October 4, 2017 minutes

​The October 4th meeting of T-Toasters of VInings was led by first time Toastmaster Christian.  Christian’s theme for the evening was Atlanta.  Christian asked ”What makes the city great?” and gave examples of what he thinks makes our city qualify as such.  
 
Marcus served as General Evaluator.  His team included Jim as Timer, Theresa as Grammarian, Chad as Ah Counter and Justin as Ballot Counter. 
 
Three prepared speakers were on the agenda.  First up was Atlanta native Tiffini with her fourth CC speech entitled “My Atlanta Bucket List?””.  Tiffini took listeners through her hometown of Southwest Atlanta, home of Outkast, Mayor Kassim Reed and the very first Chick Fil A ever.  Other stops included Atlanta University Center, the Busy Bee Café, the new Mercedes Benz Stadium, the Varsity, a Georgia Tech game, the Atlanta History Center and the Pink Pig.  Devin served as Tiffini’s evaluator.  He told Tiffini she is fun to listen to and her “enthusiasm is to die for”. 
 
Next up was George with his sixth CC speech “Hands and Pockets: Can We Make It Work?”  George’s speech focused on this small detail of public speaking call it a “No-no that we all know”.  He told the story of an evaluator at another club’s meeting presenting in a casual confident manner with his hands in his pockets, and his struggle to decide if this body language choice should knock him out of the running as Best Evaluator.  In the end, George decided that if one knows their audience and has the confidence to pull it off, hands in pockets can be a valid style choice.  Josue evaluated George saying his topic was “a question we always ask but never get answered”. 
 
The Best Speaker of the evening, Greg, completed his 10th CC project which he named “My Journey as a Speaker”.  Greg crafted a touching speech beginning with his experiences as an athlete.  He told us how this phase of his life led to him developing an often brusque style of communication, and that this style didn’t translate well to corporate America.  He gave listeners some insight into the brain injuries that resulted from his wrestling career lightening the mood with his statement “I’ve been hit in the head a lot but it’s all right- the ladies still love me!”  Greg finished by letting T-Toasters know that we’ve given him something even more valuable than money and bacon- we’ve given him hope.  Best Evaluator Liana told Greg she genuinely enjoys listening to him speak.  Liana said Greg has a great presence, and complimented his transparency, declaring he’d “nailed every objective”.
 
Table Topics Master Lori took the crowd on a visual tour of some Atlanta hotspots by showing participants images and asking them to either explain what we were looking at or to share a story about each place.  First up was guest Trinity who told listeners about the Georgia Aquarium.  Mark spoke about the fabulous Fox Theater, guest Yvette gave a moving talk about the Martin Luther King Memorial and Justin gave his theory about the Vortex In Little Five Points.
 
Grammarian Theresa counted seven uses of the Word of the Day which was “rudimentary” (involving or limited to basic principles).  Congratulations to Mark, Jim, Lori, Tiffini, Greg and George for working it in.  Theresa also appreciated Christian’s use of “gazillion”, Marcus’s “We have a spy among us!”, George’s “we emote”, Greg’s “As an athlete, I could get away with murder” and “zero-sum game”, Devin’s “enthusiasm to die for”, Josue’s “George, our favorite Bulgarian” and Liana’s “thesis statement”.
 
Our four guests shared their thoughts on the meeting. Diane found the meeting “interesting”.  Trinity said, “At points it got a little boring and you sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher, but I liked talking about places and the Atlanta speech!”  Nikki described us as “so welcoming” and Yvette said “As usual it was fantastic!” and recommended that we pay attention to the details in each speech project.
 The October 4th meeting of T-Toasters of VInings was led by first time Toastmaster Christian.  Christian’s theme for the evening was Atlanta.  Christian asked ”What makes the city great?” and gave examples of what he thinks makes our city qualify as such.  

 
Marcus served as General Evaluator.  His team included Jim as Timer, Theresa as Grammarian, Chad as Ah Counter and Justin as Ballot Counter. 
 
Three prepared speakers were on the agenda.  First up was Atlanta native Tiffini with her fourth CC speech entitled “My Atlanta Bucket List?””.  Tiffini took listeners through her hometown of Southwest Atlanta, home of Outkast, Mayor Kassim Reed and the very first Chick Fil A ever.  Other stops included Atlanta University Center, the Busy Bee Café, the new Mercedes Benz Stadium, the Varsity, a Georgia Tech game, the Atlanta History Center and the Pink Pig.  Devin served as Tiffini’s evaluator.  He told Tiffini she is fun to listen to and her “enthusiasm is to die for”. 
 
Next up was George with his sixth CC speech “Hands and Pockets: Can We Make It Work?”  George’s speech focused on this small detail of public speaking call it a “No-no that we all know”.  He told the story of an evaluator at another club’s meeting presenting in a casual confident manner with his hands in his pockets, and his struggle to decide if this body language choice should knock him out of the running as Best Evaluator.  In the end, George decided that if one knows their audience and has the confidence to pull it off, hands in pockets can be a valid style choice.  Josue evaluated George saying his topic was “a question we always ask but never get answered”. 
 
The Best Speaker of the evening, Greg, completed his 10th CC project which he named “My Journey as a Speaker”.  Greg crafted a touching speech beginning with his experiences as an athlete.  He told us how this phase of his life led to him developing an often brusque style of communication, and that this style didn’t translate well to corporate America.  He gave listeners some insight into the brain injuries that resulted from his wrestling career lightening the mood with his statement “I’ve been hit in the head a lot but it’s all right- the ladies still love me!”  Greg finished by letting T-Toasters know that we’ve given him something even more valuable than money and bacon- we’ve given him hope.  Best Evaluator Liana told Greg she genuinely enjoys listening to him speak.  Liana said Greg has a great presence, and complimented his transparency, declaring he’d “nailed every objective”.
 
Table Topics Master Lori took the crowd on a visual tour of some Atlanta hotspots by showing participants images and asking them to either explain what we were looking at or to share a story about each place.  First up was guest Trinity who told listeners about the Georgia Aquarium.  Mark spoke about the fabulous Fox Theater, guest Yvette gave a moving talk about the Martin Luther King Memorial and Justin gave his theory about the Vortex In Little Five Points.
 
Grammarian Theresa counted seven uses of the Word of the Day which was “rudimentary” (involving or limited to basic principles).  Congratulations to Mark, Jim, Lori, Tiffini, Greg and George for working it in.  Theresa also appreciated Christian’s use of “gazillion”, Marcus’s “We have a spy among us!”, George’s “we emote”, Greg’s “As an athlete, I could get away with murder” and “zero-sum game”, Devin’s “enthusiasm to die for”, Josue’s “George, our favorite Bulgarian” and Liana’s “thesis statement”.
 
Our four guests shared their thoughts on the meeting. Diane found the meeting “interesting”.  Trinity said, “At points it got a little boring and you sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher, but I liked talking about places and the Atlanta speech!”  Nikki described us as “so welcoming” and Yvette said “As usual it was fantastic!” and recommended that we pay attention to the details in each speech project.