Meeting Minutes

Top O’ The Rock Toastmasters
Meeting Minutes (3.18.09)

Meeting Call to Order: 12:00PM

Attendance: Catalina Agustin, Wanda Brown, Jemerson Diaz, Robert Garrett, Steve Nguyen, Andrea Siracusa and Tom Snead

Invocation provided by Andrea Siracusa

Club Business: We inducted our newest member – Robert Garrett. Welcome again Robert to Top O’ The Rock - we are excited to have you as part of our Club.

Grammarian (Steve Nguyen): Word of the day was discombobulate. The word means to throw in a state of confusion. Example sentence: He was discombobulated because of the change in the schedule.

Speakers
Speaker #1: Robert Garrett (Ice Breaker Speech) – Robert gave his first speech, the ice breaker. His speech was titled “When Two World Collides.” He gave us great insight into his life and experiences.

Evaluations
Master Evaluator was Jemerson Diaz.
Evaluator: Tom Snead was the evaluator for Robert’s speech.

Table Topics
Wanda Brown provided the Table Topics. The topics dealt with an array of topics: my advice is…, in my opinion…, I need your help…., don’t be selfish…., put a lid on it…., just do it. Everyone had a chance to participate.

Congratulations to Andrea Siracusa who was voted best Table Topic Speaker.

Roles
Um and Ah Counter : Catalina Agustin
Vote Counter: Catalina Agustin
Timekeeper: Jemerson Diaz


Additional Discussion:
Jose Lepervanche, Wanda Brown and Tom Snead provided insight on some evaluation techniques, that included:

* When Evaluating:
- Organize your evaluation into a speech. Do no restate the evaluation questions from the manual. Incorporate your answer and the question into a speech.
- Restate what is being looked for in the speech, what are the goals of the speaker.
- Evaluate the speech, not the speaker’s opinion
- It is best not to evaluate an advanced speech if you have not completed one yourself. You should really only evaluate speeches that you have completed yourself.
- Go to other clubs, or at our club, listen to expert evaluators.
- Always look at physical attributes – i.e. eyes contact, hand gestures, movements around the designated space.

REMEMBER:
It is that time again – Dues. All members need to pay their dues to treasurer Catalina Agustin by March 31, 2009. The dues fee is $45.00. The money goes to support our Club and Toastmasters International – so please get your due money in so you do not miss a beat in completing your speaking and leadership goals. Individual emails will be sent to all members reminding them of their dues.

NEXT WEEK’S TOASTMASTER: VACANT
If you are interested in signing up for any role please contact Tom Snead (tom.snead@prudential.com).

NEXT WEEK’S LOCATION:
We will be back at the San Marco Library!!!

Minutes recorded by:
Andrea Siracusa
Secretary
Top O' The Rock Toastmasters
ajsiracusa@yahoo.com