July 5th minutes

Special thanks to Andrea, Josue and Jim for filling in for me!
****************************************************************************
The July 5th meeting of T-Toasters of Vinings was brought to order by Sergeant-At-Arms Josue promptly at 6:00pm.  Greg Palmer served as Toastmaster with his theme of Ice Cream. Greg regaled us with numerous Ice Cream facts, such as favorite flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and butter pecan. We had 15 members in attendance and three guests: first-timer Moses, repeat guest Jasmine (who joined), and Mary Margaret, who visited with Lee.

Kristine served as General Evaluator and led a team which included Mary-Catherine as Grammarian, Lakeisha as Ah Counter, Jim as Timer, and Marcus as Ballot Counter. MC's Word of the Day was Amiable -- having or showing good-natured qualities 

First to speak, and the winner of Best Speaker, was Andrea with her 10th Competent Communicator (CC) speech (hooray!) "Giving Dignity -- Part 2". Andrea continued the theme of her speech last week. She provided examples of how to provide folks who are in need a hand up, as opposed to a hand out. David was Andrea's Evaluator. David applauded Andrea's passion for her topic and her clear call to action. David pointed out that she could benefit from using a bit more vocal variety to drive her points home.

Carin was our second speaker. In her 9th speech from the Competent Communicator Manual titled "Communication Failure", Carin opens up about her challenged relationship with AT&T. She explained "AT&T puts me in a rage faster than anything else." Carin shared a series of interactions with AT&T's customer service that had the audience in groans of sympathy and sighs of frustration. Matt evaluated Carin. Matt praised Carin for her confident and calm demeanor throughout her speech, as evidenced by her outstanding eye contact with the audience. Matt felt Carin might have enhanced her speech by demonstrating the anger and frustration she clearly experienced while navigating the treacherous path of AT&T's customer no-service call center. 

Our third prepared speaker of the evening was Alyssa. She delivered her 4th speech from the CC manual entitled "Traveling for Yourself". Alyssa and her husband love spending the holidays with their families. However, they found themselves in a quandary after telling their families, during last year's holiday travels, that they planned to start having babies this year. This statement was not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. "We want to travel this year, too! What should we do? " was the question Alyssa posed to the audience. The audience decided that she should invite her family to join them for a destination vacation.

Josue was Table Topics Master asking a single question of all contestants of the night, "What is your favorite dessert or sweet treat?". Lee described her passion for frozen bananas prepared in a Vita-mix (as an substitute for Ice Cream). Marcus enjoys salty snacks and meat. Jasmine, our evening's Best Table Topic winner, explained her love of ice cream @ Honey Suckle. MCG described the joys of homemade Divinity and Butterscotch Brownies. Kristina's dad loved Haagen-Daaz ice cream. She loves fried ice cream @ Raw. Moses extolled the virtues of Strawberry cheesecake & Nutrageous candy bars. 

Kristina, led the evaluation team and performed admirably. 

Greg closed out his program describing how great bacon Ice cream, and that you should try it yourself before you render judgement.

President Jim reminded folks to sign up for available roles, for both upcoming meetings and our Evaluation Contest (7/19) and Humorous Speech Contest (7/26). Don't forget TLI (Toastmasters Leadership Institute -- Officer training) classes are coming up. These sessions are mandatory for Club officers and are available to any interested member (the club will pay the fee).