regulations will aid in thwarting terrorists, Coin observed, “We have to be careful. I don’t want to be blown up. May be you do!”

The evening’s final talk, an Advanced Speech from the Persuasive Speaking Manual, was given by Beverly Rankel, CTM. In “A Young Girl’s Dreams”, Beverly shared with the audience the dreams of her own 15 year old niece, Hailey, who now a gymnast and varsity cheerleader at El Camino Real High School, is dedicated to winning a college scholarship with the ultimate goal of becoming a doctor.  Now working toward the national cheerleading competition in Florida, Hailey has partially earned the money to finance the trip but still needs sponsors. “Won’t you look into your own hearts?” Beverly asked. “Can’t you see someone who you want to see realize her dreams?”

With three great speeches to choose from (Ice Breakers are ineligible), WCTM members voted Eva Barry the evening’s Best Speaker award.

Evaluations: A Change Agent

Don West, CC, served as General Evaluator for the final segment of the evening’s program, “Evaluations”.  In his remarks, Don described the good that can come from involvement in WCTM. “Toastmasters causes change and evaluations are an important part of this,” he said. Characterizing the meeting as a “fantastic job by everyone”, he went on to suggest that the education module occur at meeting’s end and be subject to a time limit. Don also advised attendees to limit their movement for restroom and food breaks to the program breaks that occur between speakers. Individual evaluations were done by Larry Blackford (Francisco Rotich), Lois Coburn (Eva Barry), Susan Mayberry, ATM-B / CL (Colin Giles), and Marc Cohn, CTM (Beverly Rankel).  Susan Mayberry was voted the meeting’s Best Evaluator.

Announcement: Call For "Toastmaster Magazines"

Member recruitment is an ongoing club activity and WCTM needs your help in this area. Please recycle your old issues of “Toastmasters Magazine” by donating them to WCTM on a regular basis. All you have to do is bring your old issues to any regular club meeting and give them to Vice President, Membership, Eva Barry. Save them up or bring ‘em one-at-a-time. It doesn’t matter. The old issues will be included in a new information packet created by Eva. The packet will be given out to prospective club members, touting both the benefits of WCTM and Toastmasters International.

New Members

          WCTM is happy to announce that three new members have joined our happy family. Jonathan Krausche is a Project Manager for Westfield Topanga who is working on the remodeling of the company’s malls in Woodland Hills. Stephanie Rucker is a real estate agent and an educational counselor for CBI. Abraham Tanielian is the owner of Calabasas Jewelers. Welcome to one and all!

February 8, 2007                                                                                                Club #2966                 
                                                      Meeting Theme: "Valentine's Day"

Upcoming District 52 Events

          District 52 Spring Conference –

Saturday, May 19. Where: Beverly Garland Holiday Inn; 4222 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, CA. For more information go to the District 52 Web Site: http://www.district52.org/.

Winter Officer Training Sessions –

Saturday, February 10 (8AM – 1PM). Where: Spirit Works, 

260 N. Pass Ave., Burbank, CA. What:(Officers, Judges, optional seminar)

Contact: Frank Giambarresi at fwgiam@aol.com

Saturday, February 24 (9AM – 1PM). Where: Glendale Central Library, 

222 E. Harvard St., Glendale, CA. What: (Officers, Judges and Chief Judges). 

Contact:  Div C Governor Jorge Ribeiro at division.c@district52.org

Wednesday, February 28 (5:50 – 7PM). Where: Garland Building, 

Downtown LA. What:  (Officers’ training only). 

Contact:  Div D Governor Andrea Sebera at division.d@district52.org