End of an Era

Burien Breakfast is no longer meeting at this time. For other Toastmaster meetings in this area go to the Toastmasters International Find a Club Site. For local events and contact information go to Toastmasters District 2 site.

Clear Direction

Darlene was our Toastmaster.

When defining words Keith doesn't obfuscate, which is a good thing since "obfuscate" was the word of the day. It means to cloud. confuse or bewilder.

Our incoming President, Dan Flick, was our topic-master. He wanted to know as a club, who are we and what are we trying to do. He also asked for suggestions on how to grow and wanted to know about a club marketing plan. He wanted answers that gave clear direction not answers that obfuscated the listeners.

The always clean shaven Keith gave the club a looking into the long history of shaving, from the caveman to today's resurgence of shaving with a straight razor.

Mike gave us a humorous look into the customer service policy of Safeway. He told stories of escorting customer around the store and letting them sample goodies.

For a list of who is doing what at our next meeting on June 23rd go to Schedules and Roles.

New Officers and a Splendid Meeting

Our toastmaster Keith had his plate full at our last meeting. Aside from being Toastmaster he also gave a speech and acted as the food and joke provider.

The day's theme was Memorial Day. Jean brought the word of the day which was two words, resplendent and splendid.

In Keith's speech he explained the importance of community and the place that organized labors plays in it. Dan's speech asked the question, "Does air have weight?" He told us that because it does, altitude affects the boiling point.

During our topic session Jean had us talking about our experiences being an officer either in or out of Toastmasters.

We had a new member join our club - Welcome Clayton!

NEW OFFICERS 2011-12

President........................................... Dan Flick
Vice President of Education............ Bang Parkinson/ Jean Schmidt
Vice President of Membership....... Clayton Brunt
Vice President of Public Relations...Darlene Burrill
Secretary /Treasurer ..................... Mike DeLeon
Sgt. at Arms...................................... Keith Weir

Congratulations to all of you who chose to serve!

Elect to Run for Office

Our club election for the new term starting July 1, 2011 will be held at our meeting. So far the only offices with people running are Secretary and Treasurer.

Although we had a few people missing from the agenda the meeting went smoothly, with members picking up the slack.

We had two guest who added to our meeting by participating in Roger's topic session. Roger's topic had members and guests speaking on various aspects of spring. Mike, our Toastmaster, hosted the meeting and explained Toastmasters and how our club runs.

In a moving speech, entitled "Why me", Jean talked about her blindness and how the doctors gave her back her sight and Toastmasters opened her eyes.


See WHO is doing WHAT next meeting HERE!

Spring Conference - Here We Come!

Our Toastmaster Jean gave a big plug for the District 2 conference, pointing our all the great benefits, such as educational opportunities, hearing the division contest winners, and meeting and making new friends.

Keith took his speaking to a higher level, literally. In his speech, "The ladder of Life" he talked about advancing professionally in the building trades industry.

Theresa, our club's quintessential story teller spoke about her time managing a furniture store and the problems she encountered when she wasn't able to get and employee to take care of his duties when she was away from the store. The outcome was a lost promotion and a lesson learned!

Jean then switched to Table Topics. She had us talking about conferences we have attended and what we've gained.

For next weeks Roles see the Schedules and Roles page.

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.