Keep It Going, Keep It Growing

Our Toastmaster, Dan Flick, started the meeting with a question: Do we want to keep the club going?

We had two interesting speeches. Keith Weir recalled his time in the Navy when "General Quarters" were called during tense time while serving in the middle east, in an aptly titled speech "The Day I turned Gray."

Mike DeLeon gave an informative speech about the changes he would like to see in the tax code with "Keep It Simple." Our "word of the day" was "renew" a good word for our spring season.

Theresa Frasch as our Topic Master noted the debut of the movie Water for Elephants based on the book of the same title. Topic questions ranged from the elephant in the room, to pink elephants, to movies based on books, and rides ant Disneyland.

We discussed Dan's at the business meeting. There is a consensus to continue but we do have to put out an effort to bring more people in. Our current year is coming to an end so it is time to think about officers for the next year. If you want to keep the club going this is a good place to begin.

The Club Fitness Team has suggested Four Open Houses and a SpeechCraft to help out membership grow. Burien Breakfast Toastmasters needs its members to step up and volunteer to chair each event. That would mean being the "go to" person for setting the dates, contacting the Club Fitness Team for speakers, getting a team together to help promote the event, making sure we had enough snacks, scheduling the room if we used it extra days, and assigning roles for the rest of Burien Breakfast members. If you want to keep the club going this is another good place to begin.

Spring Forward!

With great enthusiasm Theresa Frasch acted as our Toastmaster. With more sunshine, more birds singing in the morning and more color in our gardens Theresa chose Spring Forward as the meeting's theme. The theme was carried out by, our Topic Master, Mike DeLeon as he had the members talking about their favorite spring events such as their favorite spring sport, walk, festival, etc.

Doing speech number three from the manual, Keith Weir talked about how green jobs will save the economy. He covered such topics as solar power, wind power technologies to new construction and the retrofitting of old buildings.

Our word of the day was "defenestration" the act of throwing something out of a window. It comes from the Latin "de" meaning out and "fenestra" meaning window. In a sentence, "These new energy saving windows make it harder to defenestrate."

Keith got two evaluations for his speech, one from Darlene Burrill, and as a special treat, one from Theresa, as she practiced for the Division D Evaluation Contest conming up on April 15th.

To see what is happening on our next meeting, Thursday, April 14th, go to Schedules and Roles.

Two Champions at Area Contest!

Congratulations to Roger Wells and Theresa Frasch! Our Burien Breakfast members represented our club with panache.

Roger and Theresa both arrived at ERAC in work clothes, but changed into more appropriate attire before the contest began. They each attended the participant briefing for their category and drew lots for their speaking order. As it happens, they both drew the number two spot in their event.

The speech contest was first. Roger surprised this writer by changing the title of his speech to "The Power of a Minor Event." It was a powerful change. Roger's speech was even more refined and polished last night than it was at the club contest. He was very effective as he looked down at the stage and seemed to talk to his dad in the cemetery. You could see and feel his passion as he spoke about Rosa Parks. I think everyone will remember Roger's message, "You never know how one simple act may inspire others - 30, 40, or even 100 years later."

After a short break we had the Evaluation Contest. The Guest Speaker was Cynthia Late with a speech titled, "I'm No Good at Speaking, Am I?" Theresa's evaluation pointed out three things that made the speech effective: Cynthia gave the audience a road map of where she was going with the speech, she made vivid pictures with her body language, and she used the stage to mark off time and accomplishments. Then three suggestions that she thought would improve the speech: Speak in one spot, look at one person and make a point; leave more time after each of her opening questions so the audience had time to answer the questions in their head; and the last one was to delineate her points better so that there was more distinction between them.

Roger Wells took home the Third Place Trophy for the Area 41 International Speech Contest. Theresa Frasch took home the First Place Trophy for the Area 41 Evaluation Contest. Congratulations to our Burien Breakfast members!

Club Contest

We finally had our Club Contest for the International Speech and Evaluation Contest. Jean Schmidt hosted the event as the Toastmaster of the morning.

Roger Wells and Darlene Burrill competed for the right to represent the club as a speech contestant for the Area Contest. Darlene spoke first - Living With Tragedy. Roger was next - Two Minor Events.

Next up was the Evaluation Contest. Lorylee Lejon from Soundwaves Toastmasters in Des Moines was our Guest Speaker. She gave a seven minute speech about using a vision board to make your dreams come true. The three evaluation contestants were (in the order they spoke): Darlene Burrill, Theresa Frasch, and Roger Wells. Each one of them gave a thoughtful and thorough evaluation of Lorylee's presentation.

Our congratulations go to Roger Wells for coming in First Place in the Speech Contest, and to Theresa Frasch for coming in First Place in the Evaluation Contest. We wish them luck as they move onto the Area Contest!

Snow Fooling!

Snow joke - we got snowed out of our Contest Meeting! But do not fear, we will hold it at our next meeting, March 10th at 7am sharp. Jean Schmidt will be the Contest Toastmaster. She has a surprise guest speaker lined up for the evaluation contest. And I am sure we will have some interesting speeches (with some extra practice time) lined up for the competition as well. Let's get ready to COMPETE!

A few notes:

• Dues are due! Bring your check for $30 made out to Burien Breakfast Toastmaster to our next meeting

• Theresa will bring our new club business cards to our next meeting

It's Contest Season!

Jean Schmidt was our Toastmaster and talked about the benefits of entering the International Speech Contest. Bang Parkinson brought our word for the day: "Colloquial" meaning the informal use of a word.

We had two manual speeches. Theresa Frasch spoke from an advanced manual giving us all a lesson on making a cold sales call. Keith Weir explained the benefits of the apprenticeship available to graduating high school seniors. Our topic master Roger Wells had us handling different diversity situations.

A few notes:

• Dues are due! Bring your check for 30 dollars made out to Burien Breakfast Toastmaster to our next meeting
• Theresa will bring our new club business cards to our next meeting
  
• Our club will hold its speech and evaluation contest at our Feb 24th meeting (agenda here)
  
• The Area contest is March 18th at ERAC (where we meet)
  

Win The Future!

Our Toastmaster Keith Weir played off President Obama's State of the Union address and picked "Win the Future" for the Theme of the Day. Dan Flick gave his Ice Breaker Speech about what the future will hold for him with a speech titled, "What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?" We got to learn about how Dan started out fulfilling two of his childhood dreams at once by being a "cowboy truck driver" and how he has progressed since then.

Darlene Burrill gave an After Dinner speech (or was it an After Breakfast Speech?) about what happens after dinner and how it has changed through the years.

Roger Wells challenged us to use the words criterion and criteria correctly while we answered Table Topic questions by Bang Parkinson about how we can create jobs in the United States. Our members were up to the challenge with answers that included immigration reform, challenging fraud, and improving education.

At our business meeting we discussed Dues will soon be due - so remember to bring a check for $30 to one of the February meetings. Make it out to Burien Breakfast Toastmasters. Also, Contest Season is upon is. Our Club Contest will be February 24th. Let Jean Schmidt know if you want to be a contestant in the International Speech Contest or the Evaluation Contest.

For next week's schedule go to Schedules and Roles.