December 13, 2017 holiday party minutes

The December 13th Holiday Party Meeting of T-Toasters of Vinings was hosted at the Lake Laurel clubhouse by Toastmaster Jim, our club’s President.  With a festive Christmas tree and beautiful decorated tables, courtesy of Andrea Lewis, the atmosphere was warm and cheery.  A delicious sampling of potluck treats were shared, as was the good company of 15 members and 8 guests.
 
General Evaluator Greg led a team which included Grammarian Jasmine, Ah-Counter Scott, Timer Josue, and Ballot Counter Lori.  Jasmine’s word of the day was “salubrious” meaning “favorable”. 
Marcus was the first of three prepared speakers.  He presented his second project from the advanced annual Speaking to Entertain.  Marcus detailed the shady characters involved in “The Kringle Conspiracy”.  Some of Christmas’s most notorious troublemakers, including Frosty (top distributor of snow), Elfon D. Shelf (Kringle’s muscle) and the big guy himself.  Marcus’s PowerPoint presentation illustrated the who’s and why’s of the Elf B. I’s. investigation into these characters.  David served as Marcus’s evaluator.  David complemented Marcus’s ever-present passion and his excellent use of smooth transitions.
 
The evening’s second speaker was Christian with his 6th CC speech “Play the Long Game”.  Christian began with an explanation of the infamous Marshmallow Experiment, which took place in the 1960s.  In it, participating children were offered a marshmallow but told that if they resisted eating it for a set period of time, they would be rewarded with a second treat.  The study showed that the children who were able to resist achieved more success in life, and lived healthier lives.  In doing so, the critical importance of self-control with regards to delayed gratification was illustrated.  Christian wrapped things up by requesting people pick one thing to do one percent better each day, and to reflect on their choices.  Kristina served as Christian’s evaluator. She noted his pleasing voice, good use of pauses, meaningful movements, and the timeliness of his topic. 
 
The final speech was Beverly’s “Uplift the Spirit” from an advanced manual.  Beverly inspired the crowd, reminding us to “Get busy living or get busy dying,” a line from The Shawshank Redemption.  Beverly encouraged listeners to “work your dash”, referring to the dash seen between a birthdate and death date on a gravestone.  Liana, the evening’s Best Evaluator, evaluated Beverly’s speech.  Liana began by asking the crowd, “Did you feel uplifted?” and was met with a resounding “Yes!”  Liana said, “Hand down, this was the best speech I’ve heard from you@”
 
The Table Topics Master for the evening was George.  Four participants stepped up to the lectern to answer George’s questions.  Guest Jean chose to speak about a doll in our Toys for Tots collection pile that reminded her of one from her childhood which inspired her to become a teacher.  Kristina shared her thoughts on Christmas music.  Guest Jimmy filled us in on his opinion of Christmas movies.
Guest Jatika discussed her holiday plans for a Las Vegas vacation and took home the ribbon for Best Table Topics.
 
In her Grammarian report, Jasmine complimented Christian’s phrase “The decision you make has a strong impact later.” As well as Lianna’s “gamut of emotions”. 
Scott’s Ah-Counter report let us know that “and” and “so” were the words of the day.  Scott encouraged us to take the opportunity to pause, reminding us that it can make us sound more knowledgeable as speakers and makes it appear as though we’ve “got it together”.  General Evaluator Greg feels that “Every evaluation team should have two Bracketts!” and suggested keeping the wine stash closer to Suzanne. 
 
Our guests then shared their thoughts on the party.  Jean said, “It felt good to speak again!”  Jatika reminded speakers of the importance of bringing their manuals and striving to meet their speech objectives. Maya though the meeting went well.  Tracy enjoyed the evaluators, the speeches and the meeting’s flow.  Markisa was “glad to be back” and Zachary said, “All the meetings are awesome!”
 
President Jim closed out the meeting with a special thank you to Andrea for all of her hard work.  The crowd was also reminded that TLI will be held on January 6th.  With the attendance of our officer team there, our club will have met all ten of our Distinguished Club goals and will be named President’s Distinguished for the fourteenth year!