BNL Toastmasters Club

February 6, 2007 Meeting Review

Beth Lin

Dear Everyone,

The weather outside was freezing but the temperature of our meeting last
night was warm and fun.

Pat Summerstad was the able Toastmaster of the day. Theme of the evening
was "Element of Surprise". Weather is such an unpredictable matter but
according to TMOD Pat, that groundhog in PA had told us that Spring is
near. What a wonderful surprise!!

Joke master Kelly enlightened the meeting with a very funny joke. Word
master was Jack. The word was 'Jejune' Many members used it in their
talking. A very good word to learn.

Table topic master was Beth. She thinks 'surprise' can bring joy,
sorrow, new invention, new opportunities if we take surprise with open
mind, sense of humor and different perspective, every surprise can turn
around be a positive outcome. Jack and Kelly had a tie. Both of them got
a Best Table Topic ribbon.

There were 4 speakers:

1.  Joyce presented her first advance speech from the Professional
    Speaker manual. Title of the speech was "You Have Two Minutes, Start
    at the Sound of the Bell". It was a [Key Note Address]{.underline}.
    We all learned what speed networking was about. In two minutes, one
    can say a lot about his or her business. Beth evaluated her speech.

2.  Weiqiang presented his second speech, "I Have a Dream". This project
    is focused on [Organize your Speech.]{.underline} In the Opening, he
    told us his dream, as a little boy in his hometown in China, was to
    visit 10 famous Capitals around the world. In the body, he told us
    of his journey to all 10 Capitals. In Conclusion, he told his buddy
    that he did visit all 10 Capitals, but he did not feel so excited.
    His buddy told him "Maybe you should come back to your hometown to
    make another dream". Weiqiang's speech was evaluated by Bill.

3.  Kirstie presented her third speech "Velodrama!" The objective of
    this speech was [Get to the Point]{.underline}. She used vivid words
    and voice to describe the French cycling competition in July she is
    going to participate in. She drew the route on the board: from
    London to the north part of France then circled clockwise to end up
    at Paris. That helped us to "see" where they go. The speech only
    lasted 5 to 7 minutes. I can feel the excitement through the whole
    course. Her speech was evaluated by Pat Astre.

4.  Pat A. presented a humorous speech from the advanced manual. It was
    an experience when he and his family traveled with his RV and
    motorcycle in the Southern part of the US with his "pay day loan"
    (just kidding). You had to be there to get the joke. Kirstie gave
    Pat a very fine evaluation.

At the end, our quiz master Artemios tested our listening ability with
about 10 interesting questions he took down from the 4 speeches. Some
were easy, some were challenging. I think we passed the quiz. :-) Thanks
Artemios.

General evaluator Margaret Foster gave a final evaluation of the
meeting. Meeting ended at 7:25 PM. It was longer then usual. We began 5
minutes late, and the business part by Beth took a little longer.
Joyce's speech took 15 to 20 minutes. Overall I think we did pretty well
with the time.

Thanks everyone for coming to the meeting in the bitter cold evening.
See you on the 20^th^ for our club's Speech and Evaluation Contests.
Come and bring your friends. Contest program will be announced soon.

Best regards,

Beth Lin