City College Dadeland Toastmasters Meeting Minutes October-23-2012

Sgt at Arms; Prof. Steve Sweetman called the meeting to order and led 6 City College Dadeland Toastmasters and 4 guests in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Prof. Sweetman then introduced the club president Jason Stewart. President Stewart welcomed everyone to an exciting Toastmasters meeting and introduced Dr. Abby Ross, DTM as the Toastmaster of the evening.

Dr. Abby Ross also welcomed everyone to a very exciting meeting and proceeded to explain the theme of the meeting is; “Fall Is In The Air”

Toastmaster Abby then introduced and asked the functionaries of the evening to please stand and give a brief synopsis of what their roles entail.

Grammarian – Stephanie Bardet - Reports on the proper use and misuse of the English language and who uses the word of the day.

Word of the Day – Aroma

Er/Ah Counter – Stephanie Bardet - Rings a bell and keeps track of who uses filler words, such as; ‘er’ ‘ah’ ‘um’ ‘like’ ‘you know’ and ‘so’

Timer – Maria Suarez - Keeps track of and times speeches, evaluations and table topics speakers. Signals the speakers, evaluators and table topics speakers at appropriate times with a green, yellow and red folder.

Table Topics Master – Tony Noisom - Asks questions and calls upon an unsuspecting audience member to speak for 1 – 2 minutes and gain experience speaking extemporaneously.

General Evaluator – Rex Lehman - Introduces the evaluators and offers constructive feedback to the evaluators and overall meeting with what was done well and what can be improved upon.

Toastmaster Abby Ross, DTM then introduced our first prepared speaker of the evening.

“Our speaker this evening believes that we can all acquire a unique competitive advantage by adopting the integrity pledge as a part of our everyday life. This evening he is going to express his thoughts on one aspect of the integrity pledge, the importance of making a commitment. Please help me welcome our club president Jason Stewart.”

Jason began his speech by stating the integrity pledge. “When you make a promise, keep it. When you set a goal achieve it and above all, when you make a commitment, honor it.” Jason went on to explain that commitments present themselves in delineations of black and white. We either honor our commitments or we don’t because our success in life is largely determined by our ability to honor the commitments we make to others and ourselves.

Jason continued his speech with the following stories and explanations.

In life there are no guarantees and most people lives their lives by what they can see on their radar screen, yet they fail to realize that 95% of the things they want and how to get them are off the radar screen and hidden from view. In order for bigger and better things to happen we should adopt the philosophy of the Chinese bamboo tree. By planting a seed and staying consistent with the activities we know will benefit us and move us closer to the results we seek, we will reach a point where things will start happening and the results will come.

Jason closed his speech by challenging the audience to adopt the integrity pledge as a part of their lives for the remainder of the month. When you make a promise, you keep it. When you set a goal, you achieve it and above all when you make a commitment, you honor it!

Toastmaster Abby Ross, DTM then introduced our Table Topics Master Tony Noisom.

Mr. Noisom explained that table topics is a fun and exciting portion of a Toastmasters meeting where he will ask a question and call on someone to answer it. The challenge is to speak for a minimum of 1 minute and no longer than 2 minutes. This portion of our meeting helps build the skill of impromptu speaking and thinking on your feet.

Mr. Noisom asked three questions during the table topics session and picked on Rex Lehman, Prof. Steve Sweetman and Maria Suarez. At the conclusion of the session he relinquished control of the lectern back to our Toastmaster of the evening Dr. Abby Ross.

Toastmaster Abby then introduced our General Evaluator Rex Lehman.

General Evaluator Rex introduced Luevenia Sterling as our first evaluator evaluating Jason Stewart’s speech.

Luevenia’s evaluation included these strengths and weaknesses.

Strength; you gave us a very powerful and meaningful message about the importance of commitment. I also loved the story about the Chinese Bamboo tree and how many things are off our radar.

Weaknesses; I would like to see you use more body language in your speech as well as full use of the speaking area.

General evaluator Rex Lehman then called for the functionary reports and relinquished the lectern back to club president Jason Stewart for his closing remarks.

President Stewart announced that our next Toastmasters meeting will be on Tuesday November 13^th from 7:00pm – 8:00pm. Mr. Stewart then called upon the guests for their feedback about the meeting and encouraged them to come back and visit again. President Stewart adjourned the meeting.

Toastmasters in Attendance: Dr. Abby Ross, DTM, Jason Stewart, Tony Noisom, Luevenia Sterling, Stephanie Bardet and Rex Lehman.

Guests in Attendance: Steve Sweetman, Maria Suarez, Dr. Abby Ross parents.

Contact us - dadelandcitycollegetoastmaster@gmail.com