Silver Spring Toastmasters November 17, 2010 Meeting Summary by Pauline Brown

Like runners in a relay, Silver Spring Club 1314 members understand very well the importance of passing the proverbial baton.....transitioning from one speaker/leader to another..... well and on time. Our November 17th meeting, with the theme, "A Time to be Thankful", was another well run race toward excellence in communication and leadership.

Sergeant at Arms, Louise Janus set the pace, then passed the gavel over to our ever enthusiastic President, Mel Bayo. He reminded us of three key elements in the race for Toastmaster excellence:

1. Sign up for speaking and leadership roles regularly.
2. Become a club officer.
3. Compete in contests.

Toastmaster of the Evening, Robin Bradshaw brought her calm, but confident and focused leadership style to the lectern. Her well prepared introduction of each speaker functioned much like an invisible propeller...it stirred up energy and blew away any noticeable trace of nervousness.

Each of the four speakers represented very well the quality, both in preparation and delivery, for which Silver Spring 1314 is known.

Kim Crews, with the speech title, "When the Whistle Blows", surprised us with her athleticism. She skillfully juxtaposed the fundamentals of organized sport with growing and succeeding as a Toastmaster. Can you identify with these three fundamentals?

• Come ready to play......Practice
• Keep your eye on the ball....stay focused on your goal
• Exude confidence.....Allow your dreams to take flight

Fiona Morrissey's title, "Deadly" was brought to life in her characteristic bold and pragmatic style. Her writing skills, coupled with rich substance, stood out as she revealed the "eighth deadly sin".... Toxic Politeness/Radical Honesty. Have you noticed that in a particular store you are referred to as a guest instead of a customer?

And the highlight of the evening was the achievement of the highest Toastmasters award of excellence. What a great honor it was to have been part of the audience when Eldon Ralph delivered his qualifying speech for the Distinguished Toastmasters (DTM) award. All 23 attendees gave a standing ovation after he unbundled all the elements of competent communication, most noticeably, vocal variety. In his "off the cuff" delivery the moral of the story was "Look Before You Leap".



Here is a photo of the whole group that night except for the member who took the picture, Oz Ortega.


Clarence Featherson graciously volunteered to highlight the DTM achievement by emphasizing the award is a symbol of dedication and excellence. This meant that Eldon had previously achieved the Advanced Communicator Gold and the Advanced Leader Silver awards.

District 36 Lieut. Gov. of Education and Training, Barry Piatt, DTM gave yet another sterling speech... a hip pocket, mind you! this was an editorial for television titled, "The Death Penalty".

The word of the evening, "gratitude", became a more useful during our 10 minute break. Ellen Segal and Shirley Jarvis generously facilitated this time of socialization.

Maxine Blanks, Table Topic Master, recaptured the momentum with her stimulating questions that provoked responses revealing several other reasons for which participants were thankful.

As if the finish line was in sight, Master Evaluator Louise Janus led with confidence. It was hard to believe this was her first time in this role!

It was now up to the four evaluators, Yen Le, Mel Bayo, Joan Phillips and Desiree Payne to make the right strides by giving highly deserved and excellent feedback to the four speakers. and of course they came through! In what seemed like almost a team effort, all the elements of speech evaluation were collectively expressed very well.

Did I mention "right timing" earlier? Well, Tiffany Montero's Timer's Report confirmed that almost all speakers observed the timing rules. This was Tiffany's debut Timer's Report!

David Buresh's Grammarian/Wizard of Ahs Report was a neat balance between creativity and diligence. He enumerated the Ahs and Ums within his own established ranges of excellent, very good, good, or needs work. This was welcome twist in style. David also gave credit for proper word usage.

The Listener's Report given by Marcia Snyder served both to test our listening skills and as an on the spot recap of the highlights of the meeting. Great listening skills Marcia!

The TMOE and Master Evaluator agreed that the meeting was yet another great experience in communication and leadership for Silver Spring 1314. To crown it all, we added one more new member, Andy Jacobs, and one more distinction.

After getting the overwhelming and positive vote in favor of a fun way to wrap up the first half of the Toastmaster year as a family that soars together, President Mel Bayo announced our December 15 Holiday Party.

I say, if you bring up the topic of a well-run and fun meeting I will remind you of one where Toastmaster stalwarts such as Clarence Featherson, Mike Nolan, Merlyn Kettering and Una Kettering were in attendance. November 17th was just such a meeting!