October 18 Minutes

​Thank you to the Allstar Team of Jim, Andrea and Josue for compiling the minutes in my absence.  You guys rock! -Lori
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The October 18th meeting of T-Toasters of Vinings was led by Toastmaster Tiffini.  In attendance were 17 members and 1 guest, Ed Bauer, our Area Director.
 

Christian was the first speaker. He spoke about challenges he faced in school, specifically Spanish class. Riddled with self-doubt, he questioned his ability to learn…
 
Next up was George T. He presented his college project, which involved studying the effect of automobile accidents on a toddler’s neck. While the information presented included a lot of engineering data, George did a fine job of breaking down the concepts for his non-technical audience. Unfortunately George’s speech failed to qualify – he exceeded the allotted time.
 
Next up was Beverly Peace-Kayhill. She described how pets contribute to their owners mental and physical health. Pet provide not only unconditional love, but also contribute to reducing susceptibility to environmental allergies when babies are raised with pets,
 
And batting clean-up was Anne Taylor, the evening’s best speech winner. Anne’s mantra: “gratitude washes over her” was vividly described as warm water washing over her face on a cold day. She explained she had recently had hip replacement surgery, to replace her previous hip replacement, and was the reason she had missed a bunch of our T-Toasters meetings.  She advised us to pause and let gratitude wash over us when we are stressed or angry.
 
For table topics Theresa Worthy gave each of the participants an article of clothing and they had to tell us where they were when they wore it. 
 
1st Marcus James received a slick black dress. He wore that dress to the Miss America pageant on a mission to get his target. To not arise any suspicion he participated on behalf of Idaho. Halfway through the contest he spotted his target so he quickly removed the dress because his weapon was hidden underneath. 
Not to worry- he had on a bikini and because he got his target it counted as his talent as well. In the end he became the greatest Miss America secret agent there ever was. 
 
2nd Mr. Ed Bauer received a very elegant bedazzled woman’s shoe. It was worn by a very elegant lady he met on a night fresh into his college life at 18 in New York City. He was out with his buddies and met this gorgeous woman. After he built up the courage to speak to her he found out he was a lady of the night. Regardless it was a night he will never forget. 
 
3rd Matt B. received a black hat and an ID holder with logo MATCHUP. He wore those to the MATCHUP convention also in New York City. He was desperate, okay?! He went around letting everyone know who he was and what he was interested in. However, at the end of it all he recommends we don’t waste our time or money with it as it was not worth it. 
 
4th Lee Pratt received a giant green jacket that she wore on a very particular day. She left home with it flapping her arms around hoping the jacket would leave her to adventure.   She visited her neighbor Beverly and Jim too but no luck. She then went over to Marcus and she found the purpose that day was to they Marcus a piggy back ride while flying away flapping her arms in the giant leprechaun green jacket.
 
Andrea evaluated Christian, Chad evaluated George, Lianna, the evening’s winner, evaluated Beverly and Greg evaluated Anne. 
 
Lianna expressed concern about evaluating a member that was more advanced through the Communication Track than she was. It is important to understand that speakers need to hear feedback from ALL audience members, not just those Toastmaster members whose experience and education level exceeds their own. This is a lesson I was taught by Anne Taylor, who graciously explained this fact to me during my first evaluation of her speech when I was a very new Toastmaster. 
 
Despite arriving late, Jim served as Grammarian with “Balk” as the word of the day. Matt served as Ah Counter, and Josue served as Timer (and did an outstanding job of informing the group of the qualification status of each member prior to “Best of” votes).  Marcus praised the group for pulling the meeting together despite a light turn-out and a number of late arrivers (traffic was HEINOUS). He applauded those folks who stepped into roles upon request: Josue, Matt, and Traci. Traci counted ballots and announced the winners. 
 
Ed Bauer, our Area D41 Director, closed the meeting with the call to action to use the skills we develop within Toastmasters for positive purposes. He quoted the famous phrase uttered in the movie Cool Hand Luke: “What we have here is a failure to communicate”. Ed offered that this “failure to communicate” was why all of his clients came into his office (Ed is a lawyer), was the reason for the protests and riots in the 1960s and is at the heart of the political and community discord of today. Ed requested our help with a struggling Toastmaster club, Shaw Speaks, which (unfortunately) meets on Wednesday nights.